Course Syllabus

Readings

• Unless hyperlinked, all readings available in course reader at Target Copy, 1412 University Avenue. 
• If you do not wish to purchase the course reader, a copy is available for study purposes at the Women’s Studies Department, 200 Ustler Hall, from 8:30 am- 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Leave your i.d. card with the office manager while using the copy.
• Whether you purchase the reader or not, you are required to bring PAPER copies of each week's readings to class with you.

Week 1                       Introductions

T         25 August       Introduction to the Class  

• Our First Assignment

TH      27 August       Introductions to Each Other    

• "It's Not Man's Food: Thinking in WST3015"
• Weiss, "'I'm Not a Feminist But'...: Popular Myths about Feminism" [1998; 14pp]

Unit One: Liberal Feminism (and some of its Discontents)

Week 2                     

T         1 Sept              Lecture: Liberal Feminism

• Due: Paper #1
• Writing Workshop: Eliminating Forms of "To Be"

TH      3 Sept              Discussion: What do Women Want from Liberalism?

• Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence” (1776; 2pp)
• Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments” (1848; 3pp)
• Using the Pyramid
• The Declaration Collection

Week 3                      

T         8 Sept              Set-Up: 19^th-Century Women’s Power

• Beecher, from “Treatise on Domestic Economy” (1842; 3pp)
• Taylor, “The Enfranchisement of Women” (1851; 6pp)
• Due: Extra Credit Eliminating "To Be"
• Writing Workshop: Write Like You Talk!

TH      10 Sept            Discussion

• Grimke, from “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” (1837; 3pp)
• Homework Opportunity #1
• Writing Workshop: Subjects and Predicates

 Week 4                      

T         15 Sept            Set-Up: “Ain’t” vs. “I am”

• From Minges, Far More Terrible for Women: Accounts of Women in Slavery
  • “Jezebel and Mammy” [2006; 8 pp]
  • “Rose Williams” [1936; 5 pp]
• Truth, Two versions of speech given in Akron Ohio [1851/1863; 4pp]
• To Be Extra Credit with Answers
• Kerry Washington reads "Ain't I a Woman?"

TH      17 Sept            Discussion

• Davis, “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role” [1971; 18pp]
• Perrin, “Resisting Reproduction” [2001; 10pp]
• Homework Opportunity #2
• Exemplary Answers, Homework #1

 Week 5                      

T         22 Sept            Set-up: Female Desire in the 19^th Century

• Grimke, “Marriage” [ca. 1855; 8 pp]
• Woodhull, “The Elixir of Life or, Why do we Die?” [1873; 3pp]
• "Modern" (19th-Century) Sexuality
• "Suffragette" trailer

TH      24 Sept            Discussion

• Taylor, “Sex on Campus: She Can Play that Game Too” [2013; 8pp]
• Wade, “The Hookup Elites” [2013; 2pp]
• Homework Opportunity #3

 Week 6                      

T      29 Sept            Set-up: Whose Womb is it Anyway?

• Chart of the US Birthrate, 19^th Century
• Bradwell v. Illinois [1873, 2 pp]
• Clarke, from Sex and Education or, a Fair Case for Girls [1875; 11pp]
• Documents from Black Unity Party & “Poor Black Women” [ca. 1975; 4pp]

TH     1 Oct               Discussion:

• Sanger, “Birth Control: Parents’ Problem, or Woman’s?” [1920; 2pp]
• Homework Opportunity #4

Week 7          

T         6 Oct      Set-Up: Family Planning and Family Values [all readings online!]

• The Margaret Sanger Papers Project, "Birth Control or Race Control? Sanger and 'The Negro Project'"
• Begos, "Lifting the Curtain on a Shameful Era" 
• Race Suicide and Eugenics as "Public Health"

TH      8 Oct         Discussion    

• Chicago Women's LIberation, "35% of Puerto Rican Women Sterilized"
• "The Boston Pill Trials" and "The Puerto Rican Pill Trials"
• Our Bodies, Ourselves, "History of Forced Sterilization"
• HuffPo, "Sterilization Abuse in California"
• Margaret Sanger interview, 1957Homework Opportunity #5
• Due via Canvas, noon Friday, 9 Oct: Extra Credit Mid-term Study

Week 8

T         13 Oct    Set-up: “Reproductive Rights” vs. “Reproductive Justice”

• The Comstock Law [1873; 1pp]
• Supreme Court Cases [1965-1992; 8pp]
• Reproductive Rights

 TH      15 Oct     Discussion

• Kelly, “Sterilization: Rights and Abuse of Rights” [1977; 4pp]
• Ross, “Understanding Reproductive Justice” [2011, 2pp]
• Homework Opportunity #6
• Extra Credit Opportunity: Vices of Power

Unit Two: Retrospect and Prospects

Week 9

T       20 Oct     Take-Home Mid-term Exam

• NOW Statement of Purpose [1966, 3pp]
• How does the NOW Statement of Purpose reflect the ideals (and the shortcomings) of Liberal Feminism?

TH     23 Oct    Talk through Final Paper Options

Week 10

T     27 Oct    Set-up: What Happened in the 1950s?

• McGuire, “Walking in Pride and Dignity” from At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance [2010, 50pp]
• Chart of the US Birthrate
• Friedan, “The Problem that Has No Name” from The Feminine Mystique [1963, 6pp]
• Willis, “Up From Radicalism” [1969, ##pp]
• Writing Workshop-- The Tiny Marks
• "Rosie the Riveters of WW2"

TH     29 Oct             Discussion and planning

• Brainstorm where we’ve been and what we want to learn more about in the rest of the semester.
• Due: Final Paper Proposals on Books or Magazines
  
• Due: Extra Credit: The Tiny Marks
  
• Correct Tiny Marks Exercise

Week 11

T     3 Nov       Discussion and planning, cont'd

• Jessica Abel, "The Feminist Core Sample"
• Read for final papers
• Exemplary Mid-term #1: "Liberal Feminism: the Good, the Bad, & the Future"
• Exemplary Mid-term #2: "NOW is the Time to Redefine Equality"

TH   5 Nov      Unit 3 (and 4?) Syllabus "Reveal"

• Thinking About Waves
• Baumgardner, "Is There a Fourth Wave? Does it Matter?"

Unit Three: Radical Feminism and Everything After

Week 12

T         10 Nov    Set-up: What Happened in "the '60s"

Screening: Feminist: Stories from Women's Liberation (Jennifer Lee, 2013)

• Mary King and Casey Hayden, "Sex and Caste: A Kind of Memo...to Women in the Peace and Freedom Movements" (1965)
• Redstockings, "Manifesto"  (1969)
• Frances Beal, "Double Jeopardy: to Be Black and Female" (1969)
• Radicalesbians, "The Woman-Identified Woman" (1970)

TH      12 Nov     Discussion

• hooks, Feminism is for Everybody
• Intro, Chpts 1-4 (24 pages: the background for rest of the book!)
• Radical Feminism and C-R
• Homework Opportunity #7

Week 13

T         17 Nov   Set-up: Feminism, Beauty, Sex, and Heterosexual Pleasure

• hooks, Feminism is for Everybody
• Chpts 6,14,15,17 (19 pages: the chapters most relevant for the majority of the magazine papers!)
• Writing Workshop: Democracy and Paragraphs
• Walk Through Curation Assignment
• Due: Final Paper Rough Drafts

TH      19 Nov  Discussion: A Little More on "Pleasure and Danger"

• Vance, "Pleasure and Danger: Towards a Politics of Sexuality" (1984; 5 pp)
• Hooks and Vance
  

Week 14    

T         24 Nov  Set-up: Feminists Working Across Structural Barriers

Screening, Maquilapolis: City of Factories (Serge de la Torre/Vicky Funari, 2006)

• hooks, Feminism is for Everybody, Chpts 7,8,9,10 (23 pages: the chapters on intersectionality!)
• Due: Extra Credit: Democratic Paragraphs

TH      26 Nov   No class-- Thanksgiving

Week 15

T         1 Dec    Set-up: Now What?

• Writing Workshop: "Flow and How to Get It"
• Due: Extra Credit: The Gender of Thanksgiving

TH      3 Dec     Catch Up and Curation

• hooks, Feminism is for Everybody, Chpts 12,16,18,19 (25 pages: the chapters on tolerance and coalition building!)
• Sundar and Caygill, "Empathy and Antiracist Feminist Coalitional Politics"
• Action Planning

Week 16

T         8 Dec     Conclusions and Future Plans (Ask-it Basket)

• Evaluations
• Yellowdig Survey
• Take-home exam Question Distributed in Class; Overview of In-Class exam
• Curation: Yellowdig evaluations
• Due: Final Papers
• Final Paper Checklist

Take-home exam due at the in-class final, 5:30-7:30 pm, 16 December, this classroom