PHIL 221/WGSS 221:
Feminist Political Theories

Dr. McWhorter
Fall, 2005

Daly, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism
Davis, Women, Race and Class
Estrich, Real Rape: How the legal system victimizes women who say no
Locke, The Second Treatise of Government
Rossi, The Feminist Papers

Selections from the following books are required reading for the course. These books may be purchased in the University Bookstore or students may elect simply to read assignments from them online:

Baxandall and Gordon, Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement
Marx, Selected Writings

August 30:
Introduction to the Course.

Unit One: The Law

September 1:
Estrich, Real Rape, 1-104, and on electronic reserve from Mankiller, et.al., The Readers' Companion to U.S. Women's History. Click here to access electronic reserve materials. Within the file "Readers' Companion" read the articles entitled "Coverture," "Citizenship," "Constitution and Amendments," "Civil Rights Act of 1964," "Title VII," "Equal Credit Opportunity Act," "EEOC," "Equal Pay Act," and "Equal Rights Amendment."

September 6:
Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, 7-65 (chapters I-VIII). This book is available for purchase, but you can also read it online. (Also recommended: Editor's introduction, vii-xxi and Locke's preface, 5-6.)

September 8:
Locke, 65-124 (chapters IX-XIX). Character assignments will be given out this day.

September 13:
Research Librarian Lucretia McCulley will give a presentation on use of the library and internet search engines for the Character assignment. Library resources for this assignment are available at the library site for this course.

September 15:
Rossi, Feminist Papers, Judith Sargent Murray, 16-24, and Mary Wollstonecraft, 25-85.

September 20:
Rossi, John Stuart Mill, 183-238

September 22:
Readings on electronic reserve: from Sisterhood is Powerful, "Women, Do You Know The Facts About Marriage?" pp. 601-3; from Feminism and Philosophy, Sara Ann Ketchum, "Liberalism and Marriage Law," pp. 264-76. Character assignment #1 due!

September 27:
EXAM!

Unit Two: Language and Culture

September 29:
Readings on electronic reserve: from Feminism and Philosophy, Janice Moulton, "The Myth of the Neutral 'Man,'" pp. 124-37.

October 4:
Readings on electronic reserve: "A Movement Arises," leaflets, manifestoes, and position papers from 1965-1973, including Casey Hayden and Mary King, "Sex and Caste," 21-22, SDS Women, "To the Women of the Left," 28-29, New York Radical Women, "Principles," 34, Bread and Roses, "Outreach Leaflet," 35, Doris Wright, "Angry Notes from a Black Feminist," 37-38, Young Lords Party, "Position Paper on Women," 38-40, Bread and Roses, "Declaration of Women's Independence," 45-47, Third World Women's Alliance, "Statement," 65-66, Gainesville Women's Liberation, "What Men Can Do For Women's Liberation," 76-77, Redstockings, "Manifesto," 90-1, Ti-Grace Atkinson, "Radical Feminism and Love," 91-92, Patricia Haden, Donna Middleton, and Patricia Robinson, "A Historical and Critical Essay for Black Women," 93-95. New York Radical Women, "No More Miss America!" 184-5. Photos of the Miss America protest can be viewed online.

October 6:
In class viewing of a videotape of last year's UR production of "The Furies." Hint: Get a headstart reading the Daly assignment for next week.

October 11:
Daly, Gyn/Ecology, 9-105.

October 13:
Daly, Gyn/Ecology, 107-12, 178-292. Character assignment #2 due!

October 18 and 20:
NO CLASS: Fall Break and Meetings of the the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy in Salt Lake City.

Unit Three: The Economy

October 25:
Marx, Selected Writings, "Alienated Labor," 58-68. Readings on electronic reserve: from Studs Terkel, Working, pp. 57-60, 72-82, and 344-51 (under the title "Working"); from Robin Morgan, Sisterhood is Powerful, pp. 67-71, 76-83, 94-110, 112-36 (under the title "Women in the Professions"); and from your own copy of Davis, Women, Race and Class, "Class and Race in the Early Women's Rights Campaign" (46-69) and "Working Women, Black Women, and the History of Suffrage" (137-48). Click here for links to sites about the life and work of Angela Davis.

October 27:
Rossi, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 566-98; electronic reserve: from Baxandall & Gordon, Dear Sisters, "Wages for Housework," 258, Silvia Federici, "Wage Against Housework," 259-60, Johnnie Tillmon, "Welfare is a Women's Issue," 279-81, and from Morgan, Sisterhood is Powerful, Pat Mainardi, "The Politics of Housework," 501-10. Davis, "The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working Class Perspective," Women, Race and Class, 222-44.

November 1:
Rossi, 478-95, Friedrich Engels; Marx, Selected Writings, 209-13 ("Preface to a Contribution to Political Economy"). You can get more, including full texts online, at the Marx and Engels Archives. For even more information on Karl Marx and his work, check out this internet site. Character assignment #3 due.

November 3:
Marx, Selected Writings, 157-76, "The Communist Manifesto," parts I and II.

November 8:
Readings on electronic reserve: from Dear Sisters, Ellen Willis, "Letter to the Left," 51, and Chicago Women's Liberation Union, "Socialist Feminism," 96-101; Davis, "Communist Women," Women, Race and Class, 149-71. In class viewing of documentary film "A Place for Rage." Character assignment #4 due.

November 10:
Reading on electronic reserve: from Sargent, Women and Revolution: Hartmann, "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism," 1-41.

November 17:
Exam!

November 22:
Group Day

November 24:
NO CLASS: Thanksgiving.

November 29:
Group Day

December 1:
Group Day

December 6:
Group Day

December 8:
Wrap Up Day.

December 12, 2:00 (9:45 class) and December 19, 7:00 (12:45 class):
Final Exam!