Insegnamento a.a. 2020-2021

How gender discrimination and/or imbalance should be addressed by law? Are women rights sufficiently protected in contemporary democratic societies? The course explores those issues by addressing the history of the recognition of women’s rights and the contribution of women’s studies in understanding how the legal system addresses (or fails to address) social issues raised by the increasing participation of women in the cultural, political and economic life of a country.

The course offers a reading of women’s rights through the lenses of gender discrimination, thus paying attention to the usefulness of gender studies to the understanding of women’s claims for recognition and protection of their content-specific rights.

Therefore, the course will address:

·       The history of the recognition of women’s rights at both the domestic and the international level.

·       The contribution of women’s studies to gender law.

·       The interplay between gender law and women’s rights.

·       The legal guarantees women are entitled to in the specific contexts in which they live and operate (political, economic, everyday life).

·       Topical 1: Women and private law protection

·       Topical 2: The legal protection against gender-based violence.

·       Topical 3: Women's Rights and Environmental Justice.

1. Define women's rights as specific individual positions
2. Describe how women advocated and defended their rights in contemporary society, by also using gender literature 
3. Distinguish between gender issues broadly defined and women's issues
4. Explain how law can effectively correct imbalances in the role and position of women in societies
5. Identify the tensions between some classical model of organization/division of labour as well as private (and public) responsibilities and the role of women in societies (topical 1)
6. Understand the rights of women to defend themselves from any form of violence (topical 2)
7. Identify the role of women in environmental justice issues (topical 3)

1. Apply women's rights in relevant issues, in which the specific position of women needs to be taken into account
2. Compare the framing of law issues before and after women's successful recognition of their rights
3. Interpret the law by using a critical gender approach, by identifying the peculiar position of women within the broadly defined gender issues
4. Develop argument to effectively identify rights and responsibility in a gender conscious way
5. Develop arguments to effectively defend women against any form of violence
6. Develop arguments that take into consideration the position of women in environmental justice discourse

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

Guest speakers from different fields (i.e. economics, history) will be invited to give talk to illustrate the position of women in societies.

Group assignments will be used to develop original research path to present in class concerning specific rights (es. workers' rights; political rights).

Role playing will be used as experiments to identify and solve problems raised by gender awareness.

Students will sit a written exam which will consist in one open question and 5 multiple-choice question

to be completed in 1 hour. It will count for the 80% of the grade

The written exam is designed to test the knowledge and understanding of the ILO: the open question is specifically designed to test ILO no. 1-6 of the APPLYING KNOWLEDGE, while the multiple-choice questions is dedicated to points  1-7 of the KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.

The group assignment, which will count for the 20% of the grade, is designed to test students' ability

to compare the framing of a given legal issue with or without gender awareness.

The in-class role playing works on a voluntary basis and is designed to interpret the law by using a

critical gender approach, and will be part of a continuous assessment of class participation which is

relevant for achieving the cum laude in the final grade.

Students will sit a written exam which will consist in one open question and SEVERAL multiple-choice questions to be completed in 1 hour. It will count for the 100% of the grade.

The written exam is designed to test the knowledge and understanding of the ILO: the open question is specifically designed to test ILO no. 1-6 of the APPLYING KNOWLEDGE, while the multiple-choice questions is dedicated to points  1-7 of the KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING.

A.    A.  Hellum and H. Sinding Aasen (eds), Women's Human Rights, Cambridge, CUP (selected chapters: 1, 3, 4, 13, 18, 19).

B.     M.C. Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity, Cambridge (MA), Harvard, 1997 (chapter Women's Studies).

C.     J. Morgan, Feminist Theory as Legal Theory, in Melbourne Univ. Law Review, 1988, vol. 16, 743-759.

D.     GREVIO Baseline Evaluation Report Italy.

E.     Further materials will be provided on the blackboard page.