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WGS.101

Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies

3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H · Undergraduate

Drawing on multiple disciplines - such as literature, history, economics, psychology, philosophy, political science, anthropology, media studies and the arts - to examine cultural assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality. Integrates analysis of current events through student presentations, aiming to increase awareness of contemporary and historical experiences of women, and of the ways sex and gender interact with race, class, nationality, and other social identities. Students are introduced to recent scholarship on gender and its implications for traditional disciplines.

Spring 2023

Topics

  • Introduction to the Course and to the Field of Women’s and Gender Studies
  • The Roots of Contemporary Gender Mobilization: The Legacy of Seneca Falls (1848)
  • Everyday Justice and the 19 th Century U.S. Women’s Movement
  • Historical Strategies for Gender Change: Male Allies of the Women’s Rights Movement; “Direct Action Voting” / Civil Disobedience
  • Gender, Race, Class, and Suffrage
  • Gender, Race, Class, and Suffrage, cont.
  • Gender, Race, Class, and Suffrage, cont.: Resistance or Illness? Discourses of Women, Medicine, and Madness in the 19 th Century U.S.
  • Repression, Resistance, and Female Consciousness: Debating Themes of Madness and Liberation in a Classic American Literary Text
  • Gender Changes in 1940s America: A Seedbed of Feminism?
  • The Birth of the “Second Wave” of U.S. Feminism: 1960–66
  • The “Second Wave” of Women’s Rights Activism (1963–present): A Multivocal Intersectional Movement
  • The “Second Wave” and Beyond: A Multivocal Intersectional Movement, cont.
  • Introduction to Socialization and Gender Roles; Culture Interprets Biological Differences
  • Socialization: Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, and Gender Roles; Implications for Education and Careers
  • Representation of Gender in Advertising and Popular Visual Media
  • Representations of Gender in Popular Visual Media/Television
  • Crossing Gender Boundaries: Transgender and Gender Equality Movements
  • Sexual Self-Determination, Contraception, Reproductive Choice; The Legacy and Defeat of Roe v. Wade
  • Gender in the Workplace; Women in STEM
  • Gender Equality Issues in the Workplace: Gender and STEM
  • Global Issues; Contemporary Feminism; Course Wrap-Up.

Readings

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H

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