Feminist Studies 101/History 173C
Winter 2000   5-6 units
M-T-W 1:15-3:05, rm 200-02
http://www.stanford.edu/class/fs101

Professor Estelle Freedman
Office: History 200-07, 3-4951 (Mon. 3:15-4:30)
          Feminist Studies, 3-2412 (Thur. by appt)
TA Office Hours

INTRODUCTION TO FEMINIST STUDIES

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to interdisciplinary 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 family, health and sexuality, creativity and politics. Each section draws on historical analysis and pays close attention to the variety of women's experiences. Along with the focus on the U. S., the course incorporates 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 requirement for the Gender Studies GER. It is NOT available pass/no credit. Additional units for public service internships are available through the Program in Feminist Studies during Winter or Spring quarters.

After the first meeting, lectures are on Mondays and Wednesdays except for Tuesday lectures on 1/16 and 2/20. Films are usually shown on Tuesdays, but they can also be viewed individually at the library. Sections meet for one hour (Wednesday evenings, Thursdays, or Fridays). Small groups meet at any time that all members can attend regularly. If the group cannot find any other time, Tuesday 1:15-3:00 is a default time and members can view the films individually.

REQUIRED BOOKS available at the Stanford Bookstore and Meyer Reserve (under HISTORY 173C)
Eugenia Delamotte et al., eds., Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance from 600B.C. to Present (1997) (WIC)
Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood (1979)
Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas (1938)
Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (1976)
Course Reader, History 173C/FS101 (RDR)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Attend all lectures; complete all required readings (including Web-linked texts) and films.
2. Participate in all meetings of your discussion section; submit required reading responses ON TIME.
3. Submit three graded essays (from a choice of questions given out a week in advance) that integrate readings, films, and discussions: two mid-term papers (6-8 pp., c. 2000 words each) due 2/5 and 3/5; one final exam (identifications plus essay of 10-12 pp., c. 3000 words), due 3/22.
4. Participate in 8 small group meetings; submit a 5-page paper evaluating small group sessions (due 3/14). Journal keeping is not required but greatly helps you produce this paper. Students must participate in all small group meetings to receive credit for the course.

All written work must be printed, double spaced, 12 point font, with one inch margins; all written work must be submitted on the due date, 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). Section and small group (participation and papers) account for approximately 20-25 % of your final grade.

The course Web Page includes a syllabus with the required and recommended Web links. Since it will be updated periodically, please let the instructors know of any other Web links that might be recommended during the quarter or in the future.

DATES, TOPICS, ASSIGNMENTS

All assignments, including films and WEB links, are required unless marked REC.

1/9: INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS FEMINIST STUDIES?

• Muriel Rukeyser, "Myth," COURSE READER (hereafter RDR)
• Audre Lorde, "The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," 110-113, RDR
• Adrienne Rich, "Notes Towards a Politics of Location," 210-231, RDR
• (We will discuss each of these readings in a section later in the quarter)

PART I. BEFORE FEMINISM (begin reading Emecheta, JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD)

1/10:  ORIGIN STORIES: NATURE AND CULTURE

• Ruth Hubbard, "The Political Nature of 'Human Nature'," 63-73, RDR
• Evelyn Nakano Glenn, "The Social Construction and Institutionalization of Gender and Race," 3-13, RDR
• REC WEB: 1997 U.N. Report on Adolescent Girls and Their Rights; Girls Plan of Action; Girls Inc.

  Section lists will circulate in class; changes must be made by 1/17; first meetings next week.

1/15 HOLIDAY - NO CLASS

1/16 & 1/17 GENDER AND POWER CROSS-CULTURALLY

• WIC: Sei Shonagon, 131-133; Baba of Karo, 319-321; Canton resistance, 325-29
• Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood (complete for section)
• REQUIRED FILM: "Nu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China" (view in library)
• REC WEB: Nu Shu

  First sections meet on 1/17, 1/18, or 1/19; bring reading/film responses. Small group lists will circulate in class today and groups will have initial meetings on 1/23. For the first meeting, please read the Directions for Small Groups on the Web Page and the following short documents, all in RDR:

• Pam Allen, "Free Space"
• Irene Peslikis, "Resistance to CR"
• Lynet Uttal, "Nods That Silence"

Part II. THE EMERGENCE OF FEMINIST THEORY AND PRACTICE
(begin reading Woolf, THREE GUINEAS)

1/22: ORIGINS OF EUROPEAN FEMINISMS: LIBERAL, SOCIALIST, MATERNALIST/RADICAL

• WIC: Louise Labé, 226-227; Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 251-255; Olympe de Gouge, 265-67;
• Voltairine de Cleyre, 88-93; Huda Sh'arawi, 302-303; Alexandra Kollontai, 258-259
• Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," selections, RDR
• "Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls ," WEB
• Woolf, Three Guineas, esp. 3-84, 99-117, 143-44 (for section)
• REC WEB: Wollstonecraft; NOW; Socialist Feminism

1/23: FIRST SMALL GROUP MEETINGS

1/24: RACE, GENDER, AND IDENTITY IN "FIRST AND SECOND WAVE" U.S. FEMINISMS

• Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I A Woman," WEB
• WIC: Ida B. Wells, 380-83; Anna Julia Cooper, 429-31; Jo Carrillo, 281-83; Cherríe Moraga, 449-52
• Estelle Freedman, "Separatism as Strategy," 512-29, RDR
• Combahee River Collective Statement, 362-72, RDR
• Chicana Feminism: "The Basics," WEB (and browse site)
• REC WEB: Asian American Feminisms, Women of Color

1/29: THE POLITICS OF LOCATION AND TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISMS

• Rich, "Notes Toward a Politics of Location," 210-31, RDR
• WIC: Taj Al-Saltana, 277-280; Kusunose Kita, 367-370; Qui Jin, 493-495;
• Domitila Barrios de la Chungara, 117-120, 420-423
• Chandra Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses," 61-85, RDR
• REQUIRED FILM: "Beyond Beijing;"
• REC FILM: "Covered"
• REC WEB: Beijing 1995; Afghan Women; Global Feminism (IGC or GFW (browse)

  Topics for the first paper distributed in class today; papers due before class on 2/5.

1/30: FILMS OR SMALL GROUPS

1/31: RESISTANCE, ALLIANCES, AND COALITIONS

• Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege, Male Privilege," RDR
• Peter Blood, Alan Tuttle, and George Lakey, "Understanding and Fighting Sexism:
• A Call to Men," 1-8, RDR
• Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Coalition Politics," 356-68, RDR
• Cherríe Moraga, "From a Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism," RDR
• Audre Lorde, "The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," pp. 110-13, RDR
• REC WEB: "How Men Fit In," Third Wave

Part III. CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST ISSUES I: WORK AND FAMILY

2/5: THE FAMILY ECONOMY AND TRADITIONAL WOMEN'S WORK

• WIC: Mary Collier, 134-138; Nannie Stillwell Jackson diary, 323
• Om Naeema, "Fisherwoman," 136-7, 140-43, RDR
• Pat Mainardi, "The Politics of Housework," 501-510, RDR
• Valuing Women's Work, WEB
• REC WEB: Homemakers Bill of Rights

2/6: FILMS OR SMALL GROUPS

2/7: INDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE TRANSITION TO WAGE LABOR

• Sonia, "I Never Have Time to Sit Down," 213-19, RDR
• Miriam Ching Louie, "Immigrant Asian Women," 1-26, RDR
• Cynthia Enloe, "It Takes More Than Two," 142-60, RDR
• Women and Work Data, WEB
• REQUIRED FILMS: "The Global Assembly Line," "Sin City"
• REC WEB: Equal Pay

Small group and section mid-term assessments are due this week (in section).

2/12: SOCIAL WELFARE POLICIES

• Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, "Stories of Structural Adjustment," 189-200, RDR
• Eva Feder Kittay, "Welfare, Dependency, and a Public Ethic of Care," 189-213, RDR
• Grameen Bank, WEB
• REQUIRED FILM: "Through Chinese Women's Eyes"
• REC WEB: Family & Medical Leave Act, Fair Wear, Welfare Warriors, Prison Data

2/13: FILMS OR SMALL GROUPS

Part IV. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES II: SEXUALITY AND HEALTH

2/14: WHOSE BODY? HEALTH, FOOD, AND BEAUTY

• Nellie Wong, "When I Was Growing Up," 7-8, RDR
• Roberta Galler, "The Myth of the Perfect Body," 165-72, RDR
• Carol Munter, "Fat and the Fantasy of Perfection," 225-30, RDR
• Nancy Mairs, "Body in Trouble," 40-64, RDR
• AAWORD, "A Statement on Genital Mutilation," 217-19, RDR
• Women with Disabilities, About Face (browse), WEB
• REQUIRED FILMS: "Mirror, Mirror; "Killing Us Softly III"
• REC FILM: "Slaying the Dragon"
• REC WEB: Politics of Women's Health, Fat?So!

2/19: HOLIDAY - NO CLASS

2/20: REPRODUCTION

• WIC: Margaret Sanger, 389-392; Angela Davis, 393-97
• Karen Schneiderman, "Disabled Women Need Choice, Too," 206-08, RDR
• Rosalind P. Petchesky, "Spiraling Discourses of Reproductive and Sexual Rights," 569-87, RDR
• REC WEB: Sterilization Abuse, Personal Stories of Abortion, FAQs
• REC FILM: "La Operación"

2/21: SEXUALITIES

• WIC: Ann Lister, 46-49; Fatima Mernissi, 82-84; Audre Lorde, 97-101; Carolyn Mobley, 56-57; Mag Segrest, 152-154
• Anna Koedt, "Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm;" WEB
• FACT, "Against the Ordinance," 342-45, RDR
• REC Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," 51-75, RESERVE
• REC WEB: "Woman-Identified Woman"
• REQUIRED FILMS: "Girls Like Us" (view in library)
• REC FILMS: "Choosing Children," "Camp Lavender Hill"

2/26: SEX AND VIOLENCE I: RAPE AND HARASSMENT

• Pauline Bart and Patricia H. O'Brien, "Stopping Rape: Effective Strategies," 83-101, RDR
• Alan Johnson, The Gender Knot, 92-97, RDR
• Beverly Allen, Rape Warfare, 117-23, 130-32, RDR
• Katie Koestner, "The Perfect Rape Victim," 30-38, RDR
• REC WEB: Sexual Assault Links; Real Men
• REC FILM: "In Harm's Way"

Topics for the second paper will be distributed in class; due 3/5

2/27: FILMS OR SMALL GROUPS

2/28: SEX AND VIOLENCE II: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND CHILD ABUSE

• WIC: Abigail Abbot Bailey, 232-36
• bell hooks, "Violence in Intimate Relationships: A Feminist Perspective," 84-91, RDR
• Joy Harjo, "I Give You Back," *WEB
• Domestic Violence: The Issues or Facts WEB
• Martha Nussbaum, Women and Human Development, excerpts, RDR
• REQUIRED FILM: "No Longer Silent"

Part V. FEMINIST STRATEGIES AND UTOPIAN VISIONS
(begin Piercy, WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME)

3/5: MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: WAR, PEACE, SPIRITUALITY

• WIC: Sumangalamata et al, 41-5; Jarena Lee, 177-82; Laura Geller, 59-63; Samman, 84-86
• Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father, 3-4, 16-21, RDR
• Audre Lorde, "An Open Letter to Mary Daly," 66-71, RDR
• Helen Caldicott, "Eradicate Nuclear Weapons from the Face of the Earth," 289-97, RDR
• REC WEB PAGE: Lilith and Women in Islam

3/6: FILMS OR SMALL GROUPS

3/7: LANGUAGE

• Muriel Rukeyser, "Myth," RDR
• Gloria Anzaldúa, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," 53-64, RDR
• Ursula LeGuin, "On the Mothertongue," 147-64, RDR
• Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers Gardens," 231-43, RDR

3/12: CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION

• Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, "Sultana's Dream," RDR
• Li Ju-Chen, Flowers in the Mirror, ch. 13, RDR
• Piercy, WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME (discuss in section)
• In Her Hands, Art Data, Guerrilla Girls WEB
• REC WEB: Bookstores
• REC FILM: Marge Piercy

3/13: FILMS OR SMALL GROUPS

3/14: POLITICS, EDUCATION, AND COURSE SUMMARY Small group evaluation/course summary papers due at beginning of class today; last sections meet this week.

Take home final exam questions distributed in class today; due in History Department Office by noon on March 22.