WGS 3290 - Women, Gender, and Business

Credits: 4

This course will explore the nature, scope and development of women’s relationship to the business world from an interdisciplinary perspective. The goal is to demonstrate the ways in which gender norms and ideals have historically influenced business practices and opportunities and continue to do so. Using a feminist analysis, students will study how business itself has been historically gendered and socially constructed, how job categories become defined as male or female, how groups attempt to redefine the nature of work and the professions, and the strategies used by women, immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color and different sexualities to enter the corporate world despite obstacles that may seek/have sought to bar them. The class will study the ways in which entrepreneurship serves as a vehicle for marginalized people to provide for themselves economically or serve as a form of activism. It will also look at the history and effectiveness of legislation that has sought to address the gender pay gap, sexual harassment, and access to opportunities and advancement.

Fulfills: Social Science distribution requirement. SOSC requirement and D in LS Core.