Sociology 5006 FEMINIST THEORY Spring, 1998

Professor: Martha E. Gimenez
Office: Ketchum 205A
Office Hours: T 2:00 - 3:00 and by appointment. Telephone: 2-7080
Email address: Gimenez@csf.colorado.edu Course Home Page: http://csf.colorado.edu/gimenez/feminist.html

Course Description

This seminar is designed to examine the materialist feminist challenge to postmodern feminist theorizing, tracing the development of materialist and marxist feminist theory, contrasting their assumptions and political implications with those of postmodern feminism, and comparing their relative contributions to the understanding of the connections between class, gender and race and the contradictory implications of identity politics in the context of the global economy.

Course Requirements

The success of any seminar depands on the cooperation of all its participants. Participation, structured and structured, is important and good participation, the kind that enhances the quality of the learning experience for everyone requires the thoughtful and critical reading of the asigned texts.

Grades will be based on the following:

Weekly questions and answers (in two pages or less), and structured and unstructured participation in the seminar. Students will be graded on the quality of their questions and answers and the quality of their participation (40 percent of the grade).
A paper: students should use materialist and postmodernist feminist theoretical insights to examine a topic of their choice. They should identify and assess the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical perspective presenting, in the conclusion, a well supported argument for the theory they find most useful and persuasive (60 percent of the grade).

REQUIRED READINGS

Books:

Ebert, Teresa L., Ludic Feminism and After. Postmodernism, Desire, and Labor in Late Capitalism. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1996.

Grant, Judy. Fundamental Feminism. Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Rosemary Hennessy and Chrys Ingraham, eds., Materialist Feminism. A Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Articles and Book Chapters

Butler, Judith, "Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the question of 'postmodernism,'" pp. 153-170 in S. Seidman, op. cit.

Fraser, Nancy and Linda Nicholson, "Social Criticism without Philosophy: An Encounter between Feminism and Postmodernism," pp. 242-261 in S. Seidman, op. cit.

Gimenez, Martha E., "The Mode of Reproduction in Transition: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis of the Effects of Reproductive Technologies," pp. 334-350 in Gender & Society, Vol. 5, No. 3, September, 1991.

Gimenez, Martha E., "The Production of Divisions: Gender Struggles under Capitalism," pp. 256-265 in Antonio Callari et al, eds., Marxism in the Postmodern Age: Confronting the new World Order. New York: The Guilford Press, 1995.

Haraway, Donna. "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s," pp. 82-115 in S. Seidman, ed., The Postmodern Turn. New Perspectives on Social Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Redclift, Nanneke, "Rights in Women: Kinship, Culture, and Materialism," pp. 112-144 in Janet Sayers et al, eds., Engels Revisited: New Feminist Essays. London, UK: Tavistock, 1987.

Stabile, Carol A., "Feminism Without Guarantees: The Misalliances and Missed Alliances of Postmodernist Social Theory," pp. 283-291 in A. Callari, op. cit.

SUGGESTED BACKGROUND READINGS

Eagleton, Terry. The Illusions of Postmodernism. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

Rosenau, Pauline Marie, Postmodernism and the Social Sciences. Insights, Inroads, and Intrusions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Ferguson, Kathy E. The Man Question. Visions of Subjectivity in Feminist Theory. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Hennessy, Rosemary. Materialist Feminism and the Politics of Discourse. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Kuhn, Annette and AnnMarie Wolpe, eds., Feminism and Materialism. Women and Modes of Production. London, UK: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.

Moi, Toril and Janice Radway, eds., Materialist Feminism. Special Issue of The South Atlantic Quarterly. Vol. 93, No. 4, 1994.

Weedon, Chris. Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987.

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED READINGS

Barrett, Michele. Women's Oppression Today. London: Verso, 1988 (revised edition).

Chafetz, Janet Saltzman, Feminist Sociology. An Overview of Contemporary Theories. Itasca, Ill.: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1988.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

Hamilton, Roberta and Michele Barrett, eds. The Politics of Diversity. London: Verso, 1987.

Hess, Beth R. and Myra Marx Ferree. Analyzing Gender. A Handbook of Social Science Research. Newbury Park, CA.: Sage, 1987.

Jaggar, Alison. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa,NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983.

Keohane, Nannerl O., Michelle Z. Rosaldo, and Barbara C. Gelpi, eds. Feminist Theory. A Critique of Ideology. Brighton, GB: The Harvester Press Limited, 1982.

Landry, Donna and Gerald MacLean. Materialist Feminisms. Cambridge, MA.: Blackwell Publishers, 1993.

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (eds.). Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Phillips, Anne. Divided Loyalties. Dilemmas of Sex and Class. London: Virago Press, 1987.

Ramanazoglu, Caroline. Feminism and the Contradictions of Oppression. New York: Routledge, 1990.

Riley, Denise. Am I that Name? Feminism and the Category of "Women" in History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988.

Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction. Boulder & San Francisco: Westview press, 1989.

Smith, Dorothy. The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. University of Toronto Press, 1987.

Vogel, Lise. Woman Questions. Esays for a Materialist Feminism. New York: Routledge, 1995.

Wallace, Ruth A. Feminism and Sociological Theory. Newbury Park, CA.: Sage, 1989.

Journals

Feminist Studies
Feminist Review
Frontiers. A Journal of Women's Studies Gender & Society
Genders
International Journal of Women's Studies New Left Review
Rethinking Marxism
Signs

VIRTUAL SOURCES

Feminist Electronic Lists and Archives

FEMECON-L
For feminist economists. Send subscription requests to LISTSERV@BUCKNELL.EDU

FEMINISM-DIGEST
This is a collation of articles that appear on usenet's soc.feminism. It is not a mailing list in its own right, although subscribers are told how to send their articles via email to the newsgroup. To subscribe send email to FEMINISM-DIGEST@NCAR.UCAR.EDU

FEMISA
Femisa is conceived as a list where those who work on or think about feminism, gender, women, and international relations, world politics, international political economy, or global politics, can communicate. To subscribe: send email to MAJORDOMO@CSF.COLORADO.EDU and in the message write sub femisa firstname lastname

MATFEM
Matfem is a discussion list centered on Materialist Feminism. To subscribe send email to
MAJORDOMO@CSF.COLORADO.EDU and in the message write sub matfem firstname lastname

M-FEM Marxist Feminism
M-FEM is a discussion list centered around the elaboration of the theoretical and political relevance of Marxism to understand the basis for the oppression of women and the conditions for women's liberation.
To subscribe, send email to
MAJORDOMO@CSF.COLORADO.EDU

THE VIRTUAL SEMINAR

An electronic discussion list can be created to facilitate our collective learning through the frequent exchange of ideas about theoretical issues, puzzles, etc. that might emerge in the course of the semester. Participation in "the virtual seminar" counts for your final grade.