WGS 3290 - Women, Gender, and Business

Credits: 4

This course explores the nature, scope and development of women’s relationship to the business world from an interdisciplinary perspective. The goal of the course is to demonstrate the ways in which gender norms and ideals have historically influenced business practices and opportunities and continue to do so up to the present. Using a feminist analysis, students will study the ways in which 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 and people of color to enter the corporate world despite obstacles that may seek/have sought to bar them. Breaking down barriers and confronting accepted social constructions of business - and of who does what in the business world - will be a major theme of this course. Other themes will include issues such as the dichotomy of work and family, the gender pay gap, sexual harassment, the “glass ceiling,” the “glass cliff,” the “mommy track,” the social meaning of money, legislative initiatives promoting equality in the workplace, and the rise of the woman entrepreneur. We will similarly explore the laws and policies designed to create more equitable workplaces and opportunities, considering their successes and limitations.. Students will gain a solid sense of the history of gender in corporate America.
Fulfills: SOSC and D in LS Core.