ECO 2011-L: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WOMEN - CHRISTENSEN – FALL 2014 (08/26/14 version)
Lecture: Tuesday, Thursday 3:35 – 5:00 in Science 103. Group conferences: 5:15 – 6:15 in Science 201.
Office: Heimbold 304G, Email: kchristensen@slc.edu, Cell phone: (914)584-2340.
"The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." (William Faulkner)
What determines the status of women in different societies and communities? What role is played by women’s labor (inside and outside of the home)? By cultural norms regarding sexuality and reproduction? By racial/ethnic identity? By religious traditions? After some brief theoretical grounding, this course will address these questions by examining the economic, political, social, and cultural histories of women in the various racial/ethnic groups that make up the US today.
REQUIRED TEXTS All required and most recommended texts are on reserve in the library.
1. Articles posted on MySLC. (See schedule of assignments below.)
2. Amott, Teresa and Julie Mattheai, Race, Gender, and Work: A Multi-Cultural Economic History of Women in the U.S., 2nd ed., South End Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0896085374.
3. Kessler-Harris, Alice, Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the US, Oxford Univ. Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0195157093. (Required sections will be posted on MySLC.)
4. Davis, Angela, Women, Race, and Class, 1983, Vintage. ISBN 978-0394713519.
5. Evans, Sara, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left, 1980, Vintage, ISBN 978-0394742281.
6. Stansell, Christine, The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present, Modern Library, 2011. ISBN 978-0812972023.
7. Hochschild, Arlie, The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home, Penguin, 2012. ISBN 978-0143120339.
8. Cobble, Dorothy Sue, The Other Women’s Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America, Princeton Univ. Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0691123684.
9. Eisenstein, Hester, Feminism Seduced, How Global Elites Use Women’s Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World, Paradigm Press, 2009. ISBN 978-1594516603.
Recommended Texts
1. Rosen, Ruth, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America, Penguin, 2006, ISBN 978-0140097191. (If you do not have a background in the U.S. feminist movement, you may wish to buy this book to supplement Stansell.)
2. Ruiz, Vicki, Unequal Sisters: An Inclusive Reader in US Women’s History, Fourth edition, Routledge, 2007, ISBN 978-0415958417.
3. Lewis, Reina, and Sara Mills, Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, Routledge, 1999.
4. McCann, Carole, and Seung-Kyung Kim, Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives,
3rd. ed., Routledge, 2013. ISBN 978-0415521024.
5. Allen, Robert, Reluctant Reformers: Racism & Social Reform Movements in the US, Anchor Books, 1975.
6. Ehrenreich, Barbara & Arlie Hochschild, Global Women: Nannies, Maids & Sex Workers in the New Economy, Holt, 2004. ISBN 978-0805075090.
7. Karlsen, Carol, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, W.W. Norton, 1998. ISBN 978-0393317596.
EXPECTATIONS and ASSIGNMENT
1. Attendance: Consistent attendance at lectures and group conferences is important. However, if you have a respiratory illness (cough, cold, etc.), please DO NOT come to class! Email me before class begins to be excused from attendance. If there is an assignment due that day, email it to me before class.
2. Review questions: After every lecture, I will send out review questions and a list of upcoming assignments. Please review these questions carefully; you do not need to write out the answers.
3. Academic freedom: I strive to maintain a classroom atmosphere where people can voice their opinions, questions, disagreements, and concerns. I have strong opinions about many of the topics we’ll be discussing. However, you will never be penalized (in terms of grades, evaluations, etc.) for disagreeing with me.
4. Academic integrity: Be careful to avoid committing plagiarism, the intentional or unintentional use of another’s words or ideas without proper attribution (citation, footnote, etc.). If you are confused about proper citation format, please ask!
5. Disabilities: If you have a physical, learning, or other disability that requires accommodation, please register with Associate Dean of Studies and Disability Services Polly Waldman and speak to me immediately. We will work together to make necessary accommodations.
6. Assignments: The primary assignments for this course will consist of a number of “review essays.” Although these will focus on the lecture material, you should include relevant material from the readings.
--Unless you are ill, submit stapled, double-spaced hard copies of all assignments. (If you are ill, email me your paper by the due date.)
--Timing of the assignments will depend on our progress in lecture. You will be given at least one week’s notice before a paper is due. No late papers will be accepted.
--If your paper contains an unacceptable number of grammatical/style errors, it may be returned for mandatory revision. You will have one week to revise; please submit the original paper with the revision.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Readings will tend to “run ahead” of lectures. All required and many recommended articles are on MySLC.
I. Introduction; Conceptual framework for the course
What determines the status of women in a given society?
The role of: sex/gender systems, economic systems, racial/ethnic systems, religion and other variables.
READ: hooks, “Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression”
READ: Rich, “Towards a Politics of Location”
Skim: Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes, Revisited: Feminist Solidarity Through Anti-Capitalist Struggle” (Note: We will read Mohanty in more detail later.)
Rec: Hartsock, “The Feminist Standpoint”
II.A. Gender and Economics in the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederation
The relationship of Iroquois (Haudensaunee) women’s economic position to their social and political status
READ: Jensen, Joan, “Native American Women and Agriculture: A Seneca Case Study” from D/R, 1st ed.
READ: A/M Ch.3: “I Am the Fire of Time: American Indian Women”
READ: Brown, Judith, “Economic Organization and the Position of Women Among the Iroquois”
Ethnohistory 17, Summer/Fall 1970.
Rec: Perdue, Theda, “Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears” from D/R
Further references on this topic are posted on MySLC.
The impact of Iroquois political/social structures on American colonial women
READ: Gunn Allen, Paula, “Who is Your Mother? The Red Roots of White Feminism” 2005
II. B. Gender and Sexuality in the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederation
“Berdache” (Two-Spirit People)
READ: (classic): Whitehead, Harriet, “The Bow and the Burden Strap: A New Look at Institutionalized Homosexuality in Native North America,” 1981.
READ: (classic): Blackwood, Evelyn, “Sexuality and Gender in Certain Native American Tribes: The Case of Cross-Gender Females,” 1984.
Highly Rec: Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, Two Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Univ. of Illinois, 1997. (Anthology by Native Americans)
Rec: Callender, Charles and Lee Kochems, The North American Berdache,” Current Anthropology, 24(2), Aug-Oct. 1983. Data-rich article with rejoinders from a number of authors.
Rec: Roscoe, Will, Living in the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology, St. Martin’s, 1988.
Rec: Williams, Walter. The Spirit & the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Beacon, 1986.
III. White women in the colonial U.S. political economy
Petty commodity production and women’s unpaid labor
Economic systems, labor demand and fertility: The case of Puritan New England
READ: Kessler-Harris, “The Limits of Independence in the Colonial Economy,” (ch. 1 of Out to Work). .
READ: A/M 5: “Whatever Your Fight, Don't Be Ladylike: European American Women”
READ: Folbre, “Patriarchy in Colonial New England”
Rec: Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of the American Myth, Knopf, 2002 and Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, Knopf, 1982.
Rec: Demos, John, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony, Oxford Univ. Press, 1970.
FIRST PAPER: Contrast the situation/status of women in the Iroquois Nations prior to the arrival of white colonists with that of Puritan women in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Explain, in detail, the factors/ institutions that account for their disparate positions.
IV. African American women under slavery in the U.S. South
Ascendant industrial capitalism and US slavery; The triangular trade
Economic systems, labor demand, sexual violence and fertility: The case of the antebellum US South
The gendered division of labor under US slavery
READ: A/M 6: “We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible: African American Women”
READ: Davis, ch. 1, 2, 3.
READ: Grey-White, Deborah, “Female Slaves: Sex Roles & Status in the Plantation South,” D/R.
Rec: Jones, Jacqueline, A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama’s America, Basic Books, 2013 and Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, Basic Books, 1985.
Rec: Fredrickson, George, White Supremacy: A Comparative Study of American and South African History, Oxford Univ. Press, 1981 and Racism: A Short History, Princeton Univ. Press, 2002.
Rec: Rodney, Walter, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Howard Univ. Press, 1974.
Rec: Lincoln & Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience, Duke Univ.Press, 1980.
Rec: Gutman, Herbert, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1750-1925, Vintage Books, 1977.
Rec: Allen, Theodore, The Invention of the White Race, Verso Books, 1997.
V. White women in the transition to capitalism in New England: Salem witchcraft trials
De facto theocracy, gender roles, and economic change: The case of Salem
READ: Kessler-Harris, ch. 2 of Out to Work, “From Household Manufactures to Wage Work”
READ: Christensen, “’Double, Double, Toil and Trouble’: Women, Economic Development, and the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692,” Ch. 1 & 2, manuscript in progress.
Rec: Karlsen, Carol, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, Norton.
Rec: Boyer, Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social & Economic Origins of Witchcraft, Harvard 1974.
Rec: Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Knopf, 2002.
SECOND PAPER: Using lecture material and recommended readings, describe the context of, and the reasons for, the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692.
VI. White middle-class women and the cult of true womanhood
Industrialization and the creation of the “public/private split”
Commodification, superfluous labor and infantalization
READ: Lerner, Gerda, “The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson 1800-1840” from Cott & Pleck (eds.), A Heritage of Her Own.
READ: Welter, Barbara, “The Cult of True Womanhood 1820-1860” (classic article) and critiques by Rupp, Roberts, Hewitt, and Guy in Journal of Women’s History, Spring 2002.
Rec: Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, The Yellow Wallpaper, (any edition)
Rec: Parker, Gail, The Oven Birds: American Women on Womanhood 1820-1920, Anchor, 1972.
Rec: Gordon, Linda, Heroes of Their Own Lives: Politics & History of Family Violence, Univ.Ill, 2002.
THIRD PAPER: Describe the relationship between the changes in white women’s economic position and their changing social roles in the early to mid-1800s.
VII. Black and white women in the abolitionist movement; The birth of the US women's movement
The promise and betrayal of Reconstruction; The Equal Rights Association and its demise
READ: Davis, Ch. 4,7.
Rec: Aptheker, Bettina, Woman’s Legacy, Univ. of Mass./Amherst, 1981.
Rec: DuBois, W.E.B., Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880, Atheneum, 1935.
Rec: Foner, Eric, Reconstruction 1863-1877, Harper & Row, original edition 1988.
Rec: Flexnor, Eleanor, Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S., Cambridge, 1959.
Rec: Wells-Barnett, Ida. B., The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics & Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, originally published 1895, republished 1969, 2005.
FOURTH PAPER: Two parts:
1. Recount the purpose of, plans for, and reasons for the failure of Reconstruction. AND
2. Describe the Kraditor/DuBois vs. the Aptheker/Lerner/Davis positions on the advisability of the split of the ERA. With whom do you agree and why?
VIII. Mexican American/Chicana women in the Southwest
The relationship between US labor demand and US immigration policy
Immigration and gender: The “Americanization” campaigns
READ: A/M 4: “The Soul of Tierra Madre: Chicana Women”
READ: Sanchez, George, “Go After the Women: Americanization & Mexican Immigrants” (from D/R)
READ: Garcia, “The Growth of Chicana Feminist Discourse” in D/R.
Rec: Acuna, Rodolfo, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, HarperCollins, 1988.
Rec: Barrera, Mario, Race and Class in the Southwest,Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1980, 2005.
Immigration reform and “Dreamers”
READ: Giovagnoli, “Overhauling Immigration Law: A Brief History and Basic Principles of Reform.”
SKIM: re: the Dream Act: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/dream-act-resource-page
Good source for current info on immigration reform: Immigration Policy Center:
http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/comprehensive-immigration-reform-2014
FIFTH PAPER: Describe, in some detail, the fluctuations in US government’s treatment of Mexican immigrants from the 1910s through the present day. Discuss the reasons for these fluctuations. OR
Describe the reasons for, and legalities of, comprehensive immigration reform.
IX. Women’s labor and anti-poverty activists
A short history of women in the early US labor movement: The AFL, the Knights, and the Wobblies
Rec: Le Blanc, Paul, A Short History of the U.S. Working Class, Humanity Books (Prometheus), 1999.
IX.A. Triangle and its aftermath
READ: “Triangle: The Fire That Changed Everything,” NY Times, Feb. 22, 2011.
READ: Tax, Meredith, “The Uprising of the 30,000” from D/R.
Highly Rec: Tax, Meredith, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict 1880-1917,
Univ. of Illinois Press, 2001.
Rec: Von Drehle, Davis, Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, Grove Press, 2003.
IX.B. The Strengths and Contradictions of Cross-Class Gender Solidarity: The WTUL
READ: Dye, “Feminism or Unionism? The New York WTUL & the Labor Movement” 1980.
READ: Dye, “Creating a Feminist Alliance: Sisterhood and Class Conflict in the NY WTUL 1903-1914”
Rec: Dye, Nancy Schrom, As Equals and as Sisters: Feminism, the Labor Movement, and the WTUL of New York, Univ. of Missouri, 1980.
IX.C.1. The current state of the US labor movement
SKIM: Milkman & Luce (Murphy Center), The State of the Unions 2013: A Profile of Organized Labor in NYC, NY State, and the US.
READ: Warner (CEPR), “The Real Reason for the Decline of American Unions” 2013
READ: Macaray (Counterpunch), “Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions, 2008.
Highly rec: Goldfield, Michael, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States, Univ. Chicago, 1987.
IX.C.2. US Labor Law
READ: Brody, David, “How the Wagner Act Became a Management Tool,” New Labor Forum, Spr. 2004
READ: Becker, Craig, “Reconstructing the Right to Organize,” Fall/Winter 1998 and Benz, Dorothy, “The Case for Card Check Campaigns,” Fall/Winter 1998.
READ: Executive Summary and skim rest: Bronfenbrenner, Kate & Economic Policy Institute, No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing.
Highly Rec: Lynd. Staughton, and Dan Gross, Labor Law for the Rank & File, 2nd ed., PM Press, 2011.
IX.D. Women in the current US labor movement
READ: Milkman, “Two Worlds of Unionism: Women in the New Labor Movement”
READ: Covert, ‘How the Rise of Women in Labor Could Save the Movement"
Rec: Milkman, Women, Work & Protest: A Century of US Women’s Labor History, Routledge, 1985
Rec: Cobble, The Other Women’s Movement, ch. 1 – 5. (We’ll read the rest of Cobble later.)
IX.E. Triangle Revisited: Rana Plaza and the contradictions of monitoring globalized corporations
READ/VIEW: Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights website. See especially the video, “Triangle Returns” on the right side of the site. http://www.globallabourrights.org/campaigns?id=0049.
READ/VIEW: Huffington Post updates on Bangladesh labor accords: www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/bangladesh-factory-collapse
READ: New York Times articles on Bangladesh tragedy (Greenhouse and others).
READ: Suroweicki, James, “After Rana Plaza,” New Yorker, May 20, 2013.
READ: Dudley, et al., “The Hidden Cost of Fast Fashion,” Business Week, 02/11-17/13.
READ: “ILO Statement on the Reform of Bangladesh Labor Law”
Rec: AFL-CIO, “Responsibility Outsourced: Social Audits, Workplace Certification and 20 Years of Failure to Protect Workers’ Rights”
X. The U.S. economy in the late 1800s/early 1900s: The impact on women's economic roles
Monopolization and internationalization
Changes in the labor process and labor control strategies; The impact on the demand for women’s labor
Changes in class structures: The rise of the professional-managerial class
READ: Edwards, selections from Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the 20th Century, Basic Books, 1979 (rest of book recommended.)
READ: Bowles, Edwards, Roosevelt, “American Capitalism: Accumulation and Change” (ch. 7 of Understanding Capitalism).
READ: Ehrenreich, John and Barbara, “The Professional Managerial Class,” Radical America, 1977.
SIXTH PAPER: Either:
Describe the changes in the US economy (both domestically and internationally) in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Explain, in some detail, the impact of these changes on the demand for women’s paid labor and on women’s occupational position. OR
Briefly identify/describe the following: Wagner Act, Jones v. Laughlin Steel, Taft-Hartley, non-Board recognition strategies, EFCA, social unionism. Discuss the possible reasons for and impact of the dramatic decline in unionization rates in the US since WWII. OR
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of global monitoring efforts of labor conditions.
XI. World War II: Impact on women's economic and social roles
XI.A.. “Rosie the Riveter” and the changes in women’s economic roles
READ: Milkman, “Redefining ‘Women’s Work’: Sexual Division of Labor in the Auto Industry in WWII”
Film: “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”
XI.B. Jewish labor and the economics of the Holocaust
SKIM: “The Holocaust and Economic Exploitation” http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/economics/
READ: Pagenstecher, “We Were Treated Like Slaves: Remembering Forced Labor for Nazi Germany”
READ: Kaplan, “Jewish Women in Nazi Germany: Daily Life, Daily Struggles” (Fem. St., 1990)
Rec: Gruner, Jewish Slave Labor Under the Nazis: Economic Needs & Racial Aims, Cambridge, 2006.
Rec: Suhl, Yuri, They Fought Back: The Story of Jewish Resistance in Nazi Europe, Shocken, 1987.
Rec: Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933-1945, Bantam, 1986.
Rec: Ofer & Weitzman (eds.), Women in the Holocaust, Yale Univ., 1998.
Rec: Kaplan, Between Dignity & Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, Oxford, 1998.
Rec: Poulantzas, Fascism &Dictatorship: The 3rd Internationale & the Problem of Fascism, Verso, 1974.
Rec: Mason & Caplan (eds.), Nazism, Fascism & the Working Class, Cambridge, 1995.
Rec: Coontz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family, and Nazi Politics, St. Martin’s, 1987.
Rec: Bridenthal, et al., When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar & Nazi Germany, MR, 1984.
XI.C. The impact of WWII: The seeds of the women’s and LGBT liberation movements
READ: Berube, Allan, “Coming Out Under Fire”
READ: D’Emilio, John, “Capitalism & Gay Identity”
XI.D. The impact of WWII on the Japanese American community
The economics of internment; The impact on Japanese American women and families
READ: Matsumoto, Valeria, “Japanese American Women During WWII,” 1984.
Film(s): “Come See the Paradise,” “Mitsuye and Nellie” (highly recommended)
Rec: Otsuka, Julie, When the Emperor was Divine, Anchor, 2003
SEVENTH PAPER. Either:
Describe the changes in the economic position of (non-Japanese American) women in the US during WWII; describe how these changes were supported by government, media & industry. OR
Describe the economic, political, and social position of Japanese Americans on the eve of WWII. Discuss the forces favoring internment; describe the impact of internment on their economic position. OR
Describe the economic context for, and consequences of, the Holocaust. OR
Using Berube, discuss how WWII and its aftermath contributed to the founding of the modern LGBT liberation movement.
XII. Asian American Women
Immigration law; Gendered immigration and women’s status
Commonalities and diversity: Asian American Women
READ: A/M 7: “Climbing Gold Mountain: Asian American Women”
READ: Yung, Judy, “The Social Awakening of Chinese American Women” D/R, 4th ed.
READ: Kelly, Gail Paradise, “To Become an American Woman: Education and Sex Role Socialization of Vietnamese Women” in D/R 3rd ed.
READ: Bhalla, “Couch Potatoes and SuperWomen: Gender, Migration and The Emerging Discourse on Housework Among Asian Indian Immigrants”
READ: Narayan, “Male Order Brides, Immigrant Women, Domestic Violence, and Immigration Law”
READ: Sinha, “Gender in the Critiques of Colonialism and Nationalism: Locating the ‘Indian Woman”
READ: Sayeed, “Chappals & Gym Shorts: An Indian Muslim Woman in the Land of Oz”
READ: Kumar, “Political Islam: A Marxist Analysis”
Film: “Mardi Gras: Made in China”
GUEST SPEAKER: Shemeem Abbas on the impact of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws on women
Rec: Interview of Leila Ahmed re: Muslim women and hijab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_CTrbVqWW0
Highly Rec: Videos of speakers from “Re-envisioning Pakistan” conference, SLC, April 2014: http://new.livestream.com/SarahLawrence/re-envisioningpakistan
Rec: Deeb. “Silencing Religiosity: Secularity and Arab American Feminisms,” D/R.
Rec: The Buddha in the Attic, Anchor, 2012.
Rec: Bao, Xiaolan, Holding Up More Than Half the Sky: Chinese Women Garment Workers in NYC, Univ. of Ill., 2001.
Rec: Yu, Renqui, To Save China, To Save Ourselves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Association of NY, Temple Univ. Press, 1992.
Rec: Louie, Miriam Ching Yoon, Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take On the Global Factory, South End Press, 2001.
EIGHTH PAPER.
Discuss the challenges faced by a particular group of Asian women immigrants. Topics may include differences in gender roles in natal vs. American culture, the interaction of gendered and nationalist imagery in anti-colonialist discourse, or struggles over religiosity and secularism.
XIII. Puerto Rican women on the island and the mainland
Spanish and American colonialism; The nationalist movement, yesterday and today
Operation Bootstrap and the transformation of the Puerto Rican economy
Immigration and the sterilization campaign
Recent changes in the Puerto Rican economy and their implications for women’s employment
READ: A/M 8: “Yo Misma Fui Mi Ruta (I Was My Own Path)”
READ: Azize-Vargas, “The Emergence of Feminism in Puerto Rico” in D/R.
READ: Lugo –Lugo, “The Madonna Experience: A US Icon Awakens a Puerto Rican Adolescent’s Feminist Consciousness”
READ: La Luz, Jose, “Class Solidarity vs. the Pursuit of the Elusive Nation,” NLF, 2004.
Rec: Ayala, Cesar, Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898, Univ. NC, 2007.
Rec: Fernandez, Ronald, The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico & the US in the 20th C., Prager, 1996.
Rec: Melendez, Edwin & Edgardo, Colonial Dilemma: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Puerto Rico, South End Press, 1993.
Rec: CARASA (Committee for Abortion Rights & Against Sterilization Abuse), Women Under Attack: Abortion, Sterilization Abuse & Reproductive Freedom, 1979.
NINTH PAPER: Summarize the reasons for, and results of, Operation Bootstrap. Discuss the relationship between Bootstrap and the US/Island government campaign to sterilize Puerto Rican women.
XIV. The Growth of the 20th c. Women's Movement(s)
Changes in women's paid and unpaid labor in the 20th century
The relationship of the women's movement to the civil rights & new left/anti-war movements of the 1960s
READ: Evans, Sara, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left, Vintage, 1980.
READ: Stansell, The Feminist Promise, ch. 7 – 10.
READ: Cobble, The Other Women’s Movement, ch. 6 – 8.
Note: If you do not have much background in the history of 20th c. US feminism, you may wish to also read Ruth Rosen’s The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America 2001.
TENTH PAPER. Two parts:
Briefly recount the reasons for the rise in women’s labor force participation rates (LFPR) in the postwar era. How did these increases in LFPR “set the stage” for the “second wave” of the women’s movement? AND Using Evans, describe the origins of the second wave of the US women’s movement in the civil rights, antiwar, and new left movements of the 1960s.
XV. Theories of Women’s Liberation to Emerge from 20th c. Feminist Movements
N.3.a. Radical and Lesbian Feminism
READ: Dworkin, “Marx and Gandhi were Liberals”
READ: Morgan, “Goodbye to All That”
Rec: “Redstockings Manifesto”
READ: MacKinnon, “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory”
READ: Brownmiller, “Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape”
READ: Firestone, “The Dialectic of Sex”
READ: Radicalesbians, “The Woman-Identified Woman”
READ: Bunch, “Lesbians in Revolt”
Rec: “Compulsory Heterosexuality & Lesbian Existence”
N.3.b. Socialist Feminism
READ: Rubin, “The Traffic in Women”
READ: Hartman, “Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex”
READ: Christensen, “’With Whom Do You Believe Your Lot is Cast?’ White Feminists and Racism”
Rec: Robotham, “A Woman’s Place is in Her Union”
N.3.c. Women of Color Feminism
READ: “Combahee River Collective”
READ: Collins, “Defining Black Feminist Thought”
READ: Jordan, “Report from the Bahamas”
READ: Moraga, “From a Long Line of Vendidas”
READ: Narayan, “Westernization, Respect for Cultures, and Third World Feminists”
READ: Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”
READ: Lorde, “The Uses of the Erotic”
N.3.d. Liberal Feminism
READ: Friedan, “The Problem That Has No Name”
READ: NOW Statement of Purpose
READ: Klein, “Is That All? The Feminine Mystique at Fifty”
Rec: Eisenstein, Zillah, The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism.
N.3. e. Postmodern Feminism
READ: Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs”
READ: Butler, “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity”
READ: Bordo, “Feminism, Postmodernism, and Gender Skepticism”
READ: Christian, “The Race for Theory” (critical)
READ: Nussbaum, “The Professor of Parody” (critical)
READ: Walters, “From Here to Queer”
ELEVENTH PAPER:
List and briefly explain the central tenets and the political implications of radical/lesbian, socialist, liberal, and postmodern feminism.
XVI. Progress and Obstacles – Feminism in the 21st c.
Note: Writing assignments for section XVI will be explained in class.
XVI.A. Continuing Economic Inequality by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
READ: Christensen, “’He-cession, She-cession’: The Gendered Impact of the Great Recession,” RRPE, forthcoming.
READ: IWPR, “The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation, and by Race and Ethnicity, 2013”
Rec: Berik, Gunseli, “Time Use by Parents in the US: What Difference Did the Great Recession Make?”
XVI.B. The persistence of the double day
READ: Hochschild, The Second Shift
Rec: Crittenden, Ann, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued, Owl Books, 2001.
XVI.C. The battle over reproductive rights
READ: “Who Decides? The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the US,” NARAL, 2014
READ: Intro & selections from Nelson, Women of Color & the Reproductive Rights Movement, 2013.
Rec: CARASA (Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse), Women Under Attack: Abortion, Sterilization Abuse, and Reproductive Freedom, 1979.
Reread/Skim: Davis, Angela, “Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights”
XVI.D.1. The LGBT Movement – Economic and historical context
READ: Matthaei, “The Sexual Division of Labor, Sexuality, and Lesbian/Gay Liberation: Towards a Marxist-Feminist Analysis of Sexuality in Capitalism,” RRPE, 1995.
READ: Christensen, LGBT Encyclopedia entry, “Economics”
Highly rec: Jacobsen, Joyce, and Adam Zeller, Queer Economics: A Reader, Routledge, 2008.
READ: Stein, “The Incredible Shrinking Lesbian World and Other Queer Conundra.” Sexualities, 2010.
READ: Cheryl Clarke, et al., “25 Years after Stonewall: Looking Backward, Moving Forward,” from Duberman/CLAGS, A Queer World, NYU, 1997.
XVI.D.2. The controversies over ENDA
READ: O’Keefe, “ENDA Explained” Washington Post, Nov. 2013.
Rec: HRC on ENDA: http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legislation/federal-legislation/employment-non-discrimination-act
XVI.D. 3. Marriage equality
Success of and controversies about the marriage equality movement
VIEW: Freedom to Marry website re: marriage equality in the states
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states/
SEE ALSO the NY Times chronology of the evolution of marriage laws:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html
SEE ALSO: Martha Hardy’s compilation of news, law, and background information on same-sex marriage:
http://crln.acrl.org/content/74/6/304.full
READ: Graff, “What’s So Radical About Same Sex Marriage?”
READ: Stein, “What’s Wrong with Newark? Race, Class, Marriage Politics, and the Limits of Queer Liberalism” from Bernstein, 2013
READ: Duggan, “Beyond Marriage”
VIEW: Nation interview with Amber Holibaugh: http://www.thenation.com/video/168582/amber-l-hollibaugh-lgbtq-movements-radical-vision#
Rec: Bernstein, Mary, The Marrying Kind? Debating Same Sex Marriage within the Lesbian and Gay Movement, Univ. of Minnesota, 2013.
XVI.D. 4. Trans and the definition of gender
Highly recommended text: Currah, Paisley, Richard Juang, and Shannon Minter (PJM), Transgender Rights, Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2006.
READ: Currah, “Gender Pluralisms Under the Transgender Umbrella” (in PJM)
READ: Greenberg, “The Road Less Traveled” (in PJM)
READ: Minter, “Do Transsexuals Dream of Gay Rights? Getting Real About Transgender Inclusion”
READ: Goldberg, “What is a Woman?” (New Yorker, 08/04/14)
Rec: Broadus, “The Evolution of Employment Discrimination Protections for Transgender People”
Possible Guest Speaker, Paisley Currah, Queens College/CUNY, Former ED of CLAGS
XVII. GLOBAL FEMINISM
READ: Bunch, “Women’s Human Rights: From Slogan to Global Agenda”
READ: “An Activist Temperament: An Interview with Charlotte Bunch”
(re)READ: Rich, “Towards a Politics of Location”
READ: Stansell, Ch. XI, “Global Feminism: The Age of Reagan & Beyond”
READ: Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes, Revisited: Feminist Solidarity Through Anti-Capitalist Struggle”
READ: Basu, “Globalization of the Local: Mapping Transnational Women’s Movements”
READ: Eisenstein, Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women’s Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World, Paradigm, 2009.
Highly Rec:Lewis, Reina and Sara Mills, Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, Routledge, 2003.
Rec: Beneria, Lourdes, et al., Intro to special issue of Feminist Economics on Globalization and Gender.
Possible final paper (depending on time) on the promise and limitations of/problems with global feminism.
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