Roger Clark Fall, 2008 Office: CL 464 Hours: T, Th 11:45-12:15 p.m. Phone: 456-8729 M, T, W, Th 7:30-7:55 a.m. Email: [email protected] Sociology 264 Where in the World is Gender Inequality? Course Overview: Gender is an important determinant of people's life chances everywhere in the world. Almost everywhere women have inferior access to important resources like autonomy, wealth and power; almost nowhere do they have superior access. In this course we will examine the observation of the previous paragraph through three sets of lenses. On the one hand, we will critically examine various explanations that have been advanced for the general situation it describes. On another, we will look at historical and cross-cultural variations in the relative status of women and men, and critically evaluate explanations that have been advanced for that variation. On a third (if this isn't somehow too many hands), we will examine, historically and cross-culturally, efforts to change or subvert the situation it describes and critically evaluate explanations of those efforts. Your major job throughout the semester will be to use all three aforementioned lenses and develop your own arguments based upon them. You'll be making these examinations largely through the written word, shared and scrutinized in class. As a major course assignment, for instance, you'll be asked to investigate, in considerable depth, one particular topic related to the unequal access of women and men to valued social resources (an unequal access we will sometimes call "gender stratification," for short). Your topic may involve one major social institution: viz., love and marriage, family, work, education, religion, the media, politics and law. If it does you should look at this institution either from a cross-cultural or an historical perspective and, to the degree possible, discuss efforts to change or subvert gender relations. You will need to bring to class, for peer reviews, in a first draft of your paper (8-10 pages in length) about 5 weeks before the end of the semester and to revise the paper. Your final draft will be due for the third-to-last day of class and will be worth 25% of your course grade. There will be other writing assignments as well. You'll be asked, for instance, to write approximately 4 1- page papers in response to readings and an informal proposal for your term paper. You'll also be asked to write peer critiques of two other students' first draft. All of these short writing assignments will be worth another 35% of your grade. At some point, you will be asked to co-lead a class (for about 5 to 10 minutes) on the topic of your term paper. Your presentation preparation will involve submitting a one-page outline of your presentation to your instructor one week before you actually make the presentation. Your presentation will be worth 10% of your course grade. You'll also take two in-class essay exams, each worth 10% of your grade. Finally, your attendance and participation is very important for this class to succeed, and for you to succeed in it. 10% of your grade is allotted to these requirements. 1 The major texts for the course are the following and are available at the Off-Campus bookstore: Brettell, Caroline and Carolyn Sargeant, eds. Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective. 2009. Prentice-Hall. Lindsey, Linda. Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective. 2005. Prentice Hall. Course Outline: Weeks 1 to 5 A Cross-Cultural and Historical Overview: In this section of the course we will essay a cross-cultural and historical overview of gender stratification and of women's movements and antifeminist counter-movements. Please read: For Week 1: Lindsey. pp. 137-147. Brettell and Sargeant, the Griffins’ on the Agta of the Philippines and Lepowsky on Vanatinai. Film: Masai Women For Week 2: Lindsey, pp. 147-157, 157-170. Brettell and Sargeant, Stone and James on bride burning in India and Monica Cable on the family in China. Lisa Beyer, “The Women of Islam,” Time, Dec. 3, 2001, pp. 50-59. Vivienne Walt, “Basic Beliefs: In Indonesia teachers Cite Islamic Scripture to Elevate the Status of Of Women,” in Now It’s a Global Movement. Ford Foundation Report. Film: Brides Are Not For Burning & Sixty Minutes on One-Child Policy For your first four papers, this week and the three subsequent weeks, you will write brief essays (preferably no more than one page) on any topic related to the readings or films. These topics may include, but are not limited to: 1. Compare and contrast gender stratification in two cultures. Base your essay on readings from the course. 2. Consult some outside source (web site, say, or encyclopedia) and briefly summarize the twentieth century history of any society we've read about in the course and about which you'd like to learn more. 3. Briefly compare the experiences of women in two societies as they've gone through or created (e.g, 2 through feminist movements) "revolutionary" times. 4. Briefly compare and contrast the ways in which leaders in two societies have managed to effect gender relations in their societies. 5. Briefly discuss changes in masculinity or femininity as they’ve occurred in some society. All of these essays will be shared, usually in small groups, with others in the class--again with an eye to common and unusual themes. For Week 3: Lindsey, 95-103, 103-114. Rae Lesser Blumberg, “Extending Lenski’s Schema to hold up Both Halves of the Sky,” Sociological Theory 22(2): 378-392, 2004. Brettell and Sargeant, Anne Allison on Japanese Obentos. John Demos, “Iroquois Women and the Village World,” 2000, In No Small Courage. Film: Not For Ourselves Alone For Week 4: Lindsey, 115-122, 122-129 Proctor-Smith on Shakers. Jane Kamensky, “To Toil the Livelong Day,” 2000, In No Small Courage. Brettell and Sargeant, Lockwood on Tahiti. Film: Rosie the Riveter For Week 5: Lindsey, 11-18; Lindsey, 236-250. Harriet Sigerman, “Women Fight for their Rights,” From No Small Courage. 2000. Christina Hoff Summers, “The War Against Boys,” Atlantic Monthly, May, 2000. 60 minutes: Boys’ education For Week 6: B&S, pp. 495-522, including Lockwood on Tahiti and Wilson-Moore on Bangladesh. Film: Women Under Siege 3 In the sixth week, and in preparation for your major course project, you will write a brief paper (preferably not more than 1-page) in which you indicate the (likely) topic of research paper and list some references you’ve found to pursue the topic. Weeks 7 Mid-term test Weeks 8 through 14 Each of these weeks will be devoted to particular institutional arrangements affecting and affected by gender. Students will co-teach classes during these weeks. Week 8: Sexuality, Birthing and the Family Lindsey, 25-32. Brettel and Sargeant: Davis-Floyd on American birthing and Abu-Lughod on Muslim sexuality. Shostak autobiographical snippets on Nisa. Film: A Midwife’s Tale Week 9: Sexuality, Birthing and the Family Lindsey, 185-200. B&S: di Leonardo, 380-390. More on Nisa. Film: A Midwife’s Tale Draft of Term Paper Due For Week 10: Work. Lindsey, Chapter 10. B& S: McElhinny on police use of force. Film: The Double Shift. For Week 11: Education. Lindsey, Chapter 11. Film: bell hooks on popular culture For Week 12: Religion Lindsey, Chapter 12. B&S: Starr Sered on Religion among elderly Jews in Israel. Film: Women under Islam 4 For Week 13: Media Lindsey, Chapter 13. B&S: Urla and Swedlund, “Measuring Up to Barbie.” Film: Barbie Nation Term Paper Due Week 14: Politics Lindsey, Chapter 14. Final Exam Preparation Selected References General Adams, Rachel and David Savran. 2002. The Masculinity Studies Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Angier, Natalie. 2000. Woman: An Intimate Geography. New York: Anchor Books. Baker, Jean. 2002. Votes for Women. The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. New York: Oxford University Press. Barker-Benfield, G.J. 2000. The Horrors of the Half-Known Life: Male Attitudes toward Women and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Routledge. Bonvillain, Nancy. 1998. Women and Men: Cultural Constructs of Gender. 2nd edition. Saddle Brook, NJ: Prentice Hall. Barndt, Deborah. 2002. Tangled Routes: Women, Work, and Globalization on The Tomato Trail. Rowman and Littlefield. Berkovitch, Nitza. 2002. From Motherhood to Citizenship: Women’s Rights and International Organizations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Binney, Marcus. 2002. The Woemn Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive. William Morrow. Bingham, Clara and Laura Leedy Gansler. 2003. Class Action: The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law. Anchor Books. Chafetz, Janet Saltzman and Anthony Gary Dworkin. 1986. 5 Female Revolt: Women's Movements in World and Historical Perspective. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld. Chesler, Ellen. 2007. Woman of Valor. Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America. Simon & Schuster. Cott Nancy, ed. 2000. No Small Courage: A History of Women In the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Christ, Carol. 2003. She Who Changes: Re-Imagining the Divine in the World. Palgrave MacMillan. D'Aluisio, Faith and Peter Menzel. 1996. Women in the Material World. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. Delamotte, Eugenia, Natania Meeker, and Jean O’Barr. 1997. A Blobal Anthology of Women’s Resistance: From 600 B.C.E. to Present. New York: Routledge. Disch, Estelle. 2003. Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Boston: McGraw Hill. Domosh, Mona, and Joni Seager. 2001. Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense Of the World. New York: The Guilford Press. Eller, Cynthia. 2000. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Inverted Past Won’t Give Women a Future.