Women in the Global Context
WMN/ISP 205
Fall 2011
Class Time:
Monday-Friday 9:00-9:50 am
Course Instructor: Karen Stuhldreher, 934-7007
Office Hours
Tuesdays 10-12 and Mondays & Wednesdays 2:30-4:00 by appointment, IB 2330B
E-Mail:
karen.stuhldreher@seattlecolleges.edu
Online Assignments http://angel.north.seattle.edu
Intern Teaching Asst. Heike Rodriguez
Course Description
This is an interdisciplinary course which introduces students to the study of gender in a transnational
context. We will consider the conditions and contexts of women in different parts of the world from
South Asia to South America to Africa and the Middle East and as well as indigenous women in some
Western societies. Using a number of conceptual frameworks, students will explore commonalties and
differences among women in various societies and cultures. We will begin by examining our own politics
of location and the ways in which our perceptions of—or stories about-- the world and its people have
been shaped by our locations and experiences. We will study the diverse roles that women have played
in the international arena throughout history--as tourists, missionaries, diplomatic wives, consumers,
producers, nannies, domestics, prostitutes, soldiers, and agents of resistance. Topics will include
colonialism and nationalism, globalization, media representations, and resistance. We will also examine
the role of nationalist struggles and critiques of feminism by women in the Global South. Specific issues
and concerns that will be examined include work and economic issues, family and household issues,
sexuality, and reproductive issues. We will focus specifically this quarter on Muslim women and women
in South Asia and the Middle East. The course will draw on books, articles, personal narratives, films,
lectures and possibly guest speakers.
Required Texts
Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases, University of California Press, 1990
Arundhati Roy, Power Politics, South End Press, 2001
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis, Pantheon Books, 2003
Alice Walker, Overcoming Speechlessness, 2010
Course Reader -- Available at Prestige Copy & Print located at 11023 8th Ave. NE. It is off Northgate
Way just past the Chase Bank and behind the Starbucks. You can enter from Northgate way at the
Starbucks and go to the back parking lot. If you want to call first to make sure a Course Reader is
available for you, call 365-5770.
Course Learning Environment My hope for this course this quarter is that together we can cultivate a
learning community--both in the classroom and sometimes online--in which students work cooperatively
with the instructor to explore the texts, share their thoughts, and critically examine diverse perspectives
and ideas in a way that is thoughtful and respectful. Dialogue is the primary tool of a learning community
in that it allows diverse and competing perspectives to be explored with the goal of gaining deeper
understanding of issues and experiences. Dialogue, like learning, requires that some risks be taken. I
encourage you to take risks both by speaking out and by listening to one another in class. Sometimes
asking a question or challenging a viewpoint is a risk. Sometimes listening to a new idea or a point of
view that you do not share is a risk. Members of a learning community, like members of a democracy,
must do both in a way that respects and appreciates the differences among us.
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Course Format and Seminars This course will meet daily and it is essential that you are here on time
and engaged for the 50 minutes we are together each day. The time in class will be comprised of some
lectures which will present new material in addition to integrating information from the readings, small
group discussions and activities, and seminars. Text based Seminars will be a primary mode of learning
in this class. In seminars we will come prepared, having completed the reading and a written preparation
paper in order to discuss the themes, issues, and perspectives offered to us by the texts. The objective will
be for us to work together to do close readings of the texts in order to gain a clear understanding of what
the writers are saying. In seminars the texts become the teachers. We will share our interpretations and
responses to the texts in seminar. Active participation in book seminars is an essential part of this course
and will be significant in your final evaluation. You will be taught the necessary seminar skills and be
expected to demonstrate development in this area. You will need to complete all reading assignments on
time and come to all seminars fully prepared to participate. Your participation grade will be based in large
part on your development of seminar skills and your level of engagement in seminars.
Learning Outcomes
Completion of this course earns you credit toward the A.A. degree in the areas of Global Studies. With
this in mind, I have identified some Essential Learning outcomes and specific course objectives that are
important for you to work towards as you complete WMN/ISP 205.
Knowledge:
1. Discover the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge by studying one set of topics from two disciplinary
perspectives.
2. Understand major ideas, values, beliefs, and experiences that have shaped human history and cultures.
3. Be able to deal constructively with information, ideas, and emotions associated with issues of
diversity and conflict in studying foreign cultures and societies.
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Intellectual and Practical Skills:
Think critically in reading and writing, especially about conventional approaches to studying women
in non-Western societies and cultures
Describe and analyze gender, ethnicity, race, class, and culture as factors and forces in human
communities.
Explore primary texts to understand and critically examine different theories and ideas that have
shaped the history of women and cultures within a global context.
Analyze and synthesize the interconnections among the individual, the local community, the nationstate, and the global society.
Work and communicate effectively in groups and in seminars
Personal and Social Responsibility:
1. Demonstrate a willingness to learn from many cultures, persons, methods, and viewpoints by studying
works that represent such diversity.
2. Enter into the point of view of non-Western societies by reading from literature that expresses and
reflects a diversity of experiences and perspectives.
3. Examine how one’s own attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs are shaped by one’s own cultural, ethnic,
and racial heritage, by gender, by age, by sexual orientation, and by abilities.
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Course Requirements
1) Attendance and Participation: (20%)
To meet the course objectives and learning outcomes it is necessary for you to participate in all seminars,
small group activities, and class discussions—in class and online--and to do so actively and respectfully.
In order to participate you must come to class prepared, arrive on time, and stay for the entire class. You
must take the risks of listening and speaking. Attendance is also necessary since the material presented in
lectures and discussed in class is not always duplicated in course readings. You will be responsible for
the material presented in lectures and films when writing your papers and exams. Because many of the
films shown in class are not available in the Media Center, you will often not have the opportunity to
make up films shown in class. For all of these reasons, unexcused absences will affect your final grade.
2) Midterm and Final Exams: (50%)
Exams will give you the opportunity to review material, synthesize it, come to a clearer understanding of
it, and hopefully discover new connections. There will be a concept and a thesis portion of each exam so
that students can identify and define concepts learned and also have a chance to write longer essays to
synthesize and analyze ideas and themes that emerge from the material.
3) Weekly Seminar Preparation Papers/Portfolio: (20%)
Students will be responsible for writing and bringing to class most Fridays a typed, double-spaced
seminar preparation paper based on the readings for the week. The directions will be provided in an
assignment hand-out. You should keep your papers together and in chronological order in a folder and at
the end of the quarter I will collect this portfolio for a final evaluation that will be based on your overall
work and your progress in writing these papers throughout the quarter. (See handout for specifics on how
your papers will be evaluated.). NOTE: .5 will be subtracted from your overall Portfolio grade for each
missing paper. For example, a 3.0 Portfolio missing 2 papers will receive a grade of 2.0. This means that
if you do not have your paper on the day that it is due, you will lose .5 from your overall portfolio grade.
No late papers will be accepted and you may not add late, unmarked papers to your portfolio. The reason
for this is because the primary purpose of these papers is for you to prepare for our seminar discussion.
Extra Credit for Reading Portfolios: You may also receive extra credit for doing additional onetwo page papers in which you write summaries and responses to activities and events announced in
class. These may include public readings, plays, films, and lectures that pertain to the course and
occur both on and off campus. Listen in class for announcements. You might also read chapters of the
course texts that are not assigned and write short summary/response papers about the extra reading
you do. A summary/response paper is one in which you write a short summary of the reading, film,
or lecture that you engage in, and then a response which includes your thoughts and insights and
connections to the course material. Place these additional papers in a separate section at the end of
your Reading Portfolio. Limit:: No more than 5 extra credit entries will be given extra credit.
Taking Notes: The material you will be responsible for learning in class will be presented in a variety of
formats that include films, lectures, small group discussions, and sometimes guest lectures. You should
treat all of these (including class discussions) as resources that you will draw on in writing papers, and
exams, just as you will the course readings. This means that you should take careful notes. You cannot
write down every word, but you can write down key points and examples. Review your notes as soon as
possible the same day. Write down questions that you want to ask the instructor or your classmates. For
help on taking notes effectively, please ask me.
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Asking for Assistance: I want to make myself as available to you as possible to help you to succeed in
this course. My office hours are for the purpose of providing you with any assistance you need in
understanding the course material and requirements, as well as in articulating your ideas verbally and in
writing. Please don’t hesitate to e-mail me or to come by my office with any problems or concerns that
arise during the quarter. You are encouraged---and it is your responsibility—-to contact me if you have
any questions or if you find yourself falling behind in your work for any reason. I am also open to any
suggestions you might have for improvement in all aspects of the course and will be asking for your
feedback during the quarter. You can also talk with our student intern T.A. Heike Rodriguez about any
concerns or questions you have. Heike and I will work together to address students’ needs.
Accommodations: If you need course adaptations or accommodation in the classroom because of a
disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with your instructor, or if you need special
arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform your instructor at once.
Anti-Discrimination Statement: North Seattle Community College does not discriminate on the basis of
race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital
status, or disability.
Student Responsibility: In addition to contacting me about problems or suggestions, it is your
responsibility, as a member of a learning community, to work cooperatively with both myself and your
classmates in and outside of the classroom. To this end, I encourage study groups outside of class so that
you can continue discussions beyond the bounds of the classroom and also so you can help prepare
yourselves and each other for the course assignments. Working cooperatively and respectfully in a
learning community also means coming to class on time and prepared, participating in discussions and
exercises in class, and finding out what you missed if you are absent from class. Since this is a 5 credit
course, it is also your responsibility to devote a minimum of 15 hours a week to this class. Five of these
hours will be spent in class which means that you would expect to do a minimum of 10 hours of studying,
reading, and writing outside of class each week. The syllabus is designed with this in mind.
Students are expected to:
 Be on time—lateness is disruptive and disrespectful (But don’t miss a class because you are late—come
in quietly)
 Turn assignments in during class on the DUE date.
 Proofread all of your written work.
 E-mail your instructor if you must miss class. Take responsibility for finding out what you have missed
and for obtaining copies of notes, handouts, assignments, and changes.
 Talk with me if you miss more than three classes. Do not just disappear.
 Listen attentively and respectfully to others.
 Respect the need for a productive learning environment by turning off your cell phone and pagers at the
start of class and leaving them off for the duration of the class.
 Refrain from using artificial fragrances; sensitivity to chemicals can dramatically affect some people and
a fragrance free environment is part of the North Seattle Community College Code.
 Because laptop computers can be disruptive to the learning community, refrain from using laptops during
class time unless you have special accommodations that are documented.
 Become comfortable with ambiguity and complexity in studying course content and practice course skills.
 Take responsibility for your own progress which means asking questions as they arise and seeking help
when the work feels too challenging or confusing
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Overall our shared responsibility is that together we work to create a supportive, safe, respectful, lively,
and collaborative learning community for all.
Weekly Schedule: Topics and Assigned Readings
Week 1
Readings:
(September 24-28) Laying the Groundwork for Understanding Gender in a Global
Context—Understanding How “we” are Located in A Transnational World
June Jordan, "A Trip to the Bahamas", Course Reader
Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," Course Reader
Marnia Lazreg, "Feminism and Difference", Course Reader
Questions:
What's in this syllabus?
What is gender? How is it distinct from sex? In what ways is this distinction important to feminism?
What is privilege? In what ways are you privileged and in what ways not?
How is white and western privilege significant in understanding women in a global context?
What does Jordan learn from traveling to the Bahamas? What is her discovery in writing this essay?
What is your discovery in reading this essay?
What is "politics of location"? How might understanding this concept help to make us more aware of
connections between our lives and people in the rest of the world?
How did Jordan’s understanding of her identity help to make her more aware of people she came into
contact with?
Week 2
Readings:
(October 1-5) Who are women?-- Women in “Tradition vs. Modernity” Dichotomy
“Introducing Women’s Studies: Gender in a Transnational World,” Course Reader
Cynthia Enloe, “Introduction to The Curious Feminist” Course Reader
Wei Djao, "Being Chinese: the Cultural Dimension", Course Reader
Questions:
What do we learn about the history of Women Studies and the discipline’s attention to global issues and
concerns?
What is meant by a transnational world? What does this term help us to understand and pay closer
attention to?
What is a transnational approach to Women Studies? What does it emphasize?
What is the danger of a single story? Why is this an important idea to consider as we embark on Global
Studies
What are examples of single stories that are dangerous in your own experience?
Why is it important to be curious? What is distinctive about developing a feminist curiosity?
What is culture?
What is “ideal culture” as opposed to “real culture”?
What do the terms "first" and "third" world mean? Where did these terms come from?
Where are we in the U.S. located in these terms?
What is the dichotomy between "modernity and "tradition" about?
What's in a Seminar? What are the key questions that we want to explore in a Seminar?
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Week 3
(October 8-12) Perceptions of Women in the “Third World” and on the Global Stage
Contexts of Struggle: What We See As Curious Feminists Through a Gendered Lens
Readings:
Chandra Mohanty, "Cartographies of Struggle", Course Reader
Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Prefaces and Chapters 1 -2
Questions:
What are western preconceptions/images of the “third world”? Of third world women in particular?
How are such perceptions of “third world” a form of constructing “the other”?
What is the critique of western feminists with respect to their understanding of “third world women” as a
social category?
What are differences between western feminisms and “third world” feminisms?
What is meant by “context of struggle”? Why is it useful to understand the common contexts of struggle
and the different contexts of struggle in order for western and non-western women to work together?
What is the relationship of gender relations to international politics?
What various roles do women play in international politics? As subjects and as objects?
Why does Enloe say that the phrase “nothing is natural” is a good motto for Gender/Women Studies?
According to Enloe, why might feminist analyses be important to understanding the international politics?
How is international tourism a function of power according to Enloe?
How does tourism function in relationship to colonialism?
What are the gendered aspects of tourism? What roles do femininity and masculinity play in tourism?
Week 4
Readings:
(October 15-19) Women in Relation to Colonialism, Nationalism Historically and
Currently as Consumers and Producers Transnationally
Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Chapters 3, 6-7
Cynthia Enloe, “Whom Do You Take Seriously” Course Reader
Questions:
What is colonialism? How has colonialism shaped women's lives?
How have women as symbols, as caretakers, as workers been significant in colonialism?
What is nationalism?
What is the relationship of women to nationalism? How have women been implicated in nationalist
struggles?
Why is the notion of “feminine respectability” important to understanding women in a global context?
How are women being integrated into the new international order of global economic restructuring?
What is the new international division of labor and how is it related to gender?
Women as producers: How is women's labor made cheap?
Women as consumers: How are good consumers and happy shoppers produced?
Week 5
Readings:
(October 22-26) Women on the Global Assembly Line—As Producers, Nannies,
Maids, Daughters, Wives, and Resistors
Cynthia Enloe, “The Globetrotting Sneaker” and “Daughters and Generals in the Politics
of the Globalized Sneaker” Course Reader and Ch. 9 in Bananas, Beaches, and Bases
Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, Global Woman in Course Reader
Questions:
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What are the effects of globalization on women in the Global South?
What is meant by feminization of migration? How is this concept tied to globalization?
Why has migration increased? What are the “pushes” and the “pulls”? What creates the care deficit?
Why is a feminist analysis important to understand the process of globalization?
How does an understanding of migration and changes in women’s work cause us to see the process of
globalization in a new light?
What are examples of resistance to the global assembly line and to the effects of migration?
In what ways do multi-national corporations create “pushes” and “pulls”? Why is it important to
understand how workers become displaced in order to fully understand the process and politics of
migration?
How do employers benefit from this process of migration, specifically from the feminization of
migration?
What are some alternatives to the growing inequality you have seen and read about this week?
Week 6
(October 29-November 2) Understanding Globalization—Its History, Economic
Structure, Assets and Liabilities
Readings:
Wayne Ellwood, No Nonsense Guide to Globalization in the Course Reader
Questions:
What is globalization? What is the history of globalization? How is globalization different today?
What is the Bretton Woods Trio?
What significant economic and political shift did the Bretton Woods Conference create?
What is the IMF? The World Bank? The WTO? GATT? Why is it important to know about these?
What are Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) and how are these linked to development?
Midterm Exam on Monday, October 29th
Week 7 (November 5-9) Understanding Power and Politics in the Global South—Feminist
Responses to Globalization and Neo-Colonialism
Readings:
Nawal El Saadawi from The Nawal El Saadawi Reader in Course Reader
Arundhati Roy, Power Politics
Questions:
What is development and how does it affect women internationally according to Saadawi?
What does it mean to say that development is a form of neocolonialism according to Saadawi?
What is the politics of resistance that she says we must cultivate?
What are the costs to women of economic development in the Global South? In India specifically?
What is privatization and what is Roy’s critique of it?
Why did the Indian government embrace privatization? What is her critique of its decision?
What is the lesson of the dams built in India? Why does Roy tell this story in such detail?
What can India teach the world according to Roy? How does she answer this question?
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What are the similarities and differences you find between Roy and El Saadawi and what they have to say
about the costs of globalization and development in their countries?
How do they each see themselves as writers and as activists? How are they each treated by their
governments as writers and as activists?
Week 8 (November 12-16) Understanding Orientalism--Representations of Women in South Asia
and the Arab World
Readings:
Sanjukata Ghosh, “Con-fusing Exotica: Producing India in U.S. Advertising,” C. Reader
Therese Saliba, "Military Presences and Absences: Arab Women and the Persian Gulf
War,” in Course Reader
Questions:
What is Orientalism? Why is this an important concept to understand for this course?
How are Orientalist representations of women tied to colonialism?
How are Arab and Islamic women in particular represented in the media?
What are the effects of these representations? What are their specific effects during war time?
How do such representations play out in the global economy and foreign policy?
Week 9
Readings:
(November 19-21) Women and Islam: An Introduction to Women in Iran
Shirin Ebadi, Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope, Prologue and Ch. 1-3 in
Course Reader
Questions:
What do you learn from Ebadi about the history of U.S. foreign policy in Iran?
How has U.S. involvement in Iran affected the country—its political leadership and its people?
How have the revolutionary changes in power affected Iranian women in particular?
What do you learn from Ebadi about women’s lives in Iran? How are they similar and different to one
another and to women in the west? Consider differences with respect to class and culture as well.
Week 10
Readings:
(November 26-30) Feminism and Critiques: Women and Islam, Women in Iran
Satrapi, Persepolis
Haleh Afshar, “Women and Political Fundamentalism in Iran” and Ziba Mir Hosseini,
section from “Divorce, Veiling and Feminism in Post-Kohemeni Iran” in Course Reader
Questions:
How does reading memoir help to understand the struggles and issues of women in Iran?
What does Satrapi’s memoir contribute to your understanding of the politics of veiling?
What is similar and different between Ebadi’s and Satrapi’s experiences in Iran?
What is your experience of reading a “graphic novel” like Satrapi’s? What do the pictures lend to your
understanding of women in Iran and women and Islam?
What does Satrapi’s memoir contribute to your understanding of the politics of veiling?
What are the critiques of western feminism by women of the Global South, particularly Islamic women?
What is the relationship between women and Islam?
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What is Islamic feminism?
What are the politics of veiling? How does the film Under One Sky help you to understand the many
aspects of veiling?
Weeks 11 and 12
Readings:
(December 3-10) Overcoming Speechlessness in Israel, Palestine and African
Nations—What can we do?
Alice Walker, Overcoming Speechlessness
Questions:
Why is it important to “bear witness to” the pain and suffering of people in other parts of the world?
What do we have to learn from reading about women in Rwanda and the Eastern Congo and in Palestine?
In what ways is the history of colonialism that we studied earlier directly at issue in creating fertile ground
for the wars and atrocities people suffer today?
What do you learn about the Palestinian and Israeli conflict that you did not know before?
Why does Walker title her book “overcoming speechlessness”? Why is this important to her?
Is this book a hopeful book—a hopeful way to end this course or is it just despairing?
What does it mean to say that “true peace can only be built on justice”? How does this idea apply to what
you learn from Walker’s book?
What have we learned in this course that has been valuable?
How will we use the knowledge we have gained in this course?
Course Evaluation
Portfolio DUE
Final Exam scheduled on day of Final during Exam week—
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