Feminist
Thought (Revised
April 1 2010)
POLS
341/WOMS 401
E-mail:
brunell@gonzaga.edu
Class
Meetings: T/Th 10:50-12:05 p.m.
THEATD 104
Purpose:
To learn to
use gender and women’s experience as analytic frameworks for social scientific
and philosophical inquiry, especially in the area of political
theory. We will explore functional/conservative, liberal, Marxist
and radical feminist, and third wave feminist approaches to political theory
and questions about human nature, sex/gender differences, and men’s, women’s and
the state’s roles in family, civil society, economy and politics.
Central
questions include: What is feminism? Are you a feminist? Can men be
feminists? Can feminist theories be used to emancipate men? How does looking at philosophy from a
feminist or gender-informed point of view alter the project of “doing
theory?” What are the natures of
sex/gender and sex/gender difference? Is sex/gender socially constructed
or biologically determined or both? Is biology itself a social
construct? What was the nature of sex relations in a state of
nature? How does the social
contract affect relations between men and women? Is marriage a form of social/economic contract? How do women’s and men’s roles in the
family affect the conception of rights, their roles in the economy and politics
and vice versa? How are gender
identities mediated by/and how do they interact with our other class, race, or
ethnically-based identities?
What’s different about Third Wave feminism?
Required Texts:
Daly, Mary. 1990. Gyn/Ecology:
The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Boston: Beacon Press.
Fisher, Helen. 2000. The First Sex:
The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World. Ballantine Books.
Jaggar, Alison M. and Paula
S. Rothenberg. 1993. Feminist Frameworks: Alternative
Theoretical Accounts of the Relations between Men and Women. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Losco, Joseph and Leonard
Williams, eds. 2003. Political Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Volume II. Machiavelli to Rawls.
2nd Edition. Los
Angeles: Roxbury Publishing
Company.
MacKinnon, Catherine.
1989. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
MacKinnon, Catherine. 2006.
Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues. Belknap Press.
Assignments:
Before doing any of
these click here for information
on acceptable format, citation style, and research strategies.
1. Written homework
assignment of roughly two pages about the definition(s) of feminism you like
best and whether or not you consider yourself a feminist. See January 14
class session below for complete list of questions to answer.
2. Each session is focused on a set of
questions. All class members
should use these questions to guide their reading and come to class prepared to
answer/discuss them. The
designated discussant(s) will answer all of the questions in a written form to
be turned in to me and will use his/her responses to stimulate discussion with
the class.
3. 5-page
paper applying the insights from your discussion topic theorists/approach to a
contemporary problem of your choosing.
Due on one week after your discussion session.
Grade
Breakdown:
Participation: 10%
Definition of Feminism
Assignment: 5%
Answers to Discussion
Questions: 15%
Paper applying the
insights of your chosen theorist/feminist critiques to a contemporary problem:
20%
Midterm: 25%
Final Exam:
25%
Class
Meetings:
T January 12
Introduction to the
Course
Assignment: Be prepared to declare
what date you’d like to be the discussant and the issue you will theorize about
in your research paper during our next class period. Sign-up sheets will
be circulated. Do the written
homework assignment answering the questions on the syllabus.
Th January 14 In-class - sign-up for answering discussion questions and
choice of gender issues.
Defining the “F” Word
Defining Feminism and Feminist Theory
Reading: Treichler, Paula and Cheris Kramarae. "Feminism"
from The Feminist Dictionary. Reprinted in Feminist Theory: A
Reader. Wendy K. Kolmar and Frances Bartkowski, eds. Boston:
McGrawHill (available in Course Documents)
Flax, Janet. “Women Do Theory.” Feminist Frameworks, pp. 80-85.
Written
Homework Assignment Discussion Questions (Everyone writes this one up to turn
in):
What is
Feminism? What Definitions of Feminism most appealed to you? Does Feminism promote a specific form
of justice? What?
Are you a
Feminist? Why or why not?
Can men be feminists? Why
or why not? What can feminist
theorizing do for women, men, gender relations, the world? Do feminists promote a particular
vision of social justice? If so,
what is it?
T January 19
(discussant: Martha Burwell)
Functionalism and
Conservatism: Nature, Sex and Biological
Difference
Reading: Feminist Frameworks, p.
116; Okin, Susan Moller. Excerpt from “Women’s Place and
Nature in a Functionalist World,” pp. 73-84. (Course Documents); Wilson, Edward O. "Sex."
Feminist Frameworks, pp. 134-139.
Reading: Hubbard, Ruth. "The Political Nature of 'Human
Nature.'" Feminist Frameworks, pp. 140-148.
Discussion
Questions: What is functionalism? Describe the functionalist approach to
social/political theory? Name at
least two theorists (that we read or that we didn’t read for this class) who
used a functionalist approach to describe sex differences. How did they use functionalism to
define the social/political roles of women and men in the family, in the
economy, and in the polity? Do you
agree with their functionalist interpretations of women and men’s roles,
talents, etc.? Do they seem valid,
plausible? What elements of their
arguments are most persuasive?
What parts of their arguments seem least valid? (Draw on Moller Okin and Hubbard in
your answers.) What are the
implications of relying on functionalist analysis for women, men, creating a
gender just world? Does
functionalism move us in the direction or gender justice or not?
Th January 21
(discussant: Anna Senstrom, Micah
Howe, Dani Aboussie)
Scientific Evidence
for Sex Differences or Functionalism/Conservatism by another name?
Reading: York, Frank. “Gender Differences are Real.” Fisher, Helen. 2000. The First Sex.
Preface and Chpt. 1. Ballantine Books.
Discussion
Questions: What is
essentialism? What is the
social construction of gender? Is
there a middle ground between essentialism and constructivism? What sex differences are discussed by
the theorists we read for today? What
is there evidence for asserting these differences? Are you persuaded by their evidence/arguments? What are the social/economic/political
implications of their assertions?
According to Fisher, what would a gender just world look like? What would women/men be doing in the
family, in the workplace, in politics?
Does the world as it exists now resemble her vision of gender justice at
all?
T
January 26 (discussant: Michael Imasua)
Feminist Method, Feminist Epistemology
Reading:
Harding, Sandra. Excerpt from
Whose Science, Whose Knowledge? (Course Documents), and Jaggar, Allison. “Love
and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist
Epistemology” (Course Documents).
Discussion
Questions: Define method and then feminist method (refer back to the
definitions we talked about in the first class). Define epistemology and then feminist epistemology. Harding offers a critique of (Western?)
scientific method. What according
to her is problematic about its assumptions, methods, standards? Describe the feminist method she
presents? How does this complement
or enhance scientific method as commonly practiced? How does feminist epistemology differ from positivist or
masculinist epistemologies? Does
asserting there is such a thing as a feminist method or a feminist epistemology
depend on functionalist or essentialist notions of sex difference?
According
to Jaggar, what has been the relationship between Reason and Emotion in the
Western tradition? What does
she mean by Western “dualism?”
How does
she call Western ideas about the relationship between Reason and Emotion into
question? Does she persuade you
that feeling emotions is or can be part of good reasoning?
Can you
think of examples of how allowing emotion to affect our judgment allows us to
make better, more well-reasoned decisions?
Th
January 28 (discussant:
)
Introduction
to Liberalism and Hobbes: Natural
Rights, the State of Nature, the
Social Contract and the Leviathan
Reading: “Enter Modernity,” pp. 9-12 in Losco and Williams; “Thomas Hobbes,” in Losco and Williams,
pp. 48-49; Hobbes, Excerpts from The Leviathan, pp. 53-58 in Losco and Williams
(stop at end of Chpt. 14);
Schochet, Gordon J., “Intending (Political) Obligation, pp.67-70 (stop
at section IV); Okin, “John Stuart
Mill, Liberal Feminist,” pages on Hobbes only, 197-199 (in Course Documents).
Discussion
Questions: What years do historians define as “the
modern era?” According to Losco
and Williams in “Enter Modernity,” what social, theological, scientific,
cultural, economic and political changes ushered in and/or came to define the
modern era? Who was Hobbes, what
years was he alive and what social and political conditions in England that
shaped his writing?
What are
natural rights? What is the state
of nature? Describe its
characteristics, Hobbes’ assumptions about it. What is the relationship between men, between men and women
in the state of nature? What is
the social contract? Who are the
parties to it? Why do people agree
to the social contract? What
rights do men give up/retain as a result of the social contract? Do women give up/retain the same rights?
Are men living in an absolute monarchy more or less free than they are in a
state of nature? Are women living in an absolute monarchy more or less free
than they are in a state of nature?
How is the
marriage contract between husbands and wives in modern England like or not like
the social contract for men, for women? Is a married woman’s relationship with
her husband analogous to that between a male subject and the ruler of the
Commonwealth? How so? How not?
T February 2 (discussants:
Kaitlin Larson)
Liberalism
continued: Locke.
Reading:
Feminist Frameworks, pp. 117-118.; “John Locke,” pp. 86-88, in Losco and
Williams; Locke, “Excerpts from The
Second Treatise on Government,”
pp. 90-97 (stop at Chapter VII); Okin, “John Stuart Mill, Liberal
Feminist,” pages on Locke only, bottom of p. 199-201 (in Course Documents); and
Mary B. Walsh, “Locke and Feminism on Private and Public Realms of Activities,”
in Losco and Williams 126-136.
Discussion
Questions on Locke: Describe
Locke’s state of nature. How does
it differ from the state of nature assumed by Hobbes? What rights does man have as a result of “natural law”? Do you think that Locke thought women
possessed these rights as well?
What is the
right to property as Locke describes it?
What are the origins of this right? What is civil society? What is its basis?
How did
Locke describe marriage? What are
its purposes? What rights/duties
did it include? Are men and women
equal partners in marriage, according to Locke? Why or why not?
Do they share the right to common property accumulated in the
marriage? (see Walsh, 127) What, according to Walsh, is the
relationship between private property and “patriarchal marriage,” i.e., what
does one have to do with the other?
Does this relationship seem logical/necessary to you? According to Locke, would people have
the right to terminate their marriages?
Would
abortion be legal in a Lockean world?
Why or why not? As the
logical extensions of what rights?
For Locke, is the realm of marriage/family organized according to the
same structures and principles as political society? Why or why not?
Is Lockean
liberalism a sufficient philosophical basis to obtain freedom for most
people? For men? For women? See especially Walsh, 129, on what she describes as the
liberating potential in Locke. Do
you agree that the Locke’s ideas can be used to emancipate women? Give an example. How would Locke explain the
inequalities that exist in society today?
According
to Walsh, what are the main
criticisms communitarian feminists level at Locke? Radical feminists? Overall, do you think Locke is more helpful or harmful for
creating a gender just society?
Th
February 4 (discussants: EJ
Rickey)
Liberal arguments for women’s equality in the First Wave
Reading:
John Stuart Mill, pp. 401-404, in Losco and Williams; Mill, J.S. Excerpts
from “On Liberty,” in Losco and Williams pp. 405-416 and "On the
Subjection of Women," pp. 417-32; and Shanley, Mary Lyndon, “Marital
Slavery
Discussion
Questions on Mill: In
On Liberty, Mill asserts the importance of a free press and the freedom for all
to express their opinions. How does he rationalize the need for such free
expression? Is Mill making a
culturally or historically relativist argument?
Given the
necessity of competing opinions, are governments to make no laws? How, according to Mill, can governments
decide what is the right course of action (see pp. 406-7)? What is Mill trying to illustrate with
the examples of Socrates and Jesus?
What is Mill’s aspiration for the relation between the sexes, as
articulated in “The Subjection of
Women?”
What,
according to Mill, is the role of feeling in defending one’s argument
(417)? Does this seem an odd
notion? Why? Why do you think Mill includes this appeal
to feeling in his argument?
Why,
according to Mill, can we not assume that men’s subordination of women is the
best social practice, despite the fact that most would argue “it’s always been
this way” so it must serve some purpose?
What, according to Mill, are the origins of women’s subordination to
men? What, in other words, was a
“state of nature” like for women?
How does Milll call into question the notion that being a wife and
mother is “natural” to women? How
does women’s position as wife differ from that of a slave, according to
Mill? On what grounds does Mill
argue in favor of admitting women to professions and political office and to
extending to them the franchise?
What is the
role of competition in Mill’s social, political and economic worlds? Have his predictions about competition
between women and men proven true in contemporary society? Why or why not?
T February 9
(discussant: Mary Mulcrone, Asia
Hege)
Liberal Feminism in the
Second Wave and Radical Feminist Critiques of Liberalism
Reading: NOW. "Bill of
Rights." FF, p. 159. MacKinnon, Catherine A., Toward a Feminist Theory of the
State, chapters
entitled “The Liberal State" and "Sex Equality: On
Difference and Dominance.”
Discussion Questions
on Liberal Feminism in the Second Wave:
Is the NOW Bill of Rights a liberal document? How/why? Give
some examples that support your answer.
Do the rights that NOW asserts coincide with or derive from the natural
rights espoused by liberal thinkers such as Hobbes or Locke? If not, what is different about them
and can they still be called rights?
Has progress been made toward guaranteeing these rights?
Discussion
Questions on Radical Feminist Critiques of Liberalism: What is the “liberal state,” according
to MacKinnon? Can the liberal
state/liberalism achieve gender equity or the just treatment of women,
according to MacKinnon? Why or why
not? What theory of the state does
MacKinnon suggest feminists adopt?
What two standards to sex equality are found in American
jurisprudence? Has either of these
been used to improve women’s status in the US? Give examples.
What is MacKinnon’s feminist critique of these two standards?
Th
February 11 (discussants: Chelsea
Kancilia, Raevyn West)
The Limits of
Liberalism (Cont’d): Rape, Coercion and Consent Theorizing about Sexual
Violence/Violence Against Women
Reading:
MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Chapter 9, "Rape:
On Coercion and Consent." MacKinnon, Are Women Human?, Chapter 1, "On Torture."
MacKinnon, “Women’s January 11th,” in Are Women Human?
Discussion
Questions on Sexual Violence and the Limits of Liberalism: How, according to MacKinnon, to laws on
rape institutionalize the male point of view on sexual intercourse? What are the origins of rape laws? Why is MacKinnon critical of the trend
to characterize rape as a violent crime rather than as both violent and
sexual? Can men be raped according
to MacKinnon’s logic? If so, what
conditions would have to be present.
What is the role of consent in “proving” a rape has occurred? According to MacKinnon, how does the
necessity of having to prove “non-consent” function to legitimize rape? Why does the absence of force not the
same thing as consent? What
according to MacKinnon should be the standard for determining whether a rape
has occurred? What would she say
about the possibility of false accusations? What is “torture on the basis of sex” as MacKinnon defines
it? Why according to MacKinnon is
the sexual violence that women experience not recognized as torture? How does the fact that most victims of
sexual violence, prostitution and pornography are women make it not fall under
the rubric of “sex equality” kinds of protections?
T
February 16 (discussants: Alvin Ma)
Marxism/Historical
Materialism
Reading: Karl Marx, pp. 340-343, in Losco and
Williams; Feminist Frameworks, pp. 119-120; Excerpts from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, pp.
343-347, and Excerpts from The German Ideology, pp. 348-354 in Losco and Williams.
Discussion
Questions on Marxism: What does
Marx say about writing about a “state of nature” as many liberal theorists do?
What economic, social and political changes are shaping the world in which Marx
is writing? How do these
conditions dictate his choice of subjects? What are the most fundamental facts about labor and the life
of laborers in the world in industrial society? How is a laborer like/not like an animal? Does Marx’s critique apply equally well
to the condition of female workers as to male workers?
In The
German Ideology,
what is a “materialist” interpretation of history and what other approaches to
history are there? What are the primary stages of history that Marx identifies
in The German Ideology? Does Marx write about the
roles/status of women in German society in the various stages of history? What would a feminist critique of
historical materialism entail? Is
there room for Marxist feminism or for feminists to consciously employ
historical or dialectical materialism as a mode of an analysis?
Th
February 18 (discussants:____________ _____________ )
Marxism
Cont’d; Historical Materialism
Applied to the Family, Gender Roles
Reading:
Marx, Excerpts from The Communist Manifesto, pp. 355-362 and Capital, pp.
363-367, in Losco and Williams; MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the
State, “The Problem
of Marxism and Feminism."
Discussion
Questions on Marxism: What is the
nature of bourgeois society? How
will proletarian society differ?
Distinguish among use-value and exchange-value. Is women’s work more one or
the other? What is “surplus
value?”
What is the
relationship between sex/gender and class? Do these social categories over-lap each other, intersect,
according to MacKinnon? Does one
take precedence over the other? Do
men and women experience these categories in the same way? Does Marxist analysis contribute to an
understanding of sex inequality or confuse or inhibit it, according to
MacKinnon? Do you think one can be
both a Marxist and a feminist?
Does MacKinnon think so?
T
February 23 (discussants: JW
Trull, Lisa Chamberlin)
Feminist Critiques
of Marxism
Engels,
Friedrich, “Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,” Feminist
Frameworks, pp. 160-170;
MacKinnon, Toward
a Feminist Theory of the State, "A Feminist Critique of Marx and Engels."
Discussion
Questions on Engels and MacKinnon’s Critique of Engels: What, according to Engels, determines
family structure? Is there
anything natural about family structure?
Gender roles within the family, according to Engels? What kind of family structure and laws
and state structures grow out of industrialized capitalism? Post-industrial capitalism?
Why,
according to MacKinnon, is Engels characterization of the history of family and
economy incomplete? What does she
argue is obstructing Engels’s view?
How does a feminist like MacKinnon characterize the evolution of family
roles/structures, the economy/private property, the state?
Th
February 25
Midterm Review
T March
2
Midterm
Th
March 4 (discussants: Teddi McGuire, Andrew Myers and Wenyu Zhang)
Existentialism: Simone de Beauvoir
Reading: Simone de Beauvoir bio, pp. 515-517 in
Losco and Williams, and Excerpts from The Second Sex, pp. 518-537; and Simons,
The Second Sex: From Marxism to
Radical Feminism, pp. 555-566.
Discussion
Questions on de Beauvoir: What is existentialism? What kind of questions does an existentialist philosopher
ask about sex/gender? Women/men? What questions does de Beauvoir
ask? What are her answers? What is woman? What is femininity?
What does
“Other” mean as used by Beauvoir?
How are women Other?
Compared to what Self? Can
women (men) transcend womanhood (manhood)? How? How did de Beauvoir transcend womanhood in her life?
Spring
Break Week March 7 – 13!!
T March
16 (discussant: Bryce Comstock)
Communitarian
Theory: Arendt
Reading: Arendt bio, pp. 567-569, in Losco and
Williams, and Excerpts from the Human Condition, pp. 570-581; and Ditez, Hannah
Arendt and Feminist Politics, pp. 603-617.
Th March 18 (discussant: Susan Harrison)
Liberal Theory in
the 20th Century:
Rawls’ Theory of Justice
Reading: Rawls bio, pp. 618-619; Excerpts from A
Theory of Justice, pp. 620-632; and Kukathas and Petti, A Theory of Justice, pp.
649-658.
T March 23
(discussant: Kaia Warness)
Radical
Feminism
Reading: Feminist
Frameworks, pp. 120-122;
Daly, Mary.
"The Metapatriarchal Journey of Exorcism and Ecstasy, "Prelude to the
First Passage" and "Dismemberment by Christian and Postchristian Myth
Th March
25 (discussant: Elizabeth Tanonis)
Radical
Feminism (cont’d)
Reading: Daly, Sado-Ritual, Witch Hunt, FGM, Gynecology (10 pages from each
section)
T March 30
(discussant: Melody Sagario)
Radical Feminism
Reading:
Bunch, Charlotte. "Lesbians in Revolt." FF, pp. 174-177; Allen,
Jeffner. "Motherhood: The Annihilation of Women."
FF, pp. 380-385; review notes on MacKinnon "On Difference and Dominance.”
Th April
1 (discussant: )
Third Wave Feminism
Reading: Brunell, Laura. 2008. “Feminism Re-Imagined:
The Third Wave.” Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. (*Course Documents); Visit:
AlterNET
on Third Wave
3rd wwwave
T April
6
Multi-Cultural
Feminism, Situated Knowledge/Standpoint Theory
Readings: Feminist
Frameworks, pp. 123-124. Collins, Patricia Hill. "Toward an Afrocentric
Feminist Epistemology." FF, pp. 93-102.
King, Deborah.
"Multiple Jeopardy: The Context of a Black Feminist
Ideology." FF, pp. 220-237.
What
is the Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology suggested by Hill Collins? How,
according to King, are black women placed in “multiple jeopardy”? How do
black feminist voices enrich or strain third wave feminism?
Th April
8 (discussant: Stacy Graham,
Thuy-Anh Vo)
Multi-Cultural
Feminism Continued
Readings: Moraga, Cherrie. "From a
Long Line of Vendidas: Chicanas and Feminism." FF, pp. 203-212.
Chow, Esther
Ngan-Ling. "The Feminist Movement: Where Are All the Asian
American Women?" FF, pp. 212-219.
Discussion
Questions: What is a “vendida”? Who was Malinche and how has she
shaped the status of Chicana women? What specific cultural attitudes and
beliefs mitigate Mexican women’s experience of their gender? Where are
all the Asian American women, according to Ngan-Ling? Are Asian women
“immune” to feminism? What specific cultural attitudes and beliefs
mitigate Asian women’s experience of their gender? Do Latina and Asian
women experience a form of multiple jeopardy, as described by King?
T April
13
(discussant: Abe Corrigan)
Irigaray, “This Sex
Which is Not One.”
Readings:
Irigaray, “This Sex Which is Not One” (Course Documents); Wittig, Monique.
"One is Not Born a Woman." FF, pp. 178-181.
Discussion
Questions: What is the essence of Irigaray’s critique of gender in “This
Sex Which Is Not One?” What does she suggest as the starting point for an
authentic understanding of women’s bodies, sexuality? What does it mean,
according to Wittig, to not be born a woman? Is it the same thing that de Beauvoir meant in saying on is
made not born a woman? What about
these two readings best exemplify the post-modern approach to gender and
sexuality?
Th April 15 (discussant: Ian Sullivan – Butler; Erin Apte -
MacKinnon)
Queer Theory
Readings: Queer
Theory,
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (in Course Documents). MacKinnon, “Post-Modernism and Human Rights,” in Are Women Human?
Discussion
Questions: On Butler: What
does it mean for gender to be “performative” in Butler’s theory? How,
according to Butler, can we create “gender trouble”? Can you give
some examples of people in the public eye who cause gender trouble? What
does it mean to be “queer” according to queer theorists? What is the
difference between identifying as queer and identifying as gay or
lesbian? What does it mean to offer a queer analysis of a text? On MacKinnon: What does MacKinnon find problematic about post-modern
approaches to gender? In other
words, what are the main tensions between radical feminism and
post-modernism? Do you think there
is any validity to MacKinnon’s critique?
Is there any common ground between MacKinnon and Butler, Wittig or
Irigaray?
T April
20 (discussants: Michaela Graham,
Chelsey Wheeler)
Global
Feminism: Human Rights, Women’s Rights
Reading: MacKinnon, Are Women Human?,
"Introduction: Women's Status, Men's States," and Chapter 22,
"Genocide's Sexuality."
Discussion
Questions: Recall MacKinnon’s statement in Toward’s a Feminist Theory
of the State that feminists have not developed a theory of the
state. Does she present one here? What is it? How do “men’s
states” shape women’s status? Is the international arena less masculinist
than nation states? What, according to MacKinnon, is the role of
sexuality in genocide? Have the theorizing and legal work of
international human rights lawyers and criminal courts expanded the measure of
gender justice?
Th April 22 (discussant: Lauren Reynolds)
Global Feminism: Human Rights,
Women's Rights
Reading: MacKinnon, Are Women Human? Chapter 21, "Collective Harms
Under the Alien Tort Statute," Chapter 23, "Defining Rape
Internationally," and Chapter 24, "Pornography as Trafficking."
Discussion
Questions: How has rape been defined “internationally” or at least in
cases of genocide? How has the legal construction of rape in these
setting different from how it is construed in American courts?
Pornography in the US has been construed as speech or “artistic expression” and
is therefore seen as protected under the 1st Amendment to the
Constitution. How does MacKinnon shift the understanding of pornography
from being protected speech to being trafficking? Do you think such
shifts in the legal construction of rape and pornography could take place in
American law? Why or why not?
T April
27 (discussant:
Paul Kanellopoulos)
Global Feminism
Reading: MacKinnon,
“Human Rights and Global Violence Against Women,” Chpt. 2 in Are Women
Human? Bunch, Charlotte. “Prospects
for Global Feminism.” Feminist Frameworks, pp. 249-252 and "Strategies for
Organizing Against Female Sexual Slavery, " FF, pp. 503-513.
Discussion
Questions: Does the world view violence against women as a violation of
human rights? Why or why not? How has the global revolution in
human rights affected women’s ability to challenge/call into question violence
against women? According to Bunch in “Prospects for Global Feminism,”
what is a transformational feminist politics? Does the work done in the
area of human rights, described by MacKinnon, comprise such work? Did the
changes in international law surrounding genocide and rape and MacKinnon’s work
on rape, pornography, trafficking, etc., grow out of the strategies for
organizing against female sexual slavery described by Bunch in “Strategies for
Organizing…”? Based on your readings in the past two classes, is there a
global feminist movement that has been able to improve women’s legal
status/protect women’s human rights? What are the largest impediments to
progress in this area?
Th April 29
Course Wrap-Up and
Review for Final
Final Exam: on-line
through Blackboard; Available
Friday, April 30 8:00 a.m. – Wednesday, May 5, 5:30 p.m.