Special Seminars in Practice, Intervention, and Policy

SW818, Section 002

Content varies, in keeping with faculty and student interests in emerging issues relating to practice, intervention or policy, and covers theoretical and empirical underpinnings, key research questions and gaps in knowledge, ethical and value issues, and ethnic, gender, minority, and social‐class factors. For example, the seminar may focus on a critical analysis of a developing intervention or of a new social welfare policy initiative.

Topic Description / Additional Information

This course is in three sections. In the first section we review the literature on sex differences in biology, socialization and legal treatment to assess what these differences are, what causes the differences, and how these differences contribute to or justify sex-based wage and occupation differences. We will pay careful attention to MacKinnon's arguments about sex and the legal system.
In the second section, we examine and evaluate the major economic, sociological and psychological explanation of wage differences and the evidence for these explanations.
In the third section, we will investigate five areas of public policy and employment: comparable worth, affirmative action, sexual harassment, fetal vulnerability, sexual orientation and employment discrimination.

Course Codes