This course is an introduction to studying women's lives and the gender systems that shape them across cultures and countries, as it examines a variety of global processes and approaches, including patriarchy, colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. Students will consider issues of gender and sexuality by looking at the ways in which people are connected in a network of global flows of capital, ideas, and activism. Topics include: work, poverty, images of the body, violence, faith, and feminism.