ECON 211(F) Gender in the Global Economy (Same as Women's and Gender Studies 211)
This course will present a feminist economic analysis of the global economy, and some of the urgent issues facing women in poor countries. The course will start by developing theoretical resources: these will include feminist critiques of economics theory, work on care labor and the shifting boundaries between markets, governments and households, theories of household bargaining, and discussions of difference. Then we will discuss a series of interlinked issues including: the contradictory effects of structural adjustment and its successors; the informal sector and the `invisible assembly line'; the economics of sex work and global sex trafficking; migration and reproductive labor; microcredit; the economics of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We will finish by looking at community-based activism, non-governmental organizations, and the possibilities for first-world/third-world alliances.
Requirements: midterm exam, research paper. Participation in class discussion will count for part of the grade.
Prerequisite: Economics 110.
Hour: HONDERICH