Introduction to women's and gender studies

Lectures: 2 sessions / week; 1.5 hours / session

There are no prerequisites for this course.

"We take our stand on the solidarity of humanity, the oneness of life, and the unnaturalness and injustice of all special favoritisms, whether of sex, race, country or condition." - Anna Julia Cooper

"Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance." - Kofi Annan

This course offers an introduction to Women's and Gender Studies, an interdisciplinary academic field that explores critical questions about the meaning of gender in society. The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with key issues, questions and debates in Women's and Gender Studies scholarship, both historical and contemporary. Gender scholarship critically analyzes themes of gendered performance and power in a range of social spheres, such as law, culture, education, work, medicine, social policy and the family.

Throughout the semester, we will "question gender" in multiple ways:

This term you will become acquainted with many of the critical questions and concepts feminist scholars have developed as tools for thinking about gendered experience. In addition, we will explore the complex ways in which gender intersects with class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and age within various spheres and institutions of society. Required readings include classic and contemporary women's and gender studies texts, representing scholarship from a variety of disciplines, as well as political documents and personal narratives of gendered lives. Course topics include: the first and second waves of American women's / gender rights activism, and gender issues in relation to the law, socialization, education, work, health and reproduction, sexuality, families, and globalization. Through successfully completing this course, students will be better prepared to participate in and contribute effectively to the larger public conversation about the role of gender in society; to apply the critical tools of women's and gender studies in their academic, personal and occupational lives; and to take more advanced classes in this field.

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. 1892.
Taylor, Verta, Nancy Whittier, and Leila J. Rupp, eds. Feminist Frontiers. 9th ed. McGraw Hill Humanities, 2011. ISBN: 9780078026621.

Schneir, Miriam, ed. Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present. Vintage Books, 1994. ISBN: 9780679745082.

For further detail on these and additional readings, see the table in the Readings section.

Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies, as a CI-H subject, conforms to the following guidelines:

Communication-intensive (CI) subjects in HASS require, by the end of term, at least 5,000 words of writing divided among 3–5 assignments. (The font is 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced with one-inch margins; one page equals 250 words.) At least one major assignment should be revised and resubmitted. In WGS.101, your first essay will be submitted as a first version and then revised to meet this requirement. In HASS-CI courses, students are also assessed in the area of oral communication (discussion, class participation and oral presentations). See MIT's Undergraduate Communication Requirement for more information.

To foster a sense of intellectual community, this course is structured in a format that blends lecture and discussion. It is crucial that students come to class on time, with required texts, well prepared to offer thoughtful responses to the assigned readings. To be effective as class participants, students need to complete reading and writing tasks by the assigned dates.

A vital, ongoing intellectual conversation—which actively questions the meaning of gender in society—is at the heart of the course. Many issues that we address in the course are controversial and students may have or voice very different viewpoints and perspectives. It is critical that we acknowledge and respect one another's experiences and perspectives so that our classroom is a safe and supportive space to converse productively across our differences.

Since our class functions as an intellectual community, it is essential that students attend class faithfully. More than two absences may affect the final grade; a student cannot pass the course with over five absences. Three latenesses count as an absence. In the case of absence, it is the student's responsibility to contact a classmate about class material and obtain any handouts or assignments that were distributed.

Active participation in large and small group discussion is necessary to receive full credit for the attendance and participation component of the final grade (15%). Homework assignments, together with in-class writing exercises, also count for part of this grade.

Each student will be responsible for submitting three major writing assignments over the course of the semester.

Each essay should be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font, with one-inch margins; one page equals 250 words.

Essay assignment prompts will be distributed at least two weeks in advance of the due dates. Each essay should demonstrate understanding of key concepts in the course by framing a clear argument in response to the essay question and supporting that argument with specific examples and quotations from relevant course readings. The first essay, a comparative rhetorical analysis of primary historical texts, should be 1500–1750 words (6–7 pages).

The next two essays will be 1750–2000 words (7–8 pages) each. The second essay offers the choice of a comparative analysis of classic literary and political texts or a case study of an individual analyzed within the framework of gender socialization literature. The third major assignment asks students to write an informational narrative for a museum exhibit on historical and contemporary dimensions of gender and work, drawing explicitly upon secondary sources; the print text is supplemented by an exhibit of visual sources such as photographs, charts, graphs, maps, art work, etc.

Please note that you are required to schedule an appointment with the writing advisor during the process of planning for and writing one of your major writing assignments. You can schedule your appointment at any point in the writing process: brainstorming, crafting the first version or revising. Students are encouraged to schedule an appointment with the writing advisor during the writing and revising of their first essays.

Each student will do one oral presentation, an analysis of a current event relating to class readings and lectures / discussions. Students will work in pairs to research and present an interpretation of a current event news article of their choice pertaining to the week's topic. Your task is to make connections between concepts presented in an assigned reading(s) and lectures and a contemporary example in the news. This assignment requires close reading of the news item you choose, presenting your analysis in a coherent way to the class, along with several follow-up discussion questions. Students should plan to consult the instructor as they choose current events topics to research. Oral presentations should be about 15 minutes. Each student pair will also receive a joint letter-grade and written evaluation of their oral presentation. Students are encouraged to read a major newspaper regularly to increase their awareness of media coverage of contemporary gender issues.

Students are asked to attend one Women's and Gender Studies (WGS)-related event (lecture, film, reading) during the semester and write a short piece (250–500 words or 1–2 pages) reflecting on this event and its relationship to course content. (WGS-related events will be announced in class.) This exercise will be due two weeks after the WGS event.

Throughout the semester, I will encourage student writers to:

In addition to consulting with the writing advisor, you can visit the Writing and Communication Center for help with your writing for the course. The Center offers free one-on-one professional advice from lecturers who are published writers about all types of academic, creative, and professional writing and about all aspects of oral presentations. To access many pages of advice about writing and oral presentations, go to Comparative Media Studies / Writing's Links page.

Academic integrity is the foundation of all scholarship, because being able to trace how our ideas have developed in relation to other people's theories, research, and evidence, as well as our own, is what ensures the soundness of our research. Thus, university communities have a collective investment in ensuring that the practices of academic integrity are thoroughly learned and carefully practiced.

As members of this class and the larger scholarly community, you are expected to abide by the norms of academic integrity. Everything you submit must be your own work, written specifically for this class. While a good deal of collaboration is encouraged in and out of class, all sources—of ideas as well as words and images—must be acknowledged according to the conventions of academic citation. Willful disregard for these conventions—i.e., plagiarism—can result in withdrawal from the course with a grade of F, and / or suspension or expulsion from the Institute.

The booklet, Academic Integrity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: A Handbook for Students (PDF), explains these issues in detail, and you are responsible for understanding its contents. You can also visit the Academic Integrity at MIT website. We will also work on citing sources in class and discuss ways to acknowledge them properly. When in doubt, consult with me or with the writing advisor.

Don't show me this again

This is one of over 2,200 courses on OCW. Find materials for this course in the pages linked along the left.

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free & open publication of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.

No enrollment or registration. Freely browse and use OCW materials at your own pace. There's no signup, and no start or end dates.

Knowledge is your reward. Use OCW to guide your own life-long learning, or to teach others. We don't offer credit or certification for using OCW.

Made for sharing. Download files for later. Send to friends and colleagues. Modify, remix, and reuse (just remember to cite OCW as the source.)

Learn more at Get Started with MIT OpenCourseWare