Examine the role of government and politics in women’ lives.

Explanation: Social Policies are a combination of rules, plans of action and suggestions of practices to deal with social problems such as drugs, social or racial inequality, income disparities, access to housing, and discrimination. They affect what types of services are offered to society, how access to such services will be provided, and who will receive the benefits of such policies. Social policies can come from legal mandates such as busing and integration laws, court cases such as Roe v. Wade, and laws passed by Congress such as Affirmative Action and Immigration laws. New laws are constantly being created and challenged. As the demographics of society have changed, so have the concerns of women and the policies that affect them, especially as we have seen in regards to gay rights, women’s health, welfare, working mothers and birth control. Select a topic or issue from the semester and find out about policy initiatives around this issue.

Purpose: This assignment will allow students to examine the role of government and politics in women’ lives. It is also an opportunity to examine the historical treatment of racially marginalized groups, political activism, consequences of inaction or political apathy, as well as increase students’ knowledge of government control over the development of society and culture.

Questions to keep in mind: What are the opinions of politicians around this issue? What policies are being put into place? Who is leading the policy-making on this issue? Is this issue one that will make a difference in minority groups’ lives? How? Should the policy be written from a different perspective? How would you rewrite the current policy? Do you support the policy? Use the social concepts and tools we have learned about so far, epistemologies of ignorance, intersecting axes of oppression, history, structural racism and the formation of culture.