Sociology and Women’s Studies 851: Gender in America
Spring 2013, Section 5
Tues-Thurs 11-12:20, Anderson 8
Prof. Judith Levine
jalevine@temple.edu
215-204-7963
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Colin Hammar
colin.hammar@temple.edu
215-204-7369
Prof. Levine’s Office Hours: Thursdays 3:30-5:00pm in Gladfelter 752 and by appt
Colin Hammar’s Office Hours: Mondays 11:00am-12:00pm and Thursdays 1:00-2:00pm
in Gladfelter 746 and by appt
Course Description:
This course examines gender roles in contemporary United States society, occasionally
using international examples for comparison. It reviews theories of the social
construction of gender and how our culture attaches meaning to gender. It looks at the
role of socialization in reproducing gender roles and how our own embodiment of gender
influences interactions in our daily lives.
At the societal level, the course reviews the function gender plays in negotiating power
and inequality in social institutions such as the family, work, policy, and media systems.
Throughout the course, attention will be paid to the complex interaction between gender
and race, ethnicity, and sexuality. The goals are to have students think critically about
gender and the way gender is experienced in the society in which we live.
The Goals of the GenEd program and the U.S. Society course area:
Gender in America is part of the General Education (GenEd) program. GenEd intends to
develop your ability to think, problem-solve and communicate effectively. GenEd
courses are designed to help you understand how your professor’s field of study relates to
important controversies, issues or themes, and/or how it is connected to other fields of
study. The goal of the program overall is that you become active in the process of
learning, not only absorbing facts, but finding, evaluating and using information to create
new knowledge.
There are nine areas in GenEd, each with its own set of goals. This course fulfills the
U.S. Society area of the program, and its specific goals are to help students:
·
·
·
Access and analyze historical, analytical, and cultural materials;
Develop observations and conclusions about gender in US society and culture;
Construct interpretations using evidence and critical analysis;
·
Communicate and defend interpretations; and
·
Analyze the ways difference and heterogeneity have shaped the culture and
society of the United States.
Course Website:
I have established a course website on Blackboard. You should all be enrolled on the
site. If you are officially enrolled for the course but are not enrolled on the Blackboard
site, please contact the tech center for help. This syllabus appears on the site. Should
you need another copy of it, you can download it from the site. Many course readings,
assignments, and other information will be posted on the Blackboard site. I will also use
the site to post announcements. It is your responsibility to make sure you are up-to-date
on the content of these announcements.
Readings:
Text
There is one required book for the course. I have ordered the book at the Temple main
campus bookstore. Other sections of the course require different books, so make sure
you buy the one for this section.
Required Book:
Arlie Hochschild with Anne Machung. 2003. The Second Shift. Penguin Books. (Note:
There are several editions of this book. While it’s probably best to get this most recent
one, it doesn’t really matter if you get an earlier one).
Articles, Book Chapters, and Other Readings
In addition to the book to be purchased, the reading list includes many required articles,
book chapters, and other readings. Almost all of these readings will be posted on the
Blackboard course web site. There may be a few readings that you will need to find
online yourselves or in the library. While the basic structure of the reading schedule
appears below, I occasionally may add (or exchange) readings as they become pertinent
to class discussion and interest.
Course Requirements and Evaluation:
NOTE: For certain assignments (such as the Gender and Commerce paper), we will
request that they BOTH be turned in on paper in class AND posted on Blackboard. We
will announce those required for posting on Blackboard in class.
Course assignments are designed to allow you to think critically about the course
material.
Your grade will be calculated based on the following components worth the number of
points listed:
Class Participation (which assumes attendance)
In-class exercises/reaction papers
Gendered Commerce Paper
Midterm Exam
Gender and Politics Essay
Final Exam
10
16 (2 points each)
15
20
19
20
TOTAL POINTS
100
Points correspond to letter grades as follows:
95-100 = A
92-94.9 = A88-91.9 = B+
84-87.9 = B
80-83.9 = B77-79.9 = C+
74-76.9 = C
70-73.9 = C67-69.9 = D+
64-66.9 = D
60-63.9 = DUnder 60 = F
Exams (20% midterm, 20% final)
There will be two exams for this class: a midterm and a final exam. The examination
structure will consist of a mix of question types (such as multiple choice, fill in the blank,
true or false, short answer, and essay) covering class material including readings, material
presented in class, and discussion. The final will focus on the material from the midterm
until the end of the course but will also include general material from the first half of the
course. It is likely impossible to pass the course if you miss either of the exams.
Gendered Commerce Paper (15%)
The first three weeks of the course present various theories about how gender is
constructed in American culture. This assignment is designed to have you address these
theoretical perspectives by analyzing how gender is represented and reproduced in
American consumer culture. You are to visit a store which sells products for both women
and men or girls and boys (good possibilities include stores such as Target, Disney, toy
stores, department stores, and clothing stores). If it is very difficult for you to visit such a
store, you may visit an online store. Doing so, however, makes the assignment a little
harder because you cannot see how the products are displayed. In an approximately 3
page paper, you should address the following questions drawing from both the class
readings (as many as are relevant) and from your own observations.
1) Is the nature of the products and the marketing/display of them gendered? How
so?
2) What theoretical perspectives on gender from class readings and discussion help
you understand the gendering of the products and marketing? Please summarize
them.
3) How do the theoretical perspectives from the readings inform (or fail to inform)
the gendered nature of products?
4) How might these products, and the marketing of them, reproduce gender roles in
the U.S.?
Gender and Politics Essay (19%)
Both the 2008 and 2012 national elections in the U.S. featured women in major roles. In
2008, we had our first female presidential candidate, a female vice-presidential candidate,
and a visible potential (during the campaign) first lady. In 2012, we had a relatively large
number of women running for (and winning) seats in Congress. Several issues relating to
gender and sexuality were also prominent in campaign discussions. Contraception,
abortion, reproductive health care, sexual violence, and gender inequity in the labor
market all appeared as key issues in political discussions. Using online search engines,
find four (or more) online sources that covered one (or more) of these women or issues in
the political sphere. Two of these sources must be newspaper articles from the New York
Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, or a similar national paper. Use the
Hammett criteria at the end of this syllabus to evaluate the quality of your sources. Turn
in the link for the articles as well as a 3-4 page essay on the gendered nature of politics in
the U.S. In your analysis, you should draw not only on the online sources you find but
also on all class readings that are relevant to the points you make about how gender
operates in politics. A successful essay requires the use of class readings.
As more information has become available online, it has become increasingly important
to learn how to use search engines and electronic resources as well as how to evaluate the
quality of the information found. This exercise is designed to help promote these skills.
Class Preparation and Class Participation (which assumes attendance) (10%)
You are expected to do all of the reading on time and be prepared to discuss it in class.
This means setting aside an average of about three hours for class preparation for every
class period, as is true of most classes. Reading the material carefully before class is
important to your overall success in various ways. We will not cover all the material in
all the readings in class. Having the background of the readings will make the class
discussion more meaningful and more comprehensible. It will also enable you to
contribute to discussion and answer questions in ways that enhance your participation
grade. In addition, sometimes in class we will do small group work or in-class writing
that presupposes that you have read the assignment. Finally, it will be hard to do well on
the exams if you do not keep up with the readings.
In-Class Exercises and Reaction Papers (16%)
To help you stay on top of the reading and focus in on its meaning (which will prepare
you to participate in class and also help you do well on exams), there will be a
combination of short reaction papers, in-class exercises, and in-class quizzes. There will
be a total of 10 of these types of exercises during the course of the semester. Since the
main point of the exercises is to help you be prepared for class NO LATE PAPERS
WILL BE ACCEPTED and there are NO MAKE-UPS FOR ANY IN-CLASS
EXERCISES/QUIZZES. However, we understand that sometimes illness or other
emergencies come up. Thus, you can miss a total of TWO of these exercises. This
means that we will drop your two lowest grades for these types of exercises (but not for
the other kinds of assignments in the course.) If you miss two exercises, we will drop the
zeros assigned for those. If you miss one, we will drop that zero as well as your lowest
grade on another one. If you do not miss any, we will drop your two lowest grades.
(Again, this only applies to these exercises and not to the other assignments/exams in the
course). This policy saves us all from having to discuss whether absences are legitimate
or not – there is no penalty for two absences on assignment days, after that, there is a
grade penalty (2 percentage points per assignment) regardless of the reason for the
absence. If you are absent, you are still responsible to find out from a classmate or the
TA what you missed that day. If you attend regularly and stay up on the reading, these
exercises will help your grade because they are an easy way to get points.
Three times in the semester, the exercise is a reaction paper that you write at home and
bring to class. The due dates for these are shown on the syllabus below.
For each paper, you are to write what you think the main point of each of that week’s
readings is and whether you think the author supports his/her point adequately and why
or why not you think so. Instructions for the remaining seven in-class exercises will be
given in class.
Contacting Me:
If you need to reach me outside of class time, please email me or call my office phone
number. You will likely find it easier to reach me through email than phone. I will check
email regularly, but given teaching, departmental and research responsibilities, I
unfortunately cannot be routinely on email (or by the phone). So, please be patient if it
takes a day or two for me to respond to you (although I will try to respond as soon as
possible). I do not check email on weekends.
Course Policies:
Policy on Cell Phones, Recording Devices, Etc.
Cell phones, pagers, beepers, and all similar devices must be turned off during class
except with special permission from me. Please do NOT text in class – this is a special
pet peeve of mine since it is incredibly distracting for some reason. Also, audio or video
recording of the class is strictly forbidden unless I have granted permission to do so.
Disability Statement
Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability
should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. Also
please contact Disability Resources and Services at 215-204-1280 in 100 Ritter Annex.
They are assigned with coordinating reasonable accommodations for students with
documented disabilities.
Statement on Academic Freedom
Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The
University has adopted a policy on Student and Faculty Academic Rights and
Responsibilities (Policy # 03.70.02) which can be accessed through the following link:
http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02
Course Preparation
This class meets 3 hours a week. Students can expect approximately 6 hours of
preparation (reading, reflecting, preparing written assignments, reviewing notes, etc.) per
week, although this preparation time may vary from week to week (for example, weeks in
which assignments are due require more preparation time).
Note carefully the dates for assignments and examinations listed on this syllabus. It is
impossible to do well in the class if you miss an assignment (other than the two excused
exercises). Late papers and assignments will be penalized. Late reaction papers and
missed class exercises will be given zeros.
Policy on Religious Holidays
If you will be observing any religious holidays this semester which will prevent you from
attending a regularly scheduled class or interfere with fulfilling any course requirement,
please contact me to make appropriate arrangements within two weeks of the beginning
of the semester (or three days before any holidays which fall within the first two weeks
of class).
Attendance Policy
Regular attendance will be necessary in order to achieve a good participation grade and in
order to earn the points for in-class exercises for which there are no make-ups. In
addition, lectures will cover material not in the readings and this material will be covered
in exams.
Policy on Academic Honesty
The section in italics is quoted verbatim from the Temple University Bulletin for 20062007.
Temple University believes strongly in academic honesty and integrity. Plagiarism and
academic cheating are, therefore, prohibited. Essential to intellectual growth is the
development of independent thought and a respect for the thoughts of others. The
prohibition against plagiarism and cheating is intended to foster this independence and
respect.
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person's labor, another person's ideas,
another person's words, another person's assistance. Normally, all work done for courses
-- papers, examinations, homework exercises, laboratory reports, oral presentations -- is
expected to be the individual effort of the student presenting the work. Any assistance
must be reported to the instructor. If the work has entailed consulting other resources -journals, books, or other media -- these resources must be cited in a manner appropriate
to the course. It is the instructor's responsibility to indicate the appropriate manner of
citation. Everything used from other sources -- suggestions for organization of ideas,
ideas themselves, or actual language -- must be cited. Failure to cite borrowed material
constitutes plagiarism. Undocumented use of materials from the World Wide Web is
plagiarism.
Academic cheating is, generally, the thwarting or breaking of the general rules of
academic work or the specific rules of the individual courses. It includes falsifying data;
submitting, without the instructor's approval, work in one course which was done for
another; helping others to plagiarize or cheat from one's own or another's work; or
actually doing the work of another person.
Students must assume that all graded assignments and tests are to be completed
individually with the exception of a handful of in-class group exercises. I reserve the
right to refer any cases of suspected plagiarism or cheating to the University Disciplinary
Committee; I also reserve the right to assign a grade of "F" for the given assignment and
for the course.
Seeking and receiving appropriate help from The Writing Center is not plagiarism, and I
encourage you to do so.
Controversial Subject Matter
In this class we will be discussing subject matter that some students may consider
controversial. Some students may find some of the readings and/or comments in class
very challenging. Our purpose in this class is to explore this subject matter deeply and
consider multiple perspectives and arguments. Students are expected to listen to the
instructor and to one another respectfully, but of course are free to disagree, respectfully,
with views expressed. Students should also be sensitive in the way they express their
opinions given the sensitive nature of the topics discussed.
Tentative Schedule (Readings may change slightly through additions or deletions
over the course of the semester):
Note: Readings from the book are noted with (Book). All other readings will be posted
on Blackboard unless noted otherwise.
Week 1: Introduction – Why does Gender (and Sex) Matter in U.S. Society?
Tues Jan 22, Thurs Jan 24
Readings: NYT articles, Vincent
Tues Jan 22: Introduction to Course
Thurs Jan 24: NYT articles, start readingVincent
Week 2: Social Construction of Gender
Tues Jan 29, Thurs Jan 31
Readings: Vincent, West and Zimmerman
Tues Jan 29: finish Vincent
Thurs Jan 31: West and Zimmerman
Week 3: Social Construction continued; Sociology vs. Biology
Tues Feb 5, Thurs Feb 7
Readings:
Tues Feb 5: Thorne
Thurs Feb 7: Sapolsky
Memo due Thurs Feb 7 on both readings (one page total)
Week 4: Masculinity
Tues Feb 12, Thurs Feb 14
Readings: Kimmel, Pascoe
Tues Feb 12: Kimmel
Thurs Feb 14: Pascoe
ASSIGNMENT: Gendered Commerce Paper Due Thurs Feb 14
Week 5: Gendered Work
Tues Feb 19, Thurs Feb 21
Readings: Padavic and Reskin, Williams
Tues Feb 19: Padavic and Reskin (2 separate chapters), Film
Thurs Feb 21: Williams
Week 6: Household Division of Labor
Tues Feb 26, Thurs Feb 28
Readings: Hochschild and Machung (Book), Carrington
Tues Feb 26: Hochschild and Machung, chapters to be announced, Carrington
Thurs Feb 28: Continue Discussion
Week 7: Discussion and Midterm
(NOTE: Since there is no assigned reading this week or over spring break, begin
reading Waite and Edin and Kefalas this week and next week. They will not be
covered on the midterm, but you need to have read them by Tues Mar 19)
Tues Mar 5, Thurs Mar 7
Tues Mar 5: Discussion/Questions/Review
Thurs Mar 7: MIDTERM
SPRING BREAK: Mar 10-Mar 17
Week 8: Marriage
Tues Mar 19, Thurs Mar 21
Readings: Edin and Kefalas, Waite, Warner, Schoenberg at:
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0906/expert.html
Tues Mar 19: Waite, Edin and Kefalas
Thurs Mar 21: Warner, Schoenberg
Week 9: Gender and Appearance
Tues Mar 26, Thurs Mar 28
Readings: Kimmel, Wolf, Taylor
Tues Mar 26: Kimmel, Wolf
Thurs Mar 28: Taylor
Memo due Thurs Mar 28 on all three readings (one page total)
Week 10: Gender and Space
Tues Apr 2, Thurs Apr 4
Readings: Hayden
Tues Apr 2: Hayden
Thurs Apr 4: Catch up and discussion of politics essay assignment
Week 11: Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Tues Apr 9, Thurs Apr 11
Readings: Collins, King
Tues Apr 9: Collins
Thurs Apr 11: King
Week 12: Gender and Poverty
Tues Apr 16, Thurs Apr 18
Readings: Blank, Liebow
Tues Apr 16: Blank
Thurs Apr 18: Liebow
ASSIGNMENT: Gender and Politics Essay Due Tuesday Apr 16
Week 13: Gender and the Media/Film
Tues Apr 23, Thurs Apr 25
Readings: Faludi
Tues Apr 23: Faludi (or possibly film but read Faludi for today as background for film)
Thurs Apr 25: Film (or possibly Faludi discussion)
Memo due Tuesday Apr 23 on Faludi
Week 14: Catch-Up, Discussion, Review, Questions
Tues Apr 30, Thurs May 2 (Last day of class)
Tues Apr 30: Finish Film
Thurs: May 2 Review
FINAL EXAM: Tuesday May 14, 10:30am-12:30pm
Appendix: Adapted from Hammett (1999) to be used to evaluate web resources
QUESTIONS AND CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING WEB RESOURCES
(Available, with examples, at http:iilibweb.sonoma.edu/Resources/eval.html)
(1) Authority
Is the author of the page clearly identified? What are his or her credentials for writing on this
topic?
Is the author affiliated with an organization?
What is the reputation of that organization?
Is there a link back to the organization's page or an alternative way to contact the organization or
verify its credibility (i.e., address, phone number, or e-mail address)?
(2) Purpose and coverage
Are the purpose and objectives of the page clear?
Is it geared to a particular audience or level of expertise?
Is the primary purpose to provide information? to sell a product? to make a political point? To
have fun? to parody a person or organization or idea?
Is it a comprehensive resource or does it focus on a narrow range of information? Is it clear about
this focus?
If it is an information database, are the dates of coverage clear and appropriate to your needs?
Is it easy to search? Does it present information in a usable format?
If the page is interactive (a database or simulation, for instance), does it effectively present the
information in a usable format?
(3) Accuracy
Is the page part of an edited or peer-reviewed publication?
Does the content of the page convey the amount, depth, and significance of the evidence being
presented? Are the arguments persuasive?
Can factual information be verified through footnotes or bibliographies to other credible
sources?
Has the site been evaluated by one of the Web subject indexes, a rating service, or a library? If so,
can you tell what criteria they used?
Did you find this source using one of the broad search engines such as Alta Vista or Hot Bot?
They neither select the best pages nor filter out questionable ones, so you need to evaluate the
choices more carefully.
Based on what you already know about the subject (or have checked from other sources), does
this information seem credible?
Are there obvious mistakes or misspelled words or other signs of sloppiness?
(4) Timeliness
Is it clear when the information was published?
When was it last updated?
Are there any indications that an attempt is made to keep the pages current?
If there are links to other Web pages, are they current?
(5) Integrity of the information
Is the source of any factual information clearly stated?