SOC/WMNST 597C:
Feminist Sociology
Tuesday 9:00-11:30, 406
Oswald Tower
Spring 2005
Michael P. Johnson
415 Oswald Tower, 865-1937
"All the decent people, male and
female, are feminists. The only people who are not feminists are those who believe
that women are inherently inferior or undeserving of the respect and
opportunity afforded men. Either you are a feminist or you are a
sexist/misogynist. There is no box marked 'other'." Ani DiFranco
In a recently published symposium on feminist theory and methodology in family studies, Janet Saltzman Chafetz and Alexis Walker (Journal of Family Issues 25, October 2004) evidently agreed on the following bare-bones statement of basic feminist principles (as composed by Chafetz):
1. Whatever else it may also be, gender is a system of inequality between males and females as sex categories by which things feminine are socially and culturally devalued and men enjoy greater access to scarce and valued social resources.
2. Gender inequality is produced socioculturally and is not immutable.
3. Gender inequality is evaluated negatively as unjust, unfair, etc.
4. Therefore, feminists should strive to eliminate gender inequality.
My own favorite definition of feminism: You are a feminist if you believe the following: Men are privileged relative to women; that’s not right; and I’m going to do something about it, even if it’s only in my personal life.
Sociology is the scientific study of group life.
Believe it or not, if you put all that together to decide what to cover in a seminar on feminist sociology, it gives you…way more than anyone could possibly cover in a semester.
So, I spent some time this summer meeting with some of the students who will be in this seminar, emailing some other faculty in sociology, putting out a call for help to SWS, and putting all this together with a lot of ideas of my own. That gave me… way more than anyone could possibly cover in a semester. I kept going back to this task throughout September and October and November, and now I think I have to bite the bullet. The general course outline is on the following page, the course structure follows that, and then you will find the details of the reading list.
Topic
Outline
I. Really General
Stuff
A. The
Impact of Feminism in Sociology
B. Feminism
and Sociological Methodology
1.
Critiques
2.
Contributions
C. Feminism
and Sociological Theory
1.
Gender theory
a.
socialization
b.
interaction
c.
structure
2.
Intersectionality
a.
race/ethnicity
b.
sexuality
c.
culture
II. Selected Substantive Areas (areas of
specialization—PSU Sociology)
A. Family
1.
General
2.
Family power and family violence
3.
Family division of labor
B. Crime,
Law, and Justice
1. General
2.
Crime
3.
Violence
C.
Demography
1.
General
2.
Health
3.
Fertility
D.
Inequality/Stratification
1.
General
2.
Marxist/feminist theory
3.
Paid work
4.
Poverty
Structure of the Seminar
This class will run as a seminar, with one or two people assigned to facilitate discussion on each topic, and the rest of us participating about equally. You may at times find me talking too much or too little for your taste—you’ll need to push me in your preferred direction in that respect.
At the beginning of each topic the person or persons in charge of that topic will introduce the readings with their thoughts on three questions: (1) what are the major strengths of the reading, (2) what makes this reading feminist (or not), and (3) what are the major contributions of the reading to our understanding of gender inequality and/or women’s lives. Notice that there is no place here for criticism; that is because I want us to start on a positive note. We spend altogether too much time in this business proving how smart we are by focusing on the weaknesses of other people’s work. I haven’t chosen these readings for their weaknesses. There is much to be learned from each of them. Following this positive introduction, the facilitators will facilitate our discussion, and this is where we will get seriously critical when necessary.
Grades will be based on (1) general level of contribution to the seminar discussions (about 25%), (2) quality of discussion facilitation (about 25%), and (3) a 15-20 page term paper, which will be due March 22 (about 50%).
About the paper. It will be due early so that I can give you thorough feedback that you can use to revise the paper as you wish. As preliminary steps, a one page topic choice and justification is due January 25, and an outline and tentative bibliography is due February 15. That leaves you about a month to finish writing the paper. I will grade the papers as quickly as I can and give you plenty of feedback, and believe me, I mean plenty. You may then rewrite the paper if you wish, and the rewrite will be due April 26. If you do rewrite the paper, only the grade on the final version will affect your course grade.
In the past I have also had students present their papers to the class, but for this course I seem to have found many more “essential” readings than we can even squeeze into a full 15 weeks. If you would rather have me eliminate a few weeks of the readings to make room for student presentations I will. If we do that, your presentation would also be a part of your grade.
Of course, I will expect your papers to deal with feminist sociology in some fashion, but because this is a course in an interdisciplinary program (WMNST), the paper focus and format will be very flexible, to suit the needs of students from a variety of disciplines. However, I start with three types of paper in mind as most appropriate. The first is an integrative literature review, in which you identify a narrowly defined question about the gender structure of social life and review the literature on that question, assessing it in terms of conclusions that can or cannot be drawn from the analyses that you review. The second is a data analysis paper in which you do a brief literature review on a feminist question about social life, a question which you then address empirically, using any qualitative or quantitative data set that is available to you. The third type of paper would take a topic that we cover from a sociological perspective in this course, look at it from another discipline’s perspective, and discuss what the sociologists could learn from others and vice versa. Finally, if you would like to do some other sort of paper, we can work that out.
Readings
Only asterisked readings are assigned.
The readings will be available in room 212
Oswald Tower.
Please do the readings for
January 11a and 11b before we meet.
I’ve kept them short.
January 11a: The Impact of Feminism in Sociology (19pp)
*Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne. (1985). “The missing feminist revolution in sociology.” Social Problems, 32, 301-16.
*Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne. (1996) “Is sociology still missing its feminist revolution?” ASA Theory Section Newsletter, 18 (summer), 1-3. Comments that follow are not assigned.
Jeff Manza and Debbie Schyndel. (2000). “Still the Missing Feminist Revolution? Inequalities of Race, Class, and Gender in Introductory Sociology Textbooks” American Sociological Review, 65 (3), 468-475.
Alway, J. (1995) “The trouble with gender: Tales of the still missing feminist revolution in sociological theory.” Sociological Theory, 13 (3), 209-28
Bernard, Jessie (1987) “Re-viewing the impact of women’s studies in sociology” in The Impact of Feminist Research in the Academy, pp. 193-216.
Feminist Scholars in Sociology (1995) “What’s wrong is right: A response to the state of the discipline” Sociological Forum, 10:3, 496-8.
Barbara Laslett and Barrie Thorne (Eds.). (1997). Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Goetting and Sarah Fenstermaker. (1995). Individual Voices, Collective Visions: Fifty Years of Women in Sociology.
January 11b: The Impact of Feminism in Sociology
(30pp)
*Janet Saltzman Chafetz. (1997) “Feminist theory and sociology: Underutilized contributions for mainstream theory.” Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 97-120.
*Paula England. (1999). “The impact of feminist thought on sociology.” Contemporary Sociology, 28 (3), 263-8.
Molm, Linda. (1993). “Toward integrating micro
and macro, structure and agency, science, and feminism.” In Paula England
(Ed.), Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory (pp. 301-312; comments follow
on pp. 312-322). New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Elizabeth Gross. 1986. “What is feminist theory?” in Carole Pateman & Elizabeth Gross, Feminist Challenges: Social & Political Theory. pp. 190-204.
Smith, Dorothy. (1989) “Sociological theory: methods of writing patriarchy” In Wallace (ed) Feminism and Sociological Theory, pp 34-64.
Carla Kaplan. 1992. “The language of crisis in feminist theory.” In Glynis Carr (Ed.), Turning the century: Feminist theory in the 1990s. pp. 68-89.
January 18a: Feminist Critiques of Sociological
Methodology (45pp)
**Hekman, S. (2000). “Truth and method: feminist standpoint theory revisited.” In Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard (Eds.), Provoking Feminisms (pp. 9-34). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Includes comments from Sandra Harding, Patricia Hill Collins, Nancy Hartsock, and Dorothy Smith.
**Nancy Tuana. (1993). “With many voices: Feminism and
theoretical pluralism.” In Paula England (Ed.), Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory (pp.
281-299). New York: Aldine De Gruyter. Includes
comments from Sprague & Zimmerman, Johnson, Denzin,
Williams, and West & Fenstermaker.
Haraway, Donna. (1988) “Situated knowledges” Feminist
Studies 14, 575-97.
Harding, Sandra. (1986) The Science Question in Feminism.
Hartsock, Nancy (1983) “The feminist standpoint: developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism” in Discovering reality. Pp. 283-310.
Hartsock, Nancy (1975) “Fundamental Feminism” Quest 2, 171-82.
McLennan, G. (1985) “Feminism, epistemology and postmodernism” Sociology 29, 391-410.
January 18b: Feminist Contributions to Sociological
Methods (48pp)
**Joey Sprague and Mary K. Zimmerman. (1993).
“Overcoming dualisms: A feminist agenda for sociological methodology.” In Paula England
(Ed.), Theory on Gender/Feminism on Theory (pp. 255-280). New York:
Aldine De Gruyter.
*Marjorie DeVault. (1996). “Talking back to sociology: Distinctive contributions of feminist methodology.” Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 29-50.
Olesen, V. (2000). “Feminisms and qualitative research at and into the millennium” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp 215-56.
Shulamit Reinharz and Lynn Davidman. (1992). Feminist Methods in Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cook, JA, Fonow MM. (1986). “Knowledge and women’s interests: issues of epistemology and methodology in feminist sociological research.” Sociological Inquiry 56: 2-29.
Hammersley, M. (1992). “On feminist methodology.” Sociology, 26: 2, 187-206.
Oakley, A. (1998). “Gender, methodology, and people’s ways of knowing.” Sociology, 32: 4, 707-31.
Eichler, M. (1988). Nonsexist research methods: a practical guide.
Maynard, M (1994). “Methods, practice, and epistemology” in Researching women’s lives from a feminist perspective, pp 10-26.
Olesen, V. (1994). “Feminism and models of qualitative research” in Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp 158-74.
Stanley, Liz and S. Wise. (1979). “Feminist research, feminist consciousness and experience of sexism” Women’s Studies International Quarterly, 2: 4, 359-74.
Atkinson, PA. (1997). “Kundera’s
Immortality: the interview society and the invention of the self” Qualitative Inquiry 3:3, 304-25.
January 25a: Gender Theory: General (68pp)
**Lorber, Judith. (1994). “Night to his day: The social construction of gender.” In Judith Lorber, Paradoxes of Gender (pp. 13-36). New Haven: Yale.
*J. Richard Udry. (2000).
“Biological limits of gender construction.” American
Sociological Review, 65, 443-457.
Comments and reply from Miller & Costello; Kennelly,
Merz & Lorber; Risman; and Udry (2001): American
Sociological Review,66 (4),
592-618.
Laslett, Barbara, and Johanna Brenner. (1989).
“Gender and Social Reproduction: Historical Perspectives.” Annual Review of Sociology, 15, 381-404.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. (1992). Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about
Men and Women. New York: Basic Books.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. (2000). Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.
Simone de Beauvoir. (1989/1953). The
Second Sex. New York: Vintage.
January 25b: Gender Theory: Socialization (45pp)
**Hilary Lips. (1995). “Gender role socialization: Lessons in femininity.” In Jo Freeman (Ed.), Women: A Feminist Perspective (pp.128-148). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
**R. W. Connell. (2000). “Making gendered people: Bodies, identities, sexualities.” In Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, & Beth B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning Gender (pp. 449-471). New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Cahill, Spencer. (1989). “Fashioning males and
females: Appearance management and the social reproduction of gender.” Symbolic
Interaction,12, 281-98.
Cahill, Spencer. (1983). “Reexamining the
acquisition of sex roles: a symbolic interactionist approach.” Sex Roles,9 (1), 1-15.
Ruddick, Sara.
(1980). “Maternal thinking.” Feminist Studies,6 (2), 342-67.
February 1a: Gender Theory: Interaction (55pp)
**Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman. (2002). “Doing gender.” In Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West (Eds.), Doing Gender, Doing Difference (pp. 3-23). New York: Routledge.
**Peter Glick and Susan T. Fiske. (2000). “Gender, power dynamics, and social interaction.” In Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, & Beth B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning Gender (pp. 365-398). New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Risman, Barbara. (1987). “Intimate
relationships from a microstructural perspective:
Mothering men.” Gender & Society,1,
6-32.
Acker, Joan.
(1989). “Making Gender Visible” in Feminism and Sociological Theory.
February 1b: Gender Theory: Interaction (74pp)
**Sara Salih. (2004). Excerpts from “Introduction.” In Sara Salih with Judith Butler (Eds.). (2004). The Judith Butler Reader (pp. 6-17).
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
**Judith Butler.
(2004). “Variations on sex and gender: Beauvoir,
Wittig, Foucault (1987).” In Sara Salih with Judith
Butler (Eds.). (2004). The Judith Butler
Reader (pp. 21-38). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
**Judith Butler.
(2004). “Introduction: Acting in concert” and “Undiagnosing
gender.” In Judith Butler, Undoing Gender
(pp. 1-16, 75-101). New York: Routledge.
Judith Butler.
(1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the
Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
February 8a: Gender Theory: Structure (48pp)
**R. W. Connell. (1987). “Main structures: Labour, power, cathexis.” In R. W. Connell, Gender and Power (pp. 91-118). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
*Barbara Risman. (2004). “Gender as a social structure: Theory wrestling with activism.” Gender & Society 18 (4), 429-450.
Peggy Reeves Sanday. (1981). Female Power and Male Dominance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scott Coltrane. (1992). “The micropolitics of gender in nonindustrial societies.” Gender & Society 6, 86-107.
February 8b: Gender Theory: Structure (56pp)
**R. W. Connell. (1995). “The social organization of masculinity.” In R. W. Connell, Masculinities (pp. 67-86). Berkeley: University of California Press.
**Mary Hawkesworth. (2000). “Confounding gender.” In Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard (Eds.), Provoking Feminisms (pp. 141-177). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Not assigned are the comments that follow (pp. 179-220) from Wendy McKenna & Suzanne Kessler, Steven G. Smith, Joan Wallach Scott, and R. W. Connell.
February 15a: Intersectionality: General (48pp)
**Candace West and Sarah Fenstermaker. (2002). “Doing difference.” In Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West (Eds.), Doing Gender, Doing Difference (pp. 55-81). New York: Routledge.
**Symposium on “Doing difference” and reply. In Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West (Eds.), Doing Gender, Doing Difference (pp. 81-101). New York: Routledge.
Lynn Weber Cannon, Higginbotham and Leung. (1990) “Race and class bias in qualitative research on women” Gender and Society, 2, 449-62.
Dingwaney & Needham. 1996. “The difference that difference makes.” Socialist Review 26:3-4, pp. 5-47.
Audre Lorde. (1984). “Age, race, class, and sex: Women redefining difference.” In Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (pp. 114-123). Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984.
Dill, Bonnie Thornton. (1979). “The dialectics of black womanhood.” Signs 4: 543-555.
bell hooks. “Essentialism and experience” American Literary History 3 (1), 172-183.
February 15b: Intersectionality: Race/ethnicity (54pp)
*Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill. (1996). “Theorizing difference from multiracial feminism.” Feminist Studies 22 (2), 321-331
**Patricia Hill Collins. (2000). “Part 1: The social construction of black feminist thought.” In Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (pp. 1-43). New York: Routledge.
Deborah McDowell. (1995). “Transferences: Black feminist discourse: The practice of theory.” In Elam & Wiegman (Eds.), Feminism Beside Itself (pp. 93-118).
February 22a: Intersectionality: Sexuality (53pp)
*Adrienne Rich. (1980). “Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence.” Signs: Journal of
Women in Culture and Society,5 (4), 631-660.
**Ramona Faith Oswald,
Libby Balter Blume, and Stephen R. Marks. (2005). “Decentering
heteronormativity: A model for family studies.” Also the following associated articles:
Bertram J. Cohler, “Backward socialization and gay
identity negotiation in families,” and
“Timothy J. Biblarz and Judith Stacey, “Gay marriage and social science,” and Lawrence A. Kurdek, “Reflections on
queer theory and family science.” In Vern L. Bengtson, Alan C. Acock, Katherine
R. Allen, Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, and David M.
Klein (Eds.), Sourcebook of Family Theory and Research (pp. 143-165). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Steve Seidman.
(1996). Queer Theory/Sociology
(anthology)
Suzanne Pharr. (1988). Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism. Women’s Project.
February 22b: Intersectionality: Cultural/Global
(66pp)
** Kathryn B. Ward. (1993). “Reconceptualizing
World System Theory to include women.” In Paula England (Ed.), Theory on
Gender/Feminism on Theory (pp 43-68). New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
**Valentine M. Moghadam. (2000). “Gender and the global economy.” In Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, & Beth B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning Gender (pp. 128-160). New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
*Denise Kandiyotti. (1988). “Bargaining with patriarchy.” Gender & Society,2 (3), 274-290.
Melissa W. Wright.
(1999). “The politics of relocation: Gender, nationality, and value in a Mexican
maquiladora.” Environment and
Planning A, 31 (9), 1601-17.
FAMILY
March 1a: Feminism and Family Sociology: General
(58pp)
**Barrie Thorne. (1992). “Feminism and the family: Two decades of thought.” Pp. 3-30 in Barrie Thorne with Marilyn Yalom (Eds.), Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
**Anne R. Roschelle. (2000). “Gender, family structure, and social structure: Racial ethnic families in the United States.” In Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, & Beth B. Hess (Eds.), Revisioning Gender (pp. 311-340). New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Linda Thompson and Alexis J. Walker. (1995). The place of feminism in family studies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 847-865.
Linda Thompson and Alexis J. Walker. (1989). “Gender in families: Women and men in marriage, work, and parenthood.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, 51, 845-871.
Marie Withers Osmond and Barrie Thorne. (1993). “Feminist theories: The social construction of gender in families and society.” Pp. 591-622 in Pauline G. Boss, William J. Doherty, Ralph LaRossa, Walter R. Schumm, and Suzanne K. Steinmetz (eds.), Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach. New York: Plenum.
Donna L. Sollie and Leigh A. Leslie (Eds.). (1994). Gender, Families, and Close Relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kristine M. Baber and Katherine R. Allen. (1992). Women and Families: Feminist Reconstructions. New York: Guilford.
March 1b: Feminism and Family Sociology: General
(68pp)
**Christine Delphy and Diana Leonard. (1992). “The family as an economic system: Theoretical outline.” Pp. 129-162 in Delphy and Leonard, Familiar Exploitation. Oxford: Blackwell (Polity)
**Barbara Risman. (1998). “Playing fair: Equity for the educationally elite.” In Barbara Risman, Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition (pp. 93-127). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Judith Stacey. (1998). Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late-Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sally Gallagher. (2003). Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Christine Delphy. (1984). Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis of Women’s Oppression. Amherst: U. of Massachusetts Press.
(Spring
Break)
March 15a: Family Power and Family Violence (77pp,
but…)
*Aafke Komter. (1989). “Hidden power in marriage.” Gender & Society, 3 (2), 187-216.
*Michael P. Johnson. (forthcoming). “Chapter One: Introduction,” “Chapter Two: Control and Violence in Intimate
Relationships,” “Chapter Three: Intimate Terrorism: Controlling Your Partner.”
In Michael P. Johnson, Violence and Control
in Intimate Relationships: Intimate Terrorism and Other Types of Domestic
Violence (pp. 4-60). Boston: Northeastern University
Press. 58pp, but they’re manuscript pages.
Kranichfeld, Marion L. (1987). Rethinking family power. Journal of Family Issues, 8(1), 42-56.
Walker, Alexis J. (1996). “Couples watching television: Gender, power, and the remote control.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 58, 813-824.
Peplau, Letitia Anne and Susan Miller Campbell. (1989). “The balance of power in dating and marriage.” Pp. 121-137 in Jo Freeman (ed.), Women: A Feminist Perspective (Fourth Edition). Palo Alto: Mayfield.
DeFrancisco, Victoria Lets. (1991). “The sounds of silence: How men silence women in marital relations.” Discourse & Society 2, 413-423.
Bell, Colin and Howard Newby. (1976). “Husbands and wives: The dynamics of the deferential dialectic.” Pp. 152-168 in Diana Leonard Barker and Sheila Allen (Eds.), Dependence and Exploitation in Work and Marriage. New York: Longman.
March 15b: Family Division of Labor (56pp)
*Myra Marx Ferree. (1990). “Beyond separate spheres: Feminism and family research.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52 (4), 866-884.
*Julie Brines. (1994). “Economic dependency, gender, and the division of labor at home.” American Journal of Sociology, 100, 652-688.
Mary Blair-Loy. (2003). Competing Devotions: Career and Family Among Women Executives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jerry A. Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson. (2004). The Time Divide: Work, Family and Gender Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Linda Thompson. (1991). “Family work: Women’s sense of fairness.” Journal of Family Issues, 12,181-196.
Scott Coltrane. (1996). Family Man: Fatherhood, Housework, and Gender Equity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marjorie
DeVault. (1991). Feeding the Family: The
Social Construction of Caring as Gendered Work. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Hawkins, Alan J., Christina M. Marshall, and Kathryn M. Meiners. (1995). “Exploring wives’ sense of fairness about family work: An initial test of the distributive justice framework.” Journal of Family Issues, 16, 693-721.