Midterm Study Guide
WS101.2
Susana L. Gallardo
Spring 2005
For the midterm, you are responsible for the following material:
Genesis chs. 1:1 thru 2-4, 2:5 thru 3:24 and 6-9:17 (RSV) & The Five Suns film
Florentine codex
Ana Castillo, “A Countryless Woman”
Definitions of Chicana Feminism at http://www.chicanas.com/defs.html
Definitions of feminism at http://ntb.stanford.edu/quotes.html
Bettie, “How Working Class Chicas Get Working-Class Lives”
Rich, “Politics of Location,”
Reagon, “Coalition Politics”
Pat Mainardi, “Housework”
Women’s Lives text, ch. 1, 2, 7, 8
Gender & Socialization
1 Judith Lorber, “The Social Construction of Gender”
Patriarchy
2 Allan G. Johnson, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us”
Feminist Identities & Feminisms of Color
3 Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement”
4 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Defining Genealogies: Feminist Reflections on Being South Asian in
North America”
5 Minnie Bruce Pratt, “Who Am I If I’m Not My Father’s Daughter?”
6 JeeYeun Lee, “Beyond Bean Counting”
8 Frederica Y. Daly, “Perspectives of Native American Women on Race and Gender”
9 Dorothy Allison, “A Question of Class”
Family & Relationships
41 Sharon Olds, “35/10”
42 Jaclyn Geller, “The Marriage Mystique”
43 Maria Hinojosa, “Raising Kids Como Los Americanos”
44 Rachel Aber Schlesinger, “Personal Reflections on Being a Grandmother”
45 Carol Gill and Larry A. Voss, “Shattering Two Molds: Feminist Parents with Disabilities”
46 Ann Filemyr, “Loving across the Boundary”
Women & Work
47 Hattie Gossett, “the cleaning woman/labor relations #4”
48 Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei, “The Transformation of Women’s Wage Work”
49 “He Works, She Works, but What Different Impressions They Make”
50 Jeannine Ouellette Howitz, “Reflections of a Feminist Mom”
51 Gwendolyn Mink, “Violating Women: Rights Abuses in the Welfare Police State”
52 Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, “Movement Roots”
Terms to know:
Feminisms
Liberal feminisms
“problem without a name”
Black/AfrAm Feminisms
women of color feminisms
First Wave feminisms
Second Wave feminisms
Sex
Gender
Race
Class
“Doing gender”
Gender as process
Gender stratification
Patriarchy (& examples)
Patriarchal culture
TANF
Occupational segregation
Comparable worth
Feminization of poverty
Federal poverty level:
$15,020 family of 3
second shift
Cooking/feeding
Home planning
patriarchal culture (&
examples)
coalition
Wage gap
Four kinds of work
Social location
1790 Naturalization Law
coverture
marital entitlements
mother
grandmother
Essay/Study questions:
1. Consider the two creation stories in Genesis. How do they differ, and what are the consequences
for Judeo-Christian views of gender? Compare and contrast the gods of the Five Suns with the
god of Genesis. What are the gods like, and what is their relationship to humans?
2. Compare the definition of feminism given in class lecture (..belief that women and men are
inherently of equal worth…”) with any other given in your reading: Ana Castillo's definition of
Chicana feminism, Combahee Black Feminism, Mohanty “Genealogies,” Johnson on patriarchy,
etc. How do they relate? Do they conflict? Be sure to consider historical context in your answer.
3. Why is Jaclyn Geller surprised that marriage remains a central social ideal for women? Give
specific examples.
4. Gwen Mink details recent government programs like TANF that have encouraged the participation
and support of fathers in their children’s lives (and their child’s single mother). Why does Mink
see this as a civil rights issue? Give specifics to support your argument.
5. How does feminist analysis give us insight into school dynamics in Bettie’s “Working Class
Chicas.” Does she do a good job of describing gender, race, and class dynamics in the school?
How does she imply an (uncomfortable?) critique of middle-class values?
6. “Even now, past forty and stubbornly proud of my family, I feel the draw of that mythology, that
romanticized, edited version of the poor.” (Dorothy Allison in Women’s Lives, 79)
--Why is class a feminist issue for Allison? What does she mean by “romanticized…version of the
poor”?
7. How has domestic work changed over time in the U.S., according to Amott & Matthaei? Have the
racial proportions of service work changed? How?
8. Race, class, blah blah blah. Shouldn’t feminism be simply about gender, about being a woman,
first and foremost? Why or why not? Defend your position by drawing on course readings.
9. According to Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, how have unions contributed to feminist movements?
Give specific examples.