WOMEN AND POLITICS
PUP 3323
Fall 2013
PROFESSOR LYNN LEVERTY
Office Hours: T 2 – 4 p.m.
TH 10 – 12 a.m.
Anderson Hall, Room 319
lleverty@ufl.edu
352-273-2392
http://people.clas.ufl.edu/lleverty/
SYLLABUS
“An hour before her colleagues gathered for their first vote of a new Congress, Senator Kelly
Ayotte slipped into an empty Senate chamber to savor the grandeur of her legislative home. As
Ms. Ayotte, a freshman Republican from New Hampshire, sat down at the wooden desk where
generations of lawmakers from her state had cast their votes, a doorman marched toward her
with purpose. The desks, he sternly told her, were for senators only.
Ms. Ayotte’s induction that January day in 2011 into the most rarefied ranks of the nation’s
political class — female senators — had begun. “The desk thing really stuck with me,” Ms.
Ayotte said. “There still just aren’t that many of us.” New York Times, March 21, 2013
By the end of this class, students will be able to:
1. Understand why the doorman thought Sen. Ayotte was staff;
2. Identify trends in women’s political behavior;
3. Understand the diversity of women’s viewpoints on public policy issues: and
4. Appreciate what women have brought to the political sphere.
There is a normative bias in the course. It rests on an assumption that diversity in public office
creates a more representative and effective government. Diversity includes not only gender, but
race and ethnicity, stance in the political spectrum, age, sexual orientation and personal
background. The class will focus on the United States, but international components will be
included.
Class Philosophy:
Learning is an active and interactive process. For this reason, the amount of time devoted to
lectures will be as minimal as possible. UF undergraduates are among the best in the nation.
You are all capable of doing this work very well. With that in mind, the class will focus heavily on
in‐depth discussion and analysis of the readings, and on written student responses to those
readings in both individual and team assignments. As such, extensive preparation is a necessity
for doing well in this course. We will talk in considerable detail about this in class, but do feel
free to come by my office early and often to discuss any class assignments, reading or other
issues.
Requirements:
1. In class assignments (30%)
2. Paper (25%)
3. Midterm (15%)
4. Final exam (20%)
5. Participation (10%)
Extra credit opportunities will be announced only in class.
Information on this course is on the university’s e-learning course management system. Use
your Gatorlink username and password at https://lss.at.ufl.edu/ to access this site. The syllabus
is located there as well as a course calendar, announcements, links to helpful websites and
other information. I will also post notes from the class lectures and discussions. Please check
this regularly. I will also send some announcements out through the listserv e-mail. Note: I do
not put grades on e-learning because the automated grading feature does not work with the
class format. I also reserve the right to adjust the class grade for students who improve during
the semester. For this reason, you will need keep a record of your grades or retain your
returned papers.
I expect assignments to be turned in on the due date. One letter grade per day (not class days)
will be taken off for late papers unless you have obtained prior approval for a different date due
to special circumstances or have a documented illness or family emergency. Please do not
hesitate to let me know if you have some type of special circumstance, but you must do so
before the due date unless it is an emergency.
If 90% of life is just showing up, class participation is important. This grade depends not only on
physical presence (this will be checked at the beginning of most classes), but also your active
participation in class and your "class manners." This means being on time, refraining from side
discussions and other distracting behavior and respecting each other’s viewpoints. We will be
discussing controversial issues about which many people have strong opinions and beliefs so
mutual respect is critical.
The easiest way to reach me is to come by during office hours or through e-mail. If my office
hours are not convenient, I am always happy to set a time to meet, so please do not hesitate to
ask me for a scheduled appointment. If you have any special needs, please let me know so
that we can work together to make this class a success.
Required reading:
Dolan, Julie, et al. Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence, 2nd ed. Boston:
Longman, 2011.
Schreiber, Ronnie. Righting Feminism: Conservative Women and American Politics. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Center for the American Woman and Politics
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/
Course schedule: (subject to change during the semester)
Part 1: Introduction
August 22: Introduction to the class
August 27: Early women’s political activity
Reading: Dolan: pages 10 -1 6 (read chapter 1 on your own)
August 29: Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
Reading: Dolan, pages 346 – 348 or
http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/docs/seneca.html
September 3 - 5: Feminism and political action
Reading: Dolan pages 17 – 50, 86 – 104 and 349 - 351
September 10 – 12: Representation of conservative women
Reading: Schreiber chapters 1 – 3 and 7
Concerned Women for America
http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp
Independent Women’s Forum
http://www.iwf.org/
PART 2: Modern politics
September 17 - 19: Women as voters
Reading: Dolan chapter 3
Center for the American Women and Politics (CAWP) Fact Sheets
“Gender Differences in Voter Turnout”
“Voting Patterns among Young Men and Women”
“Gender Gap: Voting Choices in Presidential Elections”
“Gender Gap: Attitudes on Public Policy”
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/index.php
September 24 - 26: Women in Elected Office: Trends and Concerns
Center for the American Women and Politics (CAWP) Fact Sheets
“Women in Elective Office 2013”
“Women of Color in Elective Office 2013”
Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership
http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/
October 1 – 3: Women as candidates for public office
Reading: Dolan chapter 5
Kira Sanbonmatsu, “Life’s A Party,” in the Harvard International Review, May 1, 2010
http://hir.harvard.edu/women-in-power/lifes-a-party
October 8 – 10: What happened in the 2008 and 2012 elections?
Reading: Jonathan Knuckey, “The ‘Palin Effect’ in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election,” in
Political Research Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 2, pages 275 – 289
Christine Stansell, “All Fired Up: Women, Feminism and Misogyny in the Democratic
Primaries,” in Dissent, Fall 2008, pages 34 – 39.
Four Ways Women Won the 2012 Election in Time, November 8, 2012
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/07/4-ways-women-won-the-election/
October 15: Local government: the traditional starting point
Reading: Dolan chapter 6
Center for the American Woman and Politics, “Entering the Mayor’s Office: Women’s Decisions
to Run for Municipal Office”
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/research/research_by_cawp_scholars/documents/Carroll_and_Sa
nbonmatsu_2010_MPSA-mayors.pdf
****October 17: Midterm***
October 22 - 24: Women in state legislatures: the current battleground
Reading: Dolan pages 227 – 234 and 238 - 240
Center for the American Women and Politics (CAWP)
Review map on CAWP home page
“Women in State Legislatures 2013”
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/state_legislature.php
October 29: Women as governors: too few for analysis?
Reading: Dolan chapter 8 and pages 355 - 359
Center for the American Women and Politics (CAWP) Fact Sheet
“Statewide Elective Executive Women 2013”
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/documents/stwide.pdf
October 31: Why are states so important today?
Reading: TBA
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/states/state-by-state-rankings-data-2010
Nov. 5 – 7: Women in Congress: now at a record 20%
Reading: Dolan chapter 7
Center for the American Women and Politics (CAWP) Fact Sheets
“Women in the US Congress 2013”
“Women in Congress: Leadership Roles and Committee Chairs”
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/Congress-CurrentFacts.php
November 12: Women and the courts
Reading: Dolan chapter 9
PART 3: Key policy issues: differences among women
November 14 – 21: Policy issues
Readings: Schrieber, chapters 4 – 6
Other: TBA
November 26: Prognosis for the future
December 3: last day of class: evaluation and hand out final
Women and Politics
PUP 3323
Fall 2013
Major Assignment: choose one 250 points
1. Half the Sky Movement
Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, and Sheryl WuDunn, banker, published Half the
Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide in 2009. Since then Half the
Sky has become an advocacy group (http://www.halftheskymovement.org) with the goal of
“ending oppression of girls and women worldwide.” The six focus areas are: economic
empowerment, education, forced prostitution, gender based violence, maternal mortality and
sex trafficking.
In addition to the book, organizers have created a four hour PBS documentary, a Facebook
game and mobile apps (distributed in Tanzania, India and Kenya in late 2012 but available to
others by request) and developed partnerships to improve women’s lives. The Half the Sky
movement is an unusual advocacy group in its organization and use of social media.
There are two options for this assignment:
1.
If you are interested in social media play and evaluate the Facebook game.
These are some of the questions you should think about: does the game adequately
(you will need to define this term in your paper) portray the themes of the movement?
Does it draw you in and help you understand the issues as well as what can be done to
address them? Is this an effective way to reach people who might not generally be
interested in women’s issues? Social media in increasingly being used in politics and
advocacy; how does this game compare to other issue based games? What does the
academic literature say about the use of gaming in education?
You can find other public policy based games at Games for Change
(http://www.gamesforchange.org/) and iCivics (http://www.icivics.org/).
2.
The second option is to explore how important these issues are in the United States.
Developed nations tend to think of these problems primarily affect women in poorer
nations, but is this true?
These are some of the questions to think about: how prevalent are these problems in
the United States? Are there geographic differences? What are the causes of the
problem? Has any level of government created effective programs to address these
issues? Have nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) been created to address these
issues? Is the US a good role model for other nations on these issues?
Note: to effectively complete this assignment you will need to fully understand the six
issues which includes watching the PBS film and other sources.
2. Female presidential candidates in 2020
Act as a party recruiter for a future female candidate for President. As we discussed in class,
one role of political parties is to recruit and groom candidates for future political office. Your role
as either a Republican or Democratic recruiter is to find five women who you think would be
potential successful candidates in 2020.
You must assess each potential candidate’s personal background (education, family, etc.),
professional and political experience, record on the issues, media expertise, fundraising
potential and any other factors that our discussions and the academic literature state are
important for presidential candidates. What would you do in the next six years to ensure that
these women are ready to run? Please be specific.
The list of the five candidates may be in table or prose form, but the analysis must be written in
an academic format and include academic sources on campaigns and elections. Please do not
simply use the elected officials’ website as a source on these women. For obvious reasons,
personal websites are not entirely objective.
3. Personal option: if there is a particular topic that you desperately want to explore please
come talk to me. You should have an outline and list of sources in hand for our discussion. The
deadline for proposing a personal option is September 26.
Requirements: Whichever option you choose, the paper should be about 10 pages in length,
double-spaced with appropriate academic citations. You may use the style format that you are
most comfortable with, but please be consistent in your usage.
Due: November 21
In class assignments: 300 points
The in class assignments are short answer (paragraph or two) individual responses or longer
team responses to a question about the readings and/or class discussions. They will be
completed during a class session, and students will be allowed to use computers and their
books to complete the assignment. Each one will be worth between 2 – 5% of your grade; you
will be able to drop the lowest score.
Sample questions:
1. Does the gender gap in voting significantly affect presidential elections? Why or why not?
(individual response)
2. Why have Asian nations been able to elect far more high level women to public office than
the United States (team response)?