Women's Studies 1020E Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Feminism, Patriarchy, Canada
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Women's Studies
1020E
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Class 1
Introduction to Women’s Studies
• Questioning why things are gendered at all stages at life.
• Patriarchy- Male dominated society.
• Men benefit from our society and women are the lesser.
!
Patriarchy
• a hierarchical system of social organization that is rooted in essentialized ideas about gender
• hierarchy: built upon assumptions of superiority and inferiority (one person or group at the top,
others necessarily below)
• essentialism: the idea that all people who claim a particular identity (ie. woman/man) think and
act alike
• patriarchy underscores and influences the social systems that organize our lives
• harmful for both women and men - very few people benefit from patriarchy and they do so at
the expense of everyone else
• a social system in which we ALL participate
• ie. attributing injustice to patriarchy is NOT THE SAME THING as attributing it to men in
general
!
People (Men) of colour also face these disadvantages
People focus more on what women wear then actually what they are doing
!
Why is Hurricane Harvey a feminist issue?
The working poor is mostly women and people of colour making it hard for them to evacuate.
Climate change is a feminist issue.
INTERSECTIONALITY
Women’s Studies has expanded to include other marginalized groups and how being
discriminated based on race and gender is different
Class 2
Constructions of Gender: Language and Play- Lecture
!
-Gender Binary- Usually woman and man. We associate certain stereotypes for each, males
stereotypes tend to be more positive then females None of these traits should only apply to one
gender.
!
Sex- refers to biological characteristics.
!
Gender- refers to personality traits, behaviours and attitudes attributes to or expected of
individuals based on their sex.
!
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Biological Determinism- we are who we are because of biology.
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Social Construction- we become who we are, and are shaped by our environment.
!
Due to our strong association between gender and sex we hold specific ideas about people baed
on their gender.
!
Gender is not something that we are, rather it is something we do; it is how we dress, act, move
!
Gender policing happens when we assume peoples gender based on the way they act, dress or
hold themselves.
!
Gender norms restrict child development.
!
Its okay for girls to do boy things but not the other way around.
!
Gender stereotypes affect men and women.
!
Gender morns can be changed.
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Institutional Inequality: the assumptions we hold about gender are built into the fabric of society
in such a way that they form the basis of our institutions
!
Men can be and are very vocal feminists.
Class 3
Gender Stereotyping in The English Language
1. Women are a part of man. (One small step for men, one giant leap for mankind)
2. Pronouns reflect different personality attributes and career aspirations for men and
women. (Men- doctors, females- nurses)
3. Language constructions women as immature and incompetent and men as mature and
competent. (men must be ‘manly’ while women must be innocent and childlike)
4. Women are defined in terms of their sexual desirability towards men and men are defined
in terms of their sexual prowess over women. (Slut vs. Player)
5. Women are defined in terms to men. (ms, mrs, miss)
6. Neutral words acquire different meaning over time: more obscene meanings for women.
Insult men by calling them feminine.
!
Why does this matter?
-The english language favours men (Man and Woman)
-Language has power.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Introduction to women"s studies: men benefit from our society and women are the lesser. All too often they are isolated and fearful of raising their concerns with other men because they worry about being targeted for violence (allen and kivel 75). All boys wish to be manly; but they often try to become so by copying the vices of men rather than their virtues james freeman clarke, unitarian minister, abolitionist, and essayist, as quoted in bergman. For the heterosexual woman, this may mean the loss of badly needed intimacy; for both heterosexual women and lesbians, it may well mean the refusal of decent livelihood bartky. Normative understanding of eating problems is that they are largely a white- middle- and user-class heterosexual phenomenon . Kesvani recovery during ramadan: what can we learn from listening to the voices of women, what challenges to recovery were identified by the subject of this article, sofia, meaning of ramadan.
