The course will examine discursive politics and social movement
practices to understand the conditions and processes that lead to
gender public policies.  While recognizing that public policies
affect all people, this course will focus on policies that either
directly or indirectly confront the way gender is constructed and
maintained.  Our primary focus will be on issues such as marriage
and civil unions (both heterosexual and same-sex), reproduction
(including abortion and reproductive technologies), family/ child
policies (including perhaps adoption), soldiering and citizenship
(including transgender considerations.)  One of our emphases will be
on comparing the discursive politics and political opportunity
structures across nations for the same set of issues.  Why does
discourse develop differently, what are the conditions leading to
different opportunity structures, and why are outcomes similar or
different?  The first two-thirds of the seminar will focus on a core
set of readings, including both classics such as Skocpol’s
Protecting Soldier and Mothers and Mansbridge,  Why We Lost the ERA,
to new studies such as Outshoorn, The Politics of Prostitution:
Women's Movements, Democratic States and the Globalisation of Sex
Commerce (2004), Bernstein & Schaffner, Regulating Sex (2005) and
Mazur, Theorizing  Feminist Policy (2006).  The last third of the
semester will provide an opportunity for students to explore other
policy areas not covered in the core readings. Readings will be
drawn from political science, gender studies, sociology, and policy
studies journals, books and edited volumes.