WGSS4510
American Women’s Movements
Fall, 2014Email:
Professor Katherine MarinoOffice: 334 Dulles Hall
Tuesday, Thursday, 11:10-12:30pmOffice hours: Tuesdays, 1:30-
PAES Bldg A01092:30pm; Wednesdays 2:45-3:45pm, or by appointment
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
-Audre Lorde
Course Description
This course is designed for students to examine a variety of American women’s movements. While our focus will be on movements in the United States,the course will also examine transnational women’s movements in the Americas more broadly. The readings and discussions will emphasize feministwomen’s movements and the diverse interests of women across lines of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and nation. In addition to developing skills in critical reading and thinking, research, writing, and speaking, students should complete the course with an understanding of how social activism emerges and social change occurs; how gender interacts with other elements of identity to shape the consciousness and experiences of women; and how women’s movements have been influenced by and have influenced major social, economic, and political developments in the United States and the Americas.
While the class will highlight individuals and movements, the thrust of the class is not to provide romantic role models or to celebrate ideologies or groups.Rather, the purpose of the class is to analyze the dynamic relationship between history, ideas, and activism. As Chandra Mohanty has written, “Feminist struggles are waged on at least two simultaneous, interconnected levels: an ideological, discursive level which addresses questions of representation (womanhood/femininity), and a material, experiential, daily-life level which focuses on the micropolitics of work, home, family, sexuality, etc.” We will seek to understand the ideological and material content of the movements we study as well as the historical contexts in which they emerge. We will do this by examining the wordsof activists themselves, as well as secondary literature and theoretical and creative work that analyze the movements.
A few governing questions structure the course:
How can we understand feminismhistorically beyond theidea that it happened in discrete “waves”? Why might such a re-conceptualization be valuable? What is the relationship between our historical memory of feminism and our understanding of it today?
How have women organized against sexual violence? How have different groups of women (and men) been vulnerable to sexual violence in different ways, and what role have race, class, and sexual identity played? What role have institutions and laws played? How have arguments for “sexual freedom” and “equality” complemented or conflicted with calls for “protection”?
How have women organized across national borders, and around what causes? In the Americas, what role has the U.S. played in shaping language around women’s rights agendas and of feminism? What role has anti-imperialism played in the movements of Latin American women, and of women of color in the U.S.?
How do we define feminism? What are the possible limitations in the language of “rights” and liberalism, in emancipatory agendas? How have different groups defined feminism differently?
Expected Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to think critically about women’s issues, gender, and sexuality.
- Students will be able to pursue interdisciplinary inquiries about gender and sexuality and to pose questions that cut across disciplinary fields.
- Students will be able to perform women’s, gender, and sexuality studies research through developing an argument, organizing data, displaying evidence for that argument, and expressing ideas in writing.
Course Access and Accommodation
We all learn and process information in different ways and I would like to make this course as accessible as possible. If there is something I can do to facilitate your learning in this class, please communicate this to me. I will do my best to address your needs. If you have documentation from the Office for Disability Services (614-292-3307; Pomerene Hall 150) for specific accommodations, please let me know in advance of your needs. With or without documentation, we can also meet in person or communicate via email about how to improve your access to the course.
Required Texts
Estelle B. Freedman, No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women
(Ballantine Books, reprint edition 2003 or original edition 2000), $13.23
Erik McDuffie, Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making
of Black Left Feminism (Duke University Press, 2011), $21.56 (or used on amazon for around $9.00)
Susan Stryker, Transgender History (Seal Studies, 2008), $11.51
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Mariner Books, 2008), $9.10
Other required readings appear on Carmen by week/topic.
Books may be purchased at SBX, via amazon.com or another online bookseller of your choice, and will be available on reserve at Thompson Library.
Course Policies & Procedures
**NOTE: In accordance with departmental policy, all students must be officially enrolled in the course by the end of the second full week of the quarter (by September 5, 2014). No requests to add the course will be approved by the department chair after that time. Enrolling officially and on time is solely the responsibility of the student.
Expectations and assignments
Prepared participation and discussion questions: Students are expected to should come prepared having completed all the readings listed below for the class and reflected upon them thoughtfully. Please be sure to bring readings and your notes to everyrecitation.(See hand-out on “Guidelines for Thinking about Readings” on Carmen)On the morning of class by 8 a.m., you are required to post a discussion question on Carmen. Please read others’ discussion questions, and come to class with not only your own question but one other that one of your peers contributed that you would like to discuss.
Class discussions are an essential part of this course and contribute to our understanding of the readings and lectures. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a respectful manner towardone another and the professor/instructor at all times, listening to each other’s comments and contributing constructively to the conversation. Our goal is to think critically, engage and reflect upon course materials, and learn from one another.
Leading Class Discussion:Once during the semester you will make a presentation on the topic and reading for the day and then begin discussion. Students will be expected to: a. Summarize the main ideas and highlight the most significant points learned from the texts, situating them among the other course readings. b. Critique the text(s)/source(s), considering their value, biases, and/or assumptions. c. Raise at least three questions for discussion that you post for the rest of the class the evening prior to your presentation (by 8:00PM) on Carmen. Remember that your audience is the rest of the class, so you should aim to provide some focus for the following day’s discussion. The rest of the class should be prepared to engage the points and questions raised in the postings. The presentation should be formal and organized, lasting approximately ten minutes. You will be expected to hand in an outline of your comments (1-2 pages.)
Primary source analysis paper:A4-6 page paper in which you find a primary source that relates to one of the movements we have discussed in class and analyze it in the context of the secondary sources we have read. I will provide the details of this paper assignment during the second week of class and will also share resources and places to find primary sources. Due in hard copy at the beginning of class on 10/14.
Analysis of Screening and Anita Hill Symposium:Attendance at the screening of Anita: Speaking Truth to Power on November 6 and the panel event on November 7 are required and necessary to complete this assignment. (Please let me know if you cannot attend either event and we will find an alternative project.) In a 3-page paper, briefly explain how the film and panel event relate to class material. What have you learned from these events; what ideas do the events illustrate; what arguments that we’ve discussed in class does it support or contradict? Given what you have learned in class, critique (positively and/or negatively) the movie and event. Due in hard copy at the beginning of class on 11/18.
Final Paper/Project: You have two options for the final paper/project: 1) A 6-8 page paper that develops your research, analytic, and writing skills, as you investigate an element of women’s activism (either historical or contemporary) that interests you. The paper should be based at least in part on documentary/primary resources. 2) A creative assignment that you discuss with me. (You could create your own primary source from a particular women’s movement; write your own manifesto, speech, or create your own feminist zine or graphic novel.) If you choose the creative assignment, there will also be a written component (5-7 pages) in which you explain the creative choices you made, and how the content of the course informed your project. More details on this assignment will be provided in a separate hand-out. Because the final project will be the product of culmination of work done over the latter half of the semester, there will be several deadlines to stay on track with the final project. Final paper/project due 12/8.
All assignments must be completed and submitted by the announced deadlines. Extensions will not be allowed unless they have been arranged ahead of time with the instructor and will only be granted in the case of medical or family emergency. Late papers will be penalized one-half of a letter grade for each day late and will not be accepted after three days.
Attendance & Tardiness
Class sessions are an integral part of this course. Attendance will be taken at every class meeting. Students are expected to attend all class sessions and be on time and prepared. Excused absences must be cleared in advance. If you must miss a class because of a medical or family emergency or other extenuating circumstance, inform me in advance and submit a report on the week’s readings (2 double-spaced pages) within a week of the missed class.
More than 2 unexcused absences will reduce a student’s grade for attendance/participation by one letter grade. 4 or more unexcused absences will a result in a failing grade (‘E’) for Participation-Attendance. Repeated tardiness will also result in a lowered grade for attendance/participation.
All cell phones should be turned off during class and any laptops/iPads in the classroom should be used strictly to take notes or do other course related tasks.Students found browsing on Facebook, checking email, surfing the web, doing other work, etc. will be asked to discontinue bringing computers to class.
Evaluation/Grading
Final grade for the course will be determined by the following:
Attendance/Participation (180 points)30%
Leading Class Discussion (120 points)20
Primary Source Analysis Paper (90 points)15
Anita Hill Event Analysis Paper (60 points)10
Final project (150 points)25
TOTAL (600 points)100%
Note: You must receive a passing grade for each section in order to pass the course.
Final grades are calculated from a possible total of 600 points.
580-600A+459-508C+
558-579A441-458C
540-557A-420-440C-
511-539B+360-419D
501-510B359 & below F
480-509B-
Course Website/Carmen
This course has a page on Carmen (http://carmen.osu.edu). Students should check the website regularly for readings, announcements, course resources, and other information.
Extra Credit Opportunities
You may get extra credit by attending events on campus this year and writing a one-page double-spaced response paper about the event(s). Each event will count for 1 point. The events are marked in the schedule below.
The professor will communicate with students via OSU email. Please make sure you check this account regularly and that you keep your account under quota. Also, please make sure you check the course’s Carmen page for important announcements, assignment instructions, or schedule changes.
Class Cancellation Policy
In the unlikely event that a class meeting must be cancelled, I will contact you via email and Carmen and request the History Department staff to place a note on our classroom door.
Academic Misconduct
It is the responsibility of the Committee on Academic Misconduct to investigate or establish procedures for the investigation of all reported cases of student academic misconduct. The term “academic misconduct” includes all forms of student academic misconduct wherever committed; illustrated by, but not limited to, cases of plagiarism and dishonest practices in connection with examinations. Instructors shall report all instances of alleged academic misconduct to the committee (Faculty Rule 3335-5-487). For additional information, see the Code of Student Conduct (http://sja.osu.edu/page.asp?id=1).
Course Schedule
(subject to change)
8/28Introductionto the Class
***12:00-2:00pm MICHAEL BROWN/FERGUSON TEACH-IN, MLK Lounge Room 132, Hale Black Cultural Center***
PART I: HISTORIES OF WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS – RETHINKING THE WAVES
Week 1The Historical Emergence of Feminism
9/2NTB, Chapters 1-3
Primary documents: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, “The Reply to Sor Philotea,” (1691); Flora Tristan, “The Emancipation of Working Class Women” (1843) (Carmen)
9/4NTB, Chapters 4-6
Primary documents:Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” (1848); Sojourner Truth, Two Speeches (1851, 1867)
Week 2American Women’s Movements after Suffrage
9/9* * We will meet at 11am at Dulles 168 for a talk by Estelle B. Freedman on her new book Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation* *
Reading: Estelle B. Freedman, Excerpt from Redefining Rape (Carmen)
9/11K. Lynn Stoner, “Ofelia Domínguez Navarro” from The Human Tradition in Latin America (Carmen)
Correspondence between Ofelia Domínguez Navarro and Doris Stevens, 1931 (Carmen)
Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar, “Challenging Imperial Feminism,” Feminist Review 17 (1984): 3-10
Week 3Black Feminism, Communism, and Intersectionality, 1920s-1940s
9/16Erik McDuffie, Sojourning for Freedom, Introduction-Chapter 3
9/18Erik McDuffie, Sojourning for Freedom, Chapter 4-Conclusion
Week 4Civil Rights as a Women’s Movement
9/23Danielle McGuire, “‘It Was like All of Us Had Been Raped,’ Sexual Violence, Community Mobilization, and the African American Freedom Struggle,” Journal of American History 91, no. 3 (December 2004): 906-931. (Carmen)
9/25Serena Mayeri, Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution (2011), Introduction and Chapter 1 (Carmen)
Week 5“The Revolution is What is Happening in Every Woman’s Mind:” Second-Wave and Radical Feminisms
9/30Linda Gordon, “The Women’s Liberation Movement” (2014) (Carmen)
Hanisch, Redstockings, Radicalesbians, Mainardi, Chavez, “Women in the Asian Movement,” Weiss (Carmen), Combahee River Collective (Carmen)
Excerpt from Our Bodies, Ourselves (Carmen)
10/2NTB, Chapter 10
Tillmon, “Welfare is a Women’s Issue”
Excerpt from Jennifer Nelson, Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement (2003) (Carmen)
Week 6Lesbian Feminisms in the Americas
10/7Guest Speaker Professor Daniel Rivers on Lesbian Feminisms
NTB, Chapter 11
10/9Nancy Saporta Sternbach, Marysa Navarro-Aranguren, Patricia Chuchryk, Sonia E. Alvarez, “Feminisms in Latin America: From Bogotá to San Bernardo” (Carmen)
Pascha Bueno-Hansen, “Queer/Lesbiana Dialogues among Feminist Movements in the Américas” (Carmen)
Week 7Transgender Feminisms
10/14* * PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS PAPER DUE TODAY * *
Susan Stryker, Transgender History, Prologue-Chapter 3
10/15Susan Stryker, Transgender History, Chapter 4-Chapter 5
Michelle Goldberg, “What is a Woman? The Dispute between Radical Feminism and Transgenderism,” New Yorker, August 4, 2014 (Carmen)
PART II: TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISMS, TRANSNATIONAL BODIES
Week 8Global Sisterhood?
10/21NTB, Chapter 5 (especially pages 105-119)
Adrienne Rich “Politics of Location” (Carmen)
Robin Morgan, Introduction to Sisterhood is Global (1985) (Carmen)
Amrita Basu, Introduction to The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective (1995) (Carmen)
10/23Inderpal Grewal, “‘Women’s Rights as Human Rights’: The Transnational Production of Global Feminist Subjects,” from Transnational America (2005), 121-157 (Carmen)
Excerpt from Diana Taylor, Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina’s “Dirty War” (1997) (Carmen)
Week 9Globalization, Transnational Labor, and Fights for Social and Economic Justice
10/28NTB, Chapter 7
Excerpt from Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take On the Global Factory, Introduction and Chapters 1 (Carmen)
In-class viewing of part of The Global Assembly Line
10/30Excerpt from Jennifer Bickham Mendez, From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras: Gender, Labor, and Globalization in Nicaragua (Carmen)
PART III: WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS AGAINST VIOLENCE
Week 10Responding to Sexual Violence against Women
11/4NTB, Chapter 12 (Recommended)
Astrid Henry, “From a Mindset to a Movement,” (2014) 147-203 (Carmen)
Anita Hill Testimony (Carmen)
Rebecca Walker, “I am the Third Wave” (Carmen)
Excerpt from Toni Morrison, ed., Race-ing Sex, En-Gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality (Carmen)
11/5Astrid Henry, “From a Mindset to a Movement,” (2014) 203-220 (Carmen)
Michelle Goldberg, “Why the Campus Rape Crisis Confounds…” (Carmen)
Look at this website:
11/6***7-9:15pm SCREENING OF ANITA: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWERfollowed by a Q&A with Anita Hill and Academy-award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock, at the Mershon Auditorium***
11/7***11am PANEL DISCUSSION WITH ANITA HILL
On Sexual harassment and assault, followed by student resource fair,, Saxbe Auditorium in Drinko Hall, Moritz College of Law
Week 11Indigenous Women’s Movements against Violence
11/11VETERAN’S DAY – NO CLASS
11/12Annelise Orleck, “The Native American Movement and Its Women Leaders” (Carmen)
The Violence Against Women Act – Title IX: Safety for Indian Women
Excerpt from Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence(Carmen)
PART IV: FEMINISM THROUGHARTS, TEXTS AND REPRESENTATION---VISIONS AND STRATEGIES
Week 12Feminism and the Arts
11/18* * ANALYSIS OF ANITA HILL EVENT PAPER DUE TODAY * *