TuTh 3:05-4:20pm
Why do most women and girls conform to prevailing expectations for gendered behavior? What happens to them when they break social norms and laws? This course examines how social institutions, like family, school, and government, use rules, regulations, and social pressure to shape girls’ and women’s beliefs and behaviors. We study how mechanisms of informal control (socialization) and formal control (laws) impact girls and women historically, medically, socially, and politically. Because the criminal justice system is one of the main institutions that regulates social order, we pay special attention to women and girls in the criminal-legal system.
