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Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3217: Feminist Political Theory

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

This module considers feminist theory from a variety of perspectives in order to convey to students the interdisciplinary importance of feminism. The module will encourage you to engage in close reading of influential feminist thinkers, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young, Judith Butler, Carol Pateman, and Nancy Fraser.  The course will proceed in three parts: 1) laying a conceptual foundation through close reading 2) using concepts learned to critique mainstream ideas and 3) arguing for practical solutions to contemporary political problems.  The first part of the course will give a broad historical account of the emergence of the second, third, and fourth waves of feminism and will give an overview of the major conceptual insights of feminist theory, such as the historical privileging of masculinity over femininity, the tension between equality and sexual difference, the inescapability of gender identity, and the problem of intersectionality.  The second part of the course will build on this conceptual knowledge through the application of feminist insights to contemporary political theory.  It will look at the critiques posed by prominent feminist theorists of many of the central tenets of liberalism, including autonomy, property, the social contract, and human rights.  The third part of the course will involve reading feminist theorists who offer alternative ways of understanding and practicing politics that have arisen as answers to the problems with mainstream political theory raised by feminism.  These include care ethics, cultivating “epistemic justice”, and advocating feminist practices like consciousness raising.  You will gain both a deeper understanding of the systematic inequality of women around the world and a practical toolkit for critiquing and ameliorating social injustice.  

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Part I: Foundations of Feminist Political Theory

What is Patriarchy?

The Second Wave: Equality and Difference

The Third Wave: Identity Politics and Gender Identity

The Fourth Wave?: Intersectionality

Part II: Feminist Critiques of Liberalism

Relational Autonomy

The Social Contract and the Sexual Contract

Feminist Critiques of Capitalism 

Human Rights and Women’s Rights

Part III: Alternative Feminist Politics

Naming Injustice and Identifying Privilege

Care Ethics and Emotional Labour

Re-Imagining Political Theory

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Indicative Reading List

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