Course description:
This course covers issues on women/gender and colonialism and neo-colonialism, nationalism, liberation struggles, democratization, development, environmental degradation, human rights, and women's movements and activism. Topics will be examined using women's autobiographies and essays and films.
Required readings:
Peterson, V. Spike, and Anne Sisson Runyan. 1999. Global gender issues-dilemmas in world politics. Westview Press.
Saadawi, Nawal El. 1997. Nawal El Saadawi reader. Zed Books.
Hayslip, Le Ly, and Jay Wurts. 1989. When heaven and earth changed places - a Vietnamese woman's journey from war to peace. Doubleday.
de Ishtar, Zohl. 1994. Daughters of the Pacific. Spinifex Press.
Henson, Maria Rosa. 1999. Comfort woman-a Filipina's story of prostitution and slavery under the Japanese military. Rowan & Littlefield.
Class Procedures:
For class discussions, you are expected to make a conscientious commitment to come to class, be prepared for, and take part in the discussions. At the beginning of each class, I will ask each person to suggest topics for that day's discussion. Reading Response Journal. Keep a journal/notebook in which you record the main points from your reading (a brief outline and summary of main points). Make connections between readings. Note commonalties and differences in women's experiences from different regions in the world. Record your thoughts and reactions to the readings. Research Papers: Research and write a paper on a topic related to international women's issues. Papers should include your analysis of material and situations. Research papers should be approximately 12 pages (3000 words) in length. Each paper should include an historical context for a contemporary topic and at least 10 references/sources for information in the paper.
Course outline and reading assignments: Week 1: Introduction. Film: Femmes aux yeux ouverts (Women with open eyes).
Week 2: Theoretical overview.
Readings:
Chap 1. The gender of world politics, Global gender issues.
Chap 2. Gender as a lens on world politics, Global gender issues.
Week 3: Women's lives and revolution. Film: In the year of the pig. Readings:
Tétreault, Mary Ann. Women and revolution in Vietnam. (handout)
Hayslip, Le Ly. When heaven and earth changed places. Prologue, Chap 1-7.
Week 4: Women's lives and revolution. Film: Heaven and earth. Readings:
Hayslip, Le Ly. When heaven and earth changed places. Chap 8-14, Epilogue.
Gottschang , Karen. Only women: Maternal soldiers. Picking up the pieces: Going home. A rice meal without rice: The costs of war. In Even the women must fight - memories of war from North Vietnam.
Week 5: Gender and power. Due: Reading journal #1. Readings: Global gender issues. Chap 3. Gendered divisions of power. Nawal El Saadawi reader. Introduction, Chap 1. Women and the Poor: The Challenge of global justice. Chap 2. Women in the South in Relation to Women in the North. Daughters of the Pacific. The Pacific is our home.
Week 6: Militarism and security. Film: Savage acts: Wars, fairs and empires. Readings:
Henson, Maria Rosa, Gendered divisions of violence, labor and resources. In Comfort woman-A Filipina's story of prostitution and slavery under the Japanese military, 113-147.
Week 7: Culture. Readings:
Chap 12. Why keep asking me about my identity. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Chap 13. Women, religion and literature: Bridging the cultural gap. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Week 8: Environment and ecology. Readings:
Chap 4, Gendered divisions of violence, labor and resources. Global gender issues, 147-156.
Fire in the water-the Marshall Islands. Daughters of the Pacific.
Behind a curtain of flowers-Tahiti-Polynesia. Daughters of the Pacific.
Tourism is not good for children-the Northern Marianas. Daughters of the Pacific.
Week 9: Women's health. Film: Rites. Due: Reading journal #2. Readings:
Chap 6. Women and health in the Arab world. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Chap 7. The bitter lot of women. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Week 10: Fundamentalism. Film: The situation of women in Iran. Readings:
Chap 9. Islamic fundamentalism and women. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Chap 10. The impact of fanatic religious thought: A story of a young Egyptian Muslim woman. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Chap 11. Fundamentalism: Old friend, new enemy. Nawal El Saadawi Reader.
Week 11: Slavery and exploitation. Film: Bought and sold. Readings:
The new slavery. Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy.
Bales, Kevin. Thailand: Because she looks like a child. Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy.
Week 12: Women and resistance. Film: Women-voice of the oppressed. Due: Research paper. Readings:
Chap 5. The politics of resistance: Women as nonstate, antistate and transstate actors. Global gender issues.
Chap 15. Dissidence and creativity. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
Chap 22. Women in resistance: The Arab world. Nawal El Saadawi reader.
The spirit of resistance. Daughters of the Pacific.
Week 13: International women's issues symposium. Due: Reading journal #3.
