Sociology of Gender, SOCI 607
Spring 2008
Dr. Margaret L. Andersen
334 Smith Hall, 302-831-0649
Thursday 1-3 pm and by appointment
e-mail: mla@udel.edu
Course Description:
This course will review the significance of gender in structuring social institutions and
social experiences for women and men. We will review major sociological paradigms for
studying gender, as well as investigating methodological questions that arise in studying
gender. The interconnection of race, class, and gender stratification is a major theme in
this course. Topics include the social construction of gender, the connection between
gender and sexuality, the structure of gendered institutions (especially work and family),
and gender stratification. The course is intended to prepare you to do research with a
focus on gender, so students will be expected to read extensively in the sociological
literature on gender, evaluate the theoretical, substantive, and methodological
contributions of published scholarship, and frame a research question of their own to be
developed over the course of the semester.
Students should understand that the study of gender is now a huge field, cutting across
multiple disciplines and specialty areas within disciplines, including sociology. There are
a number of important topics that we simply do not have time to cover in one semester's
time (such as violence against women, globalization, gender and politics, cultural
representations and ideologies, attitudes about gender, and family studies, just to name a
few). Students may pursue some of these areas through research projects they identify in
an area of their interest, with the advice and approval of the faculty member.
Course Purpose:
1. to review current sociological research and theory on gender;
2. to learn about the diverse experiences of different groups of women, including
historical experiences in the labor market, as a way of understanding the race, class, and
gender dimensions of current themes in the scholarship on gender;
3. to understand current paradigms in feminist theory;
4. to comprehend how the methodology of different studies follows from the research
question asked;
5. to review good examples of doctoral dissertations that have been published as
important books.
Books for Purchase:
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the
Politics of Empowerment, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
Edin, Kathyrn, and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put
Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Garey, Anita. 1999. Weaving Work and Motherhood. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press.
Pascoe, C.J. 2007. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Additional required readings available online are marked by ** . These may be obtained
via Morris Library online resources. A few articles are on electronic reserves and are
marked as such in the syllabus below. Students are advised to collect all articles at the
beginning of the semester to avoid last minute acquisition problems. You will be
responsible for all readings!
Course Policies:
Academic Honesty: University policies on academic honesty apply to all work done in
this class. For more information, see http://www.udel.edu/judicialaffairs/policyref.html
Class Attendance: Required except for excused absences, as per University policy. See:
http://www.udel.edu/provost/fachb/III-1-l-attendance.html If you have an emergency,
please notify the professor as soon as reasonably possible. Students are responsible for all
missed work.
Requirements:
Students are expected to complete the reading prior to the seminar meeting and to
participate in the seminar discussion. Participation in the seminar will be included as part
of your grade. This is not meant to intimate those who are reluctant to speak, nor to
reward only those who do so with ease. Participation includes careful listening, as well as
sharing ideas and questions. I expect all students to create an environment that
encourages the participation of everyone in the group. I also encourage you to discuss
your ideas, reading, and written work with other students outside of class. University
policies on academic dishonesty apply to all work in this course.
There will be two take-home examinations in which students will write essays based on
the course readings. Students will also work together in small groups to prepare a class
presentation on one of recent empirical articles assigned for May 6-13. In addition, you
will be periodically responsible for presenting one of the readings for class discussion.
Remember that this is a seminar and your participation is critical to what all students
learn.
Finally, students will be asked to develop a research proposal based on a question derived
from the topics covered in this course, as well as review of the literature appropriate to
the topic.
Due Dates:
March 18: First Take Home Due (20% of grade)
March 25: Description of research topic due (including initial bibliography)
April 15: Second Take Home Due (20% of grade)
May 6-13: Group Reports in Class (10% of grade)
May 20: Final Papers Due (30% of grade)
Class Participation: (20% of grade)
February 12: Introductions
PART ONE. Paradigms of Gender
February 19: The Social Construction of Gender
Margaret L. Andersen. 2005. “Thinking about Women: A Quarter Century’s View.”
Gender & Society 19 ((August): 437-455. **
Also: We will discuss the Symposium on this article (Gender & Society, February
2008) when it is published.
Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. "Doing Gender." Gender & Society 1
(June): 125-151.**
Barbara J. Risman. 2004. “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with
Activism.” Gender & Society 18 (August): 429-450. **
Patricia Yancey Martin. 2004. “Gender as Social Institution.” Social Forces 82 (June):
1249-1273. **
Joan Acker. 1994. "Gendered Institutions: From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions."
Contemporary Sociology 21 (September): 565-569.**
February 26: NO CLASS: Please use this time to begin work on your research
proposal. You should also begin reading Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist
Thought.
March 4: Gendered Institutions
Joan Acker. 1990. "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations."
Gender & Society 4 (June): 139-158.**
Patricia Yancey Martin. 2003. "'Said and Done' Versus 'Saying and Doing': Gendering
Practices, Practicing Gender at Work." Gender & Society 17 (June): 342-366. **
Sharon R. Bird, Robert Connell, and Myra Marx Ferree. 2003. "Symposium" on Patricia
Yancey Martin in Gender & Society 17 (June): 342-366. **
March 11: Race, Class, and Gender
Patricia Hill Collins. 2000. Black Feminist Thought. New York: Routledge.
Joan Acker. 1999. “Rewriting Class, Race, and Gender: Problems in Feminist
Rethinking." Pp. 44-69 in Revisioning Gender, edited by Myra Marx Ferree,
Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess. Thousand Oaks, CA” Sage. (on electronic
reserve)
Margaret L. Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins. 2004. "Why Race, Class, and Gender
Still Matter” and “Systems of Power and Inequality” from Race, Class and
Gender. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.(on paper reserve)
Evelyn Nakano Glenn. 2002. Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped
American Citizenship and Labor. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Ch. 1 (on
electronic reserve)
Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill. 1996. "Theorizing Difference from
Multiracial Feminism." Feminist Studies 2 (Summer): 321-331.**
March 18: About Men
R.W. Connell and James Messerschmidt. 2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the
Concept.” Gender & Society 19: 829-859.**
Susan Faludi. 2007. The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America. New
York: Metropolitan Books, Chs. 1-6 and 11 (on paper reserve)
Michael A. Messner. 2007. “The Masculinity of the Governator.” Gender & Society 21
(August): 461-480. **
March 25: Theorizing Sex
Arlene Stein and Ken Plummer. 1994. "I Can't Even Think Straight: Queer Theory and
the Missing Sexual Revolution in Sociology." Sociological Theory 12 (July):
178-187.**
Steven Seidman. 1994. "Symposium: Queer Theory/Sociology: A Dialogue."
Sociological Theory 12 (July): 166-177.**
Patricia Hill Collins. 2004. “Prisons for Our Bodies: Racism, Heterosexism, and
Sexuality.” from Black Sexual Politics. New York: Routledge. (on electronic
reserve)
R. W. Connell. 1995. "A Very Straight Gay" from Masculinities. Berkeley: University of
California Press. (on electronic reserve)
Dennis Altman. 2001. “Sex and Political Economy.” from Global Sex. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. (on electronic reserve)
Judith Stacey and Timothy J. Biblarz. 2001. “(How) Does the Sexual Orientation of
Parents Matter?” American Sociological Review 66 (April): 159-183. **
April 8: Gender, Sexuality, and Youth: A Case Study
C. J. Pascoe. 2007. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
April 15: Gender, Work and Family
Anita Ilta Garey. 1999. Weaving Work and Motherhood. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press.
April 22: Gender, Social Class, and Poverty
Kathyrn Edin and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put
Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
April 29: Feminism and Methodology: Objectivity, Empiricism, and Sociological
Research
Sandra Harding and Kathyrn Norberg. 2005. “New Feminist Approaches to Social
Science Methodologies: An Introduction.” Signs 30 (Summer): 2009-2015. **
Sandra Harding, “Is There a Feminist Method?” and “Conclusion” Feminism and
Methodology” (on electronic reserve)
Nancy Hartsock. 1987. "The Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a
Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism" from Feminism and Methodology:
Social Science Issues, edited by Sandra Harding. Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press. (on electronic reserve)
Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith Cook. 2005. “Feminist Methodology: New
Applications in the Academy and Public Policy.” Signs 30 (Summer): 22112236.**
Lois Presser. 2005. “Negotiating Power and Narrative in Research: Implications for
Feminist Methodology.” Signs 30 (Summer): 2067-2090. **
May 6-13: Linking Theory and Research: Contemporary Empirical Studies
Selected Readings. Students will work in teams. Each team will read a contemporary
empirical article selected from below or from a list to be announced. The team will give a
brief report on the article's central question, methodology, and conclusion. The purpose is
to see how different questions require different methods of investigation. Articles
selected will include quantitative studies, content analyses, field work, and interviews.
You will only be reading the article for which you are responsible. Assignments to be
made later in the semester.
Pamela Stone and Meg Lovejoy. 2004. “Fast-Track Women and the ‘Choice’ to Stay
Home.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 596
(November): 62-83.
Ivy Kennelly. 2002. “’I Would Never Be a Secretary’: Reinforcing Gender in Segregated
and Integrated Occupations.” Gender & Society 5 (October): 603-624.
Gillian A. Dunne. 2000. "Opting into Motherhood: Lesbians Blurring the Boundaries and
Transforming the Meaning of Parenthood and Kinship." Gender & Society 14
(February): 11-35.
Ellen K. Scott, Andrew S. London, and Nancy A. Myers. 2002. "The Intersection of
Welfare Reform and Domestic Violence." Gender & Society 16 (December): 878897. *
Michael S. Kimmel. 2000. “Saving the Males: The Sociological Implications of the
Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel.” Gender & Society 14 (August): 494516.
Michael A. Messner and Jeffrey Montez de Oca. 2005. “The Male Consumer as Loser:
Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Events.” Signs 30 (Spring): 18791909.*
May 20: Summary and Conclusion