Module 30-M-Soz-M9b Sociology of Gender b

Non-official translation of the module descriptions. Only the German version is legally binding.

As part of the General Competence Concept for the MA in Sociology (see https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/soziologie/studium/master/pdf/Kompetenzkonzept_Masterstudiengaenge.pdf), students acquire in-depth theoretical and empirical knowledge of various approaches and directions in gender sociology in the seminars of the module. They learn to pursue more specialised questions, to answer them with the support of selected theories and empirical results and to critically examine methodologies of sociological gender studies.

Gender is a central social organising feature of our society. We encounter the difference between the sexes in everyday life in various ways in the most diverse social fields and it determines our lives, sometimes very directly, sometimes more subtly and not immediately recognisable. Gender as a social structural category of modern societies and as a social construction can become relevant at the micro level as well as at the organisational level and the macro level of social and institutional structures, but gender can also be de-thematised or overlaid with other criteria of social difference.

Sociological attention to gender as a central social structural category is by no means a matter of course and has only slowly become established in sociology. Gender as a social ordering principle is relevant in many fields of research; in sociological gender research, thematic focuses can be identified above all in the areas of work, organisation and profession, family and division of labour, social inequality, gender regimes and masculinity.

The seminars in this module focus on fundamental theoretical concepts, categories and research perspectives in gender sociology, the continuities and changes in gender relations, processes of gender construction and its institutionalisation and de-institutionalisation from a micro- and macro-sociological perspective. The seminars deal with these issues not only in relation to our own society, but also from a comparative perspective. Questions of the regulation and control of gender relations are also addressed.

In more theoretically orientated seminars, students learn a critical and reflective approach to concepts of sociological gender studies as well as a theory-based examination of subject-related issues. In more empirically and/or methodologically oriented seminars, students develop gender sociological questions and carry out their own empirical analyses.

The module programme is always completed with a written assignment. This always takes the form of a term paper.

Completed or at least started study of module 30-M-Soz-M9a

—