1. Q: What is Gender and Development Studies?

A: A Gender and Development Studies programme is interdisciplinary, and so it is increasingly applicable in today’s world where jobs require the use of initiative and creativity and are not always specialized.

2. Q: Is Gender and Development Studies a feminist programme of study? [i.e. women bashing men?]

A: Gender and Development Studies is a product of feminist thought and therefore uses gender as a category of analysis. It focuses on the way in which biological sex, like race and socio-economic class have been used to sort people into various groups with different levels of power. As such, feminism focuses on ways in which men and women can achieve their full human potential without being restricted by hierarchy of sex/gender.

3. Q: Of what importance is a programme in Gender & Development Studies to a prospective male/female student?

A: Gender and Development Studies is of particular importance today as it deals with the issues created in society such as, unequal relations of power between males and females as played out in practices such as marital rape, sexual harassment, and gender based violence. It is extremely relevant and useful not just as information and knowledge for work but also valuable for understanding oneself and one’s identity and rights as male or female in a society.

In addition, Gender and Development Studies has now opened up new areas of research and created many new avenues for employment, and will continue to be relevant for the problems which the present generation face, such as increasing criminality of males in society, etc.

4. Q: What kinds of jobs can I get if I do a programme in gender studies?