Location:

London, United Kingdom

Program Type:

Full Degree

Degree Level:

Master

Specialty:

Women's Studies

Program Overview

Program Description:

Gender relations lie at the heart of today's global transformations. The global pursuit of profit has opened up employment opportunities for many women around the world, thereby facilitating their economic and social independence, and challenging long established patterns in the sexual division of labour. These potentially liberating elements are often accompanied by increased disparities between rich and poor, increased work burdens, increased trafficking in women and children. In these contradictory processes of development, gender relations become the symbolic battle ground for competing visions of the future. Some seize on the universalist language of rights to proclaim the equality of the sexes; others invoke their cultural and religious traditions to re-establish gender hierarchies. These processes transcend the division between developed and less developed countries; indeed, it is one of the features of the contemporary landscape that the division between developed and less developed comes to seem less secure. This MSc programme builds on an earlier and highly successful MSc in Gender and Development to explore the gender dimensions of current processes of development and globalisation. It looks at the way gender relations are being shaped and reshaped in global development, but also at the way these changes shape and challenge some of the traditional presumptions of Western feminism. It considers the critiques of a global feminism that had presumed that women throughout the world shared the same preoccupations and experiences; and the critiques of a cultural relativism that implies an over-sharp distinction between 'West and the Rest'. Like the previous MSc Gender and Development, it will meet the needs of students seeking to work as gender specialists in national and international development agencies, but will be of relevance to any student seeking to understand gender issues in a global and transnational context.

Additional Program Information

Financial Aid:

No

International Requirements:

IELTS 7.0 or TOEFL 627