1

•  Tong, "Introduction"
• New York Times

 Introductions

Discussion

 2-4

• Attempts to reform or use existing political structures to advance women's interests along a civil rights model.
• Argues that women deserve the same privileges, protections, pay, and opportunities that men do.

•  Tong, Section 1
•  Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792. Read: chapter 1 and any additional chapter of the 13.
•  excerpt from Enfranchisement of Women (1851)
• Chapter 1 from Subjection of Women (1869)
• Bethune, " What does American Democracy Mean to Me? " (1939)
• Friedan, Feminine Mystique, Chapter One (1963)
• Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
• Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman?" (1851)
• A Time Line for American Woman Suffrage
• Bradwell v. Illinois (1873)
• 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Equal Rights Amendment
• New York Times

Discussion

Response paper #1: peer review: January 29; final paper due: January 31

4-5

• Proceeds from the assumption that the first type of exploitation in human history was sexual exploitation of women
• Women should be in the control of means of reproduction
• Radical feminists tend to be skeptical of political action within the current system, and instead support cultural change that undermines patriarchy and associated hierarchical structures

• Tong, chapter 2
• Redstockings Manifesto
• Combahee River Collective Statement . From the Black Feminist Reader.
• The SCUM Manifesto  
• visit Millet's Farm
• interview of Mary Daly
•  Online Library, read 1 selection of your choice
• Read 1 of the 27 poems by Adrienne Rich
• Read 1 article from  Feminine Reprise

Discussion

2 minute oral comments on Feminine Reprise essays: February 7,  9

Oral presentations on films: February 12

6

• According to Marxist theory,  people's capacities, needs and interests are seen to be determined by the mode of production that characterises the society they inhabit.
• Marxist feminists see gender inequality as determined ultimately by the capitalist mode of production.
• Gender oppression is class oppression and women's subordination is seen as a form of class oppression.

• Tong, Chpt 3
• "The Origins of the family, Private Property and the State" (read Introduction, the 2 prefaces, stages, the family)
• Choose one:
  • . Kollantai. International Women's Day"
  • ..Emma Goldman, "The Tragedy of Women's Emancipation"
•  Ehrenreich, "What is Socialist Feminism?"
• "Poverty Among Women"
• Women’s Poverty in the United States, 2003

Discussion

February 19: no class (Presidents' Day)

Oral presentations on News Analysis: February 26

7-8

• gender is not biological but is based on the psycho-sexual development of the individual.
• gender inequality comes from early childhood experiences, which lead men to believe themselves to be masculine, and women to believe themselves feminine.
• a social system that is dominated by males, influences the individual psycho-sexual development.

• Tong, Chapter 4
•  PBS web site on Freud
• Freud, Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (read Introduction, Preface, and 1 of the essays)
• Millet, essay
• Chodorow handout

Discussion

Response paper #2 due: March 5

9

• Women have become the “other” or object of men’s subjectivity. 
• Primarily due to one’s biology, women’s oppression consists of being denied transcendence and subjectivity.

• Tong: chapter 5
• Beauvoir Archive read the introduction and conclusion of Second Sex and the 1976 interview.

Discussion

Response paper #3: due March 21

10-11

• human experience is located "inescapably within language." Power is exercised not only through direct coercion, but also through the way in which language shapes and restricts our reality.
• because language is always open to re-interpretation, it can also be used to resist this shaping and restriction, and so is a potentially fruitful site of political struggle
• Sex is not something natural, nor is it something completely determinate and definable.
• sexual difference  constrains but never completely determines what one can do with it.

• Tong: Chapter 6
• Cixous, "Sortie" (handout)
• Irigaray "Questions" (handout)
• Kristeva "Talking about Polylogue" (handout)
• Bordo "Reading the Slender Body" (handout)

Discussion

Oral presentation #3: due April 2

12-13

• Multicultural feminism  focuses on the ways in which race, class, and gender intersect in women’s lives and to examine critically representations of women in  American culture .
• Postcolonial feminism argues that oppressions relating to the colonial experience, particularly racial, class, and ethnic oppressions, have marginalized women in postcolonial societies. They challenge the assumption that gender oppression is the primary force of patriarchy.

• Tong: Chapter 7
• Essays and interviews of Anzaldua (handout provided), Collins, and Butler (handout provided)
• "Key concepts in Postcolonial feminism"
• "Transnational Feminism and the Struggle for Global Justice" 
• peruse: WomenWatch

Discussion

Response paper #4: April 16

14

• the oppression of women and nature as interconnected.

• Because of the close ties of nature and spirituality, goddess worship and the divine female are often tied to ecofeminism.

• Tong: Chapter 8
• Interview with Susan Griffin
• peruse: http://www.ecofem.org/
• 1993 article by Charlene Spretnak

Discussion

April 20: no class

Oral Presentation #4: April 23 --the assignment has been modified!

April 25 and 27: no class--but you are welcome to join u for final exam reviews

15

Participation statement due: May 3

Final exam: available on chi tester and hard copy (SS center only) : April 28-May 2