WGST 200

I. Course Title: Women in the World: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (GE)

II. Course Number: WGST 200

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisites: None

V. Course Description:

An introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender Studies through global and multicultural perspectives. It provides an overview of women’s experiences and their activism to achieve equality over time and across the world, with attention to how intersections among gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, physical ability, age and global location affect women’s lives.

Note(s): General Education and Cultural or Behavioral Analysis designated course.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

INTERDISCIPLINARY, GLOBAL, AND CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON TOPICS SUCH AS: What is Women’s Studies? Women’s Activism to Create Equality and Social Justice The Social Construction of Gender (Femininity and Masculinity) The Role of Language and Media Representations in Shaping Cultural Attitudes toward Gender and Other Categories of Human Difference; The Intersecting and Mutually Reinforcing Systems of Domination Based on Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Class, Sexuality, Physical Ability, Age, and Global Location. Women’s Health and Women’s Bodies Women in the Developing World Women’s Work and the Globalized Economy Women and Sexuality Women and the Environment Violence against Women Feminist Theories

REPRESENTATIVE READINGS: Gloria Anzaldua, “La conciencia de la mestiza—Toward a New Consciousness” Adrienne Rich, “Claiming an Education” Michael Kimmel, “Men and Women’s Studies: Premises, Perils, and Promise” bell hooks, “Men in the Feminist Struggle—The Necessary Movement” Allan Johnson, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, not a He, a Them, or an Us” Lois Gould, “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story” Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu Alicia Partnoy, The Little Schools: Tales of Disappearance and Torture in Argentina Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of my Name Edward Clark, “Sex in Education” Margaret Conway, David Ahern, and Gertrude Steuernagel, “Women in Educational Policy” Thomas M. Carey, “The Present Tendencies in Women’s College and University Education”

Deborah Woo, “The Gap between Striving and Achieving: The Case of Asian-American Women” Nancy Krieger and Elizabeth Fee, “Man-Made Medicine and Women’s Health—The Biopolitics of Sex/Gender and Race/Ethnicity” Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” Ann Elizabeth Mayer, "Cultural Particularism as a Bar to Women’s Rights—Reflections on the Middle Eastern Experience" Charlotte Bunch, "Transforming Human Rights from a Feminist Perspective" Claire Robertson, "Grassroots in Kenya: Women, Genital Mutilation, and Collective Action, 1920-1990" Pierrette Hondagney-Sotelo, "Women and Children First: New Directions in Anti-Immigrant Politics" Becky Thompson, "Time Travelling and Border Crossing: Reflections on White Identity"

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

WGST 200 emphasizes respectful, constructive, critical dialogue about the assigned readings and the issues they raise; lectures by the instructor as needed on the major topics addressed in the course; student presentations on international women’s issues; and sharing of student writing and/or conversations in small and large groups. It may use learning management software so that students can use interactive learning tools, including the discussion board, where students can post their group presentations and respond to each other’s writing. Guest speakers may deliver lectures on their areas of specialization. Films and/or other media as well as electronic technology will be used to forge connections among students in this class and women worldwide and to sharpen students’ information literacy skills. The course incorporates a high degree of student engagement, interaction and collaboration, and may include such activities as an experiential learning component involving field work, a group presentation on an international issue, and a culminating individual or group project.

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

Having successfully completed WGST 200, students will:

Analyze women's historical roles and agency in global societies;
Analyze how differences in gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, physical ability, and global location affect individual lives and society in general;
Explain some of the major issues that women face both in the U.S. and internationally, such as: pay inequity and sexual harassment, access to health care, body image, and violence against women;
Explain how language and media representations of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, or global location affect cultural attitudes and behaviors;
Explain how women activists in the U.S. and/or internationally have effectively faced the challenges confronting women.
Identify a specific personal or professional goal related to understanding or advocating for women or gender diversity more broadly.
Demonstrate active reflection on their progression toward a personal or professional goal related to course content.

VIII. Assessment Measures:

WGST 200 employs a variety of assessment strategies, many of which are both learning and assessment tools grounded in the principles of a collaborative, student-centered pedagogy. These may include a number of the following: reading journals, group research project and oral presentation on an international issue and women’s activism in response to it, experiential learning project and report on an issue of concern to women, oral history essay based on an interview with an older woman, three generational oral history project and essay, in-class writing assignments, quizzes on readings, final reflection essay, midterm exam, final exam.

Other Course Information: None

Review and Approval

April 27, 2016

Nov. 3, 2007 Moira Baker

December 1, 2008 Moira Baker

March 01, 2021