Syllabus: Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies
Roanoke College
Tuesday/Thursday 2:50-4:20
Room: West 325
Prof. Claudia Leeb
Email: leeb@roanoke.edu
Office: West 121
Office Hours: Thursday, 11am-1pm
Course Description:
What is gender? Is gender inborn or a product of society? Are women and men essentially different? Are there more than two genders? What counts as gender inequality? How might we achieve “gender justice”? Is it possible to separate a study of gender from a study of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality? These are all central questions at the heart of Gender &Women’s studies. This course aims to tackle these questions by tracing the historical development of gender theory and activism in the West from its roots in (so-called) first wave feminism (centered on women’s suffrage), through the second wave (of the 1960s and 1970s), and up to contemporary debates of today. Along the way we will see how studies from a variety of different disciplines (including sociology, psychology, philosophy, literature, history, religion, sciences etc.) have come together to offer important contributions to our developing understanding of gender. Our guest faculty speakers working on Gender & Women’s studies from across the curriculum will aid us in seeing the interdisciplinary nature of the field.
Outcomes:
The outcome of such a study is expected to be a heightened ability to (1) recognize cultural gender norms and gender inequality, (2) grasp the basic historical progression in which gender has become a subject of critical reflection and political justice in the west (3) analyze, interpret and articulate dominating theories concerning gender and gender inequality (from a number of different disciplines) in writing and class discussion, (4) critically evaluate these theories in written argument and class discussion, (5) develop our own positions within a tradition of debate surrounding gender, using reasoned argument. Students’ performance will be evaluated based on class discussion, papers, and midterm/ final essay exams.
Required Texts:
(Available at the College Book Store)
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1.Wendy K. Kolmar & Frances Bartowski, Feminist Theory: A Reader (2005, McGrawHill)
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2.Sally Scholz, Feminism: A Beginner’s Guide (2010, Oneworld Publications)
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3.all other texts will be available online or as a handout.
Preliminary Schedule:
(Because there are so many guest speakers whose schedules might inevitably conflict with ours, we may need to be flexible in making changes as they come up. Also, there might be changes to the syllabus as I adjust the syllabus to the learning level of the class.)
Week 1:
Thurs. Sept. 1: Introduction
Week 2:
Tues. Sept. 6: Introduction continued
• Film Clip: From “Not for Ourselves Alone”
Thurs. Sept. 8: What is Feminism?
•“What is Feminism?,” Sally Scholz, pp. 1-13
Week 3
Tues. Sept. 13: Schools of Feminist Thought
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•“Schools of Feminist Thought,” Sally Scholz, pp. 14-36
Thurs. Sept. 15: First Wave of Feminism
•“Social, legal and economic rights for women: the first wave,” Sally Scholz, pp. 37-64
Week 4:
Tues. Sept. 20: Beginnings: Early European Thinkers
•From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft, pp. 64-68
•From The Subjection of Women, John Stuart Mill, pp. 80-85
Thurs. Sept. 22: Early American Movement: Historical Account
•“Declaration of Sentiments,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton, pp. 71-73
•“Speech after Arrest for Illegal Voting,” Susan B. Anthony, pp. 91-95
•“Enfranchisement of Women,” Harriet Taylor, pp. 74-79
Week 5:
Tues. Sept. 27: Early American Movement: Gender and Race
•“Ain’t I a Woman” Sojourner Truth, p. 79
•“Keep the Thing Going While Things Are Stirring” Sojourner Truth, pp. 79-80
•“From The Progress of Colored Women,” Mary Church Terrell, pp. 114-117
•“Lynching and the Excuse for It,” Ida B. Wells-Barnett, pp. 117-119
Thurs. Sept. 29: Gender in Anthropology: early texts
•selected texts by guest speaker
Week 6:
Tues. Oct. 4: Early Movement: Gender and Class
•“From The Origin of the Family. Private Property and the State,” Friedrich Engels, pp. 100-102
•“Girl Slaves of the Milwaukee Breweries,” Mother (Mary) Jones, pp. 124-126
•“Working Woman and Mother,” Alexandra Kollontai, pp. 126-130
Thurs. Oct. 6: Gender and Existentialism
•From The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, Introduction and Chapter 12, pp. 175-18
Week 7:
Tues. Oct. 11: Second Wave of Feminism
•“Expanding the Sphere of Influence: the second wave,: Sally Scholz, pp. 66-106
Thurs. Oct. 13: Second Wave: Historical Account
•“The Problem That Has No Name” by Betty Freidan from The Feminine Mystique, pp. 198-203
•“Statement of Purpose” NOW, pp. 211-213
•“Redstockings Manifesto” (on blackboard), pp. 220-221
Week 8:
FALL BREAK: Oct, 14-Oct. 23
Week 9:
Tues. Oct. 25: Radical Feminism
•“The BITCH Manifesto” Joreen Jo Freeman, pp. 213-218
•“Theory of Sexual Politics” Kate Millett, pp. 218-220
•“The Dialectic of Sex” Shulamith Firestone, pp. 224-227
Thurs. Oct. 27: Third Wave of Feminism
•“Language, thought and cultural Production: the third wave,” Sally Scholz, pp. 107-132
Week 10:
Tues. Nov. 1: French Feminism and Psychoanalysis I
•“The Laugh of the Medusa,” Helene Cixous, pp. 256-262
•From This Sex Which Is Not One, Luce Irigaray, pp. 317-321
Thurs. Nov. 3: French Feminism and Psychoanalysis II
•From Powers of Horror, Julia Kristeva (online)
•“The Straight Mind,” Monique Witting, pp. 343-347
Week 11:
Tues. Nov. 8: Gender and Class revisited
•Valerie Walkerdine, “Working-Class Women: Psychological and Social aspects of Survival,” in Feminist Social Psychologies:International Perspectives, pp. 145-164 (online)
Thurs. Nov. 10: Feminism and Science
•“Conformity through Cosmetic Surgery: The Radical Erasure of Race and Disability,” in Science and Other Cultures: Issues in Philosophies of Science and Technology, Sara Goering, pp. 172-188 (online)
Week 12:
Tues. Nov. 15: Feminism and Post-Structuralism I
•“Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power,” Sandra Lee Bartky, pp. 129-154 (online)
Thurs. Nov. 17: Feminism and Post-Structuralism II
•Judith Butler, “Gender Regulations,” in her Undoing Gender, 40-56 (online)
Week 13:
Tues. Nov. 22: Feminist Political Theory
•Iris Marion Young, “Five Faces of Oppression,” in her Justice and the Politics of Difference, pp. 39-65 (online)
Thurs. Nov. 24
Thanksgiving Break
Week 14:
Tues. Nov. 29: Black Feminist Thought
•From Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins, pp. 504-509
•Selections from Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell hooks (online)
Thurs. Dec. 1: Chicana Feminism
•“Chicana Feminism”, Anna Nieto Gomez, pp. 302-305
•“La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards an New Consciousness,” Gloria Anzaldua, pp. 420-426
Week 15:
Tues. Dec. 6: Postcolonial Feminist Theory
•“Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse,” from Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, pp. 372-379
•“ContestingCultures: ‘Westernization,’ Respect for Cultures, and Third World Feminisms, Uma Narayan, pp. 542-549
Thurs. Dec. 8: Queer Feminist Theory
•Tova, “mir sayen do! We are here! Some notes on being a working-class Jewish lesbian,” in Queerly Classed: Gay Men and Lesbian Write about Class, pp. 151-161 (online)
Fri. Dec. 16
FINAL EXAM: 2:00-5:00pm