Gender Studies 206AW - African Women's Work

The power to produce food and reproduce society gave women significant public voice in African societies in the past. But over 200 years they lost that public voice and control over subsistence. Why, when women are still producing food and people, is the social and political voice of women so much less significant than it was before? We explore African womens' work of governing, production, and social reproduction across the tumultuous changes of the 20th century. The class seeks to provide an achievable yet challenging set of learning experiences for those who have no prior experience studying Africa, but also for those who have substantial previous engagement with African issues.