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Feminist Political Theory Feminist Political Theory Professor Megan Gallagher Whitman College Politics 328A [email protected] Tuesday and Thursday, 1:00-2:20 Office: Maxey Hall 133 Maxey Hall 201 Office hours: W 1-2, R 3-4, and by appointment Course description Political theory concerns itself with questions of authority, fairness, justice, and power (among others), yet historically, women’s interests have been routinely ignored or subordinated to those of men. Feminist political theory challenges women’s absence, or assumed subservience, in political life. It seeks to provide a philosophical foundation for the pursuit of “real world” goals and the improvement of women’s lives - and, oftentimes, men’s as well. In doing so, feminist theory’s primary method has entailed critical engagement with the western canon of political philosophy. Nonetheless, feminism has always been motivated by a concern for inequality and injustices in everyday life. Yet feminist political theory is not monolithic - there are many diverse and conflicting strands, based in disparate notions of what constitutes “the good life.” Liberal feminism, conservative feminism, radical feminism, marxist feminism, women of color feminism, Chicana feminism, queer feminism, continental feminism, existentialist feminism: these varieties, and others, introduce different concerns into debates over the relationship between the public and the private; the variety of possible relationships between men and women; the complex interplay between sex, gender, and the body; the roles of class and race and how they interact with gender; to say nothing of what unifies and complicates the category of “woman.” This course will involve close reading of major works in feminist political theory from the early modern period to the present. Because feminism understands itself to be fundamentally liberatory (that is, concerned with increasing liberty, specifically of women), our readings will focus on the theme of freedom. Specifically, we will consider 1) what it means to be a free political actor, 2) whether freedom is the highest political good, 3), whether, and how, freedom is compatible with other values, such as equality and justice, and 4) how different forms of government and political structures contribute to, or detract from, attempts to increase freedom. To examine these questions, we will follow a roughly chronological path from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, looking at influential schools and strands of feminist thought as they appeared. We will conclude by examining feminist political theory’s increasing engagements with two other fields of inquiry: disability studies and indigenous politics. Reading schedule Week 1 INTRODUCTION: FEMINIST THEORIES OF FREEDOM T 9/1 Sandra Bartky, “Toward a Phenomenology of Feminist Consciousness,” Social Theory and Practice 3.4 (1975): 425-439* Hannah Arendt, “Freedom and Politics: A Lecture,” The Chicago Review 14.1 (1960): 28-46* R 9/3 Elisabeth Anker, “Feminist Theory and the Failures of Post-9/11 Freedom,” Politics & Gender 8.2 (2012): 207-215* Nancy Hirschmann, “Feminist Thoughts on Freedom and Rights,” Politics & Gender 8.2 (2012): 216-222* feminist political theory syllabus !1 Cristina Beltrán, “Freedom’s Ambivalent Pleasures: Richard Rodriguez and the Conservative Logic of Identity,” Politics & Gender 8.2 (2012): 223-231* Jennifer Nedelsky, “Relations of Freedom and Law’s Relations,” Politics & Gender 8.2 (2012): 231-238* Sharon Krause, “Plural Freedom,” Politics & Gender 8.2 (2012): 238-245* Week 2 CONSERVATISM T 9/8 James VI and I, “The Trew Law of Free Monarchies”* John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, chapters 1, 6-8* Mary Astell, Reflections Upon Marriage, pp. 1-38 (top) R 9/10 Astell, Reflections Upon Marriage, p. 38-81 Week 3 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN EUROPE T 9/15 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, or On Education, excerpt* Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, dedicatory letter and chapters 1-4 R 9/17 Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, chapters 7-8, 13 Olympe de Gouges, “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Female Citizen”* Week 4 LIBERALISM T 9/22 Harriet Taylor Mill, “The Enfranchisement of Women”* John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women, editor’s introduction and chapters I-II R 9/24 J.S. Mill, The Subjection of Women, chapters III-IV Week 5 WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES T 9/29 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”* Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?”* Frederick Douglass on women’s suffrage* optional: Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Great Schism”* optional: Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Sojourner Truth, The Libyan Sibyl”* R 10/1 Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South, part first (“Soprano Obligato”)* Week 6 EXISTENTIALISM T 10/6 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, pp. 3-17, 71-75, 148-156, 159-213, 279, 283, 638-664, and 721-766 R 10/8 No class - fall break Week 7 MARXISM T 10/13 Michèle Barrett, “Some Conceptual Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis,” from Women’s Oppression Today: The Marxist/Feminist Encounter* Nancy Hartsock, “The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism”* R 10/15 Barrett, “Feminism and the Politics of the State”* Catharine A. MacKinnon,”Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence,” Signs 8.4 (1983): 635-658* feminist political theory syllabus !2 Week 8 BLACK FEMINISM AND INTERSECTIONALITY T 10/20 Midterm paper due in class Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement* Audre Lorde, “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface” from Sister Outsider* Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”* Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”* Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”* bell hooks, “Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory,” from Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center* hooks, “Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression”* hooks, “The Significance of Feminist Movement”* hooks, “Sisterhood: Political Solidarity Among Women”* R 10/22 Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43.6 (1991): 1241-1299* Week 9 POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM T 10/27 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” boundary 2 12/13 (1984): 333-358* Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism, preface, chapters 1-2 R 10/30 Narayan, Dislocating Cultures, chapters 3-4 (chapter 5 optional) Week 10 POSTMODERNISM T 11/3 Seyla Benhabib,“Feminism and Postmodernism” in Feminist Contentions Judith Butler, “Contingent Foundations” (Fraser and Cornell essays optional) R 11/5 Benhabib, “Subjectivity, Historiography, and Politics” Butler, “For a Careful Reading” (Fraser and Cornell essays optional) Week 11 CONTESTING FREEDOM T 11/10 Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, chapters 1-3 R 11/12 Mahmood, Politics of Piety, chapters 4-5, epilogue Week 12 THE BODY POLITIC T 11/17 Margaret Atwood, A Handmaid’s Tale, chapters I-IX Amrita Pande, “This Birth and That: Surrogacy and Stratified Motherhood in India,” philoSOPHIA 4.1 (2014): 50-64* R 11/19 Atwood, A Handmaid’s Tale, chapters X-XV and historical notes Week 13 T 11/24 No class - Thanksgiving break R 11/26 No class - Thanksgiving break Week 14 NEW CURRENTS IN FEMINIST THOUGHT: FEMINISM AND DISABILITY STUDIES feminist political theory syllabus !3 T 12/1 Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, “Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory,” NWSA Journal 14.3 (2002): 1-32* Sami Schalk, “Metaphorically Speaking: Ableist Metaphors in Feminist Writing,” Disability Studies Quarterly 33.4 (2013)* R 12/3 Final paper outline due in class Peer review workshop Licia Carlson, “Cognitive Ableism and Disability Studies: Feminist Reflections on the History of Mental Retardation,” Hypatia 16.4 (2001): 124-146* Week 15 NEW CURRENTS IN FEMINIST THOUGHT: FEMINISM AND INDIGENOUS POLITICS T 12/8 Devon Abbott Mihesuah, “A Few Cautions at the Millennium on the Merging of Feminist Studies with American Indian Women’s Studies,” Signs 25.4 (2000): 1247-1251* Renya Ramirez, “Race, Tribal Nation, and Gender: A Native Feminist Approach to Belonging,” Meridians 7.2 (2007) 22-40* Maile Arvin, Eve Tuck, and Angie Morrill, “Decolonizing Feminism: Challenging Connections between Settler Colonialism and Heteropatriarchy,” Feminist Formations 25.1 (2013): 8-34* R 12/10 Joanne Barker, “Gender, Sovereignty, and the Discourse of Rights in Native Women’s Activism,” Meridians 7.1 (2006) 127-161* Rauna Kuokkanen, “Self-Determination and Indigenous Women’s Rights at the Intersection of International Human Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly 34.1 (2012): 225-250* Exam week Final paper due (exact date TBA) Required texts Mary Astell, Political Writings (978-0521428453) Margaret Atwood, A Handmaid’s Tale (978-0385490818) Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (978-0691149806) J.S. Mill, The Subjection of Women (978-0872200548) Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism (978-0415914192) Linda Nicholson, et. al., Feminists Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (978-0415910866) Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and A Vindication of the Rights of Men (978-0199555468) It is crucial that you use the listed editions. Inexpensive used copies are widely available online. * Readings not included in the required texts will be available on, or via, the course website. Course requirements Reading responses (15%): Reading responses of roughly 500 words to be posted weekly on the course website by 10pm on Mondays. In addition to week 8, one week may be skipped at the student’s discretion without penalty. Midterm paper (20%): The midterm paper will be due on Tuesday, October 20, at the beginning of class. Further details will be given in class. feminist political theory syllabus !4 Final paper (35%): The final paper will be due during exam week. An outline will be due in class on Thursday, December 3, for a peer review workshop and is worth 5% of the final paper’s grade.
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