Introduction to Women’s
Studies
Dr. Holly Hassel
Spring 2004
ONLINE
Instructor Welcome Page:
“I
believe that, at present, women are the best helpers of one another. Let them think; let them act; till they know
what they need.”
Margaret Fuller, Women in the
Nineteenth Century
“Precisely
because fundamental research involves going beyond the frontiers of established
understandings, good academics cannot be told what to do; they defy control;
and the kind of creativity required cannot be commanded by an academic master,
still less delivered to a management order”
John Dearlove (1997), 'The Academic Labour
Process: from Collegiality and Professionalism to Managerialism and
Proletarianisation?' Higher Education Review 30/1, p.57.
Welcome to WOM 101: An Introduction to Women’s
Studies! As the title of this course
suggests, in this course I will be providing you with a basic understanding of
the field of Women’s Studies. Because women’s studies is interdisciplinary, we
will be examining the place of women in history, popular culture, language,
literature, media, politics, social reform, and many institutions. But this
course is not just about how women “fit in” to a particular discipline; we will
also be thinking about and talking about how women have shaped their
identities, their environments, and how the women’s movement, feminism, and the
sexual revolution have shifted our cultural understanding of gender.
bell hooks has argued in Talking
Back: thinking Feminist, Thinking Black Sheba that “[f]eminist education -
the feminist classroom - is and should be a place where there is a sense of
struggle, where there is visible acknowledgement of the union of theory and
practice, where we work together as teachers and students to overcome the
estrangement and alienation that have become so much the norm in the
contemporary university” (51). Our
classroom, though virtual, should aim to be exactly that kind of place—one
where conflict and struggle are mediated by community and collaboration, where
a productive and meaningful exchange of ideas complements the material we read
and the writing we do.
Women’s studies is the examination of women’s
experiences that recognizes our achievements and addresses our status in
society. Women’s studies puts women (in
all our diversity) at the center of inquiry and focuses on our reality as
subjects of study. This is different than the traditional enterprise of women
as objects of study. Being the objects
of study means that researchers theorize about women’s lives without women’s
input, placing women in a subordinate position to men. Instead, women as subjects of study implies
both active agency [power, authority] on women’s part and a challenge to male
domination and other systems of inequality like racism and classism. In other
words, when we are subjects of study as in women’s studies courses, our
experiences and voices have informed analyses about our lives…. Women’s studies also involves the study of
gender as a central aspect of human existence.
Gender concerns what it means to be a woman or a man in society. Gender involves the way society creates,
patterns, and rewards our understandings of femininity and masculinity….
Women’s studies explores our gendered existence: what it means to be feminine
and masculine and how this interacts with other aspects of our identity, such
as our race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sexuality.”
This
course aims to do just that: give us as students, thinkers, writers, and
readers the opportunity to ask and answer the question “How does the world look
different if we put the experiences of those who have been excluded – from
various activities, ideas, events, institutions, and phenomena by various
forces – at the center of our thinking?”
We’ll be working hard in this
course, but it will be worth it. I’m glad you’re here!
Course Planning Information
Women’s Studies 101
Spring 2004
Syllabus and Policies
Instructor: Dr. Holly
Hassel
Course
description: An Introduction to Women’s Studies, WOM 101
An
introduction to the major issues addressed by women’s studies with an emphasis
on the theories and methodologies involved in gaining accurate knowledge about
women’s lives and contributions to society, both within the United States and
around the world. Literary, philosophical, historical, and social science
perspectives are used to understand the experience of women and the cultural
construction of gender.
Course
Outcomes
Course proficiencies, as determined by the Women’s
Studies Program of the UW Colleges:
In addition:
Calendar (specific
dates of Events)
Unit One
Complete
by
Unit Two
Complete
by
Unit Three
Complete
by
Unit Four
Complete
by
Unit Five
Complete
by
Unit Six
Complete
by
Number and
types of Major Assignments
Grading
Policy
Grades are equal to the following
percentages:
A+ 98-100
A 93-97
A- 90-92
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 63-66
D- 60-62
F 59
and below
I reserve the right to assign borderline
grades as I deem appropriate.
A Note on Grades: An “A” grade is not a
gift you get at the end of the semester for always participating and completing
your work on time. For that, you earn a “C.” Beyond that, your work must
be more than average—it must be good to earn a “B” and excellent to earn an
“A.” Please also remember that you are not your grades—you are a person,
not a letter. Good people can get average grades and vice versa.
Time
Commitment
It is standard to spend three hours per credit a week on a college-level
course, more in a summer course which only meets for half the time.
Policies
and Procedures
A
Note on Grades: An “A” grade is not a gift you get at the
end of the semester for always participating and completing your work on
time. For that, you earn a “C.” Beyond
that, your work must be more than average—it must be good to earn a “B” and
excellent to earn an “A.” Please also
remember that you are not your grades—you are a person, not a letter. Good people can get average grades and vice
versa.
Academic
Dishonesty:
Academic dishonesty is also known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use
of another person’s language/words or ideas without proper citation. If you use
more than four words in a row from another source, you should put quotation
marks around them. If you borrow an idea from a published source, you need to
use parenthetical documentation to give proper credit to that source. Any
quote, paraphrase, or indirect quote must be cited appropriately. Please be
aware that I will not hesitate to check on sources that seem incorrectly
documented. The consequences of plagiarism are spelled out in the Student
Rights and Regulations handbook. For the
purposes of this course, deliberate misuse of language or ideas will result in,
at the least, failure of the assignment or paper, and possibly failure of the
course with referral of the student to a disciplinary committee for further
action by the university.
Policy
on Late Work: Late work will not be accepted. Assignments are due on the date listed in the
syllabus. Students will be granted one 24-hour grace period (see attached
form). One major assignment may be turned in late using this “coupon.”
Participation:
All students are expected and required to participate actively in class.
Listing of
Textbooks: Required
Lesson
Titles
1. What Is Women’s
Studies?
2. Gender Identity and
Gender Formation: Becoming a Woman
3. Mind
4. Body
5. Heart and Spirit
6. The Global Context:
Difference, Diversity, and Connectedness
Instructor Information:
Logistical Info:
Holly Hassel
Office: 715-261-6265
Home: 715-212-1370
Email: hhassel@uwc.edu or hollyhassel@hotmail.com
UWMC
Website:
http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/english/hhassel/index.htm
I am an Assistant
Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County in
Professional Work
I am involved in many
areas of the profession. My dissertation, Wine, Women, and Song: Gender and
Alcohol in Twentieth Century American Women’s Fiction, examined the
drinking cultures of literary America and the gendering of alcoholism amidst
such communities, especially as it is revealed and critiqued in the work of
four American women writers: Dorothy Parker, Katherine Anne Porter, Dawn
Powell, and Jean Stafford. In addition
to my research in American literature, I am currently completing a project on
college student accountability and academic standards. I have also presented
work at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Society
for the Study of American Women Writers International Conferences, and Third
Biennial International Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference, as well as the 28th
Annual Conference of the
Before
teaching at UWMC, I taught as an adjunct professor at Fairmont State College in
I am a member of the Modern Language Association, the
National Council of Teachers of English, the National Women’s Studies Association, and
the Society for the Study of American Women Writers.
Education
I spent one year at the
In 1997, I headed to the Cornhusker state for a
Ph.D. Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. While there, I took
courses in literary scholarship, poetic form, modern poetry and poetics, Modern
American novel, literary theory, composition pedagogy and theory, medieval
women writers, the American short story, the literature of ecology, and
creative nonfiction. My foreign language requirement was met by achieving
fluency of Spanish, and I took courses in Spanish conversation, representative
authors of
On-Campus
On campus, I have become involved in many areas of
women’s studies. Besides being the department women’s studies representative, I
advise the student group, the Women’s Initiatives Committee, and chaired a
committee charged with creating the Women’s Studies Certificate for the UW
Colleges. I have also taught with the
Good Ideas program—a three-day class for lifelong learners, typically retirees
over 50, and Pre-College, a program for
local Hmong high school students.
Off-Campus
Off campus, I’m involved in several activities,
including tutoring English with the Portage County Literacy Council, for which
my Spanish background comes in handy. I also work with the Primetime Family
Reading Time, a family-based literacy
program that provides a six to eight-week program of reading, discussion, and
storytelling at public libraries through the Marathon County Public Library. My
community talks have included the YWCA Women’s History Month series and the
American association of University Women conference at
Really
Off-Campus
I grew up in the
In my free time, which I must admit is somewhat
limited, you are likely to find me at home doing sewing, cooking, or gardening,
as well as playing with my three often naughty cats, Pandora, Scout, and Snowball
Monster Cat. [link to picture?] As a
runner, you can find me on the road putting in the miles for marathon training,
I’m on my third, having run the Walker North Country Marathon and the Lakefront
Marathon in
Book Review Bibliography: Choose from one of
the following books to read for your book review essay.
Albert, Alexa. Brothel:
Mustang Ranch and Its Women.
Allen, Paula Gunn. The Sacred
Hoop : Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions.
Angier, Natalie. Woman: An
Intimate Geography.
Anzaldua, Gloria. La frontera
/ Borderlands
Bartimus, Tad. War Torn:
Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered
Baumgartner, Jennifer and Amy
Richards. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
Belenky, Mary, et al. Women's
Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind.
Brownmiller,
Butler, Judith. Gender
Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Thinking Gender).
Castillo, Ana. The
Mixquiahuala Letters.
Chodorow, Nancy. The
Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender.
Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We
Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap.
Cooper, Patricia and Norma
Bradley Allen. The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art: An Oral History
De Beauvoir, Simone. The
Second Sex
Dinnerstine, Dorothy. Mermaid
and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise
Douglas,
Dworkin, Andrea. Intercourse.
Edit, Ophira and Rebecca Walker. Adios,
Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel
and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in
Ehrenreich, Barbara and Arlie
Russell Hochschild, Eds. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in
the New
Economy.
Faludi,
Firestone, Shulamith. The
Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine
Mystique.
Gilbert, Sandra and
Century:
The War of the Words
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory
and Women's Development.
Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch.
Hanauer, Cathy. The Bitch in the House : 26 Women Tell the Truth About
Sex, Solitude, Work,
Motherhood, and Marriage
Hays,
Heilbrun, Carolyn. Writing a Woman’s Life.
Hochschild, Arlie. The Second Shift.
hooks, bell. Ain't I A Woman:
Black Women and Feminism.
---. Feminism is for
Everybody: Passionate Politics.
---. Feminist Theory: From
Margin to Center
Ingraham, Chrys. White
Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture.
1999.
Kendall, Diane. The Power of
Good Deeds: Privileged Women and the Social Reproduction of the Upper
Class.
Kilbourne, Jean. Can't Buy My
Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
---. Deadly Persuasion: Why
Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising
Mifflin, Margot. Bodies of Subversion, Second Edition: A
Secret History of Women and Tattoo.
Knapp, Caroline. Appetites:
Why Women Want.
---. Drinking: A Love Story.
Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New
Spelling of My Name (Crossing Press Feminist Series)
Mairs, Nancy. Plaintext:
Essays.
Mernissi, Fatima. The Veil and
the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam.
Mihesuah,
Indigenous
Issues).
Millett, Kate. Sexual Politics.
Morris, Jenny. Encounters With
Strangers: Feminism and Disability.
Morrison, Toni. Playing in the
Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita
in
Orenstein, Peggy. Flux: Women
on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World.
---. Schoolgirls: Young Women,
Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap.
Peiss, Kathy. Hope in a Jar:
The Making of
Rich, Adrienne. Of Woman Born:
Motherhood As Experience and Institution
Riddle, John. Eve's Herbs: A
History of Contraception and Abortion in the West
Ruttenberg, Danya. Yentl's
Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.
Steinem, Gloria. Outrageous
Acts and Everyday Rebellions.
Tanenbaum,
Leroa. Slut! Growing Up Female with
a Bad Reputation.
Trinh, T. Min-Ha. Woman,
Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism
Tsui, Bonnie. She Went to the
Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War.
Walker,
White, Emily. Fast Girls:
Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut
Wolf, Naomi. Promiscuities:
The Secret Struggle for Womanhood.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A
Vindication of the Rights of Women.
---. Misconceptions: Truth,
Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood.
UNIT
ONE
Title:
What is Women’s Studies: Introduction
Description:
The first unit of our
course will provide an introduction to the field of women’s studies, feminism,
and the women’s movement as it has been defined and described by activists and
scholars. Students will become familiar with the course itself, the course
software, and the practices and principles of women’s studies as a
multidisciplinary field of study.
Outcomes:
o
Students will be able to define women’s
studies
o
Students will practice synthesizing ideas
o
Students will become familiar with the
course software
o
Read in Women, Images and Realities:
“Introduction” and “What is Women’s Studies” p. 8-15
o
Essays in Part I: 15-40
hooks, Thao, Rich,
Commentary
The discipline
that has come to be known as women’s studies has been a century and a half in
formation. From the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 that first proposed a
declaration of women’s equality [link to the Seneca Falls Declaration by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/texts/seneca.htm], to the
first wave of feminism that fought for women’s suffrage, to the second wave
seeking equal political, economic, marital, reproductive, and workplace rights
for women, the feminist movement has reshaped American and global culture.
The
field of women’s studies has taken as its project the investigation,
consideration, and discussion of the work of the feminist movement, placed
within an academic context. As an interdisciplinary field, women’s studies
undertakes an inquiry into multiple fields, whether it’s history, literature,
sociology, math, biology, or art, and many others. Scholars want to see both
how women have been obscured or made invisible by our traditional academic
understanding of these disciplines, but also use feminist pedagogy,
methodologies, and approaches to re-examine the male-constructed canons and
methods of research that have, until recently, been the dominant modes of
“seeing” the world.
Importantly,
activism has frequently been considered a facet of the field: more than just
undertaking academic investigations into women’s ideas, positions in society,
contributions, or lives, women’s studies aims to make connections between the
research, scholarship, and thinking that happens in classrooms, labs, and
libraries, and the communities we inhabit, and the lives we lead. Our final
project, in fact, will ask us, as students of women’s studies, to do just that.
But
first, it seems useful to look at an overview of what “principles” ground the
field of women’s studies. The Women’s Studies Program of
The
Principles of Women's Studies
o
Women's Studies has consistently acted on
nine interwoven principles theories and ideals that it shares with the women's
movements in several countries.*
o
Women as Agents. Women's studies has
asserted that women are capable of agency. They can act, write, think, judge,
imagine, listen, speak. They can witness and interpret their own experience.
o
Women as Subordinate/ Victim. Despite their
agency and achievements, women have been subjected to the power and whims of
both individual men and of historically specific structures that men have
mastered.
o
The Importance of Gender. The relations between men and women, and most
of the differences between men and women, exist in great part because of the
social structure of gender that defines and governs these relations and
differences. In racist societies, women
of color suffer a "double jeopardy," the disabilities of gender and
race.
o
The Necessity and Possibility of
Change. Risking accusations of
Utopianism, women's studies must help to build an ethic for the future.
o
Education as Value. Education, on all levels, is essential if
such a future is to come into being.
o
Vitality of Transgression. Women's studies must be transgressive, not
settled and sedate.
o
Suspicion of Disciplinarity. The
disciplines have shared a common error of omission: ignoring women, carrying on
as if they were not there.... The disciplines have also shared a common error
of commission: thinking that all women conveniently resemble the gender
stereotypes of a disciplinarian's own time, place, and kin.
o
Inseparability of Intellectual and
Institutional Change. An academic
discipline is at once intellectual, a way in which education organizes reality,
and institutional, a way in which education organizes itself.
o
The Conflict Between "The
Feminine" and "The Professional." Women's Studies must examine and resist
tensions between social norms that control definition of the
"feminine" and social norms that control definitions of "the
professional."
Keep returning to these notions as we read
and talk about the multiple disciplines and approaches that compose the field
of women’s studies.
Assignments:
o
Two
postings to the discussion board in response to provided prompts (10 pts. Each)
o
Introductory
email to instructor (10 points)
o
Posting
of your profile to your personal homepage (10 points)
o
Complete
Site tutorial (10 points)
o
choose
your study partner and email me with name (10 points)
o
read
netiquette home pages provided and take quiz (10 points)
o
3-page
synthesis essay (100 points)
Discussion:
Post two responses to the discussion board for Unit one addressing two or more
of the following questions/prompts:
Responsibility to
yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for
you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts, hence
grappling with hard work. It means that
you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial
intimacy or economic security; for our bodies and minds are inseparable in this
life, and when we allow our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in
mortal danger. It means insisting that
those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your
mind. It means being able to say, with
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre “I have an inward treasure born with me, which can
keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only
at a price I cannot afford to give.
Quizzes
Netiquette
Quiz
After familiarizing yourself with the
Netiquette information linked to the course, you should take this quiz.
True
or false:
1. Using capital letters signifies
yelling.
2. Humor and sarcasm translate easily
to the online environment.
3. You don’t need to spell check or
proofread your writing—after all, it’s an informal environment.
4. Emoticons help convey the tone of a
message.
5. “Flaming” another member of the
online community means to give a compliment.
6. Everyone must participate in an
online learning community.
7. Acronyms should be used sparingly.
8. Brevity is best.
9. Treat your online classmates as you
would classmates in a face-to-face classroom.
10.
Postings
to the discussion board are not permanent documents and can be changed.
Assignment One
Academic Autobiography and Dear
Holly
In order to help me better find out
who you are as a learner and student, I want you to write an academic
autobiography. What this means is that you should tell me a little about your
experiences with education, academics, and school in general.
Here are a few questions you might use
to guide your response: Where are you in
your learning process? What kinds of formal education have you had? What kinds of experiences have you had in the
classroom that were helpful, useful, good, bad, irritating, crushing,
inspiring? What works best for you in a learning environment? What kind of
student are you? What kind of student would you like to be? What kinds of
teachers have been most effective in helping you learn? What is the purpose of
an education, for you?
Specifically, as well, you should tell
me a little about your interest in women’s studies—why have you decided to take
this course? What is your background in thinking about, reading about, and
learning about issues of gender?
Finally, tell me a little bit about
yourself. This is the “Dear Holly” part of this assignment: what should I know
about you as a person that would help me? What do you want me to know? What is
important to you? What are your goals and expectations for this course?
Turn in this assignment to me through
the course software in the dropbox.