Leadership Scholars Internship Seminar
988: 426
Women, Work, and Community
Spring 2006
Thursdays 2, 3 (10:55 a.m. to 1:55 p.m.)
Institute for Women’s Leadership
Dr. Mary Trigg
This seminar seeks to explore the connections between theory and practice by
bringing together academic readings with a work experience in an internship site. The
readings focus on community, women and work, and young women. The internship sites
include women’s organizations, research and policy centers, medical clinics, media
outlets, and government agencies. Your internship sites will serve as experiential settings
for deepening your understanding in your policy areas of interest, and should serve as
springboards for your social action projects. We will take a field trip to one or more of
the internship sites during class, at the end of the semester. This is required.
This seminar builds on the Women and Leadership seminar, and aims to deepen your
understanding of women’s leadership, the issues women face in the workplace, and
structural changes in work and the American family. The seminar will also be practical
in the sense that we will learn about tools for social change, including proposal writing,
advocacy, strategic planning, and institution building. Producing the proposal for your
social action project (which you will implement in 988:430), is embedded in the course.
Two films will be shown in the class, and we will have two visiting speakers, as well as
visits from second year Scholars who will talk about their social action projects.
The course will meet weekly on Thursdays, 2nd and 3rd periods, in the library on the third
floor of the Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett building in the Women’s Scholarship and
Leadership Complex at 162 Ryders Lane on the Douglass College campus. Lauren
Braswell, a second year Leadership Scholar, will serve as a Peer Teacher for the class.
Institute Associate Suzanne Grossman will be another resource for you in this seminar,
which will be a collaborative effort. All of us are available for meetings by appointment.
E-mail Addresses:
Mary Trigg: trigg@rci.rutgers.edu
Lauren Braswell: Lauren9@eden.rutgers.edu
Suzanne Grossman: suzg@rci.rutgers.edu
Readings:
The books ordered for the course are available at the Douglass/Cook Student Co-Op
Store. The five required books to buy are:
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist
Activism (NY: Farrar Struas and Giroux, 2005)
Ann Crittendon, The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is
Still the Least Valued (NY: Metropolitan Books, 2001)
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (NY:
Metropolitan Books, 2001)
Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling, The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American
Dream (NY: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005)
Rebecca Walker, ed., To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism
(NY: Anchor Books, 1995)
There are also additional readings that will be on reserve.
Requirements:
Your grade will be based on your work in the seminar and at your internship. It will be
assigned in the following way.
Internship Placement Grade:
You are expected to work 10 to 12 hours per week at your internship placement. For
those of you commuting to New York, Newark, or Trenton, your hourly requirement is
reduced to 10. You are expected to accomplish the tasks agreed upon in your internship
contract. If you have not yet given me your contract and proposal, I must have it by
week 2 of the semester. The evaluation procedures for your internship will consist of an
oral mid-term evaluation with your supervisor, and a final written evaluation. Each of
you should meet with me at least once in the semester to touch base on your internship.
Your internship supervisor has the authority to give you a letter grade on your work at the
organization. However, if you have a valid reason to disagree with the grade, it can be
discussed further with the supervisor.
Seminar Grade:
Assignment Policy: All assignments are to be handed in at the beginning of class on
the due date. Late assignments will be graded down ½ grade per day late. Handing
in the paper after class counts as one day late.
Participation: (10%): You must attend class regularly and come prepared to discuss the
reading and relate it to your internship experiences. This is factored into your grade.
Journals (15%): Another requirement is that you keep a journal in which you should
make entries as often as you can, but at least once a week. I will hand out journal
guidelines and questions in class, and will collect your journals twice: on February 16th,
and April 20th. You will continue these journals in 988:430 (IWL Social Action
Project), and may want to write in them over the summer as you move forward on your
projects.
Presentations (15%): As noted on the syllabus, you have been assigned to groups with
other Leadership Scholars who share your women’s policy area of interest. You will
work with these groups in a shared class presentation, which is scheduled on the syllabus.
I will hand out guidelines for the presentations in class. Your group is responsible for
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selecting and distributing one required reading to the class for the day you present.
You must distribute it the week before your presentation.
2 Short (5-7 page) Papers (30%): Paper #1: Due February 9th (topic will be
distributed in class.)
Paper #2: 5-7 page paper due March 30th (topic will be distributed in class.)
Social Action Project Proposal (30%): A central part of this seminar is the production of
a proposal for your social action project, which builds on your internship experience. I
will discuss the requirements for this more fully in class. It is due on the last day of class,
April 27th.
I. WOMEN AND COMMUNITY
Jan. 19
Introduction and Course Overview
Mary Trigg and Barbara Balliet, “Learning Across Boundaries: Women’s
Studies, Praxis, and Community Service,” in Barbara Balliet and Kerrissa
Heffernan, eds., The Practice of Change: Concepts and Models for ServiceLearning in Women’s Studies. Merrifield, VA.: American Association for
Higher Education, 2001. ON RESERVE
Jan. 26
Building Women’s Communities
Estelle Freedman, “Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building
and American Feminism, 1870-1930,” originally published in Feminist
Studies, vol. 5, no. 3 (Fall 1979): 512-29. ON RESERVE
Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy A Load: Black Women in Defense of
Themselves, 1894-1994 (NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999), Chapter 1. ON
RESERVE
Film: “Women Organize”
Feb. 2
Community and Civic Engagement
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American
Community (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000), chapters 1-8, 10. ON
RESERVE
Robert Wuthnow, “Civil Society: Changing from Tight to Loose
Connections,” in Jody Heymann and Chirstopher Beem, eds., Unfinished
Work: Building Equality and Democracy in an Era of Working Families
(2005), pp. 63-85. ON RESERVE
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Feb. 9
Work, Family, and Community
Ann Bookman, Starting in Our Own Backyards: How Working Families
Can Build Community and Survive the New Economy, Introduction,
chapters 1, 10. ON RESERVE
Patricia Roos, Mary Trigg, and Mary Hartman, “Changing
Families/Changing Communities: Work, Family, and Community in
Transition,” in Community, Work & Family, forthcoming, Feb. 2007.
*Short Paper Due
II. WOMEN AND WORK
Feb. 16
The Ideal Worker
Joan Williams, Chapter 3, “Deconstructing the Ideal-Worker Norm in
Market Work,” in Unbending Gender (Oxford and NY: Oxford U. Press,
2000), pp. 64-113. ON RESERVE
Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling, The Career Mystique, Chapters 1- 4.
Min Jin Lee, “pushing away the plate,” in Rebecca Walker, ed., to be real,
pp. 87-105. ON RESERVE
Second Half: Presentation on Policy Area of Politics/Law
*Diana Ruiz (Center for American Women and Politics), Erika Vela
(Center for American Women and Politics)
*Journals Due
Feb. 23
The Career Mystique & Changing Structures
Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling, The Career Mystique, Chapters 5 - 8.
Debra Meyerson and Maureen Scully, “Tempered Radicalism: Changing
the Workplace from Within,” in Robin J. Ely, Erica Gabrielle Foldy, and
Maureen A. Scully, eds., Reader In Gender, Work, and Organization
(2003), pp. 266 – 272. ON RESERVE
Second Half: Presentation on Policy Area of Health
* Liza Bianchi ( NYU Medical Center), Viktoriya Davydan (New Jersey
Hospital Association), Gillian Generoso, Jennifer Luo, Karol Silva (Eric
B. Chandler Health Clinic)
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March 2
The Working Poor
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickle and Dimed
Film: “Take It From Me”
March 9
Work & Family 1
Guest Speaker: Mary Murphree, IWL Policy Fellow (Work)
Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood, Introduction & Chapters 1-6.
Elizabeth Mitchell, “an odd break with the human heart,” in Rebecca
Walker, ed., to be real, pp. 49-60. ON RESERVE
Second Half: Presentation on Policy Area of Human Rights
* Ashley Haughton, Arwa Ibrahim (Center for Women’s Global
Leadership), Emily Schecter (GROOTS)
March 16
SPRING BREAK
March 23
Young Women in the Workplace
Anna Fels, Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s Changing Lives
(NY: Anchor Books, 2004), Chapters 1, 2, 5, 8. ON RESERVE
Anne Machung, “Talking Career, Thinking Job: Gender Differences in
Career and Family Expectations of Berkeley Seniors,” Feminist Studies,
Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 1989): pp. 35-58. ON RESERVE
Louise Story, “Many Women at Elite College Set Career Path to
Motherhood,” New York Times, September 20, 2005. ON RESERVE
Second Half: Presentation on Policy Area of Media/Literature/The
Arts I
* Dana Howze (Rutgers Film Co-op/NJ Media Arts Center), Christie
Irizarry (Lifetime Television), Natalie Jesionka (Witness)
*Bridging the Gap, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. REQUIRED*
March 30
Work & Family II
Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood, Chapters 7-13 & Conclusion.
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Allison Abner, “motherhood,” in Rebecca Walker, ed., to be real, pp. 185193.
Lisa Belkin, “The Opt-Out Revolution,” New York Times, October 26,
2003. ON RESERVE
Heather Boushey, “Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth,”
Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper. Washington,
DC: November 2005. ON RESERVE
Second Half: Presentation on Policy Area of Media/Literature/The
Arts II
* Nina Raja (MTV Networks), Whitney Pennington (Paper Tiger Media),
Tiffany Slotwinski (P.O.V. , PBS)
*Short Paper #2 Due
III. YOUNG WOMEN LEADERS IN THE WORKPLACE AND COMMUNITY
April 6
Young Women and Grassroots Activism
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Grassroots, Introductionchapter 4.
Second Half: Proposal Writing and Fund Raising
Guest Speaker: Lisa Hetfield
*Deadline to have topic & bibliography approved
April 13
Young Women’s Leadership in the Community
Guest Speaker: Dahlia Goldenberg, GROOTS
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Grassroots, Chapters 5Epilogue.
April 20
Young Women and Feminism
Rebecca Walker, to be real, Finish book (including Forward and
Afterword.)
Field Trip to Internship Sites
*Final Journals Due
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April 27
Evaluations & Internship Lunch
Evaluations, Final Discussion
Lunch with Internship Supervisors
*Final Proposals Due
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