Intro to Women’s Studies

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to understanding the world through diverse experiences of women. Together we will examine gender experience in both the public and private realms of society, in popular culture, and in institutions such as the workplace, the family and the state. The course focuses on the social construction of gender, race, class and sexual identity, and the interlocking nature of these forms of oppression. Students will become familiar with women’s and gender studies scholarship and attain tools to connect what one learns to one’s life and to further academic study. We will pay special attention to how gender and sexuality vary across ethnic, racial and class lines. Reading assignments cover a wide range of perspectives and attempt to represent both classic writings in women’s studies, recent women’s studies scholarship and women’s own accounts of their life experiences. Writing assignments will emphasize learning by doing. Students will come away with tools for both critical analysis of gender in society and for creating positive social change.