Courses

Sociology/Women's Studies 447

Powers, Practices, & Meanings of Gender
Winter 2002, Elizabeth C. Rudd, Ph.D.

(The syllabus in Word format)

Office: 4040 Institute for Social Research (426 Thompson St.)
Campus Phone: 615-3536
Email: erudd@umich.edu (put "Soc 447" in the subject line please! followed by your name and the topic of your query)
Office hours: tba
Reader available from Grade A notes, in the Michigan Union

Course Syllabus

Why distinguish between sex and gender? Is gender just about women? What does the distinction between men and women have to do with families, economies, states and social change? How does gender shape major social institutions? In this class, students will gain tools for asking and answering questions like these through close readings of influential gender theorists such as literary critic Toril Moi and sociologist Evelyn Nakano-Glenn, examination of empirical research which applies a "gender lens" and engagement with representations of gender in popular culture. The course strives to inspire students to think broadly and creatively about how gender is embedded in social processes and shapes individuals, families, organizations, and institutions.

Readings need to be read by the class at which they are listed; be prepared to argue about interpretations and implications of the text on the day it is listed.

Week - Date - Topic and readings

1 - Mon Jan 7 - Course introduction
Wed Jan 9 - Introduction to gender theory

2 - Mon Jan 14 - "Sex" and "Gender"
Required reading: Moi, Toril (1999) What is a woman and other essays, "What is a woman?", parts I,II,III (pp. 1-59)

Wed Jan 16 - "Sex" and "Gender"
Required reading: Moi, Toril "What is a woman?", parts IV, V, VI (pp. 59-120)

Assignment #1 (Gender exercise) Due at Beginning of Class

3 - Mon Jan 21 - MLK Day. No Regular Classes
Wed Jan 23 - Gender as structure and practice
Required reading: Connell, R.W., Gender and Power, Chapter 3, "Current Frameworks" and Chapter 4, "The Body and Social Practice" (pp. 41-88)

4 - Mon Jan 28 - Connell's notions of gender regime and gender order
Required reading: Connell, R.W., Gender and Power, Chapter 6, "Gender Regimes and the Gender Order," (pp. 119-142) and Chapter 10, "Personality as Practice," (pp. 219-237)

Wed Jan 30 - "Doing Gender"
Required reading: West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman, "Doing Gender" Gender & Society, 1:2, June 1987, pp. 125-151

5 - Mon Feb 4 - "Masculinities"
Required reading: (1) Kimmel, Michael, "Invisible masculinity," Society, Sept/Oct 1993; (2) Kimmel, Michael, Chapter 8, "The masculine mystique," pp. 261-290 in Kimmel, Michael (1996) Manhood in America: a cultural history

Wed Feb 6 - The Brandon Teena Story, video documentary

6 - Mon Feb 11 - Discussion of the Brandon Teena Story/Approaches to theorizing and studying gender, race, and class

Wed Feb 13 - Approaches to theorizing and studying gender, race, and class together
Required reading: (1) Evelyn Nakano-Glenn, "The social construction and institutionalization of gender and race: an integrative framework" pp. 3-43, in Ferree, Myra Marx, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess, eds., Revisioning Gender; Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA 1999; (2) Chen, Anthony "Lives at the center of the periphery … : Chinese American Masculinities and Bargaining with Hegemony," Gender & Society, pp. 584-607; (3) Hossfeld, Karen J. "Their logic against them: contradictions in sex, race, and class in Silicon Valley" in Wharton, Amy S., ed., Working in America: Conflict, Continuity, and Change, Mountain View, Calif. : Mayfield Pub. Co., 1998

7 - Mon Feb 18 - Gender, race, and class, continued
Required reading: (1) Solinger, Rickie "Race and 'value': Black and white illegitimate babies, 1945-1965," pp. 287-310, in Glenn, Evelyn Nakano, Grace Chang, and Linda Rennie Forcey, eds., Mothering: Ideology, Experience, Agency Routledge: New York 1994; (2) Blee, Kathleen M. "Becoming a racist: women in contemporary Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups" Gender & Society, vol. 10 No. 6, December 1996, pp. 680-702; (3) Blee, Kathleen, "White on White, Interviewing women in U.S. white supremacist groups," pp. 93-109 in Twine, France Winddance and Warren, Jonathan W., eds., Racing Research, Researching Race: Methodological dilemmas in critical race studies, New York: New York University Press 2000

Wed Feb 20 - Gender, race, and class, continued
Required reading: (1) George, Sheba "'Dirty nurses' and 'men who play': Gender and class in transnational migration" pp. 144-174 in Burawoy et al (2000) Global Ethnography: forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world, University of California Press: Berkeley; CA 2000; (2) Cole, Johnetta B. and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, "Gender Talk," Souls Fall 2000, pp. 38-47

Assignment #2 (Term paper or project proposal) Due at the Beginning of Class

8 - Mon Feb 25 - Spring Break
Wed Feb 27 - Spring Break

9 - Mon Mar 4 - Gender and the economy
Required reading: Thompson, E. P. 1967. "Time, work-discipline, and industrial capitalism" Past and Present 38, December: 56-97

Wed Mar 6 - Women's entrance into paid labor

Assignment #3 (Amott and Matthaei chapter) Due at the Beginning of Class

Required reading: One chapter of chapters 3-8 from Amott, Teresa and Julie Matthaei, Race, Gender and Work: a multicultural economic history of women in the United States, Revised edition, South End Press, Boston, MA 1996
WARNING: THIS READING IS NOT IN THE READER!!!!!
Make sure you get your chapter assigned to you in week 6. You will have to bring an outline of "your" chapter to class on Wed Mar 6.

10 - Mon Mar 11 - Midterm #1 - Midterm - Midterm - Midterm #1

Wed Mar 13 - Contemporary U.S. Policy context of women's paid work
Required reading: Deitch, Cynthia, "Gender, race, and class politics and the inclusion of women in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Gender & Society, vol. 7, no. 2, June 1993 183-203

11 - Mon Mar 18 - Contemporary Policy Issue Discussion (speaker TBA)
Wed Mar 20 - Contemporary Policy Issue Discussion (speaker TBA)

12 - Mon Mar 25 - Gender and the State, illustrated with the case of Germany
Required reading: Heineman, Elizabeth D. "Single motherhood and maternal employment in divided Germany: Ideology, Policy, and Social Pressures in the 1950s," Journal of Women's History, vol. 12, no. 3 (Autumn) 2000 146-172

Wed Mar 27 - Gender and the State, the case of German postsocialism

13 - Mon Apr 1 - "The Sunseekers," a film about the arms race and gender in the cold war
Wed Apr 3 - "The Sunseekers," continued/Gender in popular culture

14 - Mon Apr 8 - Presentation of Student Projects (tentative)
*Term Paper or Project Due * Term Paper or Project Due*

Wed Apr 10 - Gender in popular culture: Women in Hollywood

15 - Mon Apr 15 - Gender in popular culture: Social Latin Dancing

Assignment #5 (Gender Exercise reflections Due at the Beginning of Class)

Wed Apr 17 - Wrap up and review!

Midterm #2 (Take home) Due at the Beginning of Class

List of Assignments

Assignment #1. "Gender exercise" In 1-2 pages explain what gender is to you and what interests you in the study of gender. (5%)

Assignment #2. Term paper or project proposal. In 2-3 pages make a proposal for your term paper or project. You will not receive credit for Assignment #2 if you do not complete Assignment #4 and vice versa. (5%) This will not be graded separately, the same grade will be given for this 5% as for the completed term paper or project.

Assignment #3. Amott and Matthaie chapter summary. Students will be assigned to write summaries of particular chapters and then will work with others to produce a summary of "their" chapter for the class, as well as one or more exam questions and answers on "their" chapter, which they will convey to the class. (10%)

Midterm #1. Essay, short answer and multiple choice questions drawn from readings, lectures and in-class discussion. (30%)

Assignment #4. Term paper or project. 10-12 page paper or equivalent project, such as presentation, collection of evidence, short video, etc. on any topic related to the class. You will not receive credit for assignment #4 if you do not complete Assignment #2 and vice versa. (30%)

Assignment #5."Gender exercise #2" Comment on your own original "gender exercise" in light of what you've learned in the class (2-3 pages). Explain any aspect of how your understanding of concepts or issues you identified in your first statement has changed. You will not receive credit for Assignment #1 if you do not complete Assignment #5 and vice versa (5%)

Midterm #2. This will be a short, take-home exam with short answer and multiple choice questions drawn from the class lectures and discussion which come after the first midterm. (15%)




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