GWST 634 - Gender and the Life Course

[3]

This course examines the complex interactions of two critical social constructs: gender and the life course. Material will examine how these constructs have developed over time, how they vary across cultures and historical periods, and how they interact to construct very different lives for males and females in society. Specific foci of the course are the demographic and biological underpinnings of gender and the life course, age stratification systems, variations of timing of family and other life events by gender, life course transitions, the effects of aging on social power and health and how gender and life course interact with/are reinforced by social policy. Building in diversity of class and race/ethnicity in examining variations, the course will employ readings and examples from the major life stages of childhood, adolescence, adulthood and later life. Crosslisted as SOCY 634.