SC551-7-SP-CO:
Dynamics of Gender, Work and Home
2023/24
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
26 May 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
Work matters. It is important for individual well-being and identity. This course takes a global perspective to explore the nature of work, defined in its broadest sense to encompass all labour, whether conducted formally or informally, as paid employment, domestic labour, or voluntary work. It draws on a radical re-thinking of traditional understandings of work, disrupting the conventional dichotomies of work/leisure, public/private, "home"/"work", and production/reproduction.
The module focuses on the ways work and home are organised differently across the globe. It aims to explore the gendered processes operating in work; examine the varieties of gender division, with regard to work, in different societies, their creation and effects; and investigate the intersection of gender at work with class, ethnicity and other social divisions. It considers how work contributes to the construction of femininities and masculinities.
Aims and Objectives
*To provide students with knowledge of this specialist area of sociological concern
*to familiarise students with contemporary debates about gender and work
*to promote cross cultural understanding of work and life experiences
*to enhance skills of critical analysis leading to independent research
The course begins with theorising the temporal and spatial (re-)organisation of work in late modernity, examining the relationship between global and local divisions of labour, and the division of labour between family members.
It goes on to consider key themes around global differences in the relationship between home and work: domestic work; home work; community and voluntary work; sex work and prostitution; the manifestation of global class inequalities through regimes of production and consumption; the relationship between political change and gender inequalities outcomes.
In exploring these areas, we will draw on case studies from south Asia, Latin America and post-communist societies, though there is scope for students' own interests to be reflected in the programme of work.
Lecture 11 - week 16 Introduction: What do we mean by 'work'? Global and Local work.
Lecture 12 - week 17 Factory Production and the Production of Gender
Lecture 13 - week 18 Work and Identity
Lecture 14 - week 19 Masculinities, Femininities, Sexualities and Inequalities at Work
Lecture 15 - week 20 Work and Labour Movements
Reading Week - Week 21
Conduct library research pertaining to your chosen essay topic. Produce an annotated bibliography (full citation with a short description of the main points) of 8 relevant references.
Lecture 16 - week 22 Domestic Service
Lecture 17 - week 23 Body Service Work: Working on Bodies
Lecture 18 - week 24 Sex Work
Lecture 19 - week 25 Food Work
Most modules at postgraduate level in Sociology are taught as a 2hr seminar. Most classes, labs and seminars will be taught face-to-face (assuming social distancing allows this). There may also be some online activities – either timetabled as a live online session or available on Moodle in the form of pre-recorded videos. You will be expected to watch this material and engage with any suggested activities before your seminar/class each week.
Please note that you should be spending up to ten hours per week undertaking your own private study (reading, preparing for classes or assignments, etc.) on each of your modules (e.g. 30 hours in total for three 20--credit modules).
You are strongly encouraged to attend the classes/seminars as they provide an opportunity to talk with your class teacher and other students. The classes/seminars will be captured and available via Listen Again. However, if you want to gain the most you can from these seminars/classes it is very important that you attend and engage. Please note that the recording of seminars/classes is at the discretion of the teacher.
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Williams, C.C. and Nadin, S. (2012b) ‘Work beyond employment: representations of informal economic activities’,
Work, Employment and Society, 26(2), pp. 1–10. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017012437006.
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Pettinger, L.
et al. (eds) (2006b)
A New Sociology of Work?,
The Sociological Review. Oxford: Blackwell. Available at:
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/toc/1467954x/2005/53/s2.
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Aihwa Ong (1991) ‘The Gender and Labor Politics of Postmodernity’,
Annual Review of Anthropology, 20, pp. 279–309. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2155803.
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Melissa W. Wright (2006) ‘Field Note: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico’,
Women’s Studies Quarterly, 34(1). Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40004738#metadata_info_tab_contents.
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Hewamanne, S. (2012) ‘Threading meaningful lives: respectability, home businesses and identity negotiations among newly immigrant South Asian women’,
Identities, 19(3), pp. 320–338. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2012.699879.
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Clarke, J., Critcher, C. and Johnson, R. (eds) (2007)
Working-class culture?: studies in history and theory. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://doi-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/10.4324/9780203759837.
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Hewamanne, S. (1999) ‘“If They Allow Us We Will Fight”: Strains of Consciousness Among Women Workers in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone’,
Anthropology of Work Review, 19(3), pp. 8–13. Available at:
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/awr.1999.19.3.8.
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Hewamanne, S. (2002) ‘Uneasy Alliances: Sri Lankan Factory Workers Writings on Political Change’, Sagar: A South Asia Research Journal, 8, pp. 1–7.
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Ehrenreich, B. and Hochschild, A. (2003) Global Woman. London: Granta Books.
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Sama Team (2009) ‘Assisted Reproductive Technologies: For Whose Benefit?’,
Economic and Political Weekly, 44(18). Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40278964#metadata_info_tab_contents.
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O’Connell Davidson, J. (2014) ‘Let’s go outside: bodies, prostitutes, slaves and worker citizens’,
Citizenship Studies, 18(5), pp. 516–532. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2014.923703.
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Norma Baumel Joseph (2002) ‘Introduction: Feeding an Identity-Gender, Food, and Survival’,
A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, 5, pp. 7–13. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40326550.
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Susan Starr Sered (1988) ‘Food and Holiness: Cooking as a Sacred Act among Middle-Eastern Jewish Women’,
Anthropological Quarterly, 61(3), pp. 129–139. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3317789.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Facilitation of group discussion of key reading |
|
15% |
| Coursework |
Essay: 4,000 words |
|
85% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Sandya Hewamanne, email: skhewa@essex.ac.uk.
Prof Sandya Hewamanne
socpgtad@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
Yes
Dr Umut Erel
Open University
Senior Lecturer
Available via Moodle
Of 18 hours, 18 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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