Description of course consistent with catalog: What is it like to be female in a male-dominated society? This course critically examines the sociopolitical construction of patriarchy and the conscious and non-conscious, intentional and unintentional ways in which male supremacy is reproduced in contemporary society. Particular emphasis is placed on the mechanisms of social control designed to limit women's participation in society and to ensure the perpetuation of male dominance.

Course Prerequisites: None

Course Objectives: To define and critically examine the ideologies of sexism and patriarchy. To delineate the ways in which sexism and patriarchy operate on the conscious and non-conscious levels of personal and political life. To analyze the way social control is maintained through violence. To examine the consequences of a sexist and patriarchal political order on the quality of life for women and men. To evaluate strategies and models for personal and political change.

Student learning outcomes: At the end of the semester, students should be able to:

Demonstrate orally or in writing an understanding of the terms oppression and sexism, and their relation to issues of power.

Define and analyze the meaning of the terms equality, misogyny, heterosexism, and patriarchy.

Explain and analyze biological, sociological, psychological, anthropological, and religious beliefs used to justify patriarchy and misogyny.

Analyze the role various institutions play in defining appropriate behavior and appearance for the sexes (for example, the media, religion, education, popular culture, legal system, etc.).

Describe and analyze the opportunities and limits placed on both men and women in patriarchal societies and systems.

Analyze how sexism permeates the structure of social institutions.

Analyze orally or in writing the role that heterosexism plays in forming a gender identity.

Analyze the social, psychological, and physiological impact of strict adherence to one's gender role.

Describe and evaluate the social sanctions for those who deviate from their gender expected behavior.

Demonstrate an understanding orally or in writing of the ways the social control is accomplished through violence.

Explain and evaluate theories of causation of male sexual violence.

Explain and evaluate orally or in writing theories that justify male sexual violence.

Explore the relationship between violence against women and children and the family as an institution.

Describe and analyze individual and collective action regarding issues of women's identity, women's rights, and sexual freedoms.

Demonstrate an understanding of the challenges to overcoming patriarchy and misogyny both personally and socially.

Topical outline of the course content:

I. Introduction and definition of terms: A Framework for Analysis

A. Politics, Power, and Ideology
B. Sexism
C. Patriarchy

II. The Theories and Meanings of Male Dominance
A. Who Said What About Women: The Stereotypes of Sexism
B. The Construction of Misogyny
C. Theories of Female Sexuality and Personality

III. The Mechanisms of Social Control

A. Sex and Gender Role Socialization: This section will examine the non-violent mechanisms of social control with particular emphasis on compulsory heterosexuality, homophobia, language, and the media.

B. Sexual Terrorism: The control of women through actual and implied violence. This will be the core of the course; we will study the theoretical constructions of violence against women and the realities of male sexual violence.

IV. Institutional Sexism: Family, Work, Law, and Politics.
This section of the course examines the web of social institutions and their impact on women's lives. We examine the role institutions play in defining, shaping, maintaining, and reproducing sexist norms and values.

V. Beyond Dominance: Strategies for Change.
This section of the course examines the concepts of resistance and agency. Resistance and agency address responses to individual and systematic oppression. We will examine the conditions which support or inhibit women's individual and collective resistance and agency.

Guidelines/suggestions for teaching methods and student learning activities:

Teaching this course involves a number of pedagogical strategies, including lecture, discussion, films, group exercises, and guest speakers.

Guidelines/suggestions for methods of student assessment:

There will be three challenge papers; two are analytical, one is a response paper. The analytical papers are worth 40% each of the total grade; the response paper is worth 20%. Attendance and participation are required.

Suggested readings, texts:

Lefkowitz, Bernard. 1997. Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret
Life of the Perfect Suburb. New York: Vintage Books.

Madriz, Esther. 1997. Nothing Bad Happens to Good Girls: Fear of Crime in Women's Lives. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Tannenbaum, Leora. l999. Slut! Growing Up Female With A Bad Reputation. New York: Seven Stories Press.

The Speaking Profits Us: Violence in the Lives of Women of Color. l986.
Seattle, WA: Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.

Bibliography:
Armstrong, Louise. 1994. Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Barry, Kathleen. 1979. Female Sexual Slavery. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Barry, Kathleen. 1995. The Prostitution of Sexuality: The Global Exploitation of Women. New York: New York University Press.

Bart, Pauline and Eileen G. Moran, (eds). 1993. Violence Against Women: The Bloody Footprints. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Bartlett, Katherine T. and Rosanne Kennedy. 1991. Feminist Legal Theory: Readings in Law and Gender. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Beneke,Timothy. 1982. Men on rape: What they have to say about sexual violence. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Bell, Laurie. 1987. Good girls/bad girls: Feminists and sex trade works face to face. Seattle, WA: Seal Press.

Benokraitis, Nijole V. 1997. Subtle Sexism: Current Practice and Prospects for Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Bohmer, Carol and Andrea Parrot. 1993. Sexual Assault on Campus: The problem and the solution. New York: Lexington Books.

Buchwald, Emilie, Pameal Fletcher, and Martha Roth, (eds). 1993. Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.

Bunch, Charlotte and Niamh Reilly. 1994. Demanding Accountability: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal for women's Human Rights. New Jersey: Rutgers University, Center for Women's Global Leadership.

Cameron, Deborah, and Elizabeth Frazer. 1987. The lust to kill: A feminist investigation of sexual murder. New York: New York University Press.

Caputi, Jane. 1987. The age of sex crime. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Press.
Davis, Angela. 1985. Violence against women and the ongoing challenge to racism. Latham, NY: Kitchen Table/Women of Color Press.

Dobash, R. Emerson and Russell Dobash. 1979. Violence against wives: A case against the patriarchy. New York: Free Press.

Dworkin, Andrea. 1974. Woman Hating. New York: E. P. Dutton.

Dworkin, Andrea. 1981. Pornography: Men Possessing Women. New York: Perigree Books.

Dworkin, Andrea and Catharine A. MacKinnon. 1988. Pornography and civil rights: A new day for women's equality. Minneapolis, MN: Organizing Against Pornography.

El Saadawi, Nawal. 1980. The hidden face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. London: Zed Press.

Estrich, Susan. 1987. Real rape: How the legal system victimizes women who say no. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Feagin, Joe and Nijole Benokraitis. 1995. Modern Sexism: Blatant, Subtle, and Covert Discrimination. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Finkelhor, David. 1984. Child sexual abuse: New theory and research. New York: Free Press.

Fortune, Marie Marshall. l983. Sexual Violence: The Unmentionable Sin. An Ethical and Pastoral Perspective. New York: The Pilgrim Press.

Graham, Dee. l994. Loving to Survive: Sexual Terror, Men's Violence and Women's Lives. New York: New York University Press.

Gillespie, Cynthia K. l989. Justifiable Homicide: Battered Women, Self-Defense and the Law. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press.

Hanmer, Jalna and Mary Maynard, (eds.). 1987. Women, Violence and Social Control. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, Inc.

Hanmer, Jalna, Jill Radford and Elizabeth Stanko (eds). 1989. Women, Policing, and Male Violence: International Perspectives. New York: Routledge.

Herman, Judith. l992. Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence, from domestic abuse to political terror. New York: Basic Books.

Hoff, Lee Ann. l990. Battered Women as Survivors. New York: Routledge.

Kelly, Liz. l988. Surviving Sexual Violence. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Kilbourne, Jean. 1999. Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising. Boston: The Free Press.

LaFree, Gary D. l989. Rape and criminal justice: The social construction of sexual assault. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Larkin, June. l994. Sexual Harassment: High School Girls Speak Out. Toronto: Second Story Press.

Ledray, Linda. l986. Recovering from rape. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Levy, Barrie (ed). l991. Dating Violence: Young women in danger.
Seattle, WA: Seal Press.

Lobel, Kerry (ed). 1986. Naming the Violence: Speaking Out About Lesbian Battering. Seattle, WA: The Seal Press.

MacKinnon, Catharine A. l979. Sexual harassment of working women. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Malamuth, Neil and Ed Donnerstein (eds). l984. Pornography and Sexual Aggression. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Muraskin, Roslyn and Ted Alleman (eds). l993. It's A Crime: Women and Justice. Englewood Cliffs: Regents/Prentice Hall.

NiCarthy, Ginny. l987. The ones who go away: Women who left abusive partners. Seattle, WA: Seal Press.

Rush, Florence. l980. The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Russell, Diana E. H. l986. The secret trauma: Incest in the lives of girls and women. New York: Basic Books.

Russell, Diana E. H. l990. Rape in marriage. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Russell, Diana E. H. and Jill Radford (eds.). l992. Femicide: The politics of woman killing. New York: Twayne Publishers.

Russell, Diana E. H. (ed). l993. Making violence sexy: feminist views on pornography. New York: Teachers College Press.

Searles, Patricia and Ronald J. Berger (eds). l995. Rape and Society: Readings on the Problem of Sexual Assault. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Sheffield, Carole. l995. "Sexual terrorism," in Women: A Feminist Perspective (5th ed), edited by Jo Freeman. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.

Sheffield, Carole. 1989. "The Invisible Intruder: Women's Experiences of Obscene Phone Calls." Gender & Society, Vo. 3, No. 4.

Stanko, Elizabeth. l985. Intimate intrusions: Women's experience of male violence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Stetson, Dorothy McBride. 1997. Women's Rights in the USA: Policy Debates and Gender Roles. New York: Garland Publishing, Second Edition.

Summer, Toby. l987. "women, lesbians and prostitution." Lesbian Ehics, 2(3), 33-44.

Sumrall, Amber Coverdale and Dena Taylor. l992. Sexual Harassment: Women Speak Out. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.

Walker, Alice and Pratibha Parmar. l993. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutiliation and the Sexual Binding of Women. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.

Valian, Virginia. 1999. Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Warshaw, Robin. l988. I never called it rape. New York: Harper and Row.

Preparer's name and date: Dr. Carole Sheffield, Spring, 2000

Original Departmental approval date: l975

Reviser's name and date: Carole Sheffield; revised and approved l986.

Departmental revision approval date: Spring, 2000