SOC 484: Violence Against Women

Course Description

Course examines local and global social violence against women outside family and other intimate relationships. Students consider violations against women's human rights through the life cycle, which are often sanctioned under the guise of cultural practices and misinterpretations of religious tenets. Topics include sex-selective abortion and female infanticide (the "missing millions"); female genital mutilation and cosmetic surgeries; prostitution and pornography; trafficking in women; sexual harassment; and women's experiences of war as soldiers, non-combatants and refugees. Topics are "paired", that is, students compare understandings of Western and non-Western social practices related to gender. Students examine both institutionalized sexism and racism, as part of political, economic, and social systems, and sexism and racism as realities affecting individual women's lives.