WMNST 605 WOMEN AND SOCIAL POLICY
FALL 2014
Wednesdays 4:00pm-6:40pm
Arts and Letters 318
Dr. Kimala Price
Associate Professor, Department of Women’s Studies
Office: Arts and Letters Building, Room #344
Office Phone: 594-8442
Email: kprice@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 11:00am-12:00noon
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
This course explores the impact of governmental laws and policies on the lives of women
and their families. We will probe the explicit and implicit assumptions about gender, race,
class, sexuality and other markers of difference that influence and are incorporated into
public policy. Drawing from a range of disciplines including political science, sociology,
philosophy, history, law, economics and public policy, we will explore a range of public
policy topics, including workplace issues, reproductive rights and justice, poverty and
“welfare reform,” and the regulation of intimate relationships/marriage. We will also discuss
what it means to conduct a feminist policy analysis.
This course is designed as a seminar in which graduate students are expected to take an
active role; as the instructor, my main role is to serve as guide, facilitator and resource.
Moreover, this course is designed to help students learn how to use feminist/academic
scholarship and research to inform the policy-making process.
The assignments for this course are designed to simulate the kinds of activities a policy
analyst would do in practice and to develop the skills needed to perform policy analysis.
Therefore, in lieu of the traditional academic research paper or proposal, students will be
required to write short analytical papers throughout the semester and to put together a policy
briefing portfolio at the end of the semester. Note that the skills that you will develop in this
course can easily be transferred to traditional academic research, especially policy-related
research.
In this course, students will:
 Learn to closely read and critique feminist social science/public policy research and
theory.
 Develop the ability to analyze public policies from a feminist perspective with
particular attention paid to how the government regulates relationships and markers
of difference (i.e. gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, etc.) through the
formulation and implementation of laws, policies and judicial interpretation.
 Discuss how feminist research and analysis can information the policy-making
process.
2

Write summaries, talking points, policy briefs and other short analytical documents.
REQUIRED TEXTS
All of the required readings for this course are on Blackboard. There are no textbooks or
course readers for this course.
GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS
Class Participation
(Includes leading class discussion)
15%
Short Paper on Feminist Analysis
10%
Short Papers (3 Total @ 15% each)
45%
Policy Briefing Portfolio
and Oral Debriefing
30%
COURSE SCHEDULE
August 27
Introduction
September 3
Feminist Policy Analysis
Mary Hawkesworth. “Policy Studies within a Feminist Frame.” Policy
Sciences.Vol. 27, Issue 2-3 (1994): 97-118.
Virginia Sapiro. “The Gender Basis of American Social Policy.” Political
Science Quarterly. Vol. 101, No. 2 (1986): 221-238.
Nira Yuval-Davis. “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics.” In The
Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy through Race, Class, & Gender,
edited by Michele Tracy Berger and Kathleen Guidroz, 2009, pp. 44-60.
September
10
Women and the Workplace I
Joan Acker. ” Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in
Organizations.” Gender & Society. 20 (2006):441.
“The Gender Wage Gap: 2012,” Institute for Women’s Policy Research
(IWPR), March 2013.
“The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation,” Institute for Women’s Policy
Research (IWPR), April 2012.
Paper #1 Due: What is Feminist Policy Analysis? Essay
3
September
17
Women and the Workplace II
Michelle Johnson. “Women and Work.” CQ Researcher. July 26, 2013. 23(17):
645-668.
Sheryl Sandberg. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Knopf 2013.
Read:
 Chapter 1 “The Leadership Ambition Gap: What Would You Do if
You Weren’t Afraid?”
 Chapter 11 “Working Together Toward Equality”
bell hooks. “Dig Deep: Beyond Lean In.” The Feminist Wire. October 28,
2013. http://thefeministwire.com/2013/10/17973/
September
24
Women, Poverty and Welfare Reform
“Clearer View of Poverty…” Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR),
July 2012.
Debra Henderson and Ann Tickamyer. “The Intersection of Poverty
Discourses: Race, Class, Culture and Gender.” In Emerging Intersections: Race,
Class, and Gender in Theory, Policy, and Practice, 2009, pp. 50-72.
Mimi Abramovitz. “Welfare Reform in the United States: Gender, Race and
Class Matter.” Critical Social Policy. Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 2006): 336-364.
Katie Kerstetter. “Women, Poverty, and Welfare in the Great Recession,”
April 2013.
October 1
Conducting Policy Research
Guttmacher Institute. “Interpreting Research Studies,” 2006.
Richard Bullock and Maureen Daly Goggin. “Annotated Bibliographies”
(chapter 11). The Norton Field Guide to Writing, pp. 112-119.
“How to Write a Position Paper,” Xavier University Library, 2006.
Paper #2 Due
October 8
Women and Health Reform
David R Williams. “Racial/Ethnic Variations in Women's Health: The Social
Embeddedness of Health.” American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 98 (Sept
2008): S38-S47.
Katherine A. O’Hanlan et al. “Advocacy for Women’s Health Should
Include Lesbian Health.” Journal of Women’s Health. 13(2) (2004):227-234.
4
Kaiser Family Foundation. “Women and Health Care in the Early Years of
the Affordable Care Act,” May 2014.
October 15
Securing and Maintaining Reproductive Rights
Kenneth Jost. “Abortion Debates.” CQ Researcher. September 10, 2010.
Guttmacher Institute. “Overview of Abortion Laws.”
Roe v. Wade (1973)
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992)
Film: The Last Abortion Clinic (2005)
October 22
Toward Reproductive Justice
Smith, Andrea. “Beyond Pro-choice Versus Pro-life: Women of Color and
Reproductive Justice.” NWSA Journal. 17, no. 1 (2005): 119-140.
(Blackboard)
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice. “A New Vision for Advancing
Our Movement for Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights and
Reproductive Justice.” 2005.
Price, Kimala. 2010. “What is Reproductive Justice? How Women of Color
Activists Are Re-Defining the ‘Pro-Choice’ Paradigm.” Meridians: feminism,
race, transnationalism. 10(2): 42-65.
Paper #3 Due
October 29
Regulating Sexuality and Intimate Relationships
Amy Lind. “Legislating the Family: Heterosexist Bias in Social Welfare
Policy.” Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. Vol. 31, No. 4 (December 2004):
21-35.
“Gay Marriage.” CQ Researcher, March 14, 2013.
Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Center website
(http://www.hrc.org/campaigns/marriage-center)
Heather Brook. “Stalemate: Rethinking the Politics of Marriage.” Feminist
Theory. 3(2002): 45-66.
November 5
Women as Policy-Makers
Virginia Sapiro. “When Are Interests Interesting? The Problem of Political
Representation of Women.” American Political Science Review. Vol. 75, no. 3
(1981): 701-716.
5
Luis Ricardo Fraga et al. “Representing Gender and Ethnicity: Strategic
Intersectionality.” In Legislative Women: Getting Elected, Getting Ahead (edited by
Beth Reingold), 2008, pp. 157-174.
Wendy G. Smooth, “Gender, Race, and the Exercise of Power and
Influence.” In Legislative Women: Getting Elected, Getting Ahead (edited by Beth
Reingold), 2008, pp. 175-196.
November
12
Violence Against Women
Jill Filipovic, “Offensive Feminism: The Conservative Gender Norms that
Perpetuate Rape Culture, and How Feminists Can Fight Back,” in Yes Means
Yes! Visions of Female Power & a World without Rape (edited by Jaclyn Friedman
and Jessica Valenti), 2008, pp. 13-27.
Lisa Wade et al. “Ruling Out Rape.” Contexts. Vol. 13, no. 2 (Spring 2014):
16-25.
Andrea J. Ritchie, “Law Enforcement Violence Against Women of Color,”
(chapter 17) The Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology. Cambridge, CA: South
End Press, 2006.
Paper #4 Due
November
19
Women and Migration
Elizabeth J. Clifford And Susan C. Pearce. “Women and Current U.S.
Immigration Policies: Fact Sheet” published by Sociologists for Women in
Society, November 2004.
Eithne Luibheid. “Sexuality, Migration, and the Shifting Line between
Legal and Illegal Status.” GLQ. 14 (2/3) (2008): 289
Wendy Chapkis. 2003. “Trafficking, Migration, and the Law: Protecting
Innocents, Punishing Immigrants.” Gender and Society, 17 (6): 923-937.
November
26
THANKSGIVING – NO CLASS
December 3
Feminist Policy Analysis Revisited
We will be revisiting the readings from the second week. In light of what we have discussed
this semester, how would you now answer the following question: What is feminist policy
analysis?
December
10
LAST DAY OF CLASS
Policy Briefing Portfolio Due; Class Oral Debriefing