This course examines gender as a socially constructed system of power that shapes identities, institutions, and everyday interactions. Drawing on classical and contemporary sociological theory, the course analyzes how gender intersects with race, class, sexuality, nationality, religion, and ability to produce patterned inequalities and lived experiences. Rather than treating gender as a biological or purely individual trait, the course approaches it as an institutionalized structure embedded in families, education, work, media, religion, law, science, and the state.

Students will engage with foundational debates in feminist theory, masculinity studies, queer and trans studies, and intersectionality, while also analyzing empirical research on topics such as gender socialization, the wage gap, reproductive politics, care work, violence, embodiment, representation, and resistance. Throughout the course, attention is paid to how gender norms are produced, enforced, contested, and transformed across historical and global contexts. Emphasis is placed on developing a critical sociological imagination that connects personal experiences to broader systems of power and inequality.