WS 590 Feminist Thought                          Fall 1993
San Diego State University
Dr. Barbara Watson                               Office Hours:
BWatson@sciences.sdsu.edu                        T 1:00 - 3.00
                                                 TH 12.30 - 1.30
                                                 & by appointment
                         Course Outline

          ****** WOMEN: The Fair Sex, The Weaker Sex, The Second
          Sex, The Other ****** Are these universal assumptions?
          What is the basis of such thinking? What other key
          concepts of womanhood have been developed? ******

In this seminar we read and discuss classic and contemporary
significant feminist writings which give different perspectives on
womanhood and women's experiences. We will focus especially on
women's knowledge and knowledge about women, in order to understand
the debates on women's oppression on the one hand, and women's
powers on the other. We will strive to gain a historical
perspective on feminist thought by identifying key issues and
concepts in deBeauvoir's The Second Sex, and how these have
developed or changed since then. And, finally, we will look towards
the future and ask ourselves: which questions have not been
answered? Which questions have not been raised?


Note: (SG) means that this reading is a chapter in Peggy R. Sanday
               and Ruth G. Goodenough.

Aug.31/Sep.7      Introduction/Organization

September 14      Women's Knowledge/Feminist Knowledge
                  Hooks: Preface, ch.1; Pershing; Radner & Lanser.

September 21      Education
                  Bledsoe (SG); Hooks: ch.8.

September 28      Definitions of Womanhood
                  deBeauvoir: Book I; Collins;
                  Spelman: Introduction, ch.3.

October 5         Oppression
                  Hooks: chs. 2-5, 9, 11; Spelman: ch.7.

October 12        Motherhood and the Becoming and Being of Women
                  deBeauvoir: BookII; Spelman: ch.4.

October 19        Chodorow; Hooks: ch.10.

October 26        Women-Centered Systems Lecture

November 2        Goodenough; Lepowsky; Sanday; Schlegel (all SG).

November 9        The Riddles of Power
                  Gottlieb; Lederman; Meigs (all SG).

November 16       Negotiating the World of Power
                  Abu-Lughod (SG); Barnes (SG); Hooks: ch.6;
                  Kopytoff (SG); Spelman: chs. 1, 2.

November 23       Revolution
                  Firestone; Hooks: ch.7, 12; Spelman: ch.5.

November 30       Feminist Thought at the End of the 20th

December  7       Century/Reports.