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Women, Gender, Difference

Course Description

This course explores women, gender, and difference from feminist and anti-racist perspectives. It is an introduction to topics and perspectives in gender studies, examining the ways women's activism, politics, and experiences intersect with other gendered identifications such as race, location, class, (dis)ability, and sexuality.

Course Details

• Code/Units: GNDS 120/3.0
• Prerequisites: None
• Equivalents: WMNS 120/3.0
• Language: English
• Discipline: Gender Studies
• Faculty: Arts and Science
• Program Year: 1

Overview

Topics considered include intersectional identities and social relations; men and masculinities; feminisms; gender performance; power and privilege; gender in a racialized, globalized world; embodied experience; sexuality; representations of gender in media and popular culture; and strategies of resistance. No previous courses or experience in Gender Studies is required. GNDS 120 serves as an introduction to the Gender Studies program at Queen's University.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will have:

• Explored key topics, issues, activism, and research in Gender Studies.
• Developed a critical understanding of the key issues central to different forms of feminism.
• Developed an intersectional understanding of gender, race, and class as formative social differences in your own life and in the lives of others. You will have developed your abilities to:
  • Elaborate different feminist viewpoints on gender difference;
  • Apply an intersectional understanding of other key categories of social difference, such as class, race, sex, religion, age, citizenship, ethnicity.
  • Describe how interlocking systems of oppression contribute to social inequality and marginalization.
  • Employ strategies for thinking, working, and communicating together with others across difference.

Terms

• Winter 2026
  • Course Dates: January 5 April 6, 2026
  • Exam Dates (if applicable): April 9 23, 2026
  • Delivery Mode: Online

Evaluation

• 25% - Quizzes (5 x 5%)
• 25% - Critical Reflection on Intersectionality
• 20% - Current Issues Forum: Editorial
• 30% - Final Essay Evaluation Subject to Change

Textbook and Materials

• Unit course notes, additional readings and videos (accessed through the course site)

Time Commitment

To complete the readings, assignments, and course activities, students can expect to spend, on average, about 10 - 12 hours per week (120 hours per term) on the course.