Prof Wendy Sigle COL5.01I

This course is available on the MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Population and Development, MSc in Social Policy (European and Comparative Social Policy), MSc in Social Policy (Research) and MSc in Social Policy (Social Policy and Planning). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students on the MSc in Gender Policy and Inequalities degree must take either GI414 OR GI417

This course aims to equip students with the knowledge and theoretical tools that will allow them to critically engage with social policy issues and debates.  It begins with an overview of theoretical explanations for the structure and evolution of social policies in a wide range of settings. Feminist perspectives on welfare are explored, while notions of justice, citizenship and inequality are applied as analytic tools to critically examine real world social policy issues such as micro-credit, conditional cash transfers (CCT), and the parental leave policies. The use of gender as a category of analysis is examined and attention is paid to the potentially modifying effects of categories such as race and class. Policy-making and political institutions are analysed, in part, to illustrate how assumptions (or aspirations) about gender roles and the form, function and responsibilities of the family are reflected in the framing, design, and evaluation of policies. The course also explores the gendered impact of economic on labour market opportunities and inequalities in access to economic resources.

30 hours of workshops in the MT. 3 hours of workshops in the ST.

There will be a reading week in group 6 in line with departmental policy.

Group work:  Students will be asked to work as part of a group to discuss papers and prepare material (presentations, assessments of papers, answers to questions) in preparation for several of the workshop sessions.

C L Bacchi, Analysing Policy: What's the Problem Represented to Be?, 2009; M Daly, Welfare, 2011; M Daly & K Rake, Gender and the Welfare State: Care, Work, and Welfare in Europe, 2003; N Folbre, Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family, 2008; J Hearn, E H Oleksy & D Golanska, The Limits of Gendered Citizenship: Contexts and Contradictions, 2010. M R A Lister, F Anttonen, A Bussemaker, and J Gerhard, Gendering Citizenship in Western Europe, Policy Press, 2007; R Mahon and F Robinson (Eds), The Global Political Economy of Care: Integrating Ethics and Social Politics, 2011; M Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach, 2011; E Ruspini, J Hearn, B Pease, and K Pringle (Eds), Men and Masculinities Around the World: Transforming Men's Practices, 2011.

Essay (50%, 2500 words) in the LT.
Take home exam (50%) in the ST.