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CS92PROD
Feminist Practical Ethics
PHIL 280
Spring 2008 not offered
Crosslisting: FGSS 278

This course focuses on issues at the intersection of feminist theory, practical ethics, public policy, and feminist activism. We will explore a number of contemporary issues that are important within feminist scholarship and practical ethics generally. It is my hope that exposure to these issues will help provide students with a starting point from which to pursue these topics in greater depth. Throughout the course we will pay attention to the ways in which feminist theorizing attends to racial, cultural, and sexual difference. While there is no single feminist perspective promoted in this course, our focus will be on the many ways that gendered and racialized social structures have produced inaccurate understandings of ethical problems and their solutions. During the beginning of the course, we will examine how gender is constructed, both biologically and socially. We will then explore the nature of equality. Does equality require equal treatment? Equal opportunity? Equal access to resources and power? Can equality be achieved while important differences are preserved? We will see that there are a number of answers to these questions and that different answers to these questions affect the way particular policy issues are addressed. For the remainder of the course, we will explore the controversies that have emerged among feminists, and between feminists and nonfeminists, over such issues as sexual harrassment, prostitution and other forms of sex work, pornography, hate speech, and additional topics that are important to the class.

Essential Capabilities: None
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA PHIL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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