Who marries whom in contemporary East Asian societies, and how have patterns of cohabitation and marriage timing changed? How do individuals make decisions about childbearing, negotiate work-family demands, and divide housework and childcare? Why are China, Japan, and South Korea experiencing extremely low fertility rates? Why is low fertility considered a "problem," and for whom? What are the consequences of various policies that seek to govern individuals' sexual and reproductive behavior?...

In this course, we explore in depth the dynamics of gender and family in contemporary East Asian societies. We ask: What do patterns and changes about what goes on in the "private sphere" tell us about a society's norms and beliefs about gender? We focus on China, Japan, and South Korea, and adopt a comparative perspective. The course is divided into four thematic sections, we examine the dynamics of gender and family in its relation to:

1) work and the labor market;

2) state and governance;

3) intimacy; and

4) globalization.