Faces of American Feminism 4219-SH009-OG

The course presents the American Women's Movement from its beginnings in Seneca Falls (1848) to the present. Emphasis is placed on internal variety and controversy. Our readings will also be varied: historical accounts and documents (speeches, manifestos, a court case, a marriage act, etc.) as well as articles, essays and polemics and short stories.

Our aim is twofold: to gain a basic sense of chronology: first, to learn about the key names, texts, events and second, to develop a sense of American feminism as an ongoing debate, with many different voices and ways of thinking. We will trace some common themes, strategies, styles of argument which make American feminism an intellectual and political tradition. A key issue for us is the specificity of American feminism - its relationship to the American democratic tradition, to American values, and the way women's rights issues have historically crossed paths with the struggle for racial equality. We will also look at diversity and conflict within feminism, focusing especially on controversies concerning race and sexuality - including the recent one on the rise of "raunch culture" and the co-optation of feminism.

Readings include texts by: Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, the Grimke sisters, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Kate Millett, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Susan Brownmiller, Andrea Dworkin, Ellen Willis, Alice Walker, Susan Faludi, Kimberle Crenshaw, Nancy Fraser, Judith Butler, Catherine A. Rottenberg, Jane Ward, Amia Srinivasan.

We will also watch several documentary films and online interviews:
Feminists: What Were They Thinking? (dir. Johanna Demetrakas, 2018)
One Woman One Vote (Dir. Ruth Pollak. 1995);
Town Bloody Hall (dir. Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, 1971);
She's Beautiful When She's Angry (dir. Mary Dore, 2014)
Judith Butler: How the far-right wants to control your body (interview, 2024)

Type of course

elective courses
general courses

Course coordinators

Agnieszka Graff-Osser

Learning outcomes

Upon completing this course a student:

KNOWLEDGE
- has broad knowledge of the history of US feminism;
- understands the broader cultural and political context in which the movement developed;
- understands US feminism as an intellectual tradition, its key concepts and controversies;

SKILLS:
- is able to follow complex theoretical arguments with critical understanding;
- is able to speak and write about theoretical controversies in precise and meaningful ways;
- has an advanced ability to gather, compile and present in-depth research on a narrowly defined topic;

COMPETENCES:
- is able to cooperate in a group and present the effects of this effort;
- is open to conflicting readings of specific texts and differing visions of culture and society;
- is able to formulate and defend his/her opinion coherently and with respect for other views.

Assessment criteria

Final grade components:

1. Class participation & contributions to class forum (at least 3 entries) = 20 % of final grade

2. Groupwork: preparing 2 presentations = 20%

3. Final test = 30%

4. Final paper (1500 words minimum) = 30%

Bibliography

Wybrana bibliografia
Arruzza, Cinzia, Tithi Bhattacharya and Nancy Fraser, Feminism for the 99%:
A Manifesto (Verso, 2019)

Angel, Katherine. Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent (2022)

Baxandall, Rosalyn and Linda Gordon, eds. Dear Sisters. Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement. NewYork: Basic Books, 2000.

Brownmiller, Susan: In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. New York: Dial Press, 1999.

Crow, Barbara. Radical Feminism. A Documentary Reader. New York: New York UP, 2000.

Davis, Angela. Women, Race, and Class. New York: Random House, 1983.

Davis, Flora. Moving the Mountain. The Women's Movement in America since 1960. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, and Ann Snitow, eds. The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices from Women's Liberation. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.

Faludi, Susan. Backlash. The Undeclared War against Women. London: Vintage, 1992.

Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle. The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge, Mass: 1996

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton, 1963.

hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, 1981.

Kipnis, Laura. Gender: A Melee, Liberties (Spring 2022)

Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs. Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York, Simon and Schuster, 2005.

Morgan, Robin, ed. Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement. New York: Random House, 1970.

Rich, Adrienne, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" in: Blood, Bread, and Poetry. Selected Prose 1979-1985, New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 1986.

Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America. New York: Viking, 2000.

Rottenberg, Catherine. The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism, Cultural Studies, 28:3, 2014: 418-437.

Schneir, Miriam, ed. Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Schneir, Miriam ed., Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, from World War II to the Present. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

Serano, Julia. Whipping Girl. A transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity. Seal Press: Berkeley, 2007

Seresin, Asa. “On Heteropessimism. Heterosexuality is nobody’s personal problem”. The Conversation, OCTOBER 9, 2019

Steinem, Gloria. "I Was a Playboy Bunny" in: Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.

Ward, Jane. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (2020)

Zeisler, Andi. We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement Paperback. New York, Public Affairs, 2016.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 4219-SH009-OG in USOSweb