Introduction to Women's Studies

WMST 201 L02

Fall 2008

Saturdays 1-5pm

Instructor: Sarah Newman

Office: SS209

Email: snewman@ucalgary.ca

Office Hours: by appointment

Course Description:

This course provides an introduction to the field of women's studies and introduces students to the concept of gender as a tool for social analysis. The course draws on various feminist ideas and scholarship that challenge how we think, talk and theorize about gender relations. This will include an examination of how biomedical and cultural discourses have shaped our understanding of gender, as well as, how gender relations differ across various historical and geographic spaces. Students will read feminist interventions that will encourage them to think about how notions of race, class, sexuality and ability intersect with gender and organize the social world.

This course will include lectures, readings, guest lectures, television and video clips, and class activities.

Course Outcomes:

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. • Explain key concepts and theories in the field of women's studies and apply them to examples in the social environment.
2. • Critically examine how gender informs our everyday practices and feminist strategies to resist and transform unequal gender relations globally.
3. • Demonstrate an ability to identify and analyse gender stratification.

Textbook and Required Readings

Grewal, Inderpal and Caren Kaplan (2005) In Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World.

Kimmel, Michael S. (2008) The Gendered Society 3^rd Edition.

Assignments and Evaluation:

Class Participation 10%

Quizzes (4 X 10%) 40%

Assignment: Policy Paper 20%

Final Exam 30%

 Class Participation: You will be graded on your positive participation and contribution within the classroom. You will be expected to bring questions you have about the readings to class and be prepared to engage in class discussions about the readings.

Quizzes: There will be four multiple-choice quizzes.

Assignment Policy Paper: Students should employ the conceptual tools and critical thinking skills that they learn in the course and critically evaluate a policy proposal or existing policy put forward by the Alberta government. Students should identify the gender implications of the policy and evaluate how it can be reconstructed it to diminish the gendered impacts.

Final Exam: This will be a registered final exam and will include all the material from the course.

It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination: YES

Please note: If your class is held in the evening, the Registrar's Office will make every attempt to schedule the final exam during the evening; however, there is NO guarantee that the exam will NOT be scheduled during the day.

Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline may be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you need help with your writing, you may use the Writing Centre.  Visit the website for more details: www.efwr.ucalgary.ca

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

(Revised, effective September 2008)

	Grading Scale
A+	96-100
A	90-95.99
A -	85-89.99
B+	80-84.99
B	75-79.99
B-	70-74.99
C+	65-69.99
C	60-64.99
C-	55-59.99
D+	53-54.99
D	50-52.99
F	0-49

 

Where a grade on a particular assignment is expressed as a letter grade, it will normally be converted to a number using the midpoint of the scale.  That is, A- would be converted to 87.5 for calculation purposes.  F will be converted to zero.

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics

Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines.  Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research.  For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see the U of C Research Ethics "Information for Applicants," sections 3.0 to 9.0, inclusive: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/research/html/ethics/info_undergrad.html

Reading/Lecture Schedule:

WEEK 1: Sept 13/08-Introduction to the course, expectations, evaluation methods, and assignments

WEEK 2: Sept 20/08-An Introduction to the Field of Women's Studies and the Concept of Gender

Michael S. Kimmel 'Introduction: Human Beings: An Engendered Species'

Grewal and Kaplan 'Introducing Women's Studies'

 

SECTION I: BIOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF GENDER

WEEK 3: Sept 27/08-The Rise of Western Science

Michael S. Kimmel 'Ordained by Nature: Biology Constructs the Sexes'

Nelly Oudshoorn 'Sex and the Body'

Emily Martin 'Egg and the Sperm'

Anne Fausto-Sterling 'The Biological Connection'

WEEK 4: Oct 4/08- Sex Differences and Changing Ideas of Gender

Michael S. Kimmel 'Spanning the World: Culture Constructs Gender Difference'

Charlotte Furth 'Androgynous Males and Deficient Females'

Carole S. Vance 'Social Construction Theory: Problems in the History of Sexuality'

 

***WEEK 5: OCTOBER 11, 2008 NO CLASS***

SECTION II: INTERSECTIONALITY

WEEK 6: Oct 18/08- Gender and Explanations of Sexuality and Race

QUIZ #1: Discourses of Gender

Michael S. Kimmel 'So, That Explains It: Psychoanalytic and Developmental Perspectives on Gender'

Udo Schuklenk et al. 'The Ethics of Genetic Research on Sexual Orientation'

Ian F. Haney Lopez 'The Social Construction of Race'

Frank Dikotter 'Race Culture: Recent Perspectives on the History of Eugenics' 

Gail Bederman 'Remaking Manhood through Race and Civilization'

 

SECTION III: GENDERED INSTITUTIONS

WEEK 7:Oct 25/08- Women, Work and Immigration

QUIZ #2: Intersectionality

 Michael S. Kimmel 'Separate and Unequal: The Gendered World of Work'

Lydia Potts 'Excerpt from The World Labour Market: A History of Migration'

WEEK 8: Nov 1/08- The Making of the Normal Family

Michael S. Kimmel 'The Gendered Family'

Jan Jindy Pettman 'Women and Citizenship'

POLICY PAPER DUE!

***WEEK 7: NOVEMBER 8, 2008: NO CLASS READING BREAK***

SECTION IV: GENDERED EXPERIENCES

WEEK 9: Nov 15/08- Gendered Violence

QUIZ #3: Gendered Institutions

 Michael S. Kimmel 'The Gender of Violence'

Ayesha Khan 'Afghan Refugee Women's Experience of Conflict and Disintegration'

WEEK 10: Nov 22/08- The Gendered Body

Michael S. Kimmel 'The Gendered Body'

Rosalind Coward 'The Body Beautiful'

SECTION V: POLITICS AND ACTION

WEEK 11: Nov 29/08- Social Identity, Solidarity and Political Engagement

QUIZ #4: Gendered Experience

Michael S. Kimmel 'Epilogue: A Degendered Society?'

Cynthia Enloe 'Beyond the Global Victim'