Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies

Study overview of the reviewed opening

The opening discussion explains socially lived theorising as knowledge developed from everyday experience, especially the experience of people whose perspectives have been marginalised. The authors argue that a description of a social system changes when its starting point changes. Their example of industrial development contrasts the view of owners with the conditions experienced by workers.

Reflexivity means recognising how one’s own social position affects understanding. Intersectionality directs attention to identities and systems of power acting together. The text then distinguishes individual, group, structural and global levels of analysis. These levels make it possible to connect a personal difficulty with organisational practices, public policies or transnational conditions without treating all explanations as interchangeable.

The Critical Introduction situates the field as an interdisciplinary challenge to male-centred knowledge. It describes an expansion from earlier women’s studies into a wider consideration of gender, sexuality and intersecting forms of marginalisation. These are the authors’ analytical commitments. The page covers the two reviewed opening sections, not every institution, historical movement or contemporary debate developed later.

Book contents

1. Theorizing Lived Experiences
2. Critical Introduction to the Field
3. Identity Terms
4. Conceptualizing Structures of Power
5. Social Constructionism
6. Intersectionality
7. References: Unit I
8. Introduction: Binary Systems
9. The Sex/Gender/Sexuality System
10. Gender and Sex – Transgender and Intersex
11. Sexualities
12. Masculinities
13. Race
14. Class
15. Alternatives to Binary Systems
16. References: Unit II
17. Medicine, Health, and Reproductive Justice
18. The State, Law, and the Prison System
19. Intersecting Institutions Case Study: The Struggle to End Gendered Violence and Violence Against Women
20. References: Unit III
21. The Family
22. Introduction: Institutions, Cultures, and Structures
23. Media
24. Introduction: Gender and Work in the Global Economy
25. Gender and Work in the US
26. Gender and the US Welfare State
27. Transnational Production and Globalization
28. Racialized, Gendered, and Sexualized Labor in the Global Economy
29. References: Unit IV
30. Introduction: Feminist Movements
31. 19th Century Feminist Movements
32. Early to Late 20th Century Feminist Movements
33. Third Wave and Queer Feminist Movements
34. References: Unit V

Questions for study

The following prompts are Academic Master’s editorial material.

• How can social position change an account of the same event?
• What differs between individual and structural explanations?
• How do reflexivity and intersectionality shape the authors’ framework?

Sources and coverage

Theorizing Lived Experiences and Critical Introduction to the Field read in full (PDF pages 15–21); front matter and contents checked.

Source edition · Source licence