Course Details

Course offered Winter 2022

HONORS 231 C: Gender, Diplomacy, and Human Rights (SSc, DIV, W)

HONORS 231 C: Gender, Diplomacy, and Human Rights (SSc, DIV, W)

SLN 15484 (View UW registration info »)

Elise Rainer (Scandinavian Studies)
Email: eacr@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 35 students

Honors Credit Type

Through this class, students will gain an understanding of how women’s rights and LGBTI diplomacy are now a part of modern foreign policy. Feminist foreign policy, gender and security, and equitable international development policies are key themes explored in the course. Students will examine the growing trend of nations declaring a formal feminist foreign policy, including Canada, France, and Mexico in diplomatic efforts to address intersectionality, human security, and challenge global power structures. This class will examine historical institutional barriers and restrictions to women and LGBTI officers in foreign affairs institutions. Looking internationally, class participants will examine examples from New Zealand and Scandinavia to learn how female leadership shapes foreign policy. Students will develop a cross-cultural comparisons, as well as critical approaches to the gendered aspect of policy-making. As a former diplomat who formulated human rights policies and programs, the instructor brings real-world experience of diplomacy and gender to the classroom. Furthermore, the course will host guest speakers who are current and former diplomats, leading human rights LGBTI advocates, as well as scholars with expertise on gender and diplomacy. The course scrutinizes gender roles in relation to power, agency, and influence to shape new norms in international affairs. With a goal to give students both hope and agency, students will learn how individuals and advocacy networks can influence policy reform.