Women's Studies 2244 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Web Ontology Language, Vietnam War, Uptodate
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Women's Studies
2244
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
September 12th, 2018
Lecture 1 Note – Introduction: The Politics of “Women’s Health”
Plan for Today
• Introductions (Instructor, Teaching Assistant)
• Review Course Perspective & Objectives
• Review syllabus, assignments, preview weekly topics
• Break
• Group discussion
• Overview of readings for week 1
Instructors & TA Hours
Instructors:
• Jessica Polzer – LAH 3255 - office hours on Wednesdays, 2 pm-4 pm
Teaching Assistant (TA):
• Stephanie Brocklehurst – LAH 3243, office hours on Tuesdays, 12 pm-1 pm
o Note change of time!
o Your TA is your first point of contact!
Course Perspective
• Critical, interdisciplinary approach to understanding women’s health
• How have feminist ideas been taken up in studies of health and medicine?
• Women’s health more than just health “issues” or “problems”; more than reproductive
issues
Course Objectives
• To expose, and thus open up for questioning, the social, political and economic forces
that influence discourses (a system of ideas) on women’s health, and that shape women’s
health status and gendered health inequities both in Canada and globally
• Representations vs. realities
o Here’s how women in health are represented, and here’s the reality of how people
actually experience their health. These things do not always align
What is Critique?
A critique does not consist in saying that things aren’t good the way they are. It consists in
seeing on what type of assumptions, of familiar notions, of established, unexamined ways of
thinking the accepted practices are based – Michel Foucault, So is it important to think?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
September 12th, 2018
• How is it that we’ve come to accept certain things as self-evident and truth?
• Critique is NOT opinion
o Having an opinion is not enough. You have to evaluate the perspective of what
you’re reading and adopt a position
o You don’t have to take on the opinion of everything you read but you have to
consider it (you don’t have to buy the dress, but you at least have to try it on)
Course Structure
• Module 1: The Medicalization of Women’s Health
• Module 2: Representing Gender and Women’s Health
• Module 3: The Politics of Reproduction
• Module 4: Diversity and Women’s Experiences of Health Care
• Module 5: The Social Determinants of Women’s Health
• Module 6: Women, Work and Health
o Case study in service work
A Feminist Perspective in Health
• Distinguishes between sex and gender
• Exposes how discourses on medicine and health can perpetuate gender inequities, and
how this can be resisted
o Health is much broader than medicine
• Exposes the iatrogenic (relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment)
effects of pharmaceutical and medical interventions on women and their families
• Questions the disconnect between medical/health research and the experiences of women
• Produces knowledge about women’s health that seeks to redress (overcome) gender
inequities
• Distinguishes between individual “choice” and autonomy
o Choice will come up a lot in this course and it is one thing we will be asked to
critically reflect on. This will be an exam question
• Examines how gender inequity intersects with other forms of oppression (class, “race”,
ability, ageism, sexuality)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture 1 note introduction: the politics of women"s health . Introductions (instructor, teaching assistant: review course perspective & objectives, review syllabus, assignments, preview weekly topics, break, group discussion, overview of readings for week 1. Instructors: jessica polzer lah 3255 - office hours on wednesdays, 2 pm-4 pm. Teaching assistant (ta): stephanie brocklehurst lah 3243, office hours on tuesdays, 12 pm-1 pm, note change of time, your ta is your first point of contact! Course perspective: critical, interdisciplinary approach to understanding women"s health, how have feminist ideas been taken up in studies of health and medicine, women"s health more than just health issues or problems ; more than reproductive issues. A critique does not consist in saying that things aren"t good the way they are. September 12th, 2018: how is it that we"ve come to accept certain things as self-evident and truth, critique is not opinion, having an opinion is not enough.
