Gender and Family Justice
GOVT 86.27 / WGST Affiliated Course
Dartmouth College
Professor Julie Rose
Fall 2014
10A (T/Th 10:00am-11:50am)
Information
Office:
Silsby 202
Email:
julie.l.rose@dartmouth.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00 – 4:00pm, and by appointment.
If you’re coming during regular office hours, please still make an appointment on
Canvas.
Classroom: Choate House Seminar Room
Prereqs.:
There are no prerequisites. The course is designed for students both with and
without any background in political theory, philosophy, or gender studies. Open
to first-years.
WGST:
Affiliated course. Counts toward WGST major and minor.
Course Description
The family is a social and political institution profoundly shaped by the law. This course
examines the family as a site of justice subject to normative evaluation, and asks how the state
ought to regulate the family and how citizens ought to act within it. We will consider the ethics
of marriage, work-life balance and the gendered division of labor, procreation, children’s rights,
and parent’s rights. Throughout, the focus of our theoretical inquires will be the implications for
both public policy and individual practical ethics.
Questions we will consider include:
Marriage
• Are there legitimate reasons to prohibit same-sex marriage -- or polygamy?
• Should marriage be a function of the state, or a private contract like any other?
Gender Equality at Home and at Work
• Is a gendered division of household labor compatible with gender equality?
• Is work-life balance the responsibility of individuals or institutions?
• Is the gender wage gap unobjectionable if it results from women’s choices?
Procreation
• Is there a human right to procreate? Are one-child policies morally permissible?
• Given facts of environmental degradation and human suffering, is it morally wrong to
reproduce?
• Should we encourage or discourage genetic selection and “designer babies”?
• Is commercial surrogacy morally unobjectionable?
1 Children’s Rights
• What rights, if any, do children have?
• Do children have a right to know their biological relations?
• Who should bear the costs of raising children – the parents, society, or the child?
Parent’s Rights
• Do parents have rights to determine their children’s moral and religious educations?
• Should the state require potential parents to obtain licenses?
• What, if anything, do grown children owe their parents?
Readings
All readings, with the exception of one required book, will be posted on Canvas.
The amount of reading will be around 80-120 pages per week. The readings are limited to this
reasonable amount so that you can do them all carefully.
The required book, available for purchase at the Dartmouth bookstore, is:
• Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender and the Family, Basic Books: 1989, ISBN:
0465037038.
Course Requirements
There are four course requirements:
Class participation
20% of final grade
Four short assignments
20% of final grade
Two presentations
20% of final grade
Two 5-7 page papers
40% of final grade (20% each)
Participation: Your participation in class discussions is extremely important because this is a
small class consisting mostly of discussion. I will do my part to provide interesting readings and
to stimulate and guide discussion, but whether this class is engaging and enjoyable for everyone
depends largely on the extent and quality of your participation.
Your participation grade has three components:
1. Punctual attendance. If you have a valid reason for not attending, you must contact
me before class begins for it to count as an excused absence.
2. Quality contributions. Participate actively in class. Do not hesitate to speak up. If
you’re bashful about participating, come see me to talk about it. That said, do not
speak simply for the sake of doing so. If your comments indicate that you haven’t
done the reading or that you aren’t taking the discussion seriously, that will hurt
rather than help your participation grade.
3. Listening and responding. Meaningful discussions require listening to your peers and
engaging with their contributions. The best way to participate is to facilitate clear
exchanges that advance the conversation.
2 Short assignments: There will be four short (at most one page) writing assignments throughout
the quarter. It is very important that the short assignments are turned in on time because we will
go over them in the subsequent class. Without a valid excuse, a late short assignment will be
penalized a full letter grade for every 12 hours past deadline. This will be strictly enforced.
Presentations: Each student will give two presentations over the course of the quarter. The
presentations should be 10-15 minutes, briefly summarize the readings, and pose and develop
several questions for discussion. The day’s presenter should take a greater role in leading
discussion for that class.
Papers: There will be two 5-7 page papers, due on October 27 and November 24. Prompts for
both will be circulated in advance. Without a valid excuse, late papers will be penalized a third
of a grade for every 12 hours late. This will be strictly enforced. The final must be turned in on
time for the submission of final grades.
Class Policies
Honor Policy: Students are required to abide by the Academic Honor Principle
(http://www.dartmouth.edu/~uja/honor). Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you’re ever in
doubt about what the honor code requires, or what citations are required or how much
collaborating or paraphrasing is permissible, don’t hesitate to ask me. Otherwise, err on the side
of caution.
X-Hours: I’ll use the X-hours occasionally throughout the semester in place of our usual class
time. Unless something unexpected arises, I will schedule all x-hours significantly in advance.
Email: I will reply promptly whenever possible, but I am often traveling or otherwise away from
email, so I won’t always reply immediately. I will reply to emails within 48 hours. If you
haven’t heard back from me by then, send your message again.
Laptops and electronics in class: You may use your laptop or tablet during class to take notes or
access the readings. Do not use either, however, for email or non-class related things. If you use
the internet to look something up, do so with a public spirit; share what you find. Phones are
strictly prohibited during class. We will take a five minute break in the middle of class; you can
check your phone and email then.
Median Grade: The Government Department policy is that the median grade for a seminar
should be an A-.
Learning disabilities: Students with disabilities who may need disability-related academic
adjustments and services are encouraged to see me privately as early as possible in the term.
Students requiring disability-related academic adjustments and services must consult the Student
Accessibility Services office (205 Collis Student Center, 646-9900,
Student.Accessibility.Services@Dartmouth.edu). Once SAS has authorized services, students
must show the originally signed SAS Services and Consent Form and/or a letter on SAS
letterhead to their professor. As a first step, if students have questions about whether they
3 qualify to receive academic adjustments and services, they should contact the SAS office. All
inquiries and discussions will remain confidential.
Religious observances: Some students may wish to take part in religious observances that occur
during this academic term. If you have a religious observance that conflicts with your
participation in the course, please meet with me before the end of the second week of the term to
discuss appropriate accommodations.
Course Schedule
1.A Course Overview
Tuesday, September 16
Marriage
1.B Same-Sex Marriage
Thursday, September 18
• *Goodridge v. Department of Public Health in Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con (2004).
• *Sherif Girgis, Robert George, and Ryan T. Anderson, “What is Marriage?,” Harvard
Journal of Law & Public Policy 34 (2010), pp. 246-259, 274-275, 286-287.
• Charles Krauthammer, “When John and Jim Say ‘I Do’” in Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and
Con (2004).
• William Bennett, “Leave Marriage Alone” in Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con (2004).
• Leslie Green, “Same-Sex Marriage,” Philosophy Bites Podcast (2013).
2.A Alternatives to Marriage
Tuesday, September 23
• *Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, “Privatizing Marriage,” The Monist 91 (2008).
• *Mary Lyndon Shanley, “Just Marriage: On the Public Importance of Private Unions” in
Just Marriage (2004.)
• Laurie Shrage, “Reforming Marriage: A Comparative Approach” Journal of Applied
Philosophy (2013).
• Tamara Metz, “Why We Should Disestablish Marriage” in Just Marriage (2004).
First short assignment distributed in class. Due: Wednesday, September 24 at 6pm.
Gender Equality at Home and at Work
2.B The Division of Household Labor
Thursday, September 25
• Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family (1989), pp. 3-24, 134-186.
• Nancy Fraser, “After the Family Wage: Gender Equity and the Welfare State,” Political
Theory 22 (1994).
• John Rawls, “On the Family as Part of the Basic Structure,” in “The Idea of Public
Reason Revisited” (1997).
3.A “Work-Life Balance”
Tuesday, September 30
• Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” The Atlantic (2012).
• Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In,” The New York Times (2013).
• Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In (2013), pp. 12-26, 104-123.
4 • Joan Tronto, “The ‘Nanny’ Question in Feminism,” Hypatia 17 (2002).
Optional:
• Slaughter talk at Dartmouth, April 2013: http://libcat.dartmouth.edu/search~S1/r
• Slaughter TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH5iEf9oxaI
• Sandberg TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4
3.B The Gender Wage Gap
Thursday, October 2
• Kristi Olson, “Our Choices, Our Wage Gap?” Philosophical Topics 40 (2012): 45-61.
• Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn, “Gender Differences in Pay” The Journal of
Economic Perspectives 14 (2000): 75-99.
Second short assignment distributed in class. Due: Monday, October 6 at noon.
Procreation
4.A The Right to Procreate
Tuesday, October 7
• Sarah Conly, “The Right to Procreation: Merits and Limits,” American Philosophical
Quarterly 42 (2005): 105-115.
• John Robertson, “The Presumptive Primacy of Procreative Liberty” in Children of
Choice (Princeton, 1994).
4.B The Permissibility of Procreation
Thursday, October 9
• Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Case Against Kids: Is Procreation Immoral?” The New Yorker
(2012).
• David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been (2006), pp. 64-92.
• Thomas Young, “Overconsumption and Procreation: Are They Morally Equivalent?”
Journal of Applied Philosophy 18 (2001): 183-192.
5.A Abortion
Tuesday, October 14
• Judith Jarvis Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion” Philosophy & Public Affairs (1971)
• Mary Anne Warren, “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion,” The Monist (1973)
• Don Marquis, “An Argument that Abortion is Wrong” in Ethics in Practice (2014).
First 5-7 page paper assignment distributed in class. Due: Monday, October 27 at 5pm.
5.B Genetic Selection and Designer Babies
Thursday, October 16
• Matthew Liao, "Selecting Children: The Ethics of reproductive genetic engineering."
Philosophy Compass 3.5 (2008): 973-991.
• Michael Sandel, “The Case Against Perfection,” The Atlantic Monthly (April 2004).
• Julian Savulescu, “Designer Babies,” Philosophy Bites Podcast (2012).
• Optional: Julian Savulescu and Guy Kahane, “The Moral Obligation to Create Children
with the Best Chance of the Best Life,” Bioethics 23(2009): 274–290.
Third short assignment distributed in class. Due: Monday, October 20 at noon.
6.A Surrogacy
Tuesday, October 21
5 •
•
Debra Satz, “Markets in Women's Reproductive Labor,” in Why Some Things Should Not
Be for Sale (2010), pp. 115-134.
Jessica Arons, “Surrogacy,” in “Future Choices: Assisted Reproductive Technologies and
the Law,” pp. 24-30.
Children’s Rights
6.B The Moral Status of Children
Tuesday, October 28
• Tamar Schapiro, “Childhood and personhood,” Arizona Law Review, 45 (2003): 575–
594.
• Francis Schrag, “The Child in the Moral Order,” Philosophy (1977): 167-177.
7A. Children’s Rights
(X-Hour)
Wednesday, October 29
• United Nations “Convention on the Rights of the Child”
• Harry Brighouse, “What rights (if any) do children have,” in The Moral and Political
Status of Children (Oxford, 2002): 31-52.
• James Griffin, “Do Children Have Rights?” in The Moral and Political Status of Children
(Oxford, 2002): 19–30.
First 5-7 page paper due on Wednesday, October 29 at 5pm.
7.B The Significance of Biological Relations
Thursday, October 30
• David Velleman, "Family history" Philosophical Papers 34 (2005): 357-378.
• Sally Haslanger, “Family, Ancestry and Self: What is the Moral Significance of
Biological Ties?,” Adoption & Culture, 2(2009).
8.A The Costs of Children
Tuesday, November 4
• Patrick Tomlin, “Should Kids Pay Their Own Way?” Political Studies (2014).
• Nancy Folbre, “Children as Public Goods,” The American Economic Review 84 (1994):
86-90.
Parents’ Rights
8.B Parental Rights and Responsibilities
Thursday, November 6
• Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift, “Parents’ Rights and the Value of the Family” Ethics
117 (2006).
• Hugh LaFollette, “Licensing Parents,” Philosophy & Public Affairs, 9 (1980).
• Optional: Peter Vallentyne, “Rights and Duties of Childrearing” William & Mary Bill of
Rights Journal 11 (2003).
Fourth short assignment distributed in class. Due: Monday, November 10 at noon.
9.A Corporal Punishment
Tuesday, November 11
• David Benatar, “Corporal Punishment,” Social Theory and Practice 24 (1998).
Second 5-7 page paper distributed in class. Due: Monday, November 24 at 5pm.
6 9.B Passing on Beliefs
Thursday, November 13
• Joel Feinberg, “The child’s right to an open future,” in Whose Child? (Littlefield,
Adams): 124–153.
• Matthew Clayton, “Debate: The Case Against Comprehensive Enrolment,” The Journal
of Political Philosophy 20 (2012).
10.A Obligations of Children to Parents
Tuesday, November 18
• Jane English, “What do Grown Children Owe their Parents?” in Aging and Ethics (1991).
• Simon Keller, “Four Theories of Filial Duty,” The Philosophical Quarterly 56 (2006).
• Norm Daniels, “Family Responsibility Initiatives and Justice Between Age Groups” Law,
Medicine & Health Care (1985).
Second 5-7 page paper due on Monday, November 24 at 5pm.
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