270962 The Social Cognition of Gender: Gender and Power Relations (BS) (SoSe 2017)

It is an acknowledged fact in the social sciences that gender is a
“substantial, socially elaborated edifice constructed on a modest
biological foundation” (Ridgeway, 2011, p. 8). But this doesn’t
explain its persistence as a way of categorising social relations
despite societal changes that have affected the participation of
women in both the workforce and public life in many societies. If
gender is mainly a social construction, it is unlike other more ephemeral
and transient constructions. Why is gender such a robust variable
in our experience of the social world? In this course, Prof. Origgi
will present a new relational epistemological framework to tackle
the gender variable according to which gender is a relational variable
that influences our interactions and orients our inferences of the
social world. She will test this framework in light of recent research
in cognitive science, with a focus on cognitive development.
Although the development of the social cognition of gender categories
benefits from important experimental and theoretical accounts
in contemporary cognitive science, the question of power relations
has not received the attention that it deserves: power relations are
at the core of the gender system in many respects.
Professor Origgi will review the conceptual and empirical research
on how people develop representations of power asymmetries in
gender relations. At the empirical level, she will present research
that allows for sensitivity to the subtle cognitive and emotional
mechanisms involved, while also respecting inter-individual,
gender-related and inter-cultural variability. This course aims to
contribute to a more fine-tuned understanding of the mechanisms
through which the way gender/power relations are used and
reproduced.
For more information see www.cit-ec.de/en/gender-diversity

Requirements for participation, required level

Open to master students and PhD researchers