Assessment task: Choose one (1) only of the following:
- Discuss how inequalities between men and women have changed over time and what gender inequalities require attention:
- draw upon Holmes chapter in week one, and egalitarian ideals which were explored through both egalitarian feminism and postcolonial or ‘difference feminism’ (W6) and the concept of the ‘stalled revolution’ (W7), and
- investigate one or two (only) current challenges to gender inequality between women and men. This could be to discuss the persistence of unequal pay. Or students could discuss the gender inequality as this relates to the ‘stalled revolution’, which shows the contemporary existence of gender norms at work in the time of COVID-19 where within heterosexual relations, women and men are working from home and educating children (W7s example and do additional academic research on this), or the sexism within some industries or workplaces highlighted by #Metoo, as a problem within Global North more generally.
Students can take one or two of the above examples or will choose their own one or two relevant examples to discuss 1. above.
- Explore how social inequalities manifest in some societies which produce some ‘lives as worth living and others as unliveable’ (see Butler, 2016 W8, also 2004). This essay topic can relate to how some groups of people can still be constructed as lesser: sexual expressions which do not adhere to heterosexuality, lesbian, gay, bisexual trans, intersex and queer plus (LGBTIQ+) (W8), racialised peoples (Du Bois, W2) who become incarcerated on mass, Waquant (W4) (W10, and W11), and lower socio-economic groups (Bauman (W3), Sassen (W4). Taking the intersection of two central elements, such as racialisation processes and sexuality, explore 2.
- Take any two or three (only) weeks required and recommended readings (where relevant) to critically investigate how social inequalities are upheld in society. Students can examine how health inequalities relate to racialization processes and gender, for example (see, for instance, Ws6, 7, 8 and 9 and Ws10, 11, W12 and Du Bois W2). Or how understandings of ethnicity (Carter W1, Ang and Hage W11) and ‘race’ (Walter W11, and W10 and W12) have operated in some countries through social inclusion and exclusion, as this can manifest through, for instance, work, education and what gets taught or is overlooked, or a set of inequalities. (Please note: you do not have to choose all these weeks, I am just pointing you to weeks which could be relevant. Students will choose which two or three weeks make connections, to assist their essay’s critical investigation).
