INTRODUCTION TO WOMENS

STUDIES

Spring 2015. Schedule.

Readings, Assignments,
and In-Class Activities

Week One: Womens and Gender Studies, Perspectives and

Practices
Monday January 26th. Reading Due: Syllabus
Assignments Due: Post Introductions to D2L discussion.
Class Activities: Introductions and syllabus review. Discuss course goals and
structure.
Wednesday January 28th. Reading Due: Chapter One of WVFV (Chapter
available on D2L). Feminism is for Everybody-Introduction and Chapter One,
Bell Hooks.
Assignments Due: I am/am not a feminist because
Class Activities: Discussion: What is Feminism? What is Womens Studies?
Homework: Make a Tumblr which will be dedicated to class work. Share the
URL to D2L Discussion before Sunday February 1st, by Midnight.

Week Two: Systems of Privilege and Inequality

Monday February 2nd. Reading Due: Chapter Two of WVFV. Five Faces of
Oppression (on D2L).
Assignments Due: Chapter Two WVFV Reading Response Due by class time
(11:00 AM) today. Post to your Tumblr.
Class Activities: Intersectionality Exercise
Wednesday February 4th. Reading Due: Toward a New Vision: Race, Class,
and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection, Patricia Hill Collins.
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack- Peggy McIntosh. Cisgender Privilege
Checklist. (Readings on D2L)
Class Activities: **Privilege 101 Workshop**
Homework: Privilege 101 Workshop Response due this Sunday, February 8th by
Midnight. Post to D2L Dropbox and (Optionally) Tumblr.

Week Three: Learning Gender

Monday February 9th. Reading Due: Chapter Three of WVFV.

Assignment Due: Chapter Three WVFV Reading Responses due by 11:00
A.M. Post to your Tumblr.
Class Activities: Watch short video, The Complexities of Gender.
Group Share: Personal experiences with gendered policing. What are the
differences between gender identity and gender expression? How aware are
we of our gender expression/performance?

WMNS 200-002 SPRING 2015 Instructor: Metcalf


Wednesday February 11th. Reading Due: The Five Sexes Revisited, Anne FaustoSterling. The Social Construction of Gender, Judith Lorber. Unraveling Hardwiring, Cordelia
Fine. Trans Identities and Contingent Masculinities: Being Tombois in Everyday Practice,
Evelyn Blackwood.
Assignment Due: Gendered Socialization Artifact. Post to D2L and Tumblr.
Class Activities: Watch Film Clip, Gender Socialization. Group Share: Gendered
Socialization Artifacts.

Week Four: Inscribing Gender on the

Body
Monday February 16th. Reading Due:
Chapter Four of WVFV.
Assignments Due: Chapter Four WVFV
Reading Responses due by 11:00 A.M. Post
to Tumblr.
Class Activities: Discuss: To what extent is
gender consensual?
Wednesday February 18th. Reading Due:
Beating Anorexia and Gaining Feminism, Marni Grossman. Ethnicity and Body
Consciousness, Dara Greenwood and Sonya Dal Cin. Hold that Nose, Lisa Miya-Jervis. Is
Fat a Feminist Issue? Exploring the Gendered Nature of Weight Bias, Janna Fikkan and
Esther Rothblum. Bodies and Bathrooms, Dan Frosch. If the Clothes Fit: A Feminist Take
on Fashion, Minh-Ha T. Pham.
Assignments Due: Gender Norm Violations Due By 11:00 A.M.Post to Tumblr and D2L
dropbox. Be prepared to discuss them in class.
Class Activities: Discuss: Gender Norm Violations
and Readings.

Week Five: Media and Culture

Monday February 23rd. Reading Due: Chapter
Five of WVFV.
Assignments Due: Chapter Five WVFC Reading
Responses due by 11:00 A.M. Post to Tumblr.
Class Activities: In Class Film: Miss
Representation
Wednesday February 25th. Reading Due: A
Brief Visual History of Riot Grrrl ZInes. Girl Zines,
Making Media, Doing Feminism- Introduction (on
D2L).
Assignments Due: None
Class Activities: Zine Workshop

Week 6: Sex, Power, and Intimacy

Monday March 2nd. Reading Due: Chapter six of WVFV.
Assignments Due: Feminist Media Analysis Due by 11:00 A.M. Chapter six WVFV reader response due by 11:00
A.M. Post to Tumblr.
Class Activities: Discus Feminist Media Analysis.
Wednesday March 4th. Reading Due: The Cult of Virginity, Jessica Valenti. A World of Difference, Leila J. Rupp.
Dismantling Hierarchy, Queering Society, Andrea Smith. Queering Black Female Heterosexuality, Kimberly
Springer.
Class Activities: Discuss: The social construction of sexuality. What is the relationship between gender and
sexuality?

Week 7: Health and Reproductive Justice

Monday March 9th. Reading Due: Chapter seven of WVFV.
Assignments Due: Chapter seven WVFV Reader Responses due by 11:00 A.M. Post to Tumblr.
Class Activities: Film Viewing : Jennifer Baumgardner and Gillian Aldirchs, I Had An Abortion
Wednesday March 11th. Reading Due: The Gender Gap in Pain, Laurie Edwards. Southern Discomfort, Carl
Gaines. A Global Health Imperative, Nancy Fugate Woods. Freedom to Choose? Three Essays in Abortion Rights,
Maggie Koerth-Baker, Molly M. Ginty, and Kathryn Joyce.
Class Activities: Class Discussion: What is reproductive justice?

Week 8: No Classes! Spring Break! March 16th-March 18th!

Week 9: Family Systems, Family Lives

Monday March 23. Reading Due: WVFV Chapter Eight.
Assignments Due: Midterm Mini Zine Due (Bring to class). Chapter eight WVFV reader response due by 11:00
A.M. Post to Tumblr.
Class Activities: Share zines.
Wednesday March 25. Reading Due: Marriage and Love, Emma Goldman. Who Wants to Marry a Feminist?
Lisa Miya-Jervis. Marriage Equality: Three Essays, Audrey Bilger, Daniel DAddario, and Gowri Vijayakumar.
Singled Out, Tamara Wingrey Harris. Lullabies Behind Bars, Beth Schwartzapfel.
Class Activities: Discuss: What is the wedding industrial complex?

Week 10: Work Inside and Outside the Home

Monday March 30th. Reading Due: Chapter nine WVFV.
Assignments Due: Chapter nine WVFV Reader Responses
due by 11:00 A.M. Post to Tumblr.
Class Activities: Discuss: The feminization of poverty,
income inequality, the second shift, gendered division of
labor, and domestic work.
Wednesday April 1st. Reading Due: Interview with
Vandana Shiva, J. Bizot (on D2L). Will Marriage Equality
Lead to Equal Sharing of Housework? Terrance Heath. A
Brief History of Working Women, Sharlene Hesse-Biber and
Gregg Lee Carter. The Triumph of the Working Mother,
Stephanie Coontz. Maid to Order: The Politics of Other
Womens Work, Barbara Ehrenreich. Color Me Nontoxic, Mom Chang.
Assignments Due: Feminist Comedy Critique Due. Post to Tumblr and D2L Dropbox.
Class Activities: Assign Final Project Groups.

Week 11: Resisting Gendered Violence

Monday April 6th. Reading Due: Chapter Ten of WVFV.
Assignments Due: Chapter Ten WVFV Reader Responses due by 11:00 A.M. Post to Tumblr.
Class Activities: Discuss: What is gendered violence?
Wednesday April 8th. Reading Due: Beyond the Politics of Inclusion: Violence Against Women of Color and
Human Rights, Andrea Smith. Sex Trafficking in the U.S., Rachel Chinapen. Betrayed by the Angel: What
Happens When Violence Knocks and Politeness Answers, Debra Anne Davis. How Some Men Harass Women
Online and What Other Men Can Do to Stop It, Ben Atherton-Zeman. Anti-LGBTQ Violence: Three Essays, Tony
Hobday, Michelangelo Signorile, and Hope Gillette.

Week 12: State, Law, and Social Policy

Monday April 13th. Reading Due: Chapter Eleven of WVFV.
Assignments Due: Chapter Eleven WVFV Reader Responses due by 11:00 A.M. Post to your Tumblr.
Wednesday April 15th. Reading Due: The Feminist Factor, Eleanor Smeal. Name It. Change It., Rachel Joy
Larris and Rosalie Maggio. Delinquent Girls, Andrea Doyle Hugmeyer. Struggling to Find a Home, Patricia Leigh
Brown.

Week 13: Activism, Change, and Feminist Futures

Monday April 20. Reading Due: Chapter Thirteen WVFV

Assignments Due: Final Project Proposals, Each group member submit to D2L.
Class Activities: Discuss: Feminist Activism in the 21st Century

Wednesday April 22. Reading Due: Feminist Men, Byron Hurt. Fear of Feminism: Why Young Women
Get the Willies, Lisa Marie Hogeland. Fracking is a Feminist Issue, Rebecca Clarren. What Pussy Riot
Taught the World, Michael Petrou. We Are the Ones Weve Been Waiting For, Moya Bailey and Alexis
Pauline Gumbs.

Assignments Due: None

Class Activities: Discuss: Why are peace and environmental justice important feminist issues? What activist work
must be done to build a truly inclusive, peaceful, healthy, and egalitarian community?

Week 14: Milwaukee Feminist Activism, Yesterday and Today

Monday April 27th. Reading Due: The Womens Coalition of Milwaukee, 1972-1987: Feminist Activism
at the Local Level (on D2L).
Class Activities: Meet at UWM Libraries Special Collections (4th Floor). Look at Milwaukee feminist publications.

Wednesday April 29th. Reading Due: None

Assignments Due: None

Class Activities: Work on Group Projects. Course Evaluations. Revisit I am/am not a feminist because

Week 15: Final Project Presentations and Potluck (Bring some food to share!)
Monday May 4th. Final Presentations Groups
Wednesday May 6th Final Presentations Groups (Last Class)