In this course, we examine how gender interacts with other axes of difference (e.g., class, age, ethnicity/race, sexuality, religion) to shape family life in Aotearoa New Zealand and other countries around the globe. This course encourages you to think intersectionally about gender and family life and also critically about the institution of family and in particular what we consider to be a ‘normal’ family life. We will examine how culture, society, and state systems—through laws, legislation, and policies—construct family, shaping our perceptions, experiences, and aspirations for family life. We will also analyse how the governance of gender and family—through legal and policy frameworks—regulates intimate life, shapes power relations, and reinforces particular family norms. Although we’re encouraged to think about ‘family’ as a fixed and stable social institution, it is actually an institution subject to change over time and across place. In this course, we will look at some of the drivers of family change, consider what this means for the composition and boundaries of who we call family, and examine the extent to which we are afforded opportunities to make new choices about our family and intimate lives. Through an examination of important moments in the life course of families, it explores changes and continuities in gendered norms, identities, practices and patterns that characterise contemporary family life.