MSc Gender, Policy and Inequalities (formerly Gender and Social Policy)

About the MSc programme

This programme uses contemporary gender theory to investigate social policy, planning and practice in an international and comparative context and to examine gender and social policy with an emphasis on the issues facing either less economically developed or European countries.

The programme is intended for graduates with a good upper second class honours degree in the social sciences, or relevant humanities discipline.

This interdisciplinary MSc provides advanced study in the application of gender theory to social policy, planning and practice. It aims to give students a grounded understanding of the concepts and theories relevant to a gender analysis of social policy in a global and comparative context. The teaching will focus on stimulating independent thought on gender and gendered inequalities.

All students follow the two core courses, Gender Theories in the Modern World: An Interdisciplinary Approach, and one half unit, Gender and Social Policy: Theory and Practice. Students then take a further half unit with either a European or development focus. In addition, students take a further combination of courses to the value of one full unit. Finally, students must also complete a 10,000 word dissertation on an approved topic. The dissertation should reflect learning from both the social policy and gender components of the MSc.

A series of dissertation| workshops are held during the Lent term and are compulsory. The Gender Institute holds a research seminar series with outside speakers fortnightly throughout term time which extends and consolidates issues raised in the main courses. We regularly arrange seminars with eminent academics visiting London.

You must submit your dissertation by 1 September (or the first working day after if it falls on a weekend).

All students on the programme will have an academic adviser who will be allocated upon arrival. Dissertation supervision is allocated in the Lent term. 

Compulsory courses

(* half unit)

• Gender and Social Policy: Theory and Practice*
• Either Gender and Development: Geographical Perspectives* or Gender and European Welfare States*
• Gender Theories in the Modern World: An Interdisciplinary Approach
• Dissertation

Options

Students can choose from a wide range of options in the Department of Social Policy and in the Gender Institute.

Please note that not all options will be available every year; if you are offered a place you will be advised of the availability for the following year. In addition, with the consent of the teacher, the agreement of the institute and department concerned, and subject to timetabling constraints, students are permitted to take any other papers offered at MSc or MA level. This is an indicative, but not an exhaustive, list of options available to gender and social policy students.

• Gender and European Welfare States*
• Gender, Knowledge and Research Practice*
• Gender and Media Representation*
• Globalising Sexualities*
• Feminist Political Theory*
• Globalisation, Gender and Development
• Cultural Constructions of the Body*
• Gender, Post-Colonialism, Development: Critical Perspectives and New Directions*
• Dilemmas of Equality*
• Gender and Development: Geographical Perspectives* 
• The Governance of Welfare: The Nation State and the European Union*
• Contemporary Issues in European Social Policy*
• Social Exclusion, Inequality and the 'Underclass' Debate*
• Social Policy: Goals and Issues*
• Reproductive Health Programmes: Design, Implementation and Evaluation*
• Population Trends and Processes in the Developing World*
• Ethnicity, 'Race' and Social Policy*
• Social Policy: Organisation and Innovation*
• Urban Environment*
• Race, Ethnicity and Migration in Britain (post 1945)*
• Gender and Societies*
• Globalisation: Economy, Politics and Power* 
• Social Psychology of Health Communication*
• Migration: Population Trends and Policies*
• Race and Biopolitics*
• Cities, People and Poverty in the South*
• Gender, Globalisation and Development: An Introduction*
• Gender and Militarisation*
• Politics of Social Policy: Welfare and Work in Comparative Perspective*
• Gender and Transition Societies: Politics, Policies and Patterns*