Spring 2021
ANTH 381.001 / Gender and Globalization
MW / 2:20 – 3:35 / 100% Web - Asynchronous
Professor: Drucilla Barker
(3 credits)
Cross-listed with WGST 381
Fulfills the Cultural Requirement for the Anthropology Major and
Graduation with Leadership Distinction (GLD): Diversity & Social Advocacy; Global Learning; Professional & Civic Engagement
AND
Integrative Requirement (INT)
Course Readings:
Please go to the USC Bookstore to find what books you will need for this course:
Course Description:
Globalization, a process of integrating countries, peoples, economies, and cultures into a larger whole, is as old at the travels of Marco Polo and at the same time as brand new as the Internet. Digital technologies and improvements in transportation have greatly reduced the barriers of time and distance. This has led to profound changes in the gender roles assigned to women and men, the ways that economies, governments, and cultures function, and the opportunities for meaningful work and “a good life.” It is the best of times and the worst of times. Today extreme wealth and desperate poverty exist side by side. Some women are heads of state and while others are subjugated to outmoded ideologies about women’s natural inferiority. Consumer goods are plentiful and inexpensive but only as a result of sweatshops in the global south. Global corporations such as Nike, MacDonald’s, and Coca Cola dominate markets all over the world while small farmers and producers struggle to survive. This course will explore these themes by looking at the legacies of colonialism, the global assembly line, the global market for domestic labor and sex work, changing patterns of immigration, and social justice movements.