On June 8, 2011, my INDEV 474 (Special Topics in International Development) had the privilege of having Sharada Srinivasan as a guest speaker. Sharada is the Assistant Professor of International Development Studies at York University and has a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands.
Sharada led a whirlwind discussion on gender relations, hegemonic masculinity, and male bias. I wish I could summarize it here, but I was so interested in the lecture that my notes are a mess! The class made me wish that there was a stronger gender relations component to UW’s International Development program, or at least that I had selected some Gender Studies classes as my electives.
The discussion did an excellent job highlighting how gender issues are all pervasive and must be understood no matter what field you are working in. It definitely left me with a great deal of food for thought. I look forward to exploring how gender relates to my field placement in environmental conservation and reforestation projects. In the meantime, if you ever have the opportunity to hear Sharada Srinivasan speak, do yourself a favour and attend!
I totally agree! That lecture was really interesting and opened my eyes to a whole other aspect of development that we have yet to discuss in any detail during our program. I really hope that they will incorporate gender issues into the program in the future as I think it is important and clearly we were all engaged and interested in the lecture. I was most surprised at how patriarchy is still so ingrained in aspects of our culture and how women all over the world are still facing challenges in terms of their reproductive and productive roles in society.
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