Sociology 176: Women and Work
Instructor:
Tracy Perkins
teperkin@ucsc.edu
Class:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12-1:45, Oakes 106
Office hours:
Tuesdays 2-4
Office location: College 8, 3rd floor, room 332
Mailbox location: College 8 Faculty Services, 2nd floor, room 235
“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming
disillusioned.”
-
Antonio Gramsci
The aims of this course are to:
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Explore women’s diverse experiences of work in the US.
Learn about contemporary and historical feminist debates about women and work.
Learn about the problem of gender inequality at the workplace and how different
social actors are trying to solve it.
Situate current patterns of gender inequality within a historical context.
Analyze individual gendered experiences of work within larger social structures.
Learn to analyze how gender intersects with race, class, sexuality and other social
categories to shape people’s work lives.
Improve reading, analytical, and discussion skills.
Improve writing and presentation skills.
Create a productive, respectful and creative learning environment and intellectual
community in class.
Required Readings
 Course readings available on e-commons.
 Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg will be available at the Literary Guillotine (204
Locust Street) towards the end of the first week of classes.
Class Time
Our class time will take on a variety of formats, including lecture, large group discussion,
small group discussion, film, class activities, and time for individual written reflection. I
encourage you to ask questions during lectures.
Grading
Due date
Participation
Reading Responses
Interview-based essay
Research-based essay
- Proposal
- Draft Essay
- Presentation
- Final Essay
Extra Credit Opportunities
11:55 pm the night before
class
Jan. 30th, in class
Feb. 11th, in class
Feb. 25th, in class
According to sign-up sheet
According to sign-up sheet
According to sign-up sheet
% of course
grade
15%
30%
15%
5%
5%
10%
20%
2%
Participation
Your class participation will be graded based upon:
 Attendance
 Completion of the class activities
 Your attentiveness
 Active participation in discussion
 Respectful interaction with other students
Reading Responses
You are responsible for writing 15 reading response that each cover all of the readings
assigned for that day’s class. You will upload these into the “assignments” section of our
class website on e-commons. Please boldface the authors’ names to make it easy for me
to see where you are discussing each reading. Cut and paste your text into the space
available, do not upload or attach separate documents. Each reading response should be
300-400 words long, and should include
1) a brief description of the key points made in that days readings
2) your analysis of the readings
3) any questions you may have
Over the course of the quarter you will write 15 reading responses for the 16 class
sessions between, and including, Jan. 9-March 6. You may upload your responses until
11:55pm the night before the class session for which the readings are due, when ecommons will close the assignment. Late responses will not be accepted. Each response
is worth 2 percentage points of your final grade.
Interview-based Essay
For this assignment, you will interview a woman in your life and write a 5-page essay
that analyzes her work experiences through the analytical lenses we have discussed in
class. I will hand out detailed instructions for this assignment early in the term.
Research-based Essay and Presentation
This assignment will allow you to creatively explore a course topic you find particularly
intriguing. I encourage you to work in groups on your final project, although this is not a
requirement. If you work in a group, you will present your final project to the class
together, but will write the accompanying papers individually. You must make direct
connections to at least three of the course readings. All students will turn in their final
papers on the same day of their presentations. I will hand out detailed instructions for
this assignment later in the term.
Note: Attendance is mandatory on all final presentation days (the last two days of the
course and our final exam session). Please do not take this course if you cannot attend
each one of these class sessions.
Late Policy
Late essay assignments can be turned in to me anytime between the end of the class in
which they are due and 48 hours after the end of class for reduced credit. You do not
need to ask my permission to take advantage of this opportunity. Late reading responses
and extra credit assignments will not be accepted.
Extra Credit Opportunities
There are two opportunities to get extra credit points in this class. You may pursue one or
both options. Successful completion of one option is worth 1 percentage point of extra
credit toward your final grade. These 300-400 word mini-essays will be turned in through
the assignment tool on our class website on e-commons. You will need to cut-and paste
your work into the box available. Submissions will be accepted until 11:55 pm on the
Sunday before the week for which you have signed up to suggest a song or current event.
At that point e-commons will close the assignment. Late assignments will not be accepted.
 Option 1: Choose a song that illustrates themes related to women and work. Write
a 300-400-word mini-essay that describes the song, provides a url to hear it online,
and links it to key themes from our class. You will turn in your song on Sunday
evening, and your song will ideally reflect class content for the week that follows.
I will choose from all the submissions one song to play at the beginning of each
class period, and may call on you to explain your choice to the rest of the
class. You will sign up for a specific week to turn in your song during the first
week of class.
 Option 2: Choose one current event that relates to the key themes of the class.
Write a 300-400-word mini-essay that includes a link to the news source and
connects the item to class material. You will turn in your mini-essay on Sunday
evening, and your current event will ideally reflect class content for the week that
follows. I will choose from all the submissions one or more current event to
feature at the beginning of each class period, and may call on you to explain your
choice to the rest of the class. You will sign up for a specific week to turn in your
news item during the first week of class.
Class Attendance
 Class attendance is mandatory. Failing to come to class or arriving to class late
will hurt your overall grade for this course.
 Your attendance will be a significant part of your class grade. All absences,
regardless of cause, are marked as an absence. Since there are no
excused/unexcused absences in class, you do not need to ask my permission to
miss class nor explain your reasons to me after an absence unless you want to.
Although it won’t change your grade, I am always happy to listen if you need
someone to talk to about problems happening in your personal life.
 If you come to class after attendance has already begun or been completed, it is
your responsibility to speak with me after class to make sure I mark you as
present.
Communications
 The less time I spend responding to individual e-mails, the more time I have to
prepare for leading a high-quality class. To that end, before you send me a
question via e-mail, first check my syllabus to see if the information you want is
listed there. Also, I will not respond to questions about the concepts covered in
class via e-mail. These are best asked in class or office hours.
 I will use your UCSC e-mail account for any outside of class communication with
you. You are responsible for checking this account regularly. If you do not check
it daily, I suggest you set your UCSC account to forward to the account that you
do check daily
Plagiarism
 Any act of academic misconduct, such as cheating or plagiarizing on exams, is a
serious violation of the University’s norms of conduct. Students who plagiarize
or cheat on exams receive an F in the course and will be reported to their College
Provost for further sanctions. Read the Student Guide to Academic Integrity for
more information: http://undergraduate.ucsc.edu/acd_integrity/student.html
Resources
 Other writing support and general tutoring:
http://www2.ucsc.edu/lss/tutorial_services.shtml
 Forwarding your UCSC e-mail: https://www2.ucsc.edu/its/cgi-bin/chpobox
 How to get tested for a learning disability:
http://drc.ucsc.edu/current_students/doc_guidelines_ld2.shtml
 Counseling and psychological services: http://www2.ucsc.edu/counsel/
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 1 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION
January 7th
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Corbett, Christianne & Catherine Hill. 2012. “Graduating to a Pay Gap: The
Earnings of Women and Men One Year After College Graduation.” Washington,
D.C.: AAUW.
January 9th
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Amott, Teresa and Julie Matthaei. 2001. “Race, Class, Gender, and Women’s
Works.” Pp. 234-242 in Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, 4th ed., edited by
M. L. Andersen and P. H. Collins. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Padavic, Irene & Barbara Reskin. 2002. Women and Men at Work. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
o Ch. 3: “An Overview of Sex Inequality at Work”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 2 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
UNIT 2: KEY CONCEPTS
January 14th
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Faludi, Susan. 1991. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.
New York: Crown Publishers.
o Ch. 3: Backlashes Then and Now.
Boryczka, Jocelyn M. 2012. Suspect Citizens: Women, Virtue and Vice in
Backlash Politics. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
o Introduction: Moral Guardians but Suspect Citizens: Women, Virtue and
Vice in the Western Political Imaginary
January 16th
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Progress and Virtue
Wages and Work
Kessler-Harris, Alice. 2001. “The Wage Conceived: Value and Need as Measures
of a Woman’s Worth.” Pp. 239-252 in Feminist Frontiers, 5th ed., edited by L.
Richardson, V. Taylor and N. Whittier. New York: McGraw Hill.
Sacks, N. E. and C. Marrone. 2004. Gender and Work in Today’s World: A
Reader. Cambridge: Westview Press.
o Ehrenreich: “Nickel and Dimed: Selling in Minnesota”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 3 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
January 21st
Gendered Organizations
Guest speaker: Meenoo Kohli – flight attendants
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Acker, Joan. 1990. “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations,”
Gender & Society 4(2):139-158.
Schilt, Kristen. 2006. “Just One of the Guys? How Transmen Make Gender Visible
at Work.” Gender & Society 20(4):465-490.
January 23rd
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Structure and Choice
England, Paula. 2010. “The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled.” Gender &
Society 24:149-166.
Reskin, Barbara F., & Michelle L. Maroto. 2011. “What Trends? Whose
Choices?: Comment on England.” Gender & Society 25:81-87.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 4 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
UNIT 3: WOMEN’S WORK THROUGHOUT US HISTORY
January 28th
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Historical Overview
Coleman, Margaret S. 2000. “Undercounted and Underpaid Heroines: The Path to
Equal Opportunity in Employment During the Twentieth Century.” WorkingUSA
3(5):37-65.
Padavic, Irene & Barbara Reskin. 2002. Women and Men at Work. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
o Ch. 2: Gendered Work in Time and Place
January 30th
Racialized Experiences over Time
Interview-based essay due in class
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Ammott, Teresa & Julie Matthaei. 1996. Race, Gender and Work: A Multicultural
Economic History of Women in the United States. Boston, MA: South End Press.
o “Climbing Gold Mountain: Asian American Women”
o “We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible: African-American Women”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 5 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
UNIT 4: THE DAILY EXPERIENCE OF WORK
February 4th
Race, Class and Gender at Work
Guest speaker: Brandi Summers - modeling
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García-Lopez, Gladys & Denise A. Segura. 2008. “’They are testing you all the
time’: Negotiating Dual Femininities among Chicana Attorneys.” Feminist
Studies 34(1/2):229-258.
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Castaneda, Xochitl & Patricia Zavella. 2003. “Changing Constructions of
Sexuality and Risk: Migrant Mexican Women Farmworkers in California.” The
Journal of Latin American Anthropology 8(2):126-151.
February 6th:
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Sexualized Workplaces
Jefreys, Sheila. 2009. Keeping Women Down and Out: The Strip Club Boom and
the Reinforcement of Male Dominance. Signs 34(1):151-173.
Zinn, Maxin Baca, Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Michael A. Messner, eds.
2011. Gender Through the Prism of Difference. New York: Oxford University
Press.
o Patti A. Guiffre and Christine L. Williams: “Boundary Lines: Labeling
Sexual Harassment in Restaurants”
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 6 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
February 11th
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Emotional Labor
Wharton, Amy S. 2009. “The Sociology of Emotional Labor.” Annual Review of
Sociology. 35:147-165.
Sacks, N. E. and C. Marrone, eds. 2004. Gender and Work in Today’s World: A
Reader. Cambridge: Westview Press.
o Jennifer Lois: “Peaks and Valleys: The Gendered Emotional Culture of
Rescue Workers”
UNIT 5: FAMILY LIFE AND WORK
February 13th
Parenting and Work
Proposal for research-based essay due
Guest speaker: Rachel Bryant-Anderson – household labor
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Legerski, Elizabeth Miklya & Marie Cornwall. 2010. “Working-Class Job Loss,
Gender, and the Negotiation of Household Labor” Gender & Society 24:447-474.
Warner, Judith. 2013. “The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In.” The New York
Times. Retrieved on January 3, 2013 at
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/magazine/the-opt-out-generation-wantsback-in.html?pagewanted=1&emc=eta1
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 7 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
February 18th
Outsourcing Family Work
 Duffy, Mignon. 2007. “Doing the Dirty Work: Gender, Race, and Reproductive
Labor in Historical Perspective.” Gender and Society 21:313-336.
 Sacks, N. E. and C. Marrone. 2004. Gender and Work in Today’s World: A
Reader. Cambridge: Westview Press.
o Hondagneu-Sotelo: “Domestica: Maid in L.A.”
UNIT 6:
WOMEN MAKING CHANGE
February 20th
Women and Activism
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Wallace, Aubrey. 1993. Eco-Heroes: Twelve Tales of Environmental Victory. San
Francisco, CA: Mercury House.
o Mrs. Gibbs Goes to Washington.
Perkins, Tracy. 2012. “Women’s Pathways Into Activism: Rethinking the
Women’s Environmental Justice Narrative in California’s San Joaquin Valley.”
Organization & Environment 25(1):76-94.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 8 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
February 25th
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Women and the Labor Movement
Boris, Eileen and Annelise Orleck. 2011. “Feminism and the Labor Movement: A
Century of Collaboration and Conflict.” New Labor Forum 20(1):33-41.
February 27th
NO CLASS – Time to work on final papers
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 9 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
March 4th
Case Study: Facebook’s Cheryl Sandberg
Draft of research-based essay due
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Sandberg, Cheryl. 2013. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf.
o Chapters 1-6
Optional
 https://www.facebook.com/leanincommunity
 http://leanin.org/
March 6th
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Case Study: Facebook’s Cheryl Sandberg
Sandberg, Cheryl. 2013. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf.
o Chapters 7-11
Losse, Kate. 2014. “Feminism’s Tipping Point: Who Wins from Leaning in?”
Dissent: A Quarterly of Politics and Culture March 26. Retrieved on January 3,
2013 from http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/feminisms-tippingpoint-who-wins-from-leaning-in
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• WEEK 10 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
UNIT 7: STUDENT-LED LEARNING
March 11th
Student Presentations
March 13th
Student Presentations
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• FINALS •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
March 19th 8-11
Student Presentations