Gender Studies

Beverley Anne YAMAMOTO(Graduate School of Human Sciences)

Capacity
   30

Course Objective

• To develop an understanding and awareness of gender as an analytical tool.
• To encourage an understanding of key concepts.
• To explore the construction of gender (masculinities and femininities) within contemporary Japanese society.
• To develop an understanding of the roots and limits of gender equality policy within the Japanese context.

Requirement / Prereauisite
   A hunger for learning and ability to approach ideas critically. In addition, sufficient English ability to understand, read, discuss and make sense of complex ideas, concepts, literature and theory that will form a part of the curriculum. The class involves discussion and student participation. Finally, students must be able to write an essay/report that is not only understandable, but also follows conventions appropriate to the academic genre.

Course Content
   In this course we will begin by taking a theoretical approach to gender as a relational category of analysis, drawing largely on sociology, anthropology and social policy. We will explore the relationship between gender, sex and sexuality. As a part of this, we will not only explore the catergoies 'male and 'female', but also transgender, as well a LGB and intersex identities. A key question early on in the course is how we learn to do gender and whether this is a fixed or flexible part of our being across our life course. The second part of the course moves on to focus on how gender operates in social institutions and human relationships. We will look at gender in the worklace, intimate relationships, the family and educational institutions. Finally, we will explore gender equality policy in a Japanese society within the wider context of transnational feminism and an expanding concept of human rights. A key question raised in the course is how has gender been constructed in modern/contemporary Japan.

Class Plan

1. Orientation: What is gender and why does it matter?
2. Exploring gender, sex, and sexuality I
3. Exploring gender, sex, and sexuality II
4. Theorizing the gendered person
5. Theorizing gendered organizations and institutions
6. Men's studies - exploring masculinities
7. Women's studies issues raised by Japanese feminism
8. Mid-term exam (Presentation may be an option is the class is small)
9. Gendered families
10. Gendered workplace I
11. Gendered workplace II
12. Gender issues in education
13. Gender in the media
14. Gender and violence
15. Gender equality policies in Japan

Textbooks
   Required readings will include, but are not limited to, chapters from the following texts:

• Connell, R.W. (2002) Gender, Polity Press. Chapter 1 'The Question of Gender', Polity; Wharton, Amy (2005) The Sociology of Gender, Chapter 1 'Introduction to the Sociology of Gender', Blackwell Publishing.
  
• McLelland, Mark (2005) Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age, Chapter 1 'Heteronormativity on the Road to War', Rowman and Littlefield..
  
• Wharton, Amy (2005) The Sociology of Gender, Blackwell.
  
• Roberson, James and Suzuki, Nobue (2003) Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa,RoutledgeCurzon.
  
• Mackie, Vera (2003) Feminism in Modern Japan, Chapters 1 & 3 'Introduction' and The New Women, University of California Press.
  
• Nagata,Yuriko and Sullivan Kristen (2005) 'Hegemonic Gender in Japan as a Foreign Language Education', in Genders, McLelland, Mark and Dasgupta Romit (eds) Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan, Routledge.
  
• Kilbourne, Jean (1999) Can't Buy me Love: How Advertising Changes the Way we Think and Feel, Introduction and Chapter 1
  
• Kamano Saori (200)'Housework and lesbian couples in Japan: Division, negotiation and interpretation', Women's Studies International Forum, 32:130-141.
  
• Ogasawara, Yuko (1998) Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender and Work in Japanese Companies, Chapters 1 & 2.
  
• M Kimmel (2000) The Gendered Society, Oxford University Press. Chapter 7
  
• Kersten, Joachim (1996) 'Culture, Masculinities and Violence Against Women', British Journal of Criminology, 36(3):381-396.
  
• Osawa, Mari (2000) 'Government Approaches to Gender Equality in the Mid-1990s', Social Science Japan Journal, 3(1):3-19.
  
• Gaer, Felice (2001) 'Mainstreaming a Concern for the Human Rights of Women', in Agosin, Marjorie ed Women, Gender, and Human Rights: A Global Perspective, Rutgers University Press.
  
• NB: Students are expected to read the required material each week and be prepared to discuss it as assigned.
  

Grading Policy

• Mid-term exam or presentation or written assignment: 40 percent
• Final report/essay (2,000~3,000 words): 50 percent
• Class participation: 10 percent