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ADM5152 GENDER, POWER AND POLITICS IN LATIN AMERICA

Course Objectives

 This is a course which raises a gender perspective to Latin America's political dynamics since the first half of the twentieth century up to the present period. The objective is to provide a survey of the political transformations acrosss the region under a thematic organization by focusing on women's position and struggles. In other words the course pays specific attention to the interplay of political institutions and policy processes with the gender constructions to shed a light in particular on their impact on women.  The lectures will survey both institutional politics and social movement aspect of the gendered political processes to understand how women as the subject of male-centric politics have come to capitalize on the opportunities opened for them during the shifting  social-structural, cultural and political structures. The course also underlines the intersectional nature of gender inequalites in the region by analysing how women from different class, ethnic racial and regional groups are excluded from power and the dominant citizenship  constructs.   The course also aims at providing a historical perspective to understand  women's politial participation, feminist struggles, and state responses to women's demands.  Another objective is to analyze the current challenges to gender equality in the context of the emerging political projects and discourses.

Course Content

The study of the political trajectories of Latin America from a gender lense to analyse how gender has shaped political institutions, discourses, and processes; a focus on top-down and bottom -up processes of women’s inclusion as citizens in the political systems of the major countries in the region from a historical perspective. Thematic analysis of the gendered dynamics of political regime changes up to the recent era; the intersections of gender with authoritarianism, processes of economic liberalization and democratization. Women’s position in representative institutions, and their struggles to expand gender equality and social justice in the context of pervasive economic, racial and ethnic inequalities.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of the term, the students are expected: 

• to have gained an awareness  of the gendered dynamics in the political transformations  of contemporary Latin America from a historical perspective and of  the patterns of women’s inclusion in representative institutions;
• to have acquired a systematic understanding of gender relations and the perspectives to integrate gender as a variable in  the  analysis of Latin American politics as well as in other regions (including Turkey) as a basis for comparative studies;
• to have cultivated critical insights into the political and social movements, parties and governments to assess how they approach gender equality issues, and the policies pertaining to the private sphere and women’s public participation;
• to demonstrate a scholarly ability to deal with the  problem of political exclusion and social justice from a gender perspective;
• to be able to approach the intersections of gender with other structures of power  to analyze the patriarchal constraints for empowerment during democratization. 

Program Outcomes Matrix

0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution