Course 2020-2021 a.y.

50250 - GENDER LAW AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Department of Law

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLMG (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  IUS/09)
Course Director:
GRAZIELLA ROMEO

Classes: 31 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: GRAZIELLA ROMEO


Suggested background knowledge

It is suggested to have attended a course in constitutional/public law and in private law

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

Gender biases in contemporary societies are now explored across many fields in social sciences. Awareness of the position of men, women and LGBTI persons in societies is increasingly relevant to understand political, economic, and social dynamics. Law has been a pioneer in studies concerning the identification of roles and rules in organized society, benefiting from different disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, history, economics. Such a rich and culturally dispersed background is relevant to understand law, which will be the ultimate focus of the course Gender Law and Women's Rights. This course explores the women's rights, by framing the recognition of their position in polities through the lenses of gender awareness. This course focuses on women not as an isolated subject in contemporary societies, rather as contributors to economic, social, cultural, political developments. In such a context, the mission of the course is to encourage students to develop a critical look at societal dynamics, with a view to understand and detect the roots of rules, attitudes and behaviours that define the role of women as social, economic and political actors.

CONTENT SUMMARY

How gender discrimination and/or imbalance should be addressed by law? Are women rights sufficiently protected in contemporary democratic societies? The course explores those issues by addressing the history of the recognition of women’s rights and the contribution of women’s studies in understanding how the legal system addresses (or fails to address) social issues raised by the increasing participation of women in the cultural, political and economic life of a country.

The course offers a reading of women’s rights through the lenses of gender discrimination, thus paying attention to the usefulness of gender studies to the understanding of women’s claims for recognition and protection of their content-specific rights.

Therefore, the course will address:

·       The history of the recognition of women’s rights at both the domestic and the international level.

·       The contribution of women’s studies to gender law.

·       The interplay between gender law and women’s rights.

·       The legal guarantees women are entitled to in the specific contexts in which they live and operate (political, economic, everyday life).

·       Topical 1: Women and private law protection

·       Topical 2: The legal protection against gender-based violence.

·       Topical 3: Women's Rights and Environmental Justice.


Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  1. Define women's rights as specific individual positions
  2. Describe how women advocated and defended their rights in contemporary society, by also using gender literature 
  3. Distinguish between gender issues broadly defined and women's issues
  4. Explain how law can effectively correct imbalances in the role and position of women in societies
  5. Identify the tensions between some classical model of organization/division of labour as well as private (and public) responsibilities and the role of women in societies (topical 1)
  6. Understand the rights of women to defend themselves from any form of violence (topical 2)
  7. Identify the role of women in environmental justice issues (topical 3)

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  1. Apply women's rights in relevant issues, in which the specific position of women needs to be taken into account
  2. Compare the framing of law issues before and after women's successful recognition of their rights
  3. Interpret the law by using a critical gender approach, by identifying the peculiar position of women within the broadly defined gender issues
  4. Develop argument to effectively identify rights and responsibility in a gender conscious way
  5. Develop arguments to effectively defend women against any form of violence
  6. Develop arguments that take into consideration the position of women in environmental justice discourse

 

 


Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
  • Group assignments
  • Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

DETAILS

Guest speakers from different fields (i.e. economics, history) will be invited to give talk to illustrate the position of women in societies.

Group assignments will be used to develop original research path to present in class concerning specific rights (es. workers' rights; political rights).

Role playing will be used as experiments to identify and solve problems raised by gender awareness.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
    x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
  x  
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
x    

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students will sit a written exam which will consist in one open question and 5 multiple-choice question

to be completed in 1 hour. It will count for the 80% of the grade

 

The written exam is designed to test the knowledge and understanding of the ILO: the open question is specifically designed to test ILO no. 1-6 of the APPLYING KNOWLEDGE, while the multiple-choice questions is dedicated to points  1-7 of the KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.

 

The group assignment, which will count for the 20% of the grade, is designed to test students' ability

to compare the framing of a given legal issue with or without gender awareness.

 

The in-class role playing works on a voluntary basis and is designed to interpret the law by using a

critical gender approach, and will be part of a continuous assessment of class participation which is

relevant for achieving the cum laude in the final grade.


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students will sit a written exam which will consist in one open question and SEVERAL multiple-choice questions to be completed in 1 hour. It will count for the 100% of the grade.

 

The written exam is designed to test the knowledge and understanding of the ILO: the open question is specifically designed to test ILO no. 1-6 of the APPLYING KNOWLEDGE, while the multiple-choice questions is dedicated to points  1-7 of the KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

 

A.    A.  Hellum and H. Sinding Aasen (eds), Women's Human Rights, Cambridge, CUP (selected chapters: 1, 3, 4, 13, 18, 19).

B.     M.C. Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity, Cambridge (MA), Harvard, 1997 (chapter Women's Studies).

C.     J. Morgan, Feminist Theory as Legal Theory, in Melbourne Univ. Law Review, 1988, vol. 16, 743-759.

D.     GREVIO Baseline Evaluation Report Italy.

E.     Further materials will be provided on the blackboard page.

Last change 02/07/2020 12:16