Overview
An enduring myth holds that women only recently entered the paid labour force and that before this shift women were relegated to domestic “lesser” work or did not perform meaningful work at all. Yet for centuries on this land that is known today as Canada, Indigenous and settler women’s work has enabled our families, our communities, the economy, and the country to exist and function. This course asks why women’s work, in all its forms, has been unacknowledged and undervalued. It also seeks to challenge our assumptions about and issues pertaining to the work that women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people have been performing before colonization and throughout the history of Canada.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed WGST 345, students should be able to
- identify the importance of women’s work, and analyze why women’s work has been exploited, unpaid, and/or underpaid throughout Canadian history;
- provide examples of how women’s class, age, family status, race, immigration status, sexuality, gender identity, and/or disabilities have shaped their experiences with work opportunities, exclusions, inequality, discrimination, sexual harassment, and assault;
- evaluate the individual and collective advocacy efforts that women and LGB, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people have used in seeking inclusion and equality in unpaid and paid work;
- analyze government and workplace policies and programs that have sought to address equality-based issues in unpaid and paid work;
- debate whether integration into paid work in the current capitalist economic system should continue to be an avenue of feminist equality and liberation; and
- integrate your own and other people’s experiences in unpaid and paid work through interviews, reading and discussion questions, oral histories, and research papers.
Evaluation
To receive credit for WGST 345, you must complete three assignments and achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent). You must also receive a course composite grade of D (50 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignment 1: Essay or Oral History Interview | 30% |
| Assignment 2: Essay or Oral History Interview | 30% |
| Assignment 3: Research Paper | 40% |
| Total | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Wilson, S. J. (1996). Women, families and work (4th ed.) Toronto: McGraw–Hill Ryerson.
All course materials are provided on the course website.
Challenge for credit
Overview
The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.
Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.
Evaluation
To receive credit for the WGST 345 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least C− (60 percent) on the online examination.
| Activity | Weight |
| Online Examination | 100% |
| Total | 100% |
Challenge for credit course registration form