University of Michigan-Flint

Introduction to the field of women's studies and to scholarly and other writing about women's lives and gender as a social structure and process.  Examination of the feminist reconstruction of knowledge; differences among women based upon race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation; cultural representation of women; divisions of labor based upon gender and race; politics of women's personal lives; women's activism.  Focus upon women in the U.S.

Critical analysis of theories of race, gender and sexual identity. Gender and sex roles; racism, sexism and hetero-sexism; concepts of beauty; racial and sexual stereotypes; social issues such as affirmative action, violence, racial and sexual harassment, pornography.

Insights on the importance of many aspects of women's issues in the context of globalization.

Overview of the major genres, publishing activities, goals and concerns of female writers from the Anglophone, Francophone and Dutch Caribbean. The Caribbean Women Writers' Project; the ways in which anticolonial discourse, issues of exile and sanctuary, and revisions of the literary tradition of the Caribbean are manifested in their literature.

Study of writing by women in order to explore the concerns of women writers, recurrent themes in their work, and feminist approaches to literature. Readings include historically important works by women as well as contemporary literature

Historical examination of fashion and clothing of Western culture as a reflection of social mores, gender roles, and political and economic events from Egyptian times to the present.

Analysis of gender/communication issues, including how women and men use language differently, how women and men are portrayed in language, and how language reflects and recreates social reality.

Exploration of the gendered structure of the legal and criminal justice systems. Examination of the differential impact of laws and policies on women offenders and the experiences of women in prison, law enforcement and the legal profession. Issues include domestic/intimate partner violence, sexual assault, reproductive rights, child abuse, pornography and gender-related hate crimes.

Introduction to literature written by, for or about women during the Middle Ages, with attention to the role of writing and reading in constructing and defining medieval gender and uses of the female body.

Literature by women from Africa, the Caribbean and North America, including such writers as Buchi, Emecheta, Nawal El Saadawi, Edwidge Dandicat and Alice Walker, and experiences that inform their writings.  Examination of diverse ways depolyed by women to discuss issues relevant to them, as well as techniques and recurring motifs used in their works; grounded in feminist theory and the concept of womanism.

A WGS course or consent of instructor.

Cross-cultural examination of the construction of personhood and relationships between individuals and culture. Critique of psychological interpretations in anthropological texts and of universalizing tendencies in the field of psychology; the basic Freudian model in contrast with models of self in African, Asian, and Native American cultures.

Examination of interaction between gender and labor issues, with particular attention to mechanisms that generate inequality.  Comparison of different theories of how labor markets work and how the labor force is reproduced.  Topics include wage determination, occupational segregation, segmented labor markets, household decision making, gender roles in the economy, and social stratification.

Women's paid employment and job segregation by sex: relation of women's paid work to women's family work, nature of women's jobs and occupations, and a variety of state policies that influence women's employment (e.g. anti-discrimination law, maternity and parental leave). White women and women of color in the advanced capitalist economy of the United States.

Intensive study of the concerns and achievements of selected women writers as they explore a common theme, genre or question. Topics may vary (e.g. Life Writings, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman, Marriage and the Novel).

Examination of social learning, psychoanalytic, evolutionary and other psychological perspectives on gender, with focus on contemporary U.S. culture.  May include lesbian couples raising boys, media influences on gender identity, and sexism in the workplace.

Examination of the manner in which theatrical works reflect, re-enforce, challenge and re-vision sex and gender roles in a variety of periods and cultures. Topics include: the politics of re-presentation, the theatrical tradition of cross-dressing, performance art, and the relationship of theatre art to pornography and voyeurism.

Family as a social institution.  Historical changes in families; paid and unpaid work; marriage and partnering; divorce, remarriage and blended families; parenting; violence; economic issues; law and social policy; race/ethnicity, sexuality and age.

Sociological and social-psychological analysis of the Black family in America. Impact of changes in race relations and of urbanization on the Black family. Assessment of various stereotypes existing in mass media and in sociological and psychological literatures.

Examination of the evolution of women's experience in the United States from 1600 to the present, paying particular attention to the economic, reproductive and sexual, familial, and communal roles; participation in public life; and the means by which women have expressed their culture.

Analysis of significance of women's labor to international capital in a cross-cultural perspective. Examination of social construction of "third world" and "development," and potential and limits of these categories in understanding ideological and material conditions of lives of women across race, class and national boundaries in the world of work.

Comparison of gender divisions in various societies; social roles of men, women and other categories. African, Asian, and Native American conceptualizations of gender, in comparison with data from Western cultures. Cultural construction of femaleness, maleness, and sexual behaviors and their relationships (or lack of relationship) to gender stereotypes.

Survey of the history of African women with a focus on gender and the roles African women play in their societies and families. Emphasis on the roles women play in the economy, polities, professions, education, health, environment, socio-cultural and religious life, wars and conflicts.

Examination and analysis of the role of law in the social, economic, political and private lives of women in the U.S. Historical overview as well as intensive study of legal problems of current concern to women. Areas of focus: women and work, women and the family, women and their bodies, women and the criminal justice system, role of women in the legal system (including theory as well as case law).

May be reelected to a total of three credits.

Designed for students wishing to explore particular interests, including community-based projects in women's and gender studies, not available through other courses.

Advanced seminar engaging students in reading of key texts and development of individual projects within a broadly defined thematic area central to women's and gender studies. Capstone course for the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

History of the art produced by women artists, from 1550 to the present. Topics include the historical slighting of women artists, feminist imagery, politics and contemporary feminist criticism. Figures include Gentileschi, Vigee-Lebrun, Kauffman, O'Keefe, Cassatt, Chicago, and Nevelson.

Interdisciplinary introduction to empirical research and critical inquiry on the education of girls in the U.S. Study of contemporary educational thought on the gendered social and cultural context of schooling.

Critical examination of gender as a social and institutional construct.  Use of theory to interrogate the sex/gender binary, identity and bodies.  How the experience of gender and the structure of gendered institutions are shaped by cross-cutting lines of difference and inequality – social class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and age (among others).  Effects of gender inequality on women, men and society.

Exploration of the gendered structure of the legal and criminal justice systems.  Examination of the differential impact of flaws and policies on women offenders, women in prison, and women in law enforcement and the legal profession.  Examination of how gender impacts the definition and treatment of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, reproductive issues, child abuse, and gender-related hate crimes.

 for description.  Not open to students with credit for

for description.  Not open to students with credit for

 for description.  Not open to students with credit for

 for description.  Not open to students with credit for

Not open to students with credit for

for description.  Not open to students with credit for 

Analysis of significance of women's labor to international capital in a cross-cultural perspective. Examination of social construction of "third world" and "development," and potential and limits of these categories in understanding ideological and material conditions of lives of women across race, class and national boundaries in the world of work.  Not open to students with credit for 

 for description.  Not open to students with credit for

 for description.  Not open to students with credit for