PP455/AWS 301 Feminist Theory
Fall 2004
Ms. Sharon Snowiss
Office: Scott Hall 206, Pitzer College
ext: 73178. email: ssnowiss@pitzer.edu
Office hours: Thursday 1:30-4:00 PM and by appointment

This course provides an overview of feminist theory. It is divided into four general topics: (1) The role of women in traditional political thought and the emergence of modern feminist theories. (2) Considerations and contestations of identity. (3) A reexamination and a "rethinking" of basic political concepts and relationships and (4) global challenges.
The course will be conducted as a seminar. Students are required to complete all readings and to participate in class discussions. Occasional oral reports on readings will be assigned. There will be three short essays (5 pages) and a 15 page research paper required to complete the course.
Required Readings (available at Huntley Bookstore) are as follows:
Catherine Mackinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State
Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract
Luce Irigaray, I Love to You
Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought
Donna Haraway, Modest Witness @ Second Millenium . Female Man Meets Oncomouse: Feminism and Technology
Alice Jaggar, Feminist Politics and Human Nature
M.Daly, Gyn/Ecology, Metaethics of Radical Feminism
Hirschmann and Di Stephano, Revisioning the Political
N.Sturgeon, Ecofeminist Natures
Sandra Harding, Is Science Multicultural?
(optional) Hayward & Drake, Third Wave Agenda
(optional) Baumgardner & Richards, manifestA young women, feminism and the future
Reserve Book readings listed in the syllabus are both on electronic reserves and in Honnold Library.
Electronic Reserves can be reached by going to the Library Home Page and one of the following:
Blaise/courses/electronic reserves or
Research/course reserves/electronic reserves. The password for access is ssnowiss455 (all lower case)

• Reading Assignments

• Introduction : What Is Feminist Theory?

• The Western Tradition: Silence, Critiques and Rebellions

A. Overview ( Reading packet #1 – R #1)

Moira Gatens, "Feminism, Philosophy and Riddles Without Answers" in Pateman & Gross, Feminist Challenges.
Johanna Brenner, "Best of Times, Worst of Times: Feminism in the United States" in Mapping the Women's Movement ed. by M. Threlfall.
Susan Okin, Women in Western Political Thought, Intro, chp. 1, 4

Recommend:
Diana Coole, Women in Political Theory
Andrea Nye, Feminist Theory and the Philosophies of Man
S. de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, Part II
Wendy Brown, Manhood and Politics, A Feminist Reading in Political Theory.

Recommend:
Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
J.S. Mill, On the Subjection of Women
Jane Mansbridge, Why We Lost the ERA
Hoff-Wilson, "The Unfinished Revolution: Changing Legal Status of U.S. Women," Signs, Vol. 13, no. 1, Autumn Dorothy McBride Stetson, Women's Rights in the USA .
Policy Debates and Gender Roles, 1997.

C. Marxism

Catherine Mackinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, chp. 1-4
Jaggar, chp. 4, 8

Recommend:
Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
Ann Ferguson, Sexual Democracy

D. Variations/Interpretations of Marxism: Socialist, Radical and Materialist Feminism and Standpoint Theory

N. Hartsock, Money, Sex and Power: Toward a Feminist Historical (R#2) Materialism, Chp. 10, 11 and The Feminist Standpoint Revisited, Intro., Chp. 11. (separate)
C. Delphy, Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis, chp. 8, 9, 11
Susan Heckman, "Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited" with comments and replies, Signs Winter, 1997, vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 341-402.
Jaggar, chp. 5, 6, 9, 10, 11

E. Patriarchy

C. Pateman, The Sexual Contract, chp. 1-3
M. Daly, Gyn/Ecology, The Metaethics of Radical Feminism
(Preface, Introduction, First Passage), chp. 1, pp. 109-112, 130- 133. Oral reports on other chapters to be assigned.
Bulbeck, Reorienting Western Feminisms, pp. 69-96. (R#3)

F. Post-Modernism

(R #3A)
Judith Butler, "Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of "Postmodernism."
Benhabib, "Feminism and Postmodernism: An Uneasy Alliance ."
Fraser, "False Antithesis: A Response to Benhabib and Butler ."
Hartsock, The Feminist Standpoint Revisited, chp. 10
Harding, Is Science Multicultural? chps. 1,2,7.
 

Recommend:
Linda Nicholson, ed., Feminism/Postmodernism

• First essay due

I.  What Is a "Woman"? A Feminist?

• Identity: Nation, Race, Class, Sex, Gender, and Generation.

A. Race

Patricia Collins, Black Feminist Thought
Nancy Carraway, Segregated Sisterhood: Racism and the Politics of American Feminism (selections) (R #3)
M. Matsuda, Where is Your Body? Essays on Race, Gender and the Law (selections) (R #3)

Recommend:
S. Firestone, The Dialectics of Sex
A. Davis, Women, Race, Class
Andre Lorde, Sister Outsider
I. Blea, La Chicana and the Intersection of Race, Class and Gender
Asian Women United of California (eds.), Making Waves
Marga and Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back
Hall, Scott, and Smith (eds.), All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave
C. Trujillo (ed.), Living Chicana Theory
S. Shah (ed.), Dragon Ladies
Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire

B. Gender and Sexuality (R #4)

Wittig, "One is Not Born a Woman"
Singer, Androgyny (selections)
Illich, "Vernacular Gender" in Coevolution Quarterly, Spring, 1982 or Gender
W. Roscoe, "How to Become a Berdache: Toward a Unified Analysis of Gender Diversity" in Herdt, Third Sex, Third Gender
Jacobs, Thomas, Lang (eds.) Two-Spirit People (selections)
Warnke, "Inter sexuality and the categories of Sex," Hypatia, vol 16, No. 3 (summer 2001)
Feinberg. Transgender Warriors (selections)
Shane, Phelan, "(Be) Coming Out: Lesbian Identity and Politics," Signs Summer, 1993.
S. Walters, "From Here to Queer: Radical Feminism, Postmodernism, and the Lesbian Menace," Signs Summer 1996. Sarah Hoagland, Lesbian Ethics, chp. 1, pp. 265-292
Irigaray, I Love To You
______, "This Sex Which Is Not One" from This Sex Which is Not One .
______, Je, tu, nous, Toward a Culture of Difference (selections)
______, Thinking the Difference, For a Peaceful Revolution (selections)
______, To be two (selections)
______, democracy begins between two (selections)

Recommend:
A. Rich, "On Compulsory Heterosexuality" Signs, 1980, p. 631-60
Butler, Gender Trouble, Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
_______, Bodies That Matter
Elizabeth Grosz, Space, Time and Perversion
_____________, Volatile Bodies : Toward a Corporal Feminism Wittig. Les Guérillères, The Lesbian Body
Benhabib, "The Generalized and the Concrete Other" in Feminism as Critique

• Generations

March 26 Kristeva, "Women's Time" (R #5)
Heywood and Drake, Third Wave Agenda (selections)
Hypatia, "Third Wave Feminisms" Special Issue vol. 12, No. 3; summer 1997 (selections)
Baumgardner & Richards, Manifest A Young women, feminism and the future (selections)
K. Springer, "Third Wave, Black Feminism?" Signs, vol 27, No. 4 Summer 2002

• Nature and Spirituality

S. Griffin, Women and Nature, pp. 1-46 (R #5) • 

N. Sturgeon, Ecofeminist Natures
S. Harding, Is Science Multicultural? , chp. 6

Recommend:
C. Spretnak, States of Grace
Mies & Shiva, Ecofeminism
Shiva, Staying Alive

• 2 nd essay due

III. Multiplicity and Community: Confronting the Political

How Should We Relate? Rethinking Concepts and Categories; Integrating thought and experience.

Method/theory: C. Mackinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, mind/body: C. Lispector, "The Egg and the Chicken" (xerox) (R #5)
practice: "Bringing Together Feminist Theory and Practice: A (R#5)
Collective Interview" Signs Summer 1996
Objectivity & relativity: Harding, Is Science Multicultural?
Ortega Y Gasset, "Relativism & Rationalism" (separate) and "The Historical Significance of the Theory of Einstein" from The Modern Theme

Recommend:
H. Arendt, The Life of the Mind Vol 1: Thinking
Sandra Harding, Is Science Multicultural?

B. The State and Rights

Pateman, The Sexual Contract
Mackinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State Part III
Eisenstein, The Female Body and the Law, chp. 2
Elshtain, "Sovereignty, Identity, Sacrifice" in V. Spike Peterson, (R#5)
Gendered State

C. Justice, Authority, Public/Private Space, Power

Hirschmann and DiStefano, Revisioning the Political

Recommend:
Iris Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference
Patricia Boling, Privacy and the Politics of Intimate Life
J. Tronto, Moral Boundaries, Part III
K. Jones, Compassion Authority
Klein, "Gain or Drain? Compassion and the Self-Other Boundary", Meeting the Great Bliss Queen
Naples, Grassroots Warriors

• 3 rd essay due

IV. Globalization and Contested Boundaries

D. Technology: Information, Mapping and the Body

Haraway, Modest ___ Witness @ Second ___ Millennium. Female Man Meets ___ Oncomouse : Feminism and Technoscience.
J. Raymond, Women as Wombs (selections)

Recommend:
Ginsburg and Rapp, Conceiving the New World Order, The Global Politics of Reproduction

E. Global Politics

•   The Economy: (R #6)
Sassen, "Toward a Feminist Analysis of the Global Economy" "Notes on the Incorporation of Third World Women into Wage Labor Through Immigrational Offshore Production" from Globalization and Its Discontents
Keck and K. Sikkink, "Transnational Networks on Violence Against Women" from Activists Beyond Borders
G. Chang, "The Global Trade in Filipina Workers" in S. Shah (ed.), Dragon Ladies
B. Ehrenreich, Global Woman (selections)
Environment and Ecofeminism
Sturgeon, Ecofeminist Natures, chp. 5
International Rights
Petchesky, "Spiraling Discourses of Reproductive and Sexual Rights: A Post-Beijing Assessment of International Feminist Politics" from Cohen, Jones, Tronto, Women Transforming Politics
West, "The United Nations Women's Conference and Feminist Politics" in Meyer and Pruge, (eds.), Gender Politics in Global Governance

Presentation of Research Projects

Research paper due in PP office 5 P.M.