Women?s Studies Final Exam Study Guide.doc

Women?s Studies Final Exam Study Guide Identifications: White Man?s Burden February 18 lecture Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) Imperial discourses are gendered Justifying Empire Empire: The control of people and resources through military and economic means Globalization February 18 lecture Globalization is a process that shapes the lives of women here and elsewhere Emergent transnational feminist movements are shaped by histories of empire as well as the realities of globalization ?Globalization is a complex economic, political, cultural, and geographic process in which the mobility of capital, organizations, ideas, and peoples has taken on an increasingly global or transnational form.? (Moghadam) Economic: growth & expansion of transnational corporations Political: Rise of multilateralism in global politics. Increasing relevance of United Nations, NGOs, and other supranational and multinational entities. Cultural: rise of worldwide cultural standardization (coca-colonization) Discussion March 6: We go into these countries because they need our help; they don?t know how to govern themselves, make enough money, etc, so its our job to help them Justification of going into someone else?s land Globalization is gendered Structural Adjustment Policies Economic policies enforced on developing countries in exchange for loans Deregulation Privatization Eliminating or minimizing labor protections (minimum wage, and collective bargaining rights) Eliminating or minimizing environmental protections Gendered Globalization Gendered labor Women most directly affected From Moghadam: Structural Adjustment policies, which aim to balance budgets and increase competitiveness through trade and price liberalization, include reduction of the public sector wage bill and growth of the private sector, privatization of social services, encouragement of foreign investment, and the production of goods and services for export through flexible labor processes First implemented in some African and Latin American Countries as a result of the debt crisis of the early 1980s. Causes women to bear most of the responsibility of coping with increased prices and shrinking incomes, since in most instances they are responsible for household budgeting maintenance Women of Color Resource Center Linda Burnham Lecture March 3 Third world women?s alliance?student SNCC; black women?s caucus, alliance, issues affecting African American women; economic issues between gender Women of color and their concerns fall between the cracks; when you hear race, you think black male. When you hear gender, you think white female Challenges of coalition: how do you get people involved? Events: worked with women veterans and focused on post traumatic stress syndrome Social justice feminism Fashion show: someone my might not go to a talk, but may go to a fashion show, military fashion?big part of haute couture Example of coalition-history, how it came together, and what it does Founded in 1990, the Women of Color Resource Center (WCRC) is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and promotes the political, economic, social and cultural well being of women and girls of color in the United States. Informed by a social justice perspective that takes into account the status of women internationally, WCRC is committed to organizing and educating women of color across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, class, sexual orientation, physical ability and age. Beyond Bean Counting JeenYeun Lee ?Every time I am in a room of people gathered for any reason, I automatically count those whom I can identify with as women, men, people of color, asian Americans, mixed race people, whites, gays and lesbians, bisexuals, heterosexuals, people with disabilities? Couldn?t find where she as an asian American woman fit in with feminists Barred Room Coalition Politics-Reagon Staying isolated is not the answer Coalition is necessary because the barred rooms will all be wiped out This is a room where someone goes when they find it difficult to live in society because of their identity whether it be race, gender, etc. They cannot survive inside the room It is a comfortable room where someone examines who they. If they were running society, how would it be? When different people come into the room, things change and it is not a home any more Coalition is the street: unsafe, lack of trust, disagreement People walk into barred room expecting to find a home, but found the streets (coalition) Lecture 3/5: organizing for social change Nurse?s Health Study Carol Boyd?s Lecture: Who has been left out of the study? What am I not being told about the research? Problem with aspirin study: doses were only for men, no women were included in the study The nurse?s health study paralleled the aspirin study Focuses on women?s health and bodies Looks at multiple factors of health: diagnosis, medications, etc Related to shifting the center: place the most powerless at the center of the political imaginary La Operacion Exposes the widespread sterilization among Puerto Rican Women that began as a means of curbing the surplus population, but continues to be reinforced politically and socially in the Puerto Rican communities. Reframes reproductive rights through an anticolonial/ ?third? world lens. Loretta Rosss?coaltion politics?march of woman?s lives Economic factors leading to sterilization Freed up women to work more?corporations would basically almost sponsor this so more women could work?another example of feminization of poverty, structural adjustment policy Did this just stay in Puerto Rico? No b/c head of this moved to NY Operation boot strap: kind of forced migration Link to stern article, eugenics principles, link to globalization and to capitalism Cancer Industrial Complex Welcome to Cancerland: Ehrenreich Multinational corporate enterprise that with one hand deals with carcinogens and disease and, with the other, offers expensive, semi-toxic pharmaceutical treatments Obedience is a significant message in breast cancer cultures; people accept the medical treatments used by doctors, neglecting the limited effectiveness of it People focus on celebrating survivor hood Breast Cancer Awareness Month Vanessa Williams Lecture in media representation of women When she won miss America (first black), she was looked down upon, received death threats Nude pictures surfaced, crown removed, became praised while being an actress/singer Bell Hooks Article: Selling hot pussy- talks about Black women roles in society as promiscuous Connection to lecture and bell hooks, as well as: hurtado seduction rejection Significance: gendered construction of race Different women face different kinds of obstacles Heteronormativity-Hill Collins Hegemonic Femininity: includes race Connect to girl watching? Make herself available to be watched by men as a successful black female Tight Bodies Gendered representation in the media Not only are women expected to become thinner and as little as possible, but they have to be tight too?no wiggling Tied in with making it harder to be ideal women: backlash- makes women feel more powerless then before; standards for beauty get even higher Tight bodies also linked to idea of anorexia and bulimia: example in Bordo?s reading: controlling your body; these bodies are representative of the social body Ties into sexuality week with Dr. Halperin: how overweight ppl were ostracized; example on talk shows Connect Bordos piece with hegemonic femininity Synthetic Approach to Popular Culture Lecture March 17 Popular culture is a synthesis of hypodermic needle and reflecting pool theory Culture emerges from the dialogue between culture specialists and consumers Producers and consumers are both leaders and followers March for Women?s Lives Loretta Ross: sister song How she complicates things like choice, eugenics b/c she was sterilized at a young age How was it organized? Who organized it? Was the coalition a success: yes for the march, but after fell back into pattern of not including everyone Ties to coalition and reproduction NARAL Pro-Life Gospel Book about abortion writing from the feminist prospective Author: Harding Argument: feminist aspects are taking over There was always a spectrum of ideas about abortion Called a pro-life gospel b/c it has episodic story; born again believer reader; insert themselves in the stories Book framed by voice of authority Jennifer stands in as misguided, lonely teenage girl Takes focus away from fetus and puts it on teenage girls; weak, vulnerable girls are making the answer: shouldn?t have abortions, go through adoption; white, Christian couples, affluent enough to care for child; heteronormativity Shifting the focus to only young, vulnerable women Relate it to binary: pro life vs pro choice: The Pro-Life Gospel is a deep analysis of Jerry Falwell?s book If I Should Die Before I Wake, particularly the double-narrative utilized in the book. Harding emphasizes the apparent switch in the ?listener? (normally the female role), and ?speaker? (authority figure, male characteristic) role between Falwell and Jennifer, but asserts ultimately that feminist views are ignored. Regardless of the double narrative, there is still a hierarchy between men and women. This is clearly shown when Harding states that the feminist story line is ?reimagined? by Falwell, and also when she describes how born-again Christian males are portrayed as ?a man-father-Father figure who will save girl-mothers, as well as babies, from the maw of abortion? (188). More generally, Harding argues that Falwell is supporting the pro-life campaign by ?converting feminist language to its (the born-again language) terms? (185). This article pertains to the point made in lecture that women are sometimes kept from being moral agents because of structural or cultural gender roles Eden as a thought experiment Women as moral agents Men always end up being above women: binaries often end up in hierarchies Problems with Adam and Eve story: all women get mapped onto eve?corrupt, not a good moral agent Women are supposed to be seductive; Eve was the one who seduced Adam into eating the forbidden fruit. As described in lecture, women are supposed to be the temptresses. By moral agency, we are referring to a person who has the power to make moral decisions Augustine Slide: connect id to biblical story and the fall, original sin, consequences are human mortality, difficulties in reproduction Firm connection between sexual intercourse and original sin Thinking about what sex before fall might?ve looked like and after fall might?ve looked like Women have always been problematic as social agents Related Gayle Rubin hierarchy: modern sexuality is organized along a hierarchy of values that distinguishes between ?good? or normal sex acts, and ?bad? or perverse sex acts Girl Watching Act of men sexually evaluating women, often in the company of other men Allows men to reclaim their masculinity Patriarchal power?place themselves over women ?We have the right to look at you, and you cannot do anything about it? heterosexual masculinity Quinn?s article Men subconsciously know they are wrong and would feel violated if they were in that position. Gender roles: men are supposed to behave the way they do Maid/Madam Lan?s article When female employers attempt to carve out a rigid boundary between maid and madam, they are simultaneously participating in the construction of stratified womanhood and the imaginings of class and ethnic differences Constructed stratified womanhood because madam is constantly putting the maid down Still want to be a better without performing the tasks Fear of losing own status in the home Nanny Chain: women are getting employed by wealthier women, then need to hire a nanny for their children Lecture: April 2: both groups of women leave their children for waged employment and deviate from full-time homemaking or mothering Both groups of omen continue to subscribe to gender conventions Feminization of domestic labor Emotional Labor Discussion 4/3/08 Has to be pleasant at all times Manage he situation with emotion management, internally concealing true emotions Ex) waitress changing orders; since women have gender roles, they need to contain their emotions Butch/Femme Masculine people should be with feminine people After WWII- lesbianism became visible Making invisible visible?came from one of the first lecture Resulted in change where sexuality has been classified in ways it has not been before Link: construction of sexuality Link to true women hood Invert Idea that same sex desire is inversion Men are always attracted to women vice versa= innate Basically though of lesbians as being physically women but having sexual role as men Lesbians have male brains gay men have women brains Late 19th century early 20th century?issues of purity Early way of thinking about same sex desire Connection: idea of invert maintains ideas that men and women are really different: gender binary, social construction of gender; a deviant mind DAVIDSON: perversion Very specific and early idea of same sex sexuality Creates new person: third ?sex??allows in some ways potential positive outcomes Queer/hetero binary Anti-assimiliation is a move to challenge anything that challenges heteronormativity Cohen?wants to keep certain aspects from the left (?) Left politics engage in marxist structural analysis In creating this new binary where Queer is doing all these fabulous things?Queer theory and politics never lived up to this Some sexualities within heterosexuality are still seen as deviant?transnormative politics Queer theory: academic Queer politics: doing stuff, arguing stuff, going to the mall, making out, not hiding (stereotypical example) Queer hetero binary: people who are antihomosexual hold up this wall between heteros and homos: problem because queer theory was supposed to bring down this wall Short Answer: main point and what it relates to Moghadem: Gender and Globalization: Female Labor and Mobilization Examines the various dimensions of globalization?economic, political, and cultural?with a focus on their contradictory social-gender effects ?Globalization is a complex economic, political, cultural, and geographic process in which the mobility of capital, organizations, ideas, and peoples has taken on an increasingly global or transnational form.? (Moghadam) Process has created a new constituency?working women and organizing women Economic: growth & expansion of transnational corporations (lecture) Political: Rise of multilateralism in global politics. Increasing relevance of UN, NGOs, and other supranational and multinational entities (lecture) Cultural: rise of worldwide cultural standardization (coca-coloization)- (lecture) Feminization of poverty is an unwelcome feature of economic globalization: women?s unemployment rates are higher then men?s everywhere; they get poorly paid Structural Adjustment policies and economic crises hurt women more then men Labor is gendered(relates to gender roles A. Smith: The Three pillars of Heteropatriarchy We are too busy fighting over who is more oppressed Three Pillars: Genocide, Capitalism Orientationalism, Slavery Genocide of American Indians: They are disappearing/ dying, so taking land is justified Orientationalism: Asian?so different, we cannot get along. They are a threat, so we need to fight them Slavery: black Americans?need help being civilized; they are property Black Americans were told if you have a drop of black, you are black. Native Americans told they are white. When you put more people in the black category, you have more workers. When you put less people in the Native American group, you get more land Relates to coalition: need to see each other?s opposite oppressions, then you can start one. Relate to Reagon?s article: learn about space within coalition?you cant have everyone sitting up there that concerns you at the same time or you wont get anywhere Stern: Sterilized in the Name of Public Health To better comprehend the fraught politics of reproductive control, explores the intersections of race, sex, immigration, sterilization, and health policy Involuntary sterilizations in California Eugenics used to justify sterilization in California. Sterilization will lead to less defected children Mainstream feminism with regard to reproductive rights Link to la operacion(link to globalization and to capitalism Also relate to Harrison Harrison: Theology of Pro-choice: A feminist perspective The main point of this article is that it is necessary to shift attention away from the single act of abortion in order to examine a woman?s right to procreative choice in a society where women face numerous limits as a result of social control. She does not view abortion as anti-life, as women only turn to abortion as a mode of last resort. She argues that no one agrees with terminating a pregnancy without proper reason. This reading connects to the idea from lecture that Christian theology does not grant women moral agency. The church minimizes a women?s capacity of or right to exert power, viewing abortion as an anti-life decision, ultimately advocating the idea that women should be denied the right to procreative choice Women play the role as ?moral agents?. It is important that women be considered as individuals, capable of making moral, justifiable, and appropriate decisions. Many women have had legitimate experiences that would allow them to make morally correct decisions. The binary between ?men as rational and women as emotional? prevents women from gaining the ultimate power to make their own decisions. Additionally, parallel to the social perception of a proper ?mother? learned in lecture, Harrison argues that if a woman does not feel as if she can adequately fulfill the maternal position and sacrifice everything for her child, she may want to terminate her pregnancy in order to avoid placing her child in a poor situation Kanter: The impact of Hierarchical Structures on the Work Behavior of Women and Men Structural conditions, particularly those stemming from the nature of hierarchy, shape apparent ?sex differences? in the workplace and in organizations Three structural variables: opportunity, power, and sex ratio, influence behavior Women at the bottom of the hierarchy ace the way they do b/c of being on the bottom, not because of their gender Stereotype of gender roles: women tend to be less involved in their work and committed to it than men, interrupting their careers whenever they can; they are more concerned about their relationships with other people than the task or reward aspects of their jobs; and they have lower levels of aspiration Both men and women have higher motivation when they are ranked higher The old way of thinking about workplace inequality as a problem of ?sex differences? or ?sex roles? is inadequate?arise from hierarchy in companies at large. Solution: don?t look at sex differences but target the structure Connect to section discussion about emotional labor Connect to maid/madam?women are expected to work in the house Cohen: Punks, Bulldaggers, And Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics Envision a politics where one?s relation to power, and not some homogenized identity, is privileged in determining one?s political comrades Discussion of how to build a politics organized not merely by reductive categories of straight and queer, but organized instead around a more intersectional analysis of who and what the enemy is and where our potential allies can be found. She argues that queer theory would include more things under identity Queer politics: enactment of this theory: critiquing more mainstream gay and lesbian movements Queer intersectionality coalition Relate to crenshaw?s mapping the margins as well as the coalition articles in terms of oppression?where do they fit in? Essay: 3 course readings and two lectures Relates author?s discussion of the complicated role that gender plays in Hillary Clinton?s campaign to the themes and issues raised during the semester. Include Women and work/ leadership, hegemonic femininity, media representations of women---because her campaign begins to solely focus on women, it goes against all of our studies about equality, oppression, etc. It shifts the center to women Intro: One of the biggest controversies to date is the race for the democratic nomination. Our next president could possible be and African American man, Barack Obama, or a women, Hillary Clinton. Hillary?s campaign is aggressively targeted towards the female vote. Certain aspects of her campaign, however, complicate our understandings of women in political leadership through the ideas of women and work, media representations of women, and hegemonic femininity. Women and Work Glass ceiling: women are prevented from moving up a position/status. They might be able to move up, but when they hit a certain point, there are barriers. Ex) tokenism (being the only one)?feel very noticeable, tend to be less quiet and make themselves less visible; also disadvantaged because of networks Hierarchical structure?Kanter?s article: men cannot see themselves working under a woman Last pgh of her campaign talks about women?s pay Hegemonic femininity: women are supposed to be feminine-wives, mothers, etc.; women are supposed to care about beauty and appearance Relate back to sports article from beginning of semester?androgyny ?Everything from her pansuits to her laugh?? One man screamed iron my shirt Promised to bring her experience as ?daughter, sister, wife, and mother? to white house(possible connection to bean counting Media representations ?Still not formula for how to appear as a credible political candidate?? Connect to tight bodies and Bordo?s articles Write an essay about how we can understand the factors that affect women?s reproductive decision making in light of this statement. In crafting your response you can and should incorporate insights from lectures and readings from both halves of the semester. Include complicating choice, mother hood, women and work, hill Collins ?status quo? Intro: Feminist for life of America is an activist group whose programs often target college campuses. It uses rhetorical strategies throughout its mission statement to influence those who read it. However, many assumptions about gender and women?s opportunities are being made. In light of this statement, we can understand the factors that affect women?s reproductive decision making by the means of complication choice, motherhood, women and work, and the definition of the status quo. Complicating choice Lecture about: March for Women?s Lives?Loretta Ross she was sterilized at a young age, so it complicates things First line?potential for every human right?abortion, sterilization?articles and lectures Motherhood Talk about abortion?pro choice article Connect to gender roles as a mother Women and work Choosing between pursuing her education and career plans and sacrificing child: talk about nannies, gender role, women in the work place articles and lecture (Kanter?s hierarchical article) Status Quo Article-Prisons for Our Bodies, Closets for Our Minds Institution of marriage: people would naturally choose partners of the opposite sex and the same race Ideologies defend racism and heterosexism, defending the status quo The mission statement talks about join us in challenging the status quo?but they are talking about women gender roles as whole, leaving out race and sexuality intersectionality