Keiko Sato       
       
       

    FS101.  INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST STUDIES

       
      Professor Estelle Freedman 
      Autumn 1997 
      5-6 units 
      M-W 1:15-3:05, rm 200-34 
      http://www.stanford.edu/class/fs101/
        Offices: 
        History rm 7, Mon 11-12, 3-4951 Feminist Studies, Thurs by appt. 3-2412 T.A.s:  Susana Gallardo, Shawn Gerth,  Lynn Schler, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
       
      The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the inter- disciplinary field of feminist scholarship, which seeks to understand the creation and perpetuation of gender inequalities.  After tracing the historical emergence of feminist critiques, the course surveys contemporary feminist issues, particularly work and sexuality, and contemporary strategies for social change.  Each section draws on historical analysis and pays close attention to the variety of women's experiences.  Along with the focus on the United States, an effort has been made to incorporate international perspectives on women and feminism.  No prior course work is required to take FS101, but a sincere commitment to understanding feminism and a willingness to undertake a demanding course are essential.  Beyond the presumption that gender inequality is unjust, the course takes no single political perspective.  A major goal is to train students in analytical skills that will help them think critically about gender in the past, the present, and the future.  This course fulfills the requirements for Writing in the Major (Feminist Studies), writing (History), and Gender Studies (GER).   It is NOT available pass/no credit.  Additional units for public service internships are available through the Program in Feminist Studies and the Haas Center, either this quarter or winter quarter.  
       

        
      REQUIRED BOOKS (available at Stanford Bookstore and Meyer Library Reserve): 

      1. Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, & Nancy Whittier, eds. FEMINIST  FRONTIERS IV 
      2. Buchi Emecheta, THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD 
      3. Virginia Woolf, THREE GUINEAS 
      4. Marge Piercy, WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME 
      5. FS101 COURSE READER (required) sold after class 9/24 and 9/29  (Field/Copyperfect, 323-1025) 
      COURSE REQUIREMENTS (See end of syllabus for due dates and small groups) Attend all classes; complete all reading; participate in all 9 discussion sections  (section participation influences your final grade)  
      1. View each required film at Meyer A-V and submit brief journal commentaries in class the  day film is assigned 
      2. Submit two mid-term papers (c. 5-6 pp. each) integrating readings, films, and discussions (choice of questions given out a week in advance); one of these papers will be revised based on writing feedback from your section leader. 
      3. Submit one take-home final, answering from a choice of questions, c. 10 pages 
      4. Participate in all 8 small group meetings and submit one 4-5 page paper (ungraded but  required) reporting on small group learning, based in part on journal entries 
       All written work must be printed, double spaced, with adequate margins and normal size font, and must be submitted on the date due, by the time deadline.  Late papers will be downgraded a full grade per day and will not be accepted after one day.  Extensions and incompletes will not be granted except in the case of medical or family emergencies (in these cases, please contact T.A. or instructor as soon as possible). 
       

      CLASS NUMBER, DATES, TOPICS, AND READINGS  
       All assignments are required unless marked REC (recommended) 

      1. 9/24: Introduction: WHAT IS FEMINIST STUDIES?  

      • Muriel Rukeyser, "Myth," COURSE READER (hereafter RDR) 
      • Audre Lorde, "The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House,"    FEMINIST FRONTIERS IV (hereafter FFIV), p. 26 
      • Adrienne Rich, "Notes Towards a Politics of Location," RDR 
      I.   Before Feminism: Origins of Inequality  

      2. 9/29: THEORIES OF NATURE AND CULTURE  

      • Ruth Hubbard, "The Political Nature of 'Human Nature'," RDR 
      • Judith Lorber, "'Night To His Day': The Social Construction of Gender," FFIV, p.    33 
      • Nancy Chodorow, "Family Structure and Feminine Personality" FFIV, p. 145 
      • Barrie Thorne, "Girls and Boys Together . . . " FFIV, p. 176 
      • Neera Kuckreja Sohoni, "Girls in Development," RDR 
      • REC WEB PAGE:  Socialization
      • REC: Elizabeth V. Spelman, "Gender in the Context of Race and Class: Notes on Chodorow's 'Reproduction of Mothering'" FFIV, p. 158 
      3. 10/1: TRADITION AND COLONIALISM 
      •   Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood [complete for section] 
      •   "Small Happiness" required film on reserve  
      First sections meet on Oct 2 or 3; bring 1-2 page reading responses. 
      Initial small group meetings should be held by October 10 and weekly thereafter.  For the first meting, please read the section on small groups at the end of the syllabus and the following short essays: 
      • Pam Allen, "Free Space," RDR 
      • Irene Restikis, "Resistance to CR" RDR  
      • Lynet Uttal, "Nods That Silence," RDR 
      II.  The Emergence of Western Feminist Theory and Practice 

      4. 10/6: THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN AND THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN:  LIBERAL, RADICAL, AND SOCIALIST FEMINISMS  

      • Sor Juana, "If You Are Not Pleased...," RDR
      • Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," RDR
      • "Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls," RDR
      • Huda Sh'arawi, "Egyptian Women's Movement," RDR
      • Barbara Ehrenreich, "What is Socialist Feminism," RDR
      • Woolf, THREE GUINEAS, esp. pp. 3-84, 99-117, 143-44 [for section
      • REC WEB PAGE: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
      5. 10/8: GENDER AND RACE IN "FIRST AND SECOND WAVE" U.S. FEMINISMS  
      • Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I A Woman," FFIV, p. 20
      • Estelle Freedman, "Separatism as Strategy," RDR
      • Combahee River Collective Statement, RDR
      • Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, "The Development of Feminist Consciousness Among Asian American Women," RDR
      • Patricia Hill Collins, "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought," FFIV, p. 101
      • WEB PAGE:  Chicana Feminisms
      • REC: Stephanie J. Shaw, "Black Club Women and the Creation of the National  Association of Colored Women," FFIV, p. 499 
         
      6. 10/13:  GLOBAL FEMINISMS  
      • "A Veiled Revolution," required film on reserve  
      • Rich, "Notes Toward a Politics of Location," RDR (reread) 
      • Domitila Barrios de la Chungara, from "Women and Organization" RDR 
      • F. Rahman, "No Return to the Veil," RDR 
      • Chandra Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses," RDR
      • WEB PAGE:  Beijing '95,  3rd World Women; browse in Global Feminism  

        • Topics for the first paper will be distributed in class today; due in class on 10/20; rewrites are due 10/27.  
       

      7. 10/15:  RESISTANCE, ALLIANCES, AND COALITIONS 

      • Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Coalition Politics" RDR 
      • Gloria Anzaldua, "En rapport, In Opposition: Cobrando cuentas a las nuestras" FFIV, p. 139  
      • Cherrie Moraga, "From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism," RDR 
      • R. W. Connell, "Hegemonic Masculinity and Emphasized Femininity," FFIV p. 22 
      • Michael S. Kimmell, "Judaism, Masculinity, and Feminism," FFIV, p. 530 
      • Peter Blood, Alan Tuttle, and George Lakey, "Understanding and Fighting Sexism: A Call to Men," RDR 
      • REC: Gloria Yamato, "Something about the Subject Makes it Hard to Name," FFIV, 28 and Paula Gunn Allen, "Where I Come From is Like This," FFIV, p. 18 
       

      III. Contemporary Feminist Issues I: Work and Family  

      8. 10/20:  THE FAMILY ECONOMY AND TRADITIONAL WOMEN'S WORK   

      • Om Naeema, "Fisherwoman," RDR 
      • Pat Mainardi, "The Politics of Housework," RDR 
      • Bonnie Thornton Dill, "'The Means to Put My Children Through'" FFIV, p. 161  
      • Arlie Hochschild, "The Second Shift" FFIV, p. 263 
      9. 10/22:  THE TRANSITION TO WAGE LABOR  
      • Alice Kessler-Harris, "The Wage Conceived," FFIV, p. 201 
      • Barbara F. Reskin, "Bringing the Men Back In" FFIV, p. 215 
      • Denise A. Segura, "Working at Motherhood: Chicana and Mexican Immigrant  
      • Mothers and Employment," FFIV, p. 268 
      • Sonia, "I Never Have Time to Sit Down" RDR 
      • WEB PAGE: Guerrilla Girls poster on work;  Working Women Data
      • REC: Emily Honig, "Burning Incense, Pledging Sisterhood: Communities of Women Workers in the Shanghai Cotton Mills, 1919-1949," FFIV, P. 485 
      • REC: "Rosie the Riveter," Meyer AV film reserve 
        
      10. 10/27:  THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: WAGE LABOR AND SEXUAL LABOR    
      • "The Global Assembly Line" required film on reserve  
      • Amber Ault and Eve Sandberg, "When the Oppressors Are Us" RDR 
      • Ault and Sandberg, "Our Policies, Their Consequences: Zambian Women's Lives  Under 'Structural Adjustment,' FFIV, p. 493  
      • Miriam Ching Louie, "Immigrant Asian Women," RDR 
      • Cynthia Enloe, "It Takes More Than Two," RDR 
      • Jacqueline Cuevas, "Nicaraguan Prostitutes" RDR 
       
      11. 10/29:  SOCIAL POLICIES AND SOCIAL WELFARE 
      • Myra Marx Ferree, "Patriarchies and Feminisms: The Two Women's Movements of Post-Unification Germany," FFIV, p. 526 
      • Wahneema Lubiano, "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels: Ideological War by Narrative Means," RDR 
      • Kathryn Edin, "Surviving the Welfare System: How AFDC Recipients Make Ends Meet in Chicago," FFIV, p. 447 
      • WEB PAGE: Prison Data 
      *SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2, Conference:  
            "Towards a More Compassionate Society"  
       
       

      IV. Contemporary Issues II: Sexuality and Health 

      12. 11/3:  WHOSE BODY?  I:  HEALTH, FOOD, AND BEAUTY 

      • Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" RDR 
      • Nellie Wong, "When I Was Growing Up," RDR  
      • Nancy Mairs, "Body in Trouble"  
      • Roberta Galler, "The Myth of the Perfect Body," FFIV, p. 342 
      • Carol Munter, "Fat and the Fantasy of Perfection" RDR 
      • Becky Wangsgaard Thompson, "'A Way Outa No Way': Eating Problems Among African-American, Latina, and White Women," FFIV, p. 366 
      • WEB PAGE:  Fat Girls 
      • REC WEB PAGE: The Yellow Wallpaper Site 
      13. 11/5:  WHOSE BODY? II: MEDIA AND MEDICINE 
      • "Mirror Mirror," and "Still Killing Us Softly," films in class (responses due in section) 
      • Susan M. Love, MD with Karen Lindsey, "The Politics of Breast Cancer," FFIV, p. 384 
      • Adi Gevins, "Tackling Tradition," RDR 
      • AAWORD, "A Statement on Genital Mutilation" RDR 
      • REC: Ann Fausto-Sterling, "Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior," FFIV, p. 343  and Gloria Steinem, "If Men Could Menstruate," FFIV, p. 358 
      14. 11/10: REPRODUCTION 
      • Angela Y. Davis, "Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights," RDR 
      • Davis, "Outcast Mothers and Surrogates: Racism and Reproductive Politics in the Nineties," FFIV, p. 375 
      • Eleanor Miller, "When the Political Becomes the Personal" FFIV, p. 378 
      • "A Personal Account," RDR 
      • Karen Schneiderman, "Disabled Women Need Choice, Too," RDR 
      • Mercedes Sayaguez, "What the State Neglects," RDR   
      • REC: Ricki Solinger, "Race and 'Value': Black and White Illegitimate Babies, 1945-1965," FFIV, p. 282 
      • REC WEB PAGE: Reproductive Choices, Sterilization Abuse
         
      15. 11/12:  SEXUALITIES 
      • Deborah L. Tolman, "Doing Desire: Adolescent Girls' Struggles for/with Sexuality," FFIV, p. 337 
      • Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," FFIV, p. 81 
      • Ellen Lewin, "Negotiating Lesbian Motherhood: The Dialectics of Resistance and Accommodation," FFIV, p. 295 
      • Catharine MacKinnon, "Francis Biddle's Sister: Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech," RDR  
      • "Against the Ordinance," RDR 
      • "Choosing Children," required film on reserve 
      • REC: Judith Shapiro, "Transsexualism: Reflections on the Persistence of Gender and the Mutability of Sex," FFIV, p. 48 
       
      16. 11/17:  SEX AND VIOLENCE I: RAPE AND HARASSMENT 
      • Mary Ann Tetreault, "Accountability or Justice? Rape as a War Crime," FFIV, p. 427 
      • Alexandra Stiglmayer, Mass Rape, RDR 
      • Cheryl Benard and Edit Schlaffer, "The Man in the Street: Why He Harasses," FFIV, p. 395 
      • Patricia Yancey Martin and Robert A. Hummer, "Fraternities and Rape on Campus" FFIV, p. 398 
      • Robert L. Allen and Paul Kivel, "Men Changing Men," FFIV, p. 400 
      • Pauline Bart and Patricia H. O'Brien, "Stopping Rape: Effective Avoidance Strategies" FFIV, p. 410 
      Topics for the second paper will be distributed in class; due by class on 11/24; rewrites are due Dec. 1. 
       
       
      17. 11/19:  SEX AND VIOLENCE II: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND CHILD ABUSE 
      • Govind Kelkar, "Violence Against Women" RDR 
      • Simin Ahmady, "Crimes Against Women in Iran" RDR 
      • WIC, "Shelter for Battered Women in Thailand," RDR 
      • bell hooks, "Violence in Intimate Relationships: A Feminist Perspective" 
      • Joy Harjo, "I Give You Back," RDR 
      • WEB PAGE: Facts on Domestic Violence; Domestic Violence Data
      • REC WEB  PAGE: Violence against Women
      V. Feminist Strategies and Utopian Visions 

      18. 11/24:  MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: WAR, PEACE, SPIRITUALITY 

      • Carol J. Adams, "Ecofeminism" FFIV, p. 512 
      • Helen Caldicott, "Eradicate Nuclear Weapons from the Face of the Earth," RDR 
      • Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Bread Not Stone, intro, RDR 
      • Aviva Cantor, "Jewish Women's Haggadah," RDR  
      • Audre Lorde, "An Open Letter to Mary Daly" RDR 
      • Laura M. Markowitz, "Buddhist Nuns Buck the System," MS. July-August,  1995 
      • WEB PAGE: Sylvia 

        •  
        Reproduced by permission, 9/17/97.  Copyright 1997.  All rights reserved. 

      19. 11/26:  LANGUAGE AND CREATIVITY I -- Speech, Sound, and Imagination 
      • "Voices from Inside," Required film on reserve (response due next Monday) 
      • Laurel Richardson, "Gender Stereotyping in the English Language" FFIV, p. 115  
      • Gloria Anzaldua, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," RDR 
      • Ursula LeGuin, "On the Mothertongue," RDR  
      • Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers Gardens," RDR   
      • Michele Wallace, "Women Rap Back," FFIV, p. 130 
      • Catalina Rios, "Three Tongues," RDR 
      • Joy Harjo, "For Alva Benson, and for Those Who Have Learned to Speak," RDR 
      • REC: Cynthia M. Lont, "Women's Music: No Longer a Small Private Party," FFIV,  p. 126 
      No sections this week (Thanksgiving break), but be sure to begin reading Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, for discussion in class and in section next week 
       

      20. 12/1:  LANGUAGE AND CREATIVITY II: Utopian and Dystopian Visions 

      • Christa Wolf, "Self Experiment," RDR 
      • Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, "Sultana's Dream," RDR 
      • Li Ju-Chen, Flowers in the Mirror, ch. 13, RDR 
      • Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (complete for section)   
      • WEB PAGE:  Art Data, Feminist Bookstores, Guerrilla Girls 
      • REC WEB PAGE:  Feminist Science Fiction 
       
      21. 12/3:  POLITICS AND EDUCATION 
      • Verta Taylor and Nancy Whittier, "The New Feminist Movement," FFIV, p. 544 
      • Lilia Quindoza Santiago, "Rebirthing Babaye: The Women's Movement in the Phillipines," RDR 
      • Adrienne Rich, "Towards a Woman-Centered University" RDR 
      • bell hooks, "Black Students Who Reject Feminism," FFIV, p. 546 
      • REC: Abigail Halcli and Jo Reger, "Strangers in a Strange Land: The Gendered Experiences of Women Politicians in Britain and the United States," FFIV, p. 457; Gloria Steinem, "Helping Ourselves to Revolution," FFIV, p. 554 
      • REC. WEB:  South Asian Women's Organizations 
      Small group learning papers due in class today; last sections this week.  Take home final exam questions distributed in class today; due in History Department Office by 3 p.m on Wed., 12/10. 
       
       
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