GENDER POLITICS
Instructional goals
This course offers a comprehensive exploration of gender as a key organizing principle of political life. It examines how gender shapes power relations, institutions, public policies, media representations, and political communication across diverse global contexts. The course is structured in three connected parts: a first theoretical section devoted to the history of feminisms, the core concepts of gender politics, and the theories that have shaped the field, including queer theory and trans theory; a second section focused on the Beijing Platform for Action and on the development of gender policies; and a final section devoted to media, representation, and political communication. Its main goals are to strengthen conceptual and theoretical knowledge, develop analytical skills applied to texts, discourse, media, and policy, provide a historical and political understanding of institutional change in the field, and foster independent thinking, writing, and critical participation in class.
Intended learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to understand the main issues of gender equality in relation to policies, actors, institutions, strategies, and public debates, as well as the historical development of feminist thought and the principal theoretical frameworks discussed in class. They will be able to apply a gender perspective to the analysis of politics, public policy, media, and communication; use different theoretical and analytical tools through case studies, group exercises, and focused comparisons; critically assess arguments, limits, and possibilities related to gender equality; participate actively in class discussion; and develop analytical arguments in both oral and written form. The course also strengthens students’ ability to connect theoretical reflection and empirical analysis, fostering independent judgement and a critical method of inquiry.
Course Contents
Part I: Theoretical foundations. History of feminisms, key concepts in gender politics, gender and power, debates on equality and difference, intersectionality, queer theory, and trans theory.
Part II: Beijing and gender policies. The Beijing Conference and Platform for Action, gender mainstreaming, implementation, policy instruments, institutionalization, and backlash.
Part III: Media, representation, and political communication. Gender stereotypes, framing, discourse analysis, postfeminism, popular feminism, neoliberal feminism, and the role of media in shaping and contesting gender imaginaries.
Reference Books
Selected chapters from Lisa Disch and Mary Hawkesworth (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory (Oxford University Press, 2016); articles and didactical materials provided by the instructor. The handbook will be used selectively, with chapters chosen according to the topics covered during the course.
Teaching Methods
Interactive lectures; seminars and guided debates; group work and collaborative activities; case-study analysis; media and discourse deconstruction; workshop-based learning through discourse analysis, conceptual mapping, close reading, and plenary discussion of group presentations. Teaching will also be enriched by alternative sources of knowledge, including audiovisual materials and other public-facing resources, as well as possible guest contributions from relevant institutional, cultural, and professional contexts.
Assessment Method
Intermediate evaluation 1 (theoretical foundations): 15%; intermediate evaluation 2 (media, communication, and policy): 15%; in-class activities and participation: 10%; final essay: 60%.
Thesis assignment criteria
Topics are proposed and discussed with the instructor. The work will be supervised by the instructor. The main thematic areas will be communicated through the course website. Requirements: interest in the course topics; ability to read books and essays in English; submission of a written research design including methodology, provisional table of contents, and essential references. The citation system to use is the Harvard system.
Week 1
Introduction to the course and key concepts. This week presents the overall architecture of the course and introduces gender politics as a field concerned with gender, power, institutions, and public life. Particular attention is devoted to the distinction between sex and gender and to the political relevance of gender as an analytical category.
Week 2
History of feminisms I. The week addresses the earliest historical articulations of feminist politics: citizenship, rights, suffrage, access to education, and the inclusion of women in the public sphere. It also introduces the universalist limits and internal exclusions of first-wave feminism.
Week 3
History of feminisms II. This week focuses on second-wave feminism and its major transformations: the shift from equality to liberation, the growing attention to the body, sexuality, reproduction, and everyday life, and the broader critique of patriarchy. Debates on equality and difference are also discussed.
Week 4
Concepts and theoretical frameworks. Topics include patriarchy, misogyny, gender norms, masculinity and femininity, intersectionality, and postcolonial and decolonial critiques. The aim is to provide a more systematic theoretical basis for understanding gender as a political structure rather than a fixed identity category.
Week 5
Queer theory as method. The week shows how queer theory can be used to analyze institutions, norms, exclusions, and historical discontinuities. The focus is on the distinction between inclusion within the system and transformation of the norm itself. Group activities and discussion.
Week 6
Trans theory and the politics of legibility. Topics include recognition, diagnosis, institutional intelligibility, gatekeeping, and self-determination. The week invites students to reflect critically on the limits of recognition and on the tension between access, legibility, and transformation. Group activities and discussion.
Week 7
Beijing and gender policies. This week opens the second part of the course and presents the Beijing Conference and the Platform for Action as a turning point in the global institutionalization of gender equality. The aim is to show the passage from theoretical and political claims to institutional policy frameworks.
Week 8
From Beijing to implementation. The week examines gender mainstreaming, policy tools, equality bodies, implementation gaps, and the difficulty of translating formal commitments into substantive change. Implementation is approached as a site of political conflict and negotiation.
Week 9
Media, representation, and public narratives. This week opens the final part of the course, focusing on stereotypes, visibility, framing, and mediated narratives in the public construction of gender issues. Alternative sources of knowledge, including audiovisual and public-facing materials, may also be used.
Week 10
Political communication and discourse analysis. The focus is on language, rhetoric, framing, lexical choices, and figurative language as tools for analyzing political communication. Workshop-based activities allow students to apply discourse analysis to political texts and media materials.
Week 11
Postfeminism, popular feminism, and neoliberal feminism. The week explores the ways feminism circulates through media visibility, consumer culture, branding, and empowerment discourse. It analyzes the promises, limits, and political implications of mediated feminism.
Week 12
Contemporary backlash, anti-gender politics, and final discussion. The last week addresses actors, frames, aims, and strategies of anti-gender mobilizations, connecting them to the theoretical, institutional, and media-related themes developed during the course. A concluding discussion may also build on group exercises.