Women in Comparative Societies
Week One: Why
and How to Study Women
Reading: All
readings are listed by author’s last name.
Burn, Chpts. 1 and 2 and browse the data
in the Appendix.
Visit: The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality
and the Empowerment of Women’s site: http://www.unwomen.org/
to oriented to the issues that confront women in the world today and inspired
by the courageous people seeking solutions to these problems. On this site, browse the orange tabs across
the top as well as the gray buttons along the bottom of the main frame for the
page. Under the orange Resources tab,
find reports on Progress of the World’s Women, Landmark Cases, and the Millenium Development Goals. Under Web Portals, find link to iKNOW (http://iknowpolitics.org/),
a resource on Women and Politics.
Lecture Note Links:
Introduction
to Global Gender Studies
Questions to
Guide your Reading: How has women’s absence from the academy and from politics
affected how we understand politics/the political? What does using gender
as an analytical lens do for the study of politics, international economics,
and questions of development and social justice? What kinds of data are used to
describe women's status in the world? Do you agree that women’s status is a
good indicator of a nation's level of development? Why? What country would you
like to research this term? How are
women faring there?
Assignments for
Week 1:
1. Complete Quiz 1 sometime between 6:00 a.m.,
Friday, May 24 and 10:00 p.m., Sunday, May 26.
2. E-mail Dr. Brunell your choice of country to research for the
term by noon, Monday, May 27.
Week Two: Women
and Work, Women in Politics
Reading: Women and
Work: Burn, Chpt.
5; listen to Interview
with Sheryl Sandberg,
COO of Facebook and one of the most powerful women in the US.
Women and
Politics: Burn, Chpt.
9; Atlantic
Monthly May 2103 article: What’s Holding Women Back in US Politics?
Browse:
Women’s Inter-Parliamentary Union
Lecture Note
Links:
Introduction
to the US Gender Regime
Questions
to Guide Your Reading: Why are women under-represented in politics (see Burn, pp.
211-215)? What kinds of electoral systems and reforms can boost the
representation of women?
How do women in
your country compare to women in the US? How many children do they tend
to have? How active are they in the formal and informal economy as well
as in politics? What kinds of public policies does your region have
regarding paid maternity/paternity leave, mother's salaries, child or family
allowances, and women's employment?
Assignments
for Week 2:
1. Begin researching women’s status in your
country. Use the data sources found in
our texts, through UN site and on the
Course Project page, but also do your own research by searching for books,
academic journal articles, newspaper articles and, lastly, REPUTABLE internet sources
(when in doubt, ask).
2. During your
research and reading on your country, you should start thinking about what kind
of political-economic regime exists in your country. Use the Gender Regime Table as your guide.
3. Complete Quiz 2 sometime between 6:00 a.m. on
Friday, May 31 and 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 2.
Week
Three: Gender and the Global Political
Economy: Culture as a Filter for
“Flexible Accumulation”
Reading: Wright, Chpt. 3 “Manufacturing Bodies,” and Chpt.
4, “The Dialectics of Still Life:
Murder, Women, and Disposability;” and Burn, pp. 4; 28; 63-68; 71;
211-213; 304.
Lecture Notes
Links:
Stats
on Women in Latin America
You may find it
edifying to peruse the links under “Women and Christianity” and “Catholicism”
on the Lecture
Notes page, but it is not required.
Questions
to Guide Your Reading: What roles are women playing in the global
economy? What notions of masculinity and femininity are embedded in the
world economy? What cultural stereotypes about developing world women and
about Latinas in particular, have shaped are attitudes about globalization and about
women’s roles in “flexible accumulation”?
Internally to Latin American cultures, how have Catholicism and “marianismo” shaped women’s roles in the family, the economy
and politics? How have Christian
understandings of masculinity and femininity shaped the cultures, the
organization of family, gender roles, etc., of predominately Christian
societies?
Assignments for
Week 3:
1. Using the questions above as your guide,
continue researching women’s status in your country.
2. Make your final determination about your
country’s political-economic regime and start filling in the Gender Regime
Table.
3. Complete Quiz 3 between 6:00 a.m. on Friday,
June 7 and 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 9.
Week Four: The
World’s Missing Women
Reading: Hudson and den
Boer, Chpt. 1, “The Gender Dimension of Environmental
and Human Security,” Table 2.4 on pg. 62, and Chpt. 3
“India’s ‘Missing Females, Hudson and den Boer, Chpt.
4, "China's Missing Females" and Chpt. 6,
"Bare Branches in the 21st Century;" Wright, Chpt.
2, “Disposable Daughters and Factory Fathers.”
Lecture Notes
Links:
Questions to
Guide Your Reading: Why do China and India suffer from gender imbalance?
Specifically, what variables do Hudson and den Boer identify as most strongly
correlated with the practices of infanticide, sex selective infanticide and sex
selective abortion? What can be done (or already is being done) to mitigate
China and India's gender imbalance?
Assignments:
1. Finish your
Gender Regime Table.
2. Start putting together your Power Point
Presentation.
3. Take Quiz 4 between 6:00 a.m. on Friday, June
14 and 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 16.
Week
Five: The Price of Honor
Reading: Goodwin, Chpts. 1-4.
Lecture Note Links:
Introduction
to Islam/Women in Islam
Women
in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Questions to
Guide Your Reading: What are the basic
tenets and practices of Islam? How have
these been altered by the economic and political circumstances of South Asia
and the Arabian Peninsula (think of the readings from Bare Branches here as well)? What aspects of Islam have been empowering
for women, especially in light of the customs of Arab culture in the time of
Mohammed?
Assignments:
1. Continue working your Power Point
Presentation.
2. Write your 5-page summary (be sure to do a
Works Cited page!).
3. Take Quiz 5 between 6:00 a.m. on Friday, June
21 and 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 23.
Week Six: Compiling and Sharing Your Research
Assignments:
1. Finish your Power Point Presentation and post
it to the Discussion Board in Blackboard by noon, WEDNESDAY, June 25. Do this by clicking on “Add a New Thread.”
2. Turn your 5-page summary to me by e-mail by
noon, THURSDAY,June 27.
3. Comment on at least one other person’s
presentation by noon, FRIDAY, June 28.
Do this by clicking on their post then clicking ”Reply.” Be sure to do so in a way that demonstrates
mastery of information gleaned from this class, e.g. referring to analytical
concepts and measures we have become familiar with and referencing authors we
have read in the class.