Feminist theory has developed upon many of the themes of contemporary social theory and has also contributed some of its own insights to it. Gender is seen as socially constructed, being theorized through a much less deterministic notion of the body. Many naturalistic interpretations have been shown to be the product of histories of power, shaping the way the body and sexuality are inscribed upon and performed. Fundamental contemporary principles like modernity, truth and the public sphere are now seen to have been coloured by the politics of gender. The role of politics in constructing and representing our interpretations of reality has been highlighted. The intersectionality of gender with other forms of domination, including class, ethnicity, race, and so on have led to a more comprehensive way of guiding social interventions and targeting them in a much more nuanced fashion.
Weeks 10,11,12
Core Readings:
West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1 (2): 125–51.
Smith, D. E. (1987). A peculiar eclipsing: Women's exclusion from man's culture. In The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (pp. 17-44). Boston: Northeastern University Press. (Original work published 1975)
Rege, Sharmila. 1998. “Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of ‘difference’ and toward a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Position.” Economic and Political Weekly 33 (44): WS39–46.
Additional Readings:
Ritzer, George. "Contemporary Feminist Theory.” In Sociological Theory, 8th ed., 454-98. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011.
Butler, Judith. "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions.” In Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 163-80. New York and London: Routledge, 1999.
Gilligan, Carol, and Jane Attanucci. “Two Moral Orientations: Gender Differences and Similarities.” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 34, no. 3 (July 1988): 223–37.
Risman, Barbara. 2004. “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism.” Gender and Society 18 (4): 429–50.
Schwartz, Pepper. 1995. “The Hard Experience of Equality.” In Marriage between Equals: How Peer Marriage Really Works, 1–16. New York: The Free Press.
Benjamin, Jessica. 1988. “The First Bond.” In Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and the Problem of Domination, 11–50. New York: Pantheon Books.
Connell, R.W. "The Big Picture: Masculinities in Recent World History.” In The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Gender and Education, edited by Madeleine Arnot and Mairtin Mac an Ghaill, 101-14. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. Women and History, v. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Fraser, Nancy. "Rethinking Recognition.” New Left Review, no. 3 (June 2000): 107-20.
------. "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Social Text, no. 25/26 (1990): 56-80.
John, Mary E., ed. Women's Studies in India: A Reader. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2008.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (July 1, 1991): 1241-99. doi:10.2307/1229039.