The Personal Is Political: Women's Activism in the 1960s

Catalog description

Little fanfare and much derision accompanied the re-emergence of a women's movement in the mid-1960s. Within less than a decade, massive changes were underway. From the dismantling of gendered employment ads to the identification of domestic violence as a crime, few argued that Second Wave Feminism was meaningless. Students in this course discuss the depth and range of women's grass roots activism as well as the features of a social movement; they trace the development of consciousness, the growth of different ideologies, and the formation of agendas. The course also explores movement fault lines such as the fictive category of woman, racism, and "structurelessness," in addition to the difficulties of sustaining coalition. From the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 to the Houston Conference 22 years later, students encounter the women who illuminated the political nature of issues once relegated to the private arena. Course material includes extensive use of autobiography.