Week 4

Feminism: Waves, Disputes, and Activism

September 22    What is Feminism?

Read:

• bell hooks.  “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” (2000), 23-25.
• Allan Johnson. “Patriarchy, The System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us” (2014), 26-34

First and Second Wave Feminism: Problems of Race and Health

Read: 

• Read either: Louise Michele Newman, “The Making of a White Female Citizenry: Suffragism, Antisuffragism, and Race,” 56-75 OR Wendy Kline, "Please Include this In Your Book": Readers Respond to Our Bodies Ourselves, Bulletin for the History of Medicine, p. 81-110.
• Excerpt from Betty Friedan's "The Problem with No Name" (1963), 4pgs.
• Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement,” 325-330.

Due Response 3: “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders” https://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders?language=en  Feminist scholars like Susan Faludi and bell hooks argue that Sandberg’s approach is a cooptation of feminism that undermines gender equality and female solidarity.  In your response discuss what Sandberg’s main strategies for producing more women leaders are.  Using intersectional analysis, which women do you think Sandberg is talking about and how does she propose to address structural sexism?  Why do you think hooks and Faludi say Sandberg is “coopting feminism”?  Feel free to discuss any other major figures or cases in which you see as similar trend occurring as well.

In class discussion of feminist anthems and the guiding vision and definition of principles of the 2019 Women’s March on Washington.  What is feminism today?!