POLITICAL ECONOMY OF
WOMEN – ECO/GND 3150 - CHRISTENSEN – SPRING 2010
Office: Social Science 1014, Phone: x6622. Email:
kim.christensen@purchase.edu
or Kchrist52@aol.com
"The past isn't
dead. It isn't even past." (William Faulkner)
What determines the status of women in different
societies and communities? What role is played by women’s labor (inside and
outside of the home)? By cultural norms regarding sexuality and
reproduction? By racial/ethnic identity?
By religious traditions? After some brief theoretical grounding, this course
will address these questions by examining the economic, political, social, and
cultural histories of women in the various racial/ethnic groups that make up
the US today.
REQUIREDand RECOMMENDED TEXTS
* = required. All required and most recommended
texts are on reserve in the library.
*1. Amott, Teresa, and Julie Matthei (A/M), Race,
Gender & Work: A Multi-Cultural Economic History of Women in the U.S.,
2nd ed. (white cover), South End Press.
*2. Davis, Angela, Women, Race, and Class, any
edition, Vintage.
*3. Evans, Sara, Personal Politics: The Roots
of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement & New Left, any edition, Vintage
4. Highly recommended: Dubois, Ellen and Vicki
Ruiz (D/R), Unequal Sisters: A Multi-Cultural Reader in U.S. Women's History,
any edition, Routledge.
5. Highly recommended: Kessler-Harris, Alice, Out
to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the US, Oxford University
Press, 2003 (1982).
--Jensen, Joan: “Native American Women and
Agriculture: A Seneca Case Study” from DuBois/Ruiz 1st ed
--Lerner,
Gerda, “The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age
of Jackson 1800-1840” from Cott, Nancy and Elizabeth Pleck (eds.), A
Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of American Women,
Touchstone, 1979.
--Jennings, Samuel, “On the Proper Conduct of a
Wife Towards Her Husband,” from Cott, Nancy (ed.), Root of Bitterness:
Documents of the Social History of American Women, Dutton, 1972..
--Sanchez, George, “Go After the Women:
Americanization and Mexican Immigrant Women” from DuBois/Ruiz, 3rd
ed.
--Tax, Meredith, “The Uprising of the Thirty
Thousand” from D/R, 2nd ed.
--Edwards, Richard, brief selections from Contested
Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the 20th Century,
Basic Books, 1979.
--D’Emilio, John, “Capitalism and Gay Identity”
from Abelove, Berale and Halperin, Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader,
Routledge, 1993.
--Berube, Allan, “Coming Out Under Fire” from Mother
Jones, Feb./March 1983.
1. Attendance: This course relies heavily
on the lectures, so consistent attendance is important. One exception: If you
have a respiratory illness (cough, cold, etc.), please do not come to
class or to my office! Email me before class begins to be excused from
attendance and to receive lecture notes from the T.A.
2. Lecture review questions: After nearly
every class, I will send out review questions on the lecture along with
reminders of upcoming assignments. Please print these questions and review them
before the next class. (You do not need to write out the answers.)
3. Required readings: Please read all
required readings before we begin to discuss that topic in class.
Reading questions are found at the end of the
syllabus.
4. Classroom courtesy: To avoid
disrupting your fellow students, please be on time and turn off all cell
phones, etc. before class begins. Disrespectful and/or disruptive behavior will
not be tolerated.
5. Academic freedom: I try hard to
maintain a classroom atmosphere where people can voice their opinions,
questions, disagreements, and concerns. (As you’ll soon find out!), I have
strong opinions about many of the topics we’ll be discussing. However, you will
never be penalized (in terms of grades, recommendations, etc.) for disagreeing
with me.
6. Academic integrity: Academic honesty
is the bedrock of your education. Please be particularly careful to avoid
committing plagiarism, the intentional or unintentional use of another’s
words or ideas (including ideas from internet sources) without proper
attribution (citation, footnote, etc.). If you are confused about proper
citation format, please ask. Cases of suspected plagiarism will be referred to
the Academic Integrity Committee for possible disciplinary action.
7. Disabilities: If you have a physical,
learning, or other disability that requires accommodation, please bring me
documentation as soon as possible. We will work together to make necessary
accommodations.
8. Assignments: The primary written
assignments for this course will consist of two take-home exams. Although the
exams will concentrate on the lecture material, you will be expected to
integrate relevant material from the readings into your answers. You will also
be asked to write a number of short (2-3 pp.) “reaction papers” on various
readings and to complete reading questions on other readings.
9. Writing: Please use “spell-check” and
a grammar correction program. Papers with a significant number of grammatical
errors will be returned for mandatory rewriting. Unless you are ill, all
assignments must be submitted as hard copies. Due dates for assignments will
depend on our progress in lecture. You will be given at least one week’s notice
before a paper is due. No papers will be accepted late. If you are ill, email
me your paper by the deadline.
10. Professor availability: I generally
check my email several times every day. If you are confused about any aspect of
this course, please email me and I will get back to you ASAP.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READING
ASSIGNMENTS
Due dates for writing assignments will be
announced in class and available on the review sheets.
A. Introduction; Conceptual framework for the
course
*What determines women’s status in a given
society? The role of sex/gender systems,
economic systems, racial/ethnic systems, religion and other factors.
READ: Jensen, Joan, “Native American Women and
Agriculture: A Seneca Case Study” from D/R, 1st ed.
READ: A/M Ch.3: “I Am the Fire of Time: American
Indian Women”
REVIEW: Reading questions on A/M Ch. 3 found at end of
syllabus
REC: Gunn Allen, Paula, “Who is Your Mother? The
Red Roots of White Feminism,” in Hackett, Elizabeth
& Sally Haslanger (ed.), Theorizing Feminisms: A Reader. Oxford
Univ. Press, 2005.
REC: Perdue, Theda, “Cherokee Women and the Trail
of Tears,” in D/R
READ: A/M 5: “Whatever Your Fight, Don't Be
Ladylike: European American Women”
REVIEW: Reading questions on A/M Ch. 5 found at end of
syllabus.
REC: Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, The Age of
Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of the American Myth, Knopf,
2001/2002 and Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in
Northern New England, 1650-1750, Knopf, 1982.
REC: Demos, John, A Little Commonwealth: Family
Life in Plymouth Colony, Oxford Univ. Press, 1970.
READ: A/M 6: “We Specialize in the Wholly
Impossible: African American Women”
REVIEW: Reading questions on A/M Ch. 6 found at end of
syllabus
READ: Davis, ch. 1, 2, 3.
REVIEW: Reading questions on Davis 1, 2, 3 found at
end of syllabus.
REC: Grey-White, Deborah,
“Female Slaves: Sex Roles & Status in the Antebellum Plantation South” D/R
REC: Jones, Jacqueline, Labor of Love, Labor of
Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present,
Basic Books, 1985.
REC: Fredrickson, George, White Supremacy: A
Comparative Study of American and South African History, Oxford University
Press, 1981 and Racism: A Short History, Princeton Univ. Press, 2002.
REC: Rodney, Walter, How Europe Underdeveloped
Africa, Howard Univ. Press, 1974.
REC: Bennett, Lerone, Before the Mayflower: A
History of Black America, Penguin.
REC: Lincoln & Mamiya, The Black Church in
the African American Experience, Duke Univ.Press, 1980.
REC: Gutman, Herbert, The Black Family in
Slavery and Freedom 1750-1925, Vintage Books, 1977.
REC:
Christensen, “’Double, Double, Toil and Trouble’: Women, Economic
Development, and the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692,” Ch. 1 & 2,
manuscript in progress.
REC: LaPlante, Eva, American
Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the
Puritans, Harper & Row, 2005. (Note: LaPlante is a direct descendent of
Anne Hutchinson.)
REC: Boyer, Paul and Nissenbaum, Stephen, Salem
Possessed: The Social and Economic Origins of Witchcraft, Harvard Univ.
Press, 1974.
REC: Karlsen, Carol, The Devil in the Shape of a
Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, Norton.
REC: Barstow, Anne Llewellyn, Witchcraze: A New
History of the European Witch Hunts. Harper, 1994.
REC: Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil’s Snare:
The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692, Knopf, 2002.
REC: Pagels, Elaine, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent,
Vintage, 1988 and The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage, 1979.
READ: Lerner, Gerda, “The Lady and the Mill Girl:
Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson 1800-1840” from Cott &
Pleck (eds.), A Heritage of Her Own, Touchstone, 1979.
READ: Jennings, Samuel, “On the Proper Conduct of
the Wife Towards Her Husband,” from Cott, Nancy (ed.), Root of Bitterness:
Documents of the Social History of American Women, Dutton & Co., 1972.
REC: Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, The Yellow
Wallpaper, (any edition)
REC: Parker, Gail, The Oven Birds: American
Women on Womanhood 1820-1920, Anchor, 1972.
REC: Gordon, Linda, Heroes of Their Own Lives:
The Politics and History of Family Violence, Univ. of Illinois Press, 2002.
G. Black and white women in the abolitionist movement;
The birth of the US women's movement
READ:
Davis, Ch. 4, 7.
REVIEW:
Reading questions on Davis 4, 7 found at end of syllabus.
REC: Aptheker, Bettina, Woman’s Legacy: Essays
on Race, Sex, and Class in American History, Univ. of
Massachusetts/Amherst, 1981.
REC: DuBois, W.E.B., Black Reconstruction in
America 1860-1880, Atheneum, 1935.
REC: Foner, Eric, Reconstruction 1863-1877,
Harper & Row, 1988.
REC: Blackmon, Douglas, Slavery by Another
Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black
Americans from the Civil War to WWII, Anchor, 2008.
REC: Flexnor, Eleanor, Century of Struggle: The
Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1959.
REC: Wells-Barnett, Ida. B., The Red Record:
Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States,
originally published 1895, republished 1969, 2005.
REC: Rossi, Alice, The Feminist Papers, Northeastern
Univ. Press, 1973 & subsequent.
READ: A/M 4: “The Soul of Tierra Madre: Chicana
Women”
REVIEW: Reading questions on A/M Ch. 4 found at end of
syllabus.
READ: Sanchez, George, “Go After the Women:
Americanization & Mexican Immigrants,” D/R
REC: Garcia, “The Growth of Chicana Feminist
Discourse” D/R.
REC: Acuna, Rodolfo, Occupied America: A History
of Chicanos, HarperCollins, 1988.
REC: Barrera, Mario, Race & Class in the
Southwest, Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1980/2005..
READ: Tax, Meredith, “The Uprising of the 30,000”
D/R.
REC: Spring 2004 New Labor Forum, especially
articles re: Wagner Act, Taft-Hartley, EFCA, etc.
REC: Cobble, Dorothy Sue, ed., The Sex of Class:
Women Transforming American Labor, Cornell, 2007.
REC: Kessler-Harris, Alice, Gendering Labor
History, Univ. of Illinois, 2007.
REC: Allen, Robert, Reluctant Reformers; Racism
and Social Reform in the U.S., Howard Univ., 1983.
REC: Milkman, Ruth, Women, Work & Protest: A
Century of Women’s Labor History, Routledge, 1985
REC: Stansell, Christina, “Women, Children &
Uses of the Street” in D/R, 1st ed.
REC: Gordon, Linda, “Black & White Visions of
Welfare: Women's Activism 1890-1945,” D/R.
READ: Edwards, Richard, selections from Contested
Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the 20th Century,
Basic, 1979 (rest of book recommended.)
REC: Ehrenreich, John and Barbara, “The
Professional Managerial Class” in Walker, Pat, ed., Between Capital and
Labor, South End Press, 1979.
The impact of WWII on the Japanese American
community
The “Rosie” phenomenon: Government, business,
and media supports
The impact of WWII: The seeds of the women’s and
LGBT liberation movements
READ: Berube, “Coming Out Under Fire ” and READ:
D’Emilio, John, “Capitalism & Gay Identity”
FILM: “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”
Immigration law; gendered immigration and
women’s status
The economic status of Asian American
communities
READ: A/M 7: “Climbing Gold Mountain: Asian American
Women”
REVIEW: Reading questions on A/M Ch. 7 found at end of
syllabus.
REC: Kelly, “Sex Role Socialization of Vietnamese
Women” in D/R.
REC: Wong, Diane Yen-Mei and Asian Women United of
California, Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian
American Women, Beacon, 1989.
M. Puerto Rican women on the island and the
mainland
Spanish and American colonialism; The
nationalist movement, yesterday and today
Operation Bootstrap and the transformation of
the Puerto Rican economy
Immigration and the sterilization campaign
READ: A/M 8: “Yo Misma Fui Mi Ruta (I Was My Own
Path)”
REVIEW: Reading questions on A/M Ch. 8 found at end of
syllabus.
BEGIN READING EVANS if you have not yet
done so.
REC: Ayala, Cesar, Puerto Rico in the American
Century: A History Since 1898, UNC Press, 2007.
REC: Fernandez, Ronald, The Disenchanted Island:
Puerto Rico & the US in the 20th C., Prager, 1996.
N. The Growth of the Modern Women's Movement
Women's
paid and unpaid labor in the 20th century
The
growth of the women's movement from the civil rights & new left/anti-war
movements of the 1960s
FINISH READING EVANS
REC: A/M 9,10,11 on women’s wage
work
REC: Rosen, Ruth, The World Split Open: How the
Women’s Movement Changed America, Viking, 2001.
REC:
Crittenden, Ann, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the
World is Still the Least Valued, Owl Books, 2001.
REC:
Hochschild, Arlie, The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at
Home, Viking, 1989.
Ch. 3 – Native American Women
3.A. Describe the economic position of Native
women & how this changed after white colonization.
3.B. Describe the resurgence of Native activism
since the 1960s & women's roles in these movements.
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Ch. 4 – Chicana Women
4.A. Describe the relationship between the state
of the U.S. economy and U.S. government laws/programs towards Mexican
immigrants; (e.g., Bracero, “Operation ‘Wetback’,” IRCA, etc.).
4.B. Describe the rise of Chicano/a activism
during the 1960s & women's roles in this resurgence.
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Ch. 5 – European American Women
5.A. Describe the economic conditions/forces
which led native-born and immigrant women to organize labor unions from the
early days of the mills through the 1920s.
5.B. Describe the impact of WWII on the economic
opportunities for women of all races (exc. Japanese).
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Ch. 6 – African American Women
6.A. Contrast the sexual division of labor
imposed by overseers with that in the slave communities.
6.B. Describe the sexual exploitation of slave
women & the ideologies created to justify that exploitation.
6.C. Describe the economic forces which led to
Black northward migration of the 1910s-1950s.
6.D. Describe African American women’s
participation in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s-1960s.
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Ch. 7 – Asian American Women
Section One – Chinese American Women
7.A. Briefly summarize the history of Chinese
immigration & their economic status in the U.S.
7.B. Describe the impact of this immigration
history on Chinese American women's status; (e.g., Gum-Shan-Poo).
Section Two – Japanese American Women
7.C.Describe Japanese immigration re: the sex
ratio and the role of government.
7.D.Describe the Japanese Am. economic position
on the eve of WWII. How did FDR's Executive Order change this?
7.E. Describe the impact of camp life on
Japanese American women.
Section Three – Filipina Women
7.F. Describe the diversity of Filipinos. 7.G.
Describe the impact of militarism on Filipino immigration to the U.S.
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Ch. 8 – Puerto Rican Women
8.A. Describe the reorganization of the Puerto
Rican economy under U.S. corporate control, and its impact upon the Puerto
Rican labor force (including unemployment rates, poverty, etc.)
8.B. Describe the growth of Puerto Rican
activism in the '60-70s, incl. resistance to sterilization abuse.
8.C. Describe Weisskopf's plan for economic
development in Puerto Rico. Why is his plan unlikely to be adopted?
READING QUESTIONS ON DAVIS' WOMEN, RACE, AND
CLASS
Ch. 1 Why was
slave women's situation arguably even worse than that of slave men? Why does
Davis claim that slave women were not debased by their household labors?
Contrast her view with that of A/M. What are the functions of rape in the
context of slavery?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 2 Describe
how industrialization changed women's household role. How was women's
experience in the Abolitionist Movement essential to the founding of the
Women's Rights Movement?
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Ch. 3 What was
the focus of the "Declaration of the Rights of Women"? What was the
situation of working class women at the time of the Seneca Falls convention?
Did the Declaration address their concerns? Describe the racial attitudes of
many white Abolitionists. How did these attitudes influence the Women's Rights
Movement?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 4 What was
the E.R.A.? What were its goals? Why did it split up?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 7 Discuss
the Women's Suffrage Movement's increasing acquiescence in and use of racism in
the late 1800s/early 1900s.
***********************************************************************************
READING QUESTIONS ON SARA EVANS' PERSONAL
POLITICS
Ch.1
Summarize the contradictions between middle class women's expected roles
& lived experiences (including economic status) that created the basis for
the women's movement of the 1960s.
Ch. 2
Describe the church’s role in fostering radicalism among southern white
women in the 1950s/1960s. Describe SNCC's formation and purpose. Why did the
voter registration campaigns represent a new level of resistance for SNCC?
Ch.3
Describe the role of northern white women, and of southern Black women,
in Mississippi Freedom Summer. Discuss positive & negative aspects of
interracial romances that occurred.
Ch. 4
Describe the first rebellions over the sexual division of labor within
SNCC. Describe the changes within SNCC by 1965.
Ch. 5
Describe the backgrounds of most SDS members. Why was SDS so
male-dominated? Describe the differences between the Old & New Left with
respect to questions of women's leadership.
Ch. 6 What
were ERAPs? What problems did they confront? Contrast men's & women's goals
and styles within ERAP.
Ch. 7
Describe the changes in SDS's goals, tactics, and targets from
1965-68. Describe the impact of contact
with revolutionary Third World women on women in the student movement.
Ch. 8 Why was
women forming their own movement a "life release" for so many?
Ch. 9 Discuss
the theory of consciousness-raising. Why was it so successful? Discuss its
drawbacks as an organizing strategy.
Summary Question: How did the Civil
Rights Movement and the New Left form the crucible for the development of the
Women's Liberation Movement in the U.S.?
Name:
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Advisor:
Major/probable major (if known):
Have you taken other courses in either economics
or women’s/gender studies? If yes, please list.
Is English your first language?
Do you have any learning or other disabilities
that I should know about? If yes, what
accommodations do you require?
Why are you taking this course?
What social/political issues concern you the
most?