========================================================================= Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 09:30:57 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Nelda K Pearson Subject: Coalitian building In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19980130144722.006bd7b0@delta.franklincoll.edu> from "Jill Bystydzienski" at Jan 30, 98 09:47:22 am MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jill- We (Beans and Rice, Inc) are in the midst of a major coalition building activity to move the care of the low income after school and pre-school programs into the larger concern of the community. The coalition crosses race lines (the newly forming ASP Council is made up of women in the low income housing units and are African American and White), class lines (two community groups in the coalition are Radford/Fairlawn Daily Bread --a soup kitchen started by the ministerial association--and the Women's Resoource Center--a grassroots locally developed organization which is now a firmly established councelling/safe house center), and age (three student groups from the Radford University, two AF AM service groups and one integrated service group). BTW, we just got our tax exempt status. for this project however the RU Foundation is going to act as fiscal agent. We are in the final reading for a Community Problem solving grant at Mary Reynolds Babcock (MRB). They are encouraging us to amply BUT they up until now were funding primarly process oriented projects while we are using a program (ASP/PSP programs) to drive the process of dialogue between classes and races and to bring the low income housing units from margin to center in the City. They see that we are probelm solving and have made it clear that there is an internal philosphical debate MRB over which comes first program or process. We are saying they need to be simultaneous--that the program creates an energy point for dialogue and process to begin. No matter what the outcome with Mary Reynolds Babcock I would like to put together a case study of our coalition building addressing prgram as process fo the special issue. The deadline for the MRB is February 13 so we should know something by the time of the abstract deadline. What they decide will of course affect the point of view that the case study takes. Let me know if this suits your needs. How's the book coming and where are we on it now ? Take care- Nelda ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 10:41:49 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: messages not to send to WMST-L (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Yesterday, someone sent to WMST-L an article from a newspaper. She shouldn't have done that, since the article is covered by copyright and she doesn't own the copyright. Just in case other people are unclear about what kinds of postings should not be sent to WMST-L, here's part of the section from the User's Guide that covers this. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY, EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT IT CONTAINS. Thanks. ******************* 3A) "Are there other messages that should not be sent to WMST-L?" There are a number of messages that should NEVER be sent to WMST-L. For example, most newspaper and magazine/journal articles are covered by copyright. Do not send articles covered by copyright unless you have written permission from the copyright holder to do so. The fact that the article may have appeared on another list is NOT in itself sufficient justification for sending it to WMST-L. Here are some other messages not to send: 1) Warnings about computer viruses. The "Good Times" virus is a tired hoax, and most other messages about viruses are equally unfounded. NEVER SEND A WARNING ABOUT A VIRUS TO WMST-L! Instead, check with the computer support staff at your institution or check to see whether your "virus" is listed among the hoaxes described on any of the following sites: http://www.kumite.com/myths/ - Computer Virus Myths http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html - Symantec Anti-Virus Research Center http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html - CIAC (US government agency) If you find there IS some cause for concern, write to me PRIVATELY at KORENMAN@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU . 2) Messages about Neiman-Marcus or Harrods or anyone else's cookies. This is an "urban legend" that has no business on WMST-L. 3) Stories about a poor child dying of a brain tumor who would like e-mail messages. Another urban legend that has no place on WMST-L. 4) Stories about the FCC's planning a modem tax. Another groundless tale. The above messages are wholly without foundation or are no longer true. Moreover, they have nothing to do with women's studies teaching, research, or program administration, and hence should not be sent to WMST-L for that reason as well. Attachments of any sort should NOT be sent to WMST-L. You should be sure to convert your message to ASCII (i.e., plain text, not in WordPerfect or MS Word or other word processing format, nor anything encoded [uuencode, binhex, etc.] or sent in "base64" or octal or anything else except plain ASCII) before you send it. Many people can't read attachments, and since attachments are one of the few ways in which viruses can be transmitted via e-mail (only if you open it, not if you simply delete it), that's yet another reason WMST-L forbids attachments. Also, please do not send jokes, whether or not they relate to Women's Studies. Jokes tend to precipitate an avalanche of messages: more jokes, complaints about the content, complaints about the complaints, complaints about the resulting excessive mail volume. So...NO JOKES. Petitions, too, should NOT be sent to WMST-L, regardless of how worthy the cause. They, too, tend to add unreasonably to the list's already heavy mail volume. If someone SENDS an inappropriate message, IGNORE it!!! DO NOT reply to WMST-L. If you wish to enlighten the sender, send her/him a message PRIVATELY. People who ignore the list's focus and persist in sending inappropriate messages or replies will find themselves removed from the list. ******************************************************************** Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 14:19:48 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rich Cowan Subject: Update on attacks on women's studies, relig. right on campus Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" A couple of years ago I posted a message to this e-mail list detailing how right-wing groups such as the Young Americas Foundation were advising conservative student activists to challenge women's studies funding. Conservative groups advised students to obtain a list of hosted speakers and then argue for the defunding of programs that host only "liberal" feminists like Gloria Steinem or Angela Davis, as opposed to conservative "feminists" like Christina Hoff Sommers or the head of Feminists for Life. [source: Young Americas Foundation Conservative Guide to Campus Activism] Some new developments to report: 1. The Center for Campus Organizing published in 11/97 an updated, 134-page book titled Uncovering the Right on Campus. This $8 book contains far more coverage of affirmative action, gay/lesbian, and feminist controversies than the earlier edition. Excerpts are on line: see http://cco.org/right/antifem.html. Of particular note is the involvement of new groups like Phyllis Schafly's Eagle Forum Collegians in such attacks http://www.eagleforum.org/college. 2. The Monica Lewinsky Tie-in. One of the organizations featured in _Uncovering the Right_ is the Center for Study of Popular Culture/ Individual Rights Foundation headed by David Horowitz. Horowitz has been instrumental in providing legal support and publicity for the defense of internet columnist Matt Drudge, the man who leaked the story about the Clinton sex scandal to the media. Horowitz's group received $1,325,000 in 1994-5 from foundations controlled by Pittsburgh publisher Richard Scaife, an ultraconservative who has bankrolled dozens of antifeminist groups. Horowitz has been particularly combative when it comes to issues of challenging sexual harrassment in the military, or funding rape crisis centers on campus (see Washington Post, 4/23/94). The website on Horowitz's group and his publication, Heterodoxy, at http://www.cspc.org. Since Hilary Clinton made her remarks about a "right-wing conspiracy" a few days ago, Horowitz has been dismissing those who question his right-wing agenda or funding sources as "paranoid" (see US News, 2/9/98). Horowitz's ravings just a few years back, about totalitarian leftists and "femi-nazis" controlling campuses in a "PC" conspiracy, were of course, expressions of the utmost sanity. 3. The Rutherford Institute (http://www.rutherford.org), a fundamentalist Christian legal group twice the size of Horowitz's group, is now establishing a chapter network on law schools. This marks the beginning of an attempt to train more religious conservative judges, as opposed to the economic conservative judges who, like independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, are part of the 15-year-old Federalist Society (http://www.fed-soc.org) (see NY Times, 1/28/98). If you would like to engage in a campus discussion about about the Right's agenda, there is a listserv reaching about 400 people for this purpose. To subscribe, send a message to canet@pencil.math.missouri.edu, and in the body of the message, put only this: sub can-rw firstname lastname Hope this is helpful. -Rich Cowan Former director of CCO and coordinator, Uncovering the Right project rcowan@lesley.edu * Independent Consultant * (617) 628-8735 ----------- Any opinions expressed above are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization with which I am affiliated. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 08:23:18 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I've been getting a surprising number of messages from people asking me to unsubscribe them. They apparently think my time is less valuable than theirs. I don't agree :-). Most but not all are people who get the EDITED DIGEST and haven't bothered to read the User's Guide or the monthly reminders in the past year and a half, since the command changed. Instead of posting a section from the User's Guide today, I will post what I hope is a straightforward message about how to unsubscribe. PLEASE READ AND SAVE THIS MESSAGE!! Thanks. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you wish to unsubscribe from WMST-L, send the simple message UNSUB WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . If you receive the edited daily digest, you must add a second line to your message that says AFD DEL WMST-L PACKAGE WMST-L. (The WMST-L at the end was added a year or so ago; the command won't work without it.) You must send these messages from the same address you used when you subscribed. BE SURE TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU, NOT TO WMST-L! ************************************************************* %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Repeat: if you receive the edited daily digest, you must send a two-line message to LISTSERV: AFD DEL WMST-L PACKAGE WMST-L UNSUB WMST-L BE SURE TO SEND THIS MESSAGE TO LISTSERV, not to WMST-L %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ************************************************************** If the above instructions don't work, please send me a copy of the message you receive back from listserv, including all address headers, so I can see where the problem lies. Send this to me PRIVATELY at korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu, not via WMST-L. ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 13:07:53 -0500 Reply-To: gcarr@bucknell.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Glynis Carr Organization: Bucknell University Subject: CFP Feminism, Literature, and the Environment MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable CALL FOR PAPERS - - - DISTRIBUTE WIDELY FEMINISM, LITERATURE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT The Bucknell Review, a biannual, multidisciplinary journal, invites critical or creative essays for a special issue on feminist literary ecocriticism (contracted to appear in the year 2000). Possible topics include, but are not limited to: --manifestos of critical theoretical practice --relationships between literature and environmental activism --feminist readings of literary text(s) --including but not limited to nature writing by women --any genre --any historical period --any indigenous, national, or international literary tradition --gender and environmental literary history --interrelations between ecofeminist literature and the other arts --ecofeminist perspectives on literature and whiteness, racism, or anti-colonial struggles --cross-cultural studies of constructions of nature --intersections of sexuality, language, and culture --queer studies --ecocriticism in a creatively critical voice We are especially interested in essays exploring issues, writers and writings that are marginalized in existing ecocriticism. Noticeably rare, for example, are ecocritical studies of African American and other ethnic literatures. We also want to encourage experimental, transgressive, and nonconformist critical writing, including criticism in a personal voice. Topics may be explored from any (feminist) theoretical perspective, but papers should be theoretically informed and well-written. Bucknell Review is of interest to those working in many areas including critical theory, cultural history, gender studies, philosophy, queer theory, English and comparative literature, postcolonial studies, literature=92s interrelations with the arts, and cultural studies. Recen= t past issues include Worldviews and Ecology, eds. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (1993; v. 37.2); Irishness and (Post)Modernism, ed. John Rickard (1994; v. 38.1); and Having Our Way: Women Rewriting Tradition in Twentieth-Century America, ed. Harriet Pollack (1995; v. 39.1). Submissions should be 15-25 typed, double-spaced pages (including notes) in Chicago style. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: January 15, 1999. Earlier submissions are encouraged. Please send all contributions, inquiries, and other correspondence to: Glynis Carr Department of English Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 17837 717-524-3118 gcarr@bucknell.edu * * * * * * * -- Glynis Carr Associate Professor of English Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 17837 gcarr@bucknell.edu http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 11:24:04 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Converted from OfficeVision to RFC822 by PUMP V2.2X From: "Linda Lopez McAlister, SWIP-L Moderator" From: Linda Lopez McAlister, SWIP-L Moderator To: SWIP --CMSNAMES From: Linda Lopez McAlister, SWIP-L Moderator Subject: 8th Symposium of the Int'l. Assn. for Women in Philosophy Lessons from the Gynaeceum--Women Philosophizing--Past, Present, Future August 6-10, 1998, Boston, MA Just prior to the World Congress of Philosophy Information about the Symposium and a registration form that you can download and mail in is now available on the World Congress of Philosophy website. In English it's: http://web.bu.edu/WCP/IAPH/iaphengl.html In German: http://web.bu.edu/WCP/IAPH/iaphgerm.html Deadline for early registration and inexpensive housing in the BU dorms is March 1, 1998. Registration costs rise and availablity of dormitory housing is no longer guaranteed after that date. The program is being put together now and we will try to get a preliminary one on the website soon, but it will be tentative until after March 1 which is also the deadline for participants to confirm that they will be coming and giving their papers. We expect it to be a truly global conference; we have had acceptances from women philosophers from every continent (except Antarctica). Besides nearly 200 paper presentations, panels, workshops, etc. There will be screenings of films about women philosophers, a slide show of images of 17th C. women philosophers, and other media programs. I think you'll want to come and encourage your students to come as well. There is no registration fee for IAPh members and dues are inexpensive: $35.00 for regular membership and $20.00 for students/un or underemployed. Linda Lopez McAlister ********************************************* Linda Lopez McAlister, Editor, HYPATIA; Listowner SWIP-L; Chair Dept. of Women's Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa. Tel. 813-974-0982/FAX 813-974-0336/mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu ********************************************* Linda Lopez McAlister, Editor, HYPATIA; Listowner SWIP-L; Chair Dept. of Women's Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa. Tel. 813-974-0982/FAX 813-974-0336/mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 12:58:37 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Haessly Subject: Re: AAUP directory (fwd) Comments: To: Daniel Di Domizio , John Perkins , Christine Cantrell MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Last week someone posted a message re directories for publishing academic work, including dissertations. AAUP directory was mentioned as one source. A search of local bookstores in our area came up empty. I just received this infor from AAUP directly, and am forwarding it to the list for those interested. peace, Jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image Peace! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 09:43:39 -0800 (PST) From: aaupny@netcom.com To: Jacqueline Haessly Cc: e-mail: ; Subject: Re: AAUP directory We apologize for the delay in responding to your message of 1/27 (I've been on vacation). The fastest way to order and obtain a copy of the AAUP directory is by calling 800-621-2736 (this number is for credit card orders). Let me know if you prefer to pay by check (the directory is $19 including postage) and I will mail or fax you (if you provide a fax number) a directory order form. L.McCall On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, Jacqueline Haessly wrote: > I was referred to this email address to order a copy of the Association of > American University Presses AAUP directory. I was informed that > this directory provides information about academic publishing, and > includes info about which presses publish dissertations, both as > scholarly works and as books. Please post ordering information, or mail > and send bill to > > Jacqueline Haessly 2437 N. Grant Blvd. Milwaukee, WI 5321O-2941 > > Thank you. Peace, Jacqueline Haessly jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image > Peace! > > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:25:54 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Lynn H. Collins" Subject: AWP registration, program, and hotel info. MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi, I just wanted to remind everyone that the Association for Women in Psychology hotel reservation deadline (at $100+tax/night single or double, Baltimore Hilton and Towers, 1-800-333-3333) is February 4th and the next pre-conference registration deadline is February 13th. The conference runs from March 5th-March 8th. If you would like a registration form, let me know. I have e-mail versions of both the registration form and program, if you would like one. Lynn H. Collins, Ph.D. *****23rd Annual Association for Women in Psychology Conference***** Baltimore Hilton & Towers, March 5-8th, 1998 For registration information please contact me at: Applied Psychology & Quantitative Methods University of Baltimore 1420 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21201-5779 or e-mail: lcollins@ubmail.ubalt.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 16:02:01 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joellen Thomas Subject: Rock for Choice Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am posting this for someone not on the WMST list. Please respond to her privately, and many thanks in advance! ****************************************************** I am working on an M.A. thesis concerning Rock for Choice, a concert started in 1991 by the band L7 and benefitting the Feminist Majority and its foundation. I am interested in talking with anyone who has been to a Rock for Choice concert and especially with anyone who has helped to organize one. Thanks! Maria Zazycki zazycki.4@osu.edu Dept. of Women's Studies The Ohio State University ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 16:29:12 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Maria Bevacqua Subject: Ecofeminism Comments: To: WRAC-L@DARTMOUTH.EDU MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I received so many responses to my request for suggestions of ecofeminism speakers that I would thank you all publicly. The student who wanted the information is bound to find someone terrific out of the pile of suggestions I handed him. I am working on combining all the responses into a single post to the list. This will take a bit of time, but keep your eye out for it if you're interested. Cheers, Maria Maria Bevacqua, Ph.D. Institute for Women's Studies Emory University Atlanta, GA 30322 mbevacq@emory.edu Linus: I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them. I thought little girls were innocent and trusting. Sally: Welcome to the 20th century. (1966) ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:05:37 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Cynthia Harrison Subject: human evolution (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Here's a reply I received privately to my query about separate evolutionary tracks for men and women. I found it very helpful and so I'm sharing it. Cynthia Harrison History/Women's Studies The George Washington University ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 14:44:15 -0600 From: Florence L Ledwitz-Rigby To: harrison@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu Cc: Cynthia H Welch Subject: human evolution I was forwarded your question about "separate evolution of the sexes" by Cynthia Welch. I am a reproductive physiologist who has taught Biology of Women and Biology of Gender Identity. I agree with your reasoning, most of the way. Our genes per se are not different by sex, the second X chromosome in women has most of its genes inactivated, and those that aren't , are also present on the Y chromosome. The major genetic difference between the sexes are a couple of genes on the Y chromosome. These control 1) the turning on of a large number of genes, some of which are involved in the development of a testis, and 2) a cell surface protein ( H-Y antigen) - which may influence how cells recognize each other. Once the testis develops ( during the first trimester of pregnancy) it produces testosterone and other hormones that can influence brain development. ( All mammalian embryos are bathed in high concentrations of female hormones produced by the placenta and maternal ovary - so their contribution by the embryonic gonad are not influential). It is possible that these genes could influence some aspects of brain development - particularly the numbers of synapses made along specific pathways - which would influence the sensitivity of the pathways to various stimuli. Animal studies support the concepts that there are different sensitivities of specific pathways to specific stimuli between the sexes. The gonadal steroid hormones, ( Progesterone, estrogens, androgens) can also influence the sensitivity of established neural pathways to specific stimuli. (For example: Estrogen enhances sensitivity to odor, androgens enhance aggressive responses, territoriality and sex drive). All of this does not say that males and females evolved separately but rather that the human brain evolved the ability to respond to a variety of chemical signals that may be influenced by the chemical differences that exist in male and female embryos. In general there is more variability amongst a single gender, than there is between the means for the two genders. The human brain seems to have fewer differences between genders, than the bird or rat brain, where more stereotyped gender different behaviors are found. Thus human evolution might be said to be heading away from gender differences. One other interesting point re: gender genetic differences. Women have two copies of many important genes on their 2 X chromosomes. Due to random inactivation of one of the X chromosomes in each cell during early development,if one X carries a detrimental mutation , the cells in which the mutated gene is expressed are likely to die out, and only healthy cells expressing the good gene are left in females. In males with only one X chromosome, this choice isn't available, thus there are many more male embryonic deaths, and males born with major medical problems ( muscular dystrophy, hemophilia etc.) Women have a better genetic condition to "evolve" as they can survive more experimental mutations than men. When they have a postitive mutation ( one that makes a more effective protein) they can pass it on to their sons. Some sociobiologists use the term evolution in a very loose, non-chemical or physiological sense. I hope this helps and is not far more detail than you ever wished for. Best regards. Florence Florence Ledwitz-Rigby 1503 Edgewood Drive Altoona Wisconsin 54720 (715) 831 9031 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 23:42:32 +0100 Reply-To: thomasg@ifi.uio.no Sender: Women's Studies List From: Thomas Gramstad Subject: Self-esteem and body image Some time ago I read about a group that had done research on women's self-esteem, body type and ethnic background. They interviewed young women, and the expectation was that black women would have the lowest level of self-esteem because they were subject to the most severe discrimination (both racist and sexist discrimination). However, the result of this investigation was that as a group, young white women had the poorest self-esteem, followed by Asian women, while young black women had a higher level of self-esteem. Over 90 % of the white women had an image of an ideal body type (5'7", anorectic) which they felt they didn't match up to (too short, too tall, too fat, etc.). A corresponding body type ideal was quite widespread among the Asian women. But the black women usually did not compare themselves to such an image, and thus their self-esteem was not impaired by being different from an ideal image. This particular research used to be at a web site (http://webx.dn.net/webx?13@^9693@/Women%20Online%20Worldwide/Black%20Women's%20 Support%20Network/14) but is now gone. So I have two questions: Does anyone have a reference to this particular research (online or journal/book references)? And does anyone have references to other, similar research? (And if so, do they reinforce or contradict the conclusions of the above group?) Thomas Gramstad thomasg@ifi.uio.no ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:22:12 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Trimberger E. KAY" Subject: Student's self revelation in the classroom Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The latest issue of Lingua Franca (Feb., 1998) has an article about a male Sociologist at Colby College who was denied tenure primarily (the article claims) because he required students in his sociological theory courses to write about their family lives and how it related to the theory they read. Three women students were uncomfortable with the way the assignment was structured, and the teacher's responses to their papers, and filed complaints against him. The situation is complicated by the fact that he was a divorced middle-aged man, who lived on campus and spent a lot of time socializing with students. The article raised many questions for me. In my introductory women's studies classes (of 40 - 48), I encourage students to self disclose and relate the readings to their personal lives. They participate on oral panels on personal topics (for only 10% of their grade and almost everyone gets an A), and starting last semester, using suggestions on this listserv by Arnie Kahn and others, I had students write personal essays (responding to those in Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation) which we assembled into a book (again worth only 10% of the grade). I always tell students that they do not have to talk or write about "heavy" topics, that they can discuss very positive experiences, and I always caution students to talk and write only about experiences that they have worked through, already talked to others about etc. I permit students to write their essays under a pseudonym if they want. I have always had very positive responses to these exercises from the students, and I believe it permits students of different genders, races, ages, social classes and political persuasions to really listen to each other. At the end of last semester, I read the students some of the criticisms of personal disclosure in Professing Feminism (e.g., that it encourages women to see themselves as victims), and the majority said that they did not agree with the criticism. But after the Lingua Franca piece, I'm feeling "nervous" about what has here-to-fore been a successful pedagogy for me. I want to ask if any women's studies faculty have had negative experiences with incorporating students autobiographical material into their courses. Can you recommend other articles that discuss positive and/or negative consequences with this pedagogy? Kay Trimberger Women and Gender Studies Program Sonoma State University E. Kay Trimberger Coordinator and Professor Women's Studies Program Sonoma State University 707 664-2086/2840 Trimberg@Sonoma.edu ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 17:45:12 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Debra Kirkley Subject: Re: Student's self revelation in the classroom MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----Original Message----- From: Trimberger E. KAY To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU Date: Monday, February 02, 1998 4:55 PM ..snip.... > I want to ask if any women's studies faculty have had negative >experiences with incorporating students autobiographical material into their courses. ..snip... Each semester, 80+ students in my "family nursing" class do a comprensive paper analyzing facets of their own family of origin. It is a powerful method for learning family analysis but I too worried that students might be uncomfortable revealing family history, secrets and baggage, etc.... In my syllabus I include a statement about personal disclosure. I indicate that for some written and oral exercises we will be using our own families as a reference point. I clearly state that students are ALWAYS free to disguise or with-hold information if they wish, in order to feel safe. Last year I surveyed the students after the paper was completed and asked them (anonymously) whether they had felt free to with-hold information or had they felt compelled to reveal information they did not wish to reveal. I also asked what they gained from the experience and whether they would recommend i change the assignment. They unanimously told me it was a great assignment, that they grew a lot from doing it and not to change a thing. They also admitted that it was at times painful...but important to do. I feel that this survey data would be useful to me if a student were ever to take issue with this in course evaluations or in promotion/tenure review. You may want to survey your students similarly to collect their views on how they feel about disclosure in your classroom. -debra- ********************************************* Debra Kirkley MEd, RNC Assistant Clinical Professor Texas Woman's University College of Nursing Dallas, Texas dkirkley@twu.edu Doctoral Candidate University of North Texas iy52@jove.acs.unt.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 01:08:00 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ann Ferguson Subject: Reply to John Leo, on Vision 2000 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit 2/2 To the WMST-L: I am forwarding you a letter I sent to the New England Land Grant Women list serve which in turn contains the letter of response to the John Leo article I sent to the US News and World Report. You can decide for yourself whether Daphne Patai's latest article in the Chronicle of HIgher Ed or John Leo's article or mine best captures the intent of that Vision 2000, which was created by a whole Council of New England Land Grant University women, including staff at women's centers and on university president's commissions on women and not just representatives of women's studies faculty. There will be a short response to Patai's letter on behalf of the New England Land Grant University Women Council that is being sent as a letter to the editor of the Chronicle on Higher Ed. > If you have any questions about this report or the developing right wing politics attacking it, you can contact me at my email address: ferguson@philos.umass.edu. HOpefully there will also be a workshop discussion of the whole Vision 2000 project and responses to it at the national NWSA meeting in June in Oswego NY. I urge you to send your own letters to the editor to both the Chronicle and US News and World Report giving your own opinions (and also now to the new critique of Vision 2000 and Women's Studies by Christina Hoff Sommers in 2/2/98's Boston Globe. > > Best, Ann Ferguson > > Director of Women's Studies, Professor of PHilosophy > > UMass/Amherst > > **************************** > > To the New England Land Grant University Women Council > > > 1/22 > > > Hi, women! I thought you'd like to see a copy of my letter to the editor > > > in response to the negative article by John Leo in US News and World > > > Report. Since I am quoted (falsely) by name, I am hoping that they will > > > feel obligated to print at least part of this letter.. . . > > > I guess you all know by now that the Visions 2000 report will be uploaded > > > shortly to the UMass Women's Studies Web page. Our address is: > > > www.umass.edu/wost and it should be under Articles... (We will shortly > > be uploading a brief history of the creation of the Vision 200 document > > and our letters in response to the Leo and Patai articles). I like the > > idea of linking your Web pages with ours on the Vision > > > 2000. . . > > > > > > Best, Ann Ferguson, UMass/Amherst > > > ferguson@philos.umass.edu > > > ********************* > > > > 1/22/98 > Letter to the Editor, US News and World Report > > > > > > Re: John Leo's article on Vision 2000, Jan. 19, 1998 > > > > > > > Freedom of the press is as important as academic freedom in furthering a > > >marketplace of ideas so as to advance new knowledge. But reporters ought > > >to be accountable to provide an accurate rendition of the debate when > > >controversial issues are at stake. Unfortunately John Leo made little if > > >any effort to find out what a reasonable interpretation of the Vision > > >2000 document would be from those who created it. > > > > > > > >Leo claims that the Vision 2000 document "dissolve(s) academic freedom" > > and quotes me to suggest that I support overstepping academic freedom in > > support of "the wider goal". But I never advocated "overstepping academic > > >freedom": he simply put these words in my mouth. What I advocate is a > > broader distribution of academic freedom--the academic freedom of students > > who may be denied their fair right to learn and excel in a particular > > subject matter by exclusion of relevant information or by unfair pedagogical bias. To ask that student evaluations of faculty teaching include some evaluation of the adequacy of their coverage of relevant gender issues and of their gender, racial and ethnic fairness in pedagogy is > > >asking no more than that faculty be accountable for the merit of their > > teaching. Demanding faculty responsibility to good, inclusive and fair > > taching is not violating their academic freedom > > > > > > > >The distortions in Leo's article make it unlikely he even read the > > >Visions 2000 document. Instead, he relies heavily on the hostile reading > > >of the document made by Daphne Patai in her letter to the Chronicle of > > >Higher Education this week, who sees "an attempted coup" and > > >"imperialism" in what is instead a plea for university-wide cooperation in > > >expanding our research and curriculum with relevant new knowlege about > > >gender. If the framers of the Vision 2000 statement had wanted to make a > > >coup, we would not have asked representative bodies at the land grant > > >universities to discuss and vote on the recommended goals of the > > >document! Coups and authoritarian thinkers usually > > >don't resort to democratic process to institute their changes. > > > > > > > >We never suggested that the Women's Studies' programs in each > > >university be "in charge" of revising the curriculum--rather, it was > > assumed that change in the curriculum would likely begin by feminist faculty in the > > >various disciplines doing research based on gender and revising existing > > >courses to include such new knowledge. To read our actual statement about > > >the process of transforming the curriculum to include more scholarship on > > >women, which says that such a process "is best conducted with guidance > > >from an autonomous Women's Studies site and active Women's Studies > > >scholars working cooperatively with others", as a demand for > > >authoritarian control is ludicrous at best, and paranoid at worst. > > > > > > > >Other implications drawn from the document are equally distorted: > > >nowhere does it say what Leo attributes to the document, that "all > > students and professors would undergo sensitivity training", although > Vision 2000 does advocate that a process be instituted "in which all > administrators, faculty,graduate teaching assistants, staff, and students are > trained in issues of > sexual harassment and violence". By not even mentioning what issue such > >"sensitivity training" is meant to address, Leo's sniggering remarks > >trivialize the issue of sexual harassment and violence. Clearly a hidden > >assumption of Leo's article is stated directly by Patai, that sexual > >harassment and violence against women aren't big problems at our > >universities, and that we are falsely trying to paint women as > >victims. But reports show that sexual harassment and violence against > women > are serious issues for campus women. For example, at UMass/Amherst last > year, 241 reports of sexual assault (which includes rape, attempted > rape,voyeurism, assaultive graffiti and stalking) were received by various >campus services. Even such numbers, though indicating a small > percentage compared to all UMass students, understate the problem: not > only many > incidents of sexual harassment remain unreported, but known incidents > happening to some create an uncomfortable campus climate for all campus > women which needs to be addressed to create gender equity in learning > conditions. > > > > > > Further examples of a trivializing representation of the document by > Leo include his disparaging reference to lack of awards to be given to > departments with high female dropout rates, suggesting that this > implies a vendetta against science and math teachers. But these are Leo's > assumptions, not ours; we don't assume math or science are at fault in this > way! In fact, at the UMass/Amherst campus, math and some of the science > departments, particularly biology and physics, are among the most > successful departments recruitng and retaining women students. > > > > > >Leo shows his own sexist assumptions when he attempts to give a > counterexample to the emphasis of Vision 2000 by claiming that gender > equity in course content would require a course on Renaissance Art to > include half > women artists "since 99% were male, since women were excluded or > discouraged > from artistic work at the time". But how does Leo know how many women > artists there actually were in the Renaissance period, without further research? > In fact, scholarly work in other Humanities and Social Science fields such as > Philosophy and History has uncovered a number of high quality, hitherto > little known women producers in those fields. Gender equity in > course content doesn't mean setting up unrealistic "quotas" of how many > women should > be covered in the course material compared to men, but doing > more research on gender-relevant variables; for example, to see if any > notable women are there to be added to enhance the course's coverage and > perspective! > > > > > > Leo (and Patai) continue their distortions by re-defining > "women-friendly > pedagogies"--meant only to imply pegagogies where women are not overtly >disparaged or ignored--to imply that it means the rejection of grading, > debating, logic, etc as "male techniques". This is absurd:as a > Philosophy professor, debating (which implies competition) and logical > argumentation, are key to the techniques I try to teach my women students as > well as men, yet I don't see these at odds with pedagogical techniques > that elicit the expression of personal experiences, feelings or cooperation > in learning. At any rate, most Women's Studies faculty don't make the crude > stereotypical contrast between "male" and "female knowledge" that Leo > implies in his argument. In short, Leo's article totally misrepresents the > proposals of Vision 2000, and I hope you will print this letter to set > the record straight on the intended implications of the goals by the > framers of the document. > > > > > > > > > > Sincerely, > > > > > Ann Ferguson, Professor of Philosophy, Director of Women's Studies, > > > > > U.Mass/Amherst, Box 30530, Univ. of Mass., Amherst, MA 01003 > > > --Boundary_(ID_Y2GURCM/BHaxX0UotlZqcQ)-- > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 07:58:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: when to reply privately (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: ******************* 3) "WHEN SHOULD I REPLY PRIVATELY RATHER THAN TO WMST-L?" WMST-L is set up so that replies will automatically go to all subscribers. If you respond to a WMST-L message by hitting a reply key or typing "reply," everyone will read your response. This is appropriate when the contents are likely to be of interest to a number of subscribers (most suggestions for reading lists and teaching strategies fall into this category). However, * if you are writing to request a copy of a paper someone has mentioned, please send your request PRIVATELY, NOT to WMST-L. * Similarly, comments directed at a particular person (e.g., "Right on, Rhoda. Good point," or "Thanks for the info," or "What a horrendous experience that must have been. I don't know why people do such things," or "Hi, Jane, I'm glad to see you've joined the list. Write to me," etc.) should be sent PRIVATELY, NOT to WMST-L. * Also, short general statements of approval, disapproval, or puzzlement (e.g., "Hooray! I'm glad someone finally said that!" or "I can't imagine how anyone can believe such nonsense" or "why did you send that message?") should NOT be sent to WMST-L. * Finally, please also send privately most expressions of thanks or apology. [People using Pine and a few other mail systems need to be especially careful about replies: these systems sometimes make list mail look as if it is coming from a private person. On Pine, hitting H while reading a message will show you the full header--be sure WMST-L is nowhere in any of the header lines. For a private reply in Pine, even if the mail seems to be from a private person, say NO both to using the Reply-to address and to replying to all recipients. And CANCEL your reply if any line is addressed to WMST-L or to "multiple recipients."] One further note: the above sorts of messages are OMITTED from the WMST-L digest. If the person you're trying to reach is one of the hundreds who reads WMST-L in digest form, she/he will not see the message if you send it to WMST-L. ************************ Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 08:34:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Trisha Franzen Subject: domestic violence in Germany One of our students is having trouble finding sources on domestic violence in Germany. If you have any suggestions of materials in either English or German, we would be very appreciative. Please respond privately. Trisha Franzen, Director Anna Howard Shaw Center for Women's Studies and Programs Albion College KC #4683 Albion, MI 49224 517 629-5618 TFRANZEN@albion.edu http://www.albion.edu/fac/womn/ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 08:43:26 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judith Koplewitz Subject: Re: Student's self revelation in the classroom Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I am a feminist psychologist, 68. I suggest that you and your students consider approaching your concerns by reading matrials about feminist ethics and viewing the pros and cons of what you all decide to do through condsidering these various feminist frameworks. I suggest Rosmarie Tong's work and Alison Jaggar. Hope this helps. Judith Koplewitz ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 09:40:28 -0500 Reply-To: "jgrant@tui.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jaime Grant Organization: The Union Institute Subject: Re: Student's self revelation in the classroom In my class on the social history of women's activism, I ask students to research the story of a woman in their family and see how her life confronts or accommodates sexism (and/or racism, classism, etc.) Then, they're instructed to think about how this legacy has shaped their responses to these "isms" in their lives. We create a book from the final papers. Throughout the course, I teach women's activism from 1960 to the present through the narratives of the women who were active in a variety of movements (anti-nuke, peace, civil rights, anti-violence, etc.). I ask the students to notice and think about what these women don't share as well as what they choose to share. All semester, we wrestle with the silences as well as the information presented. So, when we get to their papers, I ask them to make their best "stretch" at speaking the truth about their family legacy and their lives -- this is just for my eyes. I talk about the importance of knowing your story in terms of becoming an active participant in one's community/world. But I also emphasize that it's their choice how their story gets told/shared. It's entirely up to each of them to figure out what's safe and appropriate to pass on in terms of their own "legacies." This personal struggle often helps them see their mother's and grandmother's struggles to tell/withhold their stories with much more compassion and understanding. They can pass in an edited version of their paper for the book, or their piece can be published anonymously, or it can be left out of the book altogether. The most important thing for me is that they feel in charge of the material. Last year, only one student chose to publish anonymously. The eleven other women in the class put their stories out exactly as they'd submitted them for their final. My students LOVE this assignment. For many women, it makes substantial changes in the way they see their mothers/grandmothers and the way they see themselves in their families. It's a very challenging piece of work and seems to be very rewarding for them. Hope this helps. Jaime -----Original Message----- From: Trimberger E. KAY [SMTP:ektrim@UCLINK2.BERKELEY.EDU] Sent: Monday, February 02, 1998 5:22 PM To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU Subject: Student's self revelation in the classroom The latest issue of Lingua Franca (Feb., 1998) has an article about a male Sociologist at Colby College who was denied tenure primarily (the article claims) because he required students in his sociological theory courses to write about their family lives and how it related to the theory they read. Three women students were uncomfortable with the way the assignment was structured, and the teacher's responses to their papers, and filed complaints against him. The situation is complicated by the fact that he was a divorced middle-aged man, who lived on campus and spent a lot of time socializing with students. The article raised many questions for me. In my introductory women's studies classes (of 40 - 48), I encourage students to self disclose and relate the readings to their personal lives. They participate on oral panels on personal topics (for only 10% of their grade and almost everyone gets an A), and starting last semester, using suggestions on this listserv by Arnie Kahn and others, I had students write personal essays (responding to those in Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation) which we assembled into a book (again worth only 10% of the grade). I always tell students that they do not have to talk or write about "heavy" topics, that they can discuss very positive experiences, and I always caution students to talk and write only about experiences that they have worked through, already talked to others about etc. I permit students to write their essays under a pseudonym if they want. I have always had very positive responses to these exercises from the students, and I believe it permits students of different genders, races, ages, social classes and political persuasions to really listen to each other. At the end of last semester, I read the students some of the criticisms of personal disclosure in Professing Feminism (e.g., that it encourages women to see themselves as victims), and the majority said that they did not agree with the criticism. But after the Lingua Franca piece, I'm feeling "nervous" about what has here-to-fore been a successful pedagogy for me. I want to ask if any women's studies faculty have had negative experiences with incorporating students autobiographical material into their courses. Can you recommend other articles that discuss positive and/or negative consequences with this pedagogy? Kay Trimberger Women and Gender Studies Program Sonoma State University E. Kay Trimberger Coordinator and Professor Women's Studies Program Sonoma State University 707 664-2086/2840 Trimberg@Sonoma.edu ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 10:07:36 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Re: Reply to John Leo, on Vision 2000 Comments: cc: ptai@emily.oit.umass.edu In-Reply-To: <199802030608.BAA08024@lessing.oit.umass.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I'm glad the Vision 2000 document will be available for all to read. Ann Ferguson is not quoted "falsely" in any articles I know of. Her strange view of academic freedom was articulated before the faculty senate and is on tape. It's distressing to see the usual tactic at work: Ann refers to the "right-wing" politics that she sees as attacking this agenda. This is a feeble attempt to discredit critics such as me. The Vision 2000 document can only harm women's studies. -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 11:08:07 -0500 Reply-To: "Leah C. Ulansey" Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Leah C. Ulansey" Subject: Re: Student's self revelation in the classroom In-Reply-To: <199802022222.OAA09502@uclink2.berkeley.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Trimberger E. KAY wrote: > > The latest issue of Lingua Franca (Feb., 1998) has an article about a male > Sociologist at Colby College who was denied tenure primarily (the article > claims) because he required students in his sociological theory courses to > write about their family lives and how it related to the theory they read. > Three women students were uncomfortable with the way the assignment was > structured, and the teacher's responses to their papers, and filed > complaints against him. The situation is complicated by the fact that he > was a divorced middle-aged man, who lived on campus and spent a lot of time > socializing with students. The article raised many questions for me. I'm glad someone brought this up. That article raised many questions for me, too. It's probably worth pointing out that, at least according to the LF article, the Colby sociology Prof. approached the personal disclosures and oral histories of students with a "hermeneutics of suspicion." In other words, unlike the typical WS Prof., he apparently assumed that the student's process of reflecting and verbalizing about family matters (the subject he focused on in his assignments) needs to be aggressively undermined and redirected by the teacher/reader. That's different, in a subtle but crucial way, from probing--with the student's assistance and permission--the gaps and silences in the student's narrative. From the article, which was not unsympathetic to this Prof.(mostly on grounds of academic freedom), it sounded to me like he was performing surgery with an unsterilized butcher knife because he simply didn't realize there might be a better way. The Colby Prof. is quoted as saying, with regard to students who chose to write about sad or traumatic aspects of their family life, "I didn't want any of this boohoo, I'm-a-victim stuff. That's bullshit. I've heard it a million times" and "There would sometimes be anger from students because I didn't give them the obligatory empathic response. But again, why should I?" These remarks, unless they're taken way out of context, suggest to me that the Prof. did not understand, and did not try to understand, the kind of damage he could potentially do. One question comes to my mind: how do other WS instructors respond to personal disclosure-type papers from students who see themselves as anti-feminist or those who resist feminism? Speaking for myself, I'd say I try to put aside my preconceptions and really listen to the students; try to hear where my anti- or non-feminist students are coming from (is that "the obligatory empathic response"?). I find out whether we have some common ground in spite of our disagreements. We usually do have some common ground in common sense things like pay equity, etc. Then I try to identify and specify exactly where and on what grounds our points of view diverge. The student then feels understood and respected. As a teacher, I've helped the student clarify and contextualize her/his views and hopefully taught the student that disagreement need not be threatening or unpleasant. Another constuctive approach (I'm not sure about this one, and I've never tried it) MIGHT be to GENTLY, non-judgementally point to personal experiences that may have contributed to or reinforced the student's political views, whatever those views are. (I would do this in the form of a question: "Do YOU see a conection between...?") Leah Ulansey leou@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu > > In my introductory women's studies classes (of 40 - 48), I encourage > students to self disclose and relate the readings to their personal lives. > They participate on oral panels on personal topics (for only 10% of their > grade and almost everyone gets an A), and starting last semester, using > suggestions on this listserv by Arnie Kahn and others, I had students write > personal essays (responding to those in Listen Up: Voices from the Next > Feminist Generation) which we assembled into a book (again worth only 10% of > the grade). I always tell students that they do not have to talk or write > about "heavy" topics, that they can discuss very positive experiences, and I > always caution students to talk and write only about experiences that they > have worked through, already talked to others about etc. I permit students > to write their essays under a pseudonym if they want. I have always had > very positive responses to these exercises from the students, and I believe > it permits students of different genders, races, ages, social classes and > political persuasions to really listen to each other. At the end of last > semester, I read the students some of the criticisms of personal disclosure > in Professing Feminism (e.g., that it encourages women to see themselves as > victims), and the majority said that they did not agree with the criticism. > But after the Lingua Franca piece, I'm feeling "nervous" about what has > here-to-fore been a successful pedagogy for me. > > I want to ask if any women's studies faculty have had negative > experiences with incorporating students autobiographical material into their > courses. Can you recommend other articles that discuss positive and/or > negative consequences with this pedagogy? > > Kay Trimberger > Women and Gender Studies Program > Sonoma State University > E. Kay Trimberger > Coordinator and Professor > Women's Studies Program > Sonoma State University > 707 664-2086/2840 > Trimberg@Sonoma.edu > ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 11:25:01 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: human evolution (fwd) Comments: To: Cynthia Harrison In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII You seem to use the word "gender" as synonymus with the word "sex." But they have quite different meanings. "Gender" refers to the roles that society imposes on the two sexes. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 08:51:57 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: VISION 2000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi all, I have been lurking for a while but I am really interested in what people think about the two articles mentioned below. I have not seen the Vision 2000 document either but it seems that Daphne Patai is against it and John Leo was just iterating what the content of the Vision 2000 document says. Why are methods of evaluation in the sciences always test based? Does this not make females shy away? Is this not "male" methods? Marina Koether On Fri, 30 Jan 1998, Pam Frost wrote: > For everyone like me who missed the print copy of this article and wanted > to take a look at it, I found it on the Web at: > http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/980119/19JOHN.HTM > At 11:17 AM 1/30/98 -0500, you wrote: > >Did anybody read that obnoxious article by John Leo in U.S. News and World > >Report, Jan. 19, about Vision 2000? He sure made it sound like a bunch of > >dictatorial lunatic bitches were planning to overtake higher education and > >eventually the world and that truth, justice, and the American way were > >certainly being threatened by "campus feminists" (particulary at U Mass). > >> > >>I just finished reading Daphne Patai's article, "Why Not A Feminist > >>Overhaul of Higher Education?" in the January 23 edition of the Chronicle. > >>I was wondering if anyone out there from the New England area has a copy of > >>Vision 2000 that they could forward, or post to the list, so I could read > >>it for myself. Thank you. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 12:36:34 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Colby case Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Let's assume Leah is right and the Colby sociology professor who was denied tenure hadn't actually got the techniques of feminist pedagogy down right. Was it therefore justified to deny him tenure? -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 13:00:31 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Cindy Bily Subject: Robert's Rules of Order I am looking for discussions of Robert's Rules of Order from a feminist perspective. Can anyone point me to articles that would be useful for non-specialists? Thanks very much. Cynthia Bily Adrian College cbily@adrian.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 16:55:09 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Gina Oboler, Anthropology & Sociology, Ursinus College" Subject: Gender in African Languages -- prologue Friends, When we were discussing linguistic gender a while back, someone raised the question about whether not having gender makes speakers of a language less sexist (as was claimed for Finnish). Someone else posted the example of a W. African language, and I posted my observations on a couple of East African languages. I probably would have taken all this no further, but someone else posted my remarks to an East African ethnographer, who sent them on to a specialist in African languages. The result of this correspondence has now come back to me, so I have posted it to the whole list for the benefit on anybody who still may be interested in this topic (which now seems to be old news.) (Oops, sorry, two lines up, that was supposed to say "benefit of" not "benefit on" -- I know I should go into editing mode before writing, but usually don't bother -- very sorry!) -- Gina ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 16:49:45 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Gina Oboler, Anthropology & Sociology, Ursinus College" Subject: Gender in African Languages From: MX%"hutch@bu.edu" 3-FEB-1998 14:49:40.08 To: MX%"roboler@acad.ursinus.edu" CC: Subj: Gender in African Languages Return-Path: Received: from acs1.bu.edu by acad.ursinus.edu (MX V4.2 VAX) with SMTP; Tue, 03 Feb 1998 14:49:34 EST Received: (from hutch@localhost) by acs1.bu.edu (8.8.5/) id OAA204900 for roboler@acad.ursinus.edu; Tue, 3 Feb 1998 14:15:11 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 14:15:11 -0500 From: hutch@bu.edu Message-ID: <199802031915.OAA204900@acs1.bu.edu> To: roboler@acad.ursinus.edu Subject: Gender in African Languages Different linguists distinguish gender in different ways - I talk about grammatical gender (i.e. in the pronoun system) vs. lexical gender (in the noun system - including gender-based languages like Romance and noun-class and classifier languages like Bantu, and Chinese and Japanese in the latter case). Of the four major African language families, to my knowledge it is principally only Afro-Asiatic, the one of the 4 families which has languages also off as well as on the continent, which has rampant grammatical gender in the pronoun systems - this goes for Semitic as well as many of the Chadic languages, though I haven't looked at every branch. For the most part, all of the other 3 major families, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan, and Congo-Kordofanian (including Niger-Congo) do not have my "grammatical gender", what Tucker and Bryan call "personal gender". Sex-based lexical gender, as in Romance, is again concentrated in AFro-Asiatic but to my knowledge not manifested in the other three families; noun class-based lexical gender is rampant in the Niger-Congo branch of Congo-Kordofanian - every branch except for Mande has noun class characteristics; some say they have even found them in Mande. Unfortunately I cannot speak for Kordofanian lgs. since I have no familiarity. Thus the distribution of "personal gender" of the kind you referred to is relatively limited in Africa compared to Europe where it is dominant. Thus, most AFrican languages are "gender-free" in their pronoun systems; clearly there is no correlation between being "gender-free" in this way, and degrees of sexism and chauvinism in a given society. John Hutchison ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 18:22:08 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Tammie Davis Subject: virginity testing Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I was reading an article in the paper about virginity testing in Turkey. Several girls tried to kill themselves rather than go through with the testing. One girl succeeded in killing herself and her father had the test performed on her dead body. Has anyone heard of this before? Is there any literature on this? What actually is performed to test for virginity? Any information would be appreciated. thank you tammie justicetoo@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 18:46:16 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sujata Moorti Subject: Re: virginity testing Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" There's a piece in Women's Studies International Forum in the 1997 issue on this topic. I don't have the exact citation with me but I know it's a piece by Dilek Cindoglu on Virginity Tests and Artificial Virginity. Sujata Assistant Professor Women's Studies Old Dominion University (757) 683-4908 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 17:40:02 PST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Somer Brodribb Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS--EXTENDED DUE DATE--WOMEN AND THE MILLENNIUM CALL FOR PAPERS WOMEN AND THE MILLENNIUM Edited by Somer Brodribb, published by gynergy books "bringing women's voices into print". Publication date: Fall 1998. International in scope, positive and realistic, with a view of the past and a vision of the future, this collection of essays will explore, within the framework of women's lives, some of the questions feminists are considering at the turn of the millenium. How are we forming the future? What will the issues of sex, race, class, nation, identity and history mean in the next century? What space will women have? What borders will there be, in cyberspace and in the material, social and economic worlds around us? What directions will our collective action and analysis take? How will feminist changes materialize? Papers are invited in such areas as: o Feminist activism in change Welfare, homelessness and poverty o Economic restructuring and migration o Cyberspace and communication o Women's utopian and dystopian writing and filmmaking o Girls' organizing and popular culture o Reproduction -- conceiving the new world order o Native women and land claims o Women and Environments o Women and health o Violence against women o Future lesbians To submit a proposal, send an abstract (two copies, 250 WORDS MAXIMUM) BY FEBRUARY 28, 1998. ONCE PROPOSALS ARE APPROVED, ARTICLES WILL BE DUE MAY 20, 1998. Authors who are concerned with issues of diversity are particularly welcome. PLEASE INCLUDE A SHORT BIO. Send abstracts to Somer Brodribb, Department of Women's Studies, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 3P4. Tel: 250-472-4277; Fax 250-721-7210. email: brodribb@uvvm.uvic.ca gynergy books P.O. Box 2023 Charlottetown, PEI Canada C1A 7N7 Phone (902) 566-5750 Fax (902) 566-4473 email: editor@gynergy.com Year One Millennium Three ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 12:09:28 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katsue Akiba Reynolds Organization: Josai International University Subject: Re: Robert's Rules of Order MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit some years ago we media task force of the committee on the status of women of honolulu attempted to publish a gender neutral version of robert's rules of order and the members actually worked on the project. it was not published, however. you may contact dineh davis, the current chair of the media task force at if you are interested in obataining more information about this project. the revised version was not published for some reason. k.a.reynolds josai international university, japan ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 20:08:39 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: Reply to John Leo, on Vision 2000 In-Reply-To: <199802030608.BAA08024@lessing.oit.umass.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi all, On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Ann Ferguson wrote: > I am forwarding you a letter I sent to the New England Land Grant > Women list serve which in turn contains the letter of response to the > John Leo article I sent to the US News and World Report. > 1/22/98 > Letter to the Editor, US News and World Report > Re: John Leo's article on Vision 2000, Jan. 19, 1998 > Freedom of the press is as important as academic freedom in furthering a > marketplace of ideas so as to advance new knowledge. But reporters ought > to be accountable to provide an accurate rendition of the debate when > controversial issues are at stake. Unfortunately John Leo made little if > any effort to find out what a reasonable interpretation of the Vision > 2000 document would be from those who created it. > Leo claims that the Vision 2000 document "dissolve(s) academic freedom" > and quotes me to suggest that I support overstepping academic freedom in > support of "the wider goal". But I never advocated "overstepping > academic freedom": he simply put these words in my mouth. What I > advocate is a broader distribution of academic freedom--the academic > freedom of students who may be denied their fair right to learn and > excel in a particular subject matter by exclusion of relevant > information or by unfair pedagogical bias. Could you explain what are unfair pedagogical bias that might occur in the sciences? > To ask that student evaluations of faculty teaching include > some evaluation of the adequacy of their coverage of relevant gender > issues and of their gender, racial and ethnic fairness in pedagogy is Could you explain how students know this and can answer such a question on a student evaluation in a science class? Thanks, Marina Koether ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 00:00:20 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: Student's self revelation in the classroom In-Reply-To: <199802022222.OAA09502@uclink2.berkeley.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >From my years of teaching WS classes, I conclude that when students talk about themselves, as many perceptions of their strengths as of victims and some finely textured analyses come thru - so I would expect the same to happen when self-disclosures are askd for. 'Professing Feminism' thus seems wrong to say that selve-disclosure encourages victimology. But - I never asked for self-disclosure in the apparent sense in which it's described. I think it's intrusive to ask students to write a paper about themselves, though I can imagine that it's reasonable to ask students to connect some feature in their experience in relation to a course topic. The closest I came to it was in asking students in a Political Economy of Women course to do repeated interviews with women, asking new questions as we worked thru readings in labor history and then issues related to employment as a way of questioning and/or verifying realities presented in the texts. Some students chose their mothers or another relative. There were oral reports, with my request that students ask for clarifications that would help the reporter write a good paper. Students in all classes considered the assignment very useful. In any case, students tell you and withhold what they want to. If they use psuedonyms, as you say you suggest as an option, you can't give a grade for the piece, can you? I learned somethingabout students' personal lives, experiences, attitudes, feelings, and they learned about each other in the course of discussing reading assignments. I think that's enough in a classroom. Sometines things got highly personal. I considered my responsibility to be one of extending thought via students and/or my own comments and questons. In 1:1 conferences, sometimes more personal stuff comes out, e.g., a death in the family, rape, custody battle. Sometimes I could help (empathize, extend paper deadlines,things like that) but there are problems a professor is not in a position to deal with. A very hard one for me was an exam paper in which a student wrote only that she'd been raped repeatedly (totally unrelated to the exam questions).She didn't respond to my calls to come see me; I never saw her again, haven't forgiven myself for not having picked up her distress earlier and offer some help. We're in a human, not simply a mechanical academic relationship with students. beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 22:18:10 -0800 Reply-To: TBear@net999.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Topaz Bear Subject: Re: Virginity Testing MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >From Amnesty International's publication ACT 77/001/1995 "Human Rights Are Womens Rights" http://www.amnesty.se/women/242e.htm Forced gynaecological examinations "I was arrested on 31 December with four friends from outside the newspaper office...We were taken to ankaya police station, Ankara. We were blindfolded in the car, and our hands bound behind our backs. On the way up the stairs our heads were banged against the walls. They started to remove my clothes, which I tried to obstruct them from doing. Then they started to squeeze my breasts. They threw us to the ground and jumped on top of us... "They handcuffed our hands behind our back, making comments all the time and poking and pawing us...[When] I struggled against their handling, they said: `Do you enjoy that? So you like a bit of roughness', and other sexual remarks. Two of them came over to us, and touched our hips and legs. Another policeman tried to force his foot into my mouth. One of them urinated on me. We were generally sexually molested. They wanted to know if I was pregnant, how many people had I slept with. They said they would give me a virginity test." Ferda Mazmuno_lu, journalist on Alinteri (Toil) magazine, 1994. In recent years Turkish police have increasingly used virginity tests as a means of degrading and humiliating women. The use of virginity testing in Turkey as a means of criminalizing, threatening and abusing women was recently documented in a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). (HRW/Women's Rights Project, June 1994, Vol. 6, No. 7) Two groups of women are particularly vulnerable to forced virginity testing: women suspected of prostitution, and women detained for political reasons. In June 1992 the head of the Security Department in Adana told the press that female political detainees, "militant girls", were being subjected to virginity exams to avoid future accusations of police abuse during interrogations.(Cumhuriyet, 24 June 1992). An attorney in Diyarbakr, capital city of south-eastern Turkey, provided HRW with documentation on several cases in which women detained as members of the Kurdish armed opposition group PKK were taken for forced virginity tests by state forensic medical doctors. In October 1993 ^?zg^?r G^?ndem, a newspaper which comprehensively covered events in southeastern Turkey and suffered state persecution as a result, reported that a translator working for a German delegation on a fact finding mission in the region had been detained and subjected to a virginity test. The threat of a virginity test is also used to intimidate. In August 1992 a 43-year-old Kurdish woman and her 19-year-old daughter were arrested while they were attending a funeral in Diyarbakir. They were tortured and interrogated about how they knew the man who had been buried. According to the daughter, "They constantly threatened to take me for virginity control and then to rape me when and if they found I wasn't a virgin". Forced virginity examinations appear to have been used as a means of punishment. An attorney representing prisoners in Nevsehir Prison, who also worked with the Istanbul Human Rights Association, told HRW that in April 1993 eight women prisoners were discovered attempting to dig a tunnel with male prisoners. "The prison director ordered the women to be taken for virginity control exams. The women resisted, but were examined nonetheless. The women called the press to protest their treatment. According to the attorney, despite calls for action from these women and the Human Rights Association, no investigation into the women's allegations has been initiated". The social stigma attached to being forcibly tested for virginity is so great that many women do not report such tests, making it difficult to estimate what numbers are involved. Forced gynaecological examinations designed to degrade and humiliate women have also been reported in China. Eighteen women members of the Jesus Family arrested in Duoyigou, Shandong province, in 1992, are among many women arrested during China's crack-down on independent religious groups in recent years. Several of these women are now serving sentences of up to three years' "re-education through labour", an administrative punishment which is imposed without charge or trial. The Jesus Family is a community of Chinese Christians in Shandong province which is not recognized by the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Protestant Churches of China. In mid-1992 public security officers raided the Duoyigou community of the Jesus Family, destroying their buildings and arresting 37 people. According to testimony received by Amnesty International, while in police custody women members of the Jesus Family were forced to have gynaecological examinations in the presence of the male warden of the county detention centre: "[He] said if we did not take off our underwear ourselves, he would order two male staff members to take off our underwear for us. Since most of us women were unmarried and young, we all felt furious and we cried with rage...the head of the county Public Security Bureau humiliated us further by saying that if any of us were found pregnant, we would be sent to the hospital and forced to have an abortion." -- Marsha Alley Future student Womens Studies Program UC Irvine, CA TBear@net999.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 02:32:28 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathleen Preston Subject: Self-esteem and race Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Thomas Gramstad asked for references to research that has found higher self- esteem in African American young women than in whites. Here's one: Freiberg, P. (1991). Self-esteem gender gap widens in adolescence. _APA Monitor_, 22(4), 29. Kathleen Preston Humboldt State University KathKnight@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 02:32:23 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathleen Preston Subject: Patai on Vision 2000 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Those who have read "Vision 2000" will be able to offer informed comments on Daphne Patai's essay in the _Chronicle of Higher Ed._ I haven't seen the original document, so my reaction is only to Patai's piece. Regardless of the merits or drawbacks of "Vision 2000," Patai's slanted language and "innocent" questions really push my buttons. "Relentless feminist propaganda has confused the evidence" is followed by a reference to interviews in a local newspaper, as if that clears up the confusion. There are answers aplenty in the research literature to such questions as "Are rape and sexual assault indeed routine occurences at universities?" and "Might women not be underrepresented in engineering...because of their own preferences?" but what's the point of marshalling citations, when Patai surely knows them? Her portrayal of women's studies programs as "ghettoized" may be accurate in some cases, and in some ways, but it's my impression that most programs have tried valiantly to build a presence in existing departments -- the extent to which this has failed is not due to decisions by women's studies faculties, but rather the resistance of existing departments to hire and support women and their perspectives. (The fact that most women's studies curricula are "programs" rather than departments suggests their status.) In any case, again, what's the point? I look forward to learning about "Vision 2000" from other, less biased, sources. Kathleen Preston Humboldt State University KathKnight@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 07:37:22 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Authorization/Approval to Post Messages (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: 4) "I'VE TRIED TO POST A MESSAGE TO THE LIST, BUT I RECEIVED A MESSAGE BACK SAYING THAT I'M NOT AUTHORIZED TO DO SO. I'M A SUBSCRIBER --WHY WAS I TOLD I'M NOT AUTHORIZED?" B) "WHEN I SENT A MESSAGE TO WMST-L, I WAS TOLD IT HAD BEEN FORWARDED TO THE LISTOWNER FOR APPROVAL. WHY?" Only people whom the LISTSERV software recognizes as subscribers can post messages on WMST-L. To subscribe, send the following message to LISTSERV@UMDD (Bitnet) or LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU (Internet): SUB WMST-L Your Name (e.g., SUB WMST-L Jane Smith). You will receive a response asking you to confirm your subscription request by replying to the response (use the "reply" feature; do not "forward" or start a new message). Your reply should not include anything but the expression OK (caps or lower case--it makes no difference). After you send back the reply, you should quickly receive a message welcoming you to WMST-L. If you've already subscribed to WMST-L and you run into problems, chances are that you subscribed under a different address than the one from which you sent your recent message--e.g., you subscribed under the address jdoe@mail.ucla.edu and now your institution has shortened your address to jdoe@ucla.edu . The LISTSERV software recognizes subscribers by their e-mail address. If your address undergoes a change, Listserv will no longer recognize you, even if you're still able to receive mail sent to your old address. If the LISTSERV software doesn't recognize your address, you will be unable to post messages, stop mail, unsubscribe, etc. If you can still send mail from the address under which you subscribed, please do so. If you can no longer do so, contact me PRIVATELY (not via a message to WMST-L). B) Postings from all new subscribers (and old subscribers with new subscriptions) are now automatically sent to the listowner for approval. This cuts down on inappropriate messages from newcomers who haven't had time to read the welcome letter. After a few weeks, most subscriptions are quietly readjusted so that messages are no longer subject to prior review. ****************** Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 06:40:14 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Naomi Standen Subject: Leadership/masculinity and feminity exercise Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'm new on the list and new to teaching Women's Studies, but I thought that list members might be interested in a recent experience, and hope that they might care to comment, particularly on how my results might be used in the classroom. I made use of the leadership/masculinity and femininity correlation exercise provided by another list member. I handed it out in my introductory class, and I've just been processing the results. I found them rather surprising, but mostly in what I'm so far reading as a positive way. The results were (the columns are going to come out horrible in e-mail, but I hope it still makes sense): Top 9 leadership characteristics (RH column) compared with 'masculine' traits (LH column) and 'feminine' traits (middle column) confident 11 2 16 organised 3 10 16 a planner 3 10 14 achiever 7 6 13 aggressive 11 2 13 dynamic 6 7 12 intuitive 13 11 powerful 10 3 11 strong 10 3 11 Bottom 9 leadership characteristics (RH column) compared with 'masculine' traits (LH column) and 'feminine' traits (middle column) passive 1 12 0 loving 13 1 nurturant 13 1 devious 8 5 2 manipulative 7 6 2 deferential 13 4 rule-oriented 9 4 5 caring 13 7 relationship-oriented 13 7 My rather cursory analysis suggests that: 4 of the top 9 are regarded as strongly masculine characteristics. 3 of the top 9 are regarded as strongly feminine characteristics, including two of the top 3. The other two are fairly evenly split. BUT 6 of the bottom 9 are regarded very strongly feminine characteristics, although a couple of these are also regarded as being definitely (though not overwhelmingly) characteristics of leaders. So my students regard leadership as requiring a mixture of feminine and masculine characteristics, although they also correlate many classically feminine characteristics with those not required of leaders. They seem to be saying that women can be leaders alongside men, but that a lot of women won't have leadership characteristics. I also wouldn't have expected to find organisation and planning to be so strongly regarded as feminine characteristics, and I wouldn't have expected to find intuition on the list of leadership qualities. But perhaps that's me. I have to say this is not what I was expecting, but it may also very encouraging. The class is mostly fairly traditional students - maybe 3-4 older women. There is also a handful of men in the class. A lot of them are taking the class mostly to fulfill a Gen Ed requirement, so they are hardly committed to the feminist cause. Are younger people these days becoming imbued with the ideas promoting the 'feminine' managerial style? Can we see some (small) signs of progress here? Comments welcomed, especially on how to present these results to the class (this afternoon). (For those interested, the other two results were: analytical 5 8 8 sensitive 1 12 8) -- Naomi Standen Department of History, Politics and Society University of Wisconsin-Superior nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 10:08:50 -0500 Reply-To: "lhutchins@tui.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: Loraine Hutchins Organization: The Union Institute Subject: queerfeministsacredsex Dear Folks, I know you don't all live in Wash., DC but I'm launching a great new seminar series (free to the public) on queer feminist sacred sexualities next week. It feels newsworthy enough to announce here. If you want to know more about it or my research which it's based on, I'd love to discuss it, on list or off. (I subscribe only to the digest and read it when I can.) I'm not attaching the flyer but it can be had by request. thanks Loraine Hutchins Program Associate, Center for Women, Union Institute and co-editor, Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (Alyson Publications, 1991, just reprinted w/this horrid red/black cover :-( ... oh well...) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 11:23:24 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Barbara Taylor Subject: Re: Leadership/masculinity and feminity exercise In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" My class just did the leadership/masculine/feminine exercise, also,and like Maomi's class saw a mixture of M/F traits as important in leaders. The top ten traits were: confident (13) organized (13) a planner (12) achiever (10) aggressive (9) dynamic (9) powerful (9) strong (9) intuitive (8) sensitive (8) They saw confident as primarily male, both organized and a planner as primarily female, achiever and aggressive as mainly male, dynamic about evenly split, powerful and strong primarily male, and sensitive as primarily female. Intuitive was also split - 6M, 9F. I have a significant number of business majors in the class, and wonder if they're not reflecting, in part, the new orthodoxy that business leaders have to be, to some degree, people-focused. At 06:40 AM 2/4/98 -0600, you wrote: >I'm new on the list and new to teaching Women's Studies, but I thought that >list members might be interested in a recent experience, and hope that they >might care to comment, particularly on how my results might be used in the >classroom. > >I made use of the leadership/masculinity and femininity correlation >exercise provided by another list member. I handed it out in my >introductory class, and I've just been processing the results. I found them >rather surprising, but mostly in what I'm so far reading as a positive way. > >The results were (the columns are going to come out horrible in e-mail, but >I hope it still makes sense): > >Top 9 leadership characteristics (RH column) compared with 'masculine' >traits (LH column) and 'feminine' traits (middle column) > >confident 11 2 16 >organised 3 10 16 >a planner 3 10 14 >achiever 7 6 13 >aggressive 11 2 13 >dynamic 6 7 12 >intuitive 13 11 >powerful 10 3 11 >strong 10 3 11 > > >Bottom 9 leadership characteristics (RH column) compared with 'masculine' >traits (LH column) and 'feminine' traits (middle column) > >passive 1 12 0 >loving 13 1 >nurturant 13 1 >devious 8 5 2 >manipulative 7 6 2 >deferential 13 4 >rule-oriented 9 4 5 >caring 13 7 >relationship-oriented 13 7 > > >My rather cursory analysis suggests that: > >4 of the top 9 are regarded as strongly masculine characteristics. >3 of the top 9 are regarded as strongly feminine characteristics, >including two of the top 3. >The other two are fairly evenly split. > >BUT 6 of the bottom 9 are regarded very strongly feminine characteristics, >although a couple of these are also regarded as being definitely (though >not overwhelmingly) characteristics of leaders. > >So my students regard leadership as requiring a mixture of feminine and >masculine characteristics, although they also correlate many classically >feminine characteristics with those not required of leaders. > >They seem to be saying that women can be leaders alongside men, but that a >lot of women won't have leadership characteristics. > >I also wouldn't have expected to find organisation and planning to be so >strongly regarded as feminine characteristics, and I wouldn't have expected >to find intuition on the list of leadership qualities. But perhaps that's >me. > >I have to say this is not what I was expecting, but it may also very >encouraging. The class is mostly fairly traditional students - maybe 3-4 >older women. There is also a handful of men in the class. A lot of them are >taking the class mostly to fulfill a Gen Ed requirement, so they are hardly >committed to the feminist cause. Are younger people these days becoming >imbued with the ideas promoting the 'feminine' managerial style? Can we see >some (small) signs of progress here? > >Comments welcomed, especially on how to present these results to the class >(this afternoon). > >(For those interested, the other two results were: >analytical 5 8 8 >sensitive 1 12 8) > > >-- >Naomi Standen >Department of History, Politics and Society >University of Wisconsin-Superior >nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu > Barbara G. Taylor bt24761@uafsysb.uark.edu Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources University of Arkansas, 222 Administration Building Fayetteville, AR 72701 (501) 575-2158 (501) 575-6971 FAX ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 12:02:31 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sibelan Forrester Subject: 1998 Heldt Prize Announcement Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 1998 Heldt Prizes: Request for Nominations THE ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN IN SLAVIC STUDIES (AWSS) will award the 1998 Heldt Prizes during its meeting at the AAASS National Convention in September. Nominations may be made in the following categories: 1. Best book in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian women's studies 2. Best book by a woman in any area of Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian studies 3. Best article in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian women's studies You may nominate material in more than one category, and you may nominate more than one item within a category. Books or articles published from May 31, 1997 to May 31, 1998 are eligible for consideration, unless submitted in previous Heldt Prize competitions. PLEASE NOTE that because AAASS will meet in September this year the deadline is considerably earlier than in the past: nominations are due no later than JUNE 1, 1998. To nominate a book or an article in any category, please send or request that the publisher send one copy to each member of the prize committee: Professor Jane Costlow Department of Foreign Languages Bates College Lewiston, ME 04240 Professor Susanne Fusso Dept. of Russian Language and Literature Wesleyan University Middletown, CT 06459 Professor Christine Ruane Department of History University of Tulsa Tulsa, OK 74104-3189 Professor Denise Youngblood Department of History University of Vermont Burlington, VT 05405 The Heldt Translation Prize Committee will award a separate prize for the Best Translation in Slavic/East European/Eurasian Women's Studies. To nominate an English-language or bilingual translation, scholarly or literary, published between May 31, 1997 and May 31, 1998, please send or ask the publisher to send one copy to each committee member, with one additional copy to Professor Ruane, Chair of the Prize Committee, no later than JUNE 1, 1998: Justyna Beinek Slavic Department Harvard University Barker Center 12 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Professor Rachel May 1659 Juliet Ave. St. Paul, MN 55105 Professor Christine Ruane Department of History University of Tulsa Tulsa, OK 74104-3189 If you have questions, please contact Professor Christine Ruane, Heldt Prize Committee Chair, at the above address or else by e-mail at . Further information about the prize competition and about AWSS is available on the organization's web page at . Thank you for your attention, and please pass this announcement on to anyone who might be interested! Sibelan Forrester, AWSS Vice President Modern Languages and Literatures Swarthmore College ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 08:57:49 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kimberly Springer Subject: women's activism course MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi, I was wondering if Jaime, who emailed the following, could drop me your email address. Your email address wasn't included with the message and I found the posting vaIuable. teach a similar course and I'm interested in sharing resources and syllabi. Jaime wrote: "In my class on the social history of women's activism, I ask students to research the story of a woman in their family and see how her life confronts or accommodates sexism (and/or racism, classism, etc.)." Kimberly Springer PhD Candidate Institute for Women's Studies Emory University kspring@emory.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 09:24:19 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathy Miriam Subject: audre lorde citations In-Reply-To: <199802041711.MAA29517@gabriel.cc.emory.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi, I'm looking for citations for two different lines from Audre Lorde. One is a line that has the phrase "house of difference" in it, something about the house of difference where we all dwell, from an essay. the other is a poem with the line (if i'm remembering it accurately), "as if all our wants were holy...". thanks in advance, Kathy Miriam kmiriam@cats.ucsc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 09:59:32 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ellen Cronan Rose Subject: Re: Patai on Vision 2000 In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subscribers to WMST-L may want to attend a session at this year's NWSA conference at which members of the New England council of Land-Grant University Women will discuss the ways they are using Vision 2000 to effect change in their institutions. The session has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday, June 14, from 9-10:15. For information about registering for the conference, contact Loretta Younger at the NWSA national office (nwsa@umail.umd.edu). Ellen Cronan Rose, Director, Women's Studies Program, UNLV 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5055 PHONE (702) 895-0838, FAX (702) 895-0850 ecrose@nevada.edu On Wed, 4 Feb 1998, Kathleen Preston wrote: > Those who have read "Vision 2000" will be able to offer informed comments on > Daphne Patai's essay in the _Chronicle of Higher Ed._ I haven't seen the > original document, so my reaction is only to Patai's piece. > > Regardless of the merits or drawbacks of "Vision 2000," Patai's slanted > language and "innocent" questions really push my buttons. "Relentless > feminist propaganda has confused the evidence" is followed by a reference to > interviews in a local newspaper, as if that clears up the confusion. There > are answers aplenty in the research literature to such questions as "Are rape > and sexual assault indeed routine occurences at universities?" and "Might > women not be underrepresented in engineering...because of their own > preferences?" but what's the point of marshalling citations, when Patai surely > knows them? > > Her portrayal of women's studies programs as "ghettoized" may be accurate in > some cases, and in some ways, but it's my impression that most programs have > tried valiantly to build a presence in existing departments -- the extent to > which this has failed is not due to decisions by women's studies faculties, > but rather the resistance of existing departments to hire and support women > and their perspectives. (The fact that most women's studies curricula are > "programs" rather than departments suggests their status.) In any case, > again, what's the point? > > I look forward to learning about "Vision 2000" from other, less biased, > sources. > > Kathleen Preston > Humboldt State University > KathKnight@aol.com > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 14:21:14 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Martha Charlene Ball Subject: Re: audre lorde citations In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Kathy, The line "It was a while before we came to realize that our place was the very house of difference rather than the security of any one particular difference" comes from Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Crossing, 1994). The other quote sounds like the refrain from a poem entitled "Between Ourselves": "I do not believe / our wants/ have made all our lies / holy" (The Black Unicorn, Norton, 1995). Charlene On Wed, 4 Feb 1998, Kathy Miriam wrote: > Hi, > I'm looking for citations for two different lines from Audre Lorde. One > is a line that has the phrase "house of difference" in it, something > about the house of difference where we all dwell, from an essay. the > other is a poem with the line (if i'm remembering it accurately), "as if > all our wants were holy...". > > thanks in advance, > > Kathy Miriam > kmiriam@cats.ucsc.edu > M. Charlene Ball, Administrative Coordinator Women's Studies Institute Georgia State University Atlanta, Georgia 404/651-4633 wsimcb@panther.gsu.edu http://www.gsu.edu/womenpower I dwell in Possibility -- A fairer House than Prose -- (Emily Dickinson) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 16:19:17 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jean Chambers Subject: Re: virginity testing In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII See "The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights" a book published by the Human Rights Watch organization, copyright August 1995. One address for the organization is 485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6104 (as listed in the flyleaf of the book). There is a whole subchapter entitled "Forced Virginity Exams in Turkey," which runs 23 pages. On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Tammie Davis wrote: > I was reading an article in the paper about virginity testing in Turkey. > Several girls tried to kill themselves rather than go through with the > testing. One girl succeeded in killing herself and her father had the test > performed on her dead body. Has anyone heard of this before? Is there any > literature on this? What actually is performed to test for virginity? Any > information would be appreciated. thank you > tammie > justicetoo@aol.com > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 19:08:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Laura Grindstaff Subject: pls forward Comments: To: dkurz@sas.upenn.edu, Frances Montell Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >X-Sender: egalewski@pobox.asc.upenn.edu >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 18:51:07 -0500 >To: lgrindstaff@POBOX.ASC.UPENN.EDU >From: Liz Galewski >Subject: pls forward > >>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 13:13:13 -0700 >>To: Recipient List Suppressed:; >>From: "Women, Gender, & Sexuality" >>Subject: pls forward >> >>Could you please circulate this announcement as widely as you can. >> >>CONFERENCE >> >>The Seventh Annual Boundaries in Question Conference will be held this year >on Friday and Saturday, March 6th and 7th in the Lipman Room in Barrows Hall >at the UC Berkeley Campus. >> >>The Boundaries in Question Conference is a yearly symposium spotlighting >graduate student work in feminist research, theory, and practice. This >year's theme, Designing Women, suggests that women are simultaneously >constructed by and reconstructing their spaces, places, images and >identities. The goal of this conference is to create an international >community of students which fosters dialogue across disciplines and >professional schools. >> >>This year's keynote speaker will be Professor Barbara Christian of >African-American Studies. >> >>Friday 9:00 am to 5:30 pm (Reception to follow) >>Saturday 9:00 am to 5:30 pm >> >>Panels will include: >> >>Challenging Hegemonic Discourse Of Sexuality >>Contemporary Female Icons >>The Commodification Of Gender >>Bodies, Sexuality, And Fashion >>State Control of Sexuality >>Gender, Sexuality, And Immigration >>Engendering Social Movements >>The Construction Of Ethnicities In Literature >>Gender And Work >>Identities In The African Diaspora >>Gender In International Contexts >>Painters And Poets >>Youth Cultures >>Reproduction >>Women In Victorian Times >>Technology And Representation >>Gender And The Visual Arts >> >> >>Please pass this message on to as many people as you can. Thank you! >> >> > Laura Grindstaff Assistant Professor Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania 3620 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA. 19104-6220 (215) 898-7029; FAX (215) 898-2024 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 04:28:19 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: Leadership/masculinity and feminity exercise In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.16.19980204102217.4ccf690c@uafsysb.uark.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, I originally forwarded that exercise to the list, though someone else came up with it as I noted. I got very nearly the same results. Though not quite as "feminine" in terms of leadership and I think this is because I really played it up and made the exercise appear as if it were a survey for an entirely different purpose, that it was somehow not course related. As for intuition, I don't think they know what it means exactly. Though, in some sense I can see where popular discourses about management would suggest that leadership is somehow these mysterious capacity that is somehow intuitive. As for see organization and planning, I can see why they'd think that women are better at those things than men given the era they've grown up in. Many of the mothers probably did have to be organized, planners--I know I do in order to balance my full plate! Kelley Crouse ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 06:50:00 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: teaching 'class'? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" After reading student journals and dealing with gender and class yesterday I'm wondering how to go about teaching this topic to very privileged students. I thought that I'd approached it fairly well using the best of what limited accessible material there is out there--and there is a dearth of such material. Their response--and I expected this--was to feel guilty or ashamed of having class privilege. I was hoping to avoid this for this is not how I'd like to see them respond. I'm trying to get them to see class as a social structural issue, but they seem unable to move beyond class as an identity/cultural issue. That is, for them, it's all about changing attitudes and then class oppression will go away. And when they do start to think about how this isn't the real problem, they start to feel guilty and think to themselves: "If I deal with class oppression/privilige then I'll have to give up my nice clothes, my car, my education" This is not what I want them to think of course. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? I should add that I am from a working class background and largely still am living with and among working class people. And, as an adjunct, I continue to make a working class wage. I don't want to personalize the whole topic though, since that seems to put me in the position of being a shining example of class mobility. And, of course, once I 'come out' they feel personally threatened--especially since many went on yesterday about how they felt that, as middle and upper middle class people, they were oppressed by the stereotypes others held of them as "rich bitches" and "snobs" etc. Thanks, Kelley ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 09:13:17 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Too much clutter? Try the edited digest (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: 6) "DOES WMST-L EXIST IN A DIGEST FORMAT?" Yes. If you choose the edited digest option, each day you will receive anywhere from one to five files containing most of the WMST-L messages of the past day (messages that should not have been sent to the list to begin with are omitted). Related messages will usually be put in the same file, and each file will begin with a table of contents. The digest reduces both mail clutter and, usually, mail volume. (Please note that this is NOT the huge, unselective bundle of messages that many listserv digest features provide. Do NOT use their digest command.) If you would like to receive the edited digest rather than individual mail messages, you should first subscribe to WMST-L (if you don't already have a subscription) by sending the message SUBSCRIBE WMST-L Your Name to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU. You will be asked to confirm your subscription request. Once you've done that and have received the list's welcome letter, you should send the following 2-line e-mail message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU: AFD ADD WMST-L PACKAGE SET WMST-L NOMAIL ACK Note: If your mail system also has a Bitnet connection, the digest may arrive as a file rather than as an e-mail message. If you don't know how to receive a file, see section 11 of the WMST-L User's Guide or ask the computer support people at your institution. If you'd prefer to receive the digest(s) inside mail message(s), alter the abovementioned AFD ADD statement to read as follows: AFD ADD WMST-L PACKAGE F=MAIL . However, even if you receive the digest(s) as mail messages, YOU CANNOT REPLY AUTOMATICALLY! If you wish to reply to a message in the digest, you must start a new message and address it either to WMST-L or to the individual. Also, LISTSERV may ask you to set up an AFD password. You're best off not doing so. If at some point you decide you want to stop the digest and switch back to receiving individual messages, send the following two-line message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU: AFD DEL WMST-L PACKAGE WMST-L [on line 1] and SET WMST-L MAIL NOACK [on line 2]. To unsubscribe and stop the digest, put AFD DEL WMST-L PACKAGE WMST-L on line 1 and UNSUB WMST-L on line 2. ************************ Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 10:24:00 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marc Sacks Subject: Source of quotation Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me the source of the quotation, "We must invent a history adequate to our needs." I once saw it on a feminist poster, but on another occasion heard it attributed to W.E.B. DuBois referring to black people. Does anyone on this list know where this came from, and could you possibly describe the context of the original? Thanks very much. Marc Sacks msacks@world.std.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 14:44:53 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Florence Howe Subject: Re: teaching 'class'? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Dear Kelley: I don't have any simple answers, but there was a wonderful session at MLA this past December, chaired by Janet Zandy, who is now the editor of WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY. She has edited two books for Rutgers on the subject: CALLING HOME and LIBERATING MEMORY. And she edited an edition of WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY aimed at those with questions about how to teach about class. It's the Spring/Summer 1995 issue, still available from The Feminist Press (phone order: 212-650-8966; fax: 540-8893). Also, three young people are editing a new issue of WSQ on working class studies which will be out in May 1998. What I did when I taught was to ask people to go back a generation or two and consider those lives; also, from the Freedom School movement, to think about the questions: what do I have in my life that I like very much and would never part with; and what do I have in my life that I don't like and would like to see gone. Certainly, guilt is useless in teaching situations as it is in real life, but some of us are taught that from our early childhood, even if we were working class!! Cheers, Florence Howe (florench@aol.com) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 15:43:54 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Barbara Peters Organization: Southampton College of L.I.U. Subject: Re: teaching 'class'? In-Reply-To: <4948f3ca.34da16b7@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hello, I do want to point out that a former discussion about class and academics which took place about 6 years ago resulted in the forming of an e-mail discussion group for those of us from working-class issues. We will be having our thrid face-to-face working-class acadmeics conference in June in Ohio. To subscribe send this message: subscribe working-class-list [your name without the brackets] to: majordomo@list.acs.uwosh.edu Join us. We often discuss these exact kinds of issues. Peace, Barbara "O wad some power the giftie gie us- to see oursels as others see us!" . . . Robert Burns TO A LOUSE Barbara J. Peters, Assistant Professor Social Sciences Division Long Island University - Southampton 239 Montauk Highway Southampton, NY 11968 (516) 287-8236 FAX: (516) 287-8203 e-mail bpeters@southampton.liunet.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:02:12 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: teaching 'class'? Comments: To: Florence Howe In-Reply-To: <4948f3ca.34da16b7@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII "Going back a generation or two" when teaching seems like a very good idea, Florence Howe. It amazes me when people look at the dates an article or book was written or published to discover its contents, and if it was dated in 70s they say it is "dated." They sure must miss a hell of a lot of good material using dates as a criterion of worth. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:29:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: teaching 'class'? In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I agree with Ruby. Whatever happened to studying the feminist classics? Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu On Thu, 5 Feb 1998, Ruby Rohrlich wrote: > "Going back a generation or two" when teaching seems like a very good > idea, Florence Howe. It amazes me when people look at the dates an > article or book was written or published to discover its contents, and if > it was dated in 70s they say it is "dated." They sure must miss a hell > of a lot of good material using dates as a criterion of worth. Ruby > Rohrlich > rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 19:04:01 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: vision 2000 and critics Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I appreciate the posting of the entire Vision 2000 document and Leo's and Patai's criticisms. Vision 2000 seems to me an academic document in the liberal tradition of, to quote Patai, "tolerance and intellectual openness." It lays out problems and proposes solutions. The proposals are consistent with principles and practices in universities and other agencies. Daphne's response to Vision, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education 1/23/98, segues from rejection of it to a general attack on Women's Studies. This is an open letter to Daphne. Daphne, my reply to your article comes in the spirit of the intellectual openness you apparently prize. In that spirit, I believe you ought to respond. I welcome others who wish to join the discussion, whatever their perspective. I'll start with your attack on WS. You say classes are conducted as therapy sessions. What do you mean by 'therapy'? Your definiition need not be technical, in terms I would expect from one of my clinical colleagues in psychology. But therapy has specific meanings. Which do you have in mind? I should tell you that in the more than a decade of direct involvement in WS, visiting classes, discussion with WS students and faculty, reading research and so on, I have never encountered anything like a 'therapy' class. You also claim WS faculty champion qualitative over quantitative research methods. But those methodologies (which you probably meant, rather than the narrower term, 'methods') have been championed for nearly 100 years, long before WS was conceptualized, for a variety of reasons. Why do you object to anyone deeming those methodologies more congenial to women than quantitative? If you do, I think you have an intellectual obligation to explain either why the methodologies are not as represented in Visions. Actually, in literature on research published by WS faculty, and in feminists' research reports themselves both qualitative and quantitative approaches are found. Your attack on WS for 'policing insensitive language' should also be explained. What constitutes 'policing'? Pointing out language that deprecates people and suggesting alternatives? Surely you must be aware that efforts in this direction are widespread. There have been objections to referring to a woman as a 'cunt' as there have been objections to calling African Americans 'coons', Italians 'wops', Jews 'kikes' or using the phrase 'Jew you down' and other putdowns of people's identity. People now have 'Downs syndrome' instead of being 'Mongolian idiots'. Textbooks no longer refer to 'yellow hordes' coming to the US when they discuss immigration, etc. You begin your article warning New England universities of an impending 'coup' and follow it up with your opinion that Vision is a 'stunningly imperialist move to put in place a questionable feminist agenda'. But nowhere in Visions is there anything like takeover. Where evaluations are proposed, they are obviously to be done by the same sorts of people who usually do them; e.g., peer review and supervisors are mentioned. At one point, Visions does suggest that Women's Centers be consulted in senior institutional leaders' efforts to 'encourage, support and maintain new roles for women'. Hardly a coup. Reliance on consultations with people who have special expertise in a field are common all over. Why is this Vision recommendation a problem for you? But your larger objection is to the establishment of Women's Centers - and you give no reasons. Why do you oppose them? On consultation, I was disappointed that Visions didn't ask for Women's Studies faculty to be involved in the proposed dept. seminars on gender inclusion. Scholars with expertise in a topic should be made available to colleagues. You may be interested to know that when I was a Fulbright Women's Studies Scholar in India in 1994-95, in addition to lectures in other sites, I was invited to discuss gender in seminars for college teachers. Although there is substantial research on women in India, teaching about gender is newer than in the US; a specialist was available and was called in. Including gender in courses means, as a practical matter, updating most courses. In discussions with colleagues, reading extensively, tho more in social sciences than the physical and in the humanities, and more specifically in reviewing course and program proposals as a member of Brooklyn College's graduate curriculum committe, I have been stunned to find that for the most part women are excluded, marginalized or considered in stereotypical ways. The gendering of social structures and perception of gender in men who hold particular positions are not addressed. That's out of date. On sexual harassment, there is ample research to warrant not only clear expression of administrators that it will not be tolerated, but also training sessions for all members in a university community. The federal EEOC recommends clear pointers to intolerance. In CUNY alone I found the extent of sexual harassment so prevalent and the damage done so severe, I organized a campaign to get a stronger policy. (We got some of what we wanted). I don't know how routine training sessions are in corporations, but they seem to be fairly common. A reason, of course, is that they don't want to be sued. And the Supreme Court, I believe, will this year follow up its decision of a few years ago that a complainant in a school may claim monetary damages in a case that tests just who may be sued. I wish Visions had pointed out the conjunction of sexual harassment with students' race/ethnic minority status, as the New York State Task Force does. I also wish Visions had included a president's report on the status of women in each university to the university community, not only to boards and state legislatures. I think students, staff, faculty and administrators are entitled to know what's going on their campuses. Your general claim that women are doing fine in academia is simply wrong. Your evidence is not credible. You make glossy statements and omit problems, some of which I alluded to above. Data on faculty ranks analyzed by sex show clearly that the higher the rank the maler and paler the faculty. In CUNY the data led the Women's Coalition to sue; we collected backup data and we won. As to your suggestion that women may not be in engineering because of preferences. That's a tired response. The same sort of thing was said about the scarcity or absence of women in institutions of higher education. The picture began to change, particularly in professional and graduate schools, when the federal govt. in 1972's Title IX said it would withhold funds if they were found to discriminate on the basis of sex. No, sorry to say, some people don't 'do the right thing', as you put it, unless they must. Visions is an excellent document for other to build from. Enough. This has been a very long message. beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 12:59:53 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Naomi Standen Subject: gender in language Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Chinese grammar has no concept of gendering, whether for people or objects. Relatively recently, a written form of the word for s/he/it was devised so you could indicate the sex of a person, but this is not apparent in the spoken language. This written form, it could be argued, makes women more visible as women, but the ideograph also contains some subtle implications that, it could also be argued, simply reinforce the idea of woman as not-man: of men as human beings and women as something 'other'. And yes, Chinese society is just as sexist as the next .... -- Naomi Standen Department of History, Politics and Society University of Wisconsin-Superior nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 17:53:17 PST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Johanna Brenner Organization: Portland State University Subject: help for WS program MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I mailed this message some weeks ago and have heard no response. Perhaps those of you in other programs assumed that others would reply....or you're just swamped. I would appreciate even a short message giving the bare bones of how your WS Program involves tenured (or tenure-track) faculty in teaching core courses and on committees/governance for the program. Our WS program is searching for ways to more fully involve faculty with tenured positions in other departments in WS program governance and in teaching "core" WS courses (courses that are not cross-listed with other departments). We'd appreciate ideas from other WS programs. Some possibilities we are considering: a rotating "visiting scholar" position for one year or part of a year that would be filled by faculty from other programs; establishing a "core" faculty group who would be permanently assigned one course per year in WS and compensating their departments for their time. Additionally how, if at all, do faculty get "credit" for participating in committees for WS programs if they are members of other units? Does it help to create a "standing committee" that the Dean appoints? How do you get cooperation from Dept. Chairs to recognize this service in P&T decisions? Johanna Brenner, Coordinator WS Program at Portland State University brennerj@pdx.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 22:16:18 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna M. Hughes" Subject: Speaker on women and substance abuse Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The Women's Studies Program at the University of Rhode Island would like to invite someone to speak on women and substance abuse for their annual Women and Health lecture. I would appreciate suggestions for possible speakers. Thank you. Please reply privately to: Donna Hughes dhughes@uriacc.uri.edu or Mary Ellen Reilly mereilly@uriacc.uri.edu Thanks, Donna M. Hughes Carlson Chair, Women's Studies University of Rhode Island dhughes@uriacc.uri.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 14:40:05 +1100 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Gabrielle Meagher Subject: "stages" of (feminist) research MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear all, I am wondering if an analysis of the evolution of feminist research exists that would help me to think through a question in my current research on waged domestic labour. It seems to me that a lot of the first writings on the subject were oriented towards 'giving voice' to 'marginalised' women - from African-american, Japanese-american and West-Indian women, as well as Chicanas. This orientation shapes the methods and theoretical arguments of in these writings in particular ways (interviewing only in selected racial-ethnic groups, focussing on the negative cases and so on, to highlight both the oppression and resourcefulness of these women). However, it seems to me that a 'broader' analysis is now necessary, at the simplest level, to, say, look at both good and bad experiences/modes of organisation, comparing the experiences of subordinated racial-ethnic groups with those (and they do exist) from the dominant ethnic group (whites) working in the occupation and so on, to look for clues and strategies as to how this occupation as a whole 'works' in the social division of labour. (Leslie Salzinger's work does this to some extent). So 'giving voice' as an agenda needs to be supplemented with a broader (in this case) comparative analysis, not to remove the political strategy of bringing injustice to light and supporting strategies for change, but to further them in a new way. I hope this is clear (!?), but it seems like a history-of-feminist- theorising question to me. Best wishes, Gabrielle Meagher email gabriell@econ.usyd.edu.au Department of Economics, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 22:37:36 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Lynn Westbrook Subject: Please Help: Short Survey MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Dear WMST-L participant, Please take a few moments to consider this message. Joan Korenman has graciously allowed me to post this message to you in the spirit of WMST-L's support for scholarship, research, and teaching in Women's Studies (WS). The American Library Association has funded the first national research effort to focus on the information needs of WS faculty. Academic librarians across the country have created services and built collections for people in this field since the mid-1970s. This research project is designed to support those librarians in their effort to better serve scholars in Women's Studies. So, I'm asking you to contact me and volunteer to take a twenty-minute survey via email. Your participation is, of course, completely voluntary and your information will be kept completely confidential at all times. You must, however, understand that the nature of email technology does not allow you to respond anonymously. Please be assured that your name, institutional affiliation, and any other identifying information will be kept completely confidential. As a small gesture of appreciation, I will be happy to send you information on any of the resources and services mentioned in this survey, including the grant databases. A summary of the results is also yours for the asking. Since this study centers on the work of faculty and librarians, if you are not an academic librarian or a faculty member in a tenure-track position, then please disregard this posting. If you are a tenure-track faculty member or a librarian, then please reply to me directly at ws-survey@twu.edu. (Do NOT reply to the list or contact Joan.) If you have any questions, please let me know. You can reach me at (940) 898-2609 or by email at l_westbrook@twu.edu. I'll be happy to discuss any aspect of the work with you. I hope you'll find the time to contribute to this study. Sincerely yours, Lynn Westbrook, Assistant Professor School of Library and Information Studies Texas Woman's University P. O. Box 425438 Denton, TX 76204-3438 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 19:12:51 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katsue Akiba Reynolds Organization: Josai International University Subject: Re: gender in language MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Naomi Standen wrote: > > Chinese grammar has no concept of gendering, whether for people or objects. > Relatively recently, a written form of the word for s/he/it was devised so > you could indicate the sex of a person, but this is not apparent in the > spoken language. > > This written form, it could be argued, makes women more visible as women, > but the ideograph also contains some subtle implications that, it could > also be argued, simply reinforce the idea of woman as not-man: of men as > human beings and women as something 'other'. > > And yes, Chinese society is just as sexist as the next .... > > -- > Naomi Standen > Department of History, Politics and Society > University of Wisconsin-Superior > nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu I AGREE WITH YOU ABOUT CHINESE SOCIETY BEING SEXIST. HOWEVER, THERE ARE A COUPLE POINTS THAT I WOULD LIKE TO MENTION. ACCORDING TO A CHINESE TEACHER, ONE OF MY COLLEAGUES, THE GENDER DISTINCTION IN THE THIRD PERSON PRONOUNS IN THE WRITING IS NOT A RECENT INVENTION, BUT IT HAS EXISTED FOR A LONG TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. THE CHINESE CHARACTERS REFLECT AN EXTREMELY SEXIST IDEOLOGY, PERHAPS PREVALENT AT THE ANCIENT TIME WHEN THE CHARACTERS WERE FORMED. THERE ARE SEVERAL HUNDREDS OF CHARACTERS WITH THE RADICAL MEANING 'FEMALE' , ALMOST EVERY ONE OF THEM REPRESENTING A NEGATIVE MEANING OR INDICATING THE LOWER STATUS OF WOMEN IN A SEXUALLY DIVIDED PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY. INCIDENTALLY, SEVERAL RESEARCHERS HAVE RECENTLY PRESENTED THE WOMEN'S CHARACTERS--CHINESE CHARACTERS INVENTED BY WOMEN FOR THE USE OF WOMEN WHEN WOMEN WERE NOT ALLOWED TO WRITE THE REGULAR (FOR-MALE USE) CHINESE CHARACTERS--A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT BUT BASICALLY SIMILAR SITUATION WAS OBSERVED IN JAPAN, TOO, IN THE BEGINNING OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JAPANESE WRITING: WOMEN DID NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE STANDARD WRITING SYSTEM. I TEND TO THINK THAT THE GENDER DISTINCTION THAT EXISTED IN THE CHINESE WRITING MAY BE GRADUALLY DISAPPEARING AS THE PATRIARCHY BECOME LESS SALIENT. THE GENDER DISTINCTION IN THE SECOND PERSON THAT USED TO BE MADE IN THE WRITING, FOR INSTANCE, IS NOW OBSOLETE (ACCORDING TO THE CHINESE INSTRUCTOR MENTIONED ABOVE). I HAVE SOME CHINESE GRADUATE STUDENTS IN MY SOCIOLINGUUISTICS SEMINAR THIS YEAR AND WE DISCUSSED SOME SUBTLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WOMEN'S AND MEN'S TALK. THERE SEEM TO BE SOME INTERESTING DIFFERENCES IF WE CAREFULLY EXAMINE VARIOUS AREAS OF LANGUAGE. YES, CHINESE DOES HAVE SOME SEXIST ELEMENTS. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 09:04:43 +0200 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathryn Kendall Subject: virginity testing I write from South Africa, where I am a professor of performance studies at the University of Natal, in the third year of an extensive research project on the movement among Zulu women to bring back the Zulu goddess. I am a white, formerly working-class citizen of the USA who came to southern Africa in 1992 and to South Africa in 1995. Part of the agenda advocated by Zulu women pioneering this movement is virginity testing, which the Zulu women believe is a way to celebrate girls' lives and to confirm to their communities that they are virgins. As a white outsider I perceive parts of this procedure as problematic, particularly in the cases of girls who have been raped. This is especially important because South Africa is the rape capitol of the world; i.e. among those countries who keep records of reported rapes, it is the country with the most frequent incidences per capita of reported rape. I am studying and writing about virginity testing right now, and I hope an article will appear in an anthology of articles about international girls' culture edited by Sherrie Inness. What is most interesting to me is that the movement is led by women; the checking of virgins is done by women; the checking is a VISUAL check of the opening of the girls' vaginas (if the opening is small and tight it is assumed she is a virgin) and does not include internal examination; and I am assured by all who will discuss it with me that the checking is voluntary and that only those girls who know they are virgins and want that fact to be celebrated do volunteer. In August of 1997, in a small Zulu town where the festival to the goddess was mounted, several thousand Zulu girls volunteered to be checked, were celebrated and cheered and clapped and danced for, and experienced pride in their youth, their femaleness, and their virginity. Some of the elder women leading the movement for virginity testing say that this could give the girls more clout in saying no to boys when they want to, that it could reduce teenage pregnancy, AIDS, and STDs. So my outsider's observation is, at the moment, that virginity testing can be empowering for some girls in some circumstances. There is no doubt that it is desired and advocated by some Zulu women. I remain troubled by the fact that most rural Zulu girls do not experience themselves as powerful enough to say no when they want to; that many are raped by family members; and that should a girl THINK she would pass the test and be found to have an 'open' or 'loose' vagina, she would be terribly embarrassed, perhaps deeply scarred by the experience. The fact is that very few of those 'tested' do fail, but a few do, and none of those will talk with me or with the Zulu women researchers working with me. I believe what I am seeing is very different from what happens in Turkey and welcome contextual descriptions and information about virginity testing in other places in the world. Kendall kendall@drama.unp.ac.za ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 08:11:56 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: what to do if WMST-L mail stops (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: 7) "WHAT SHOULD I DO IF MAIL FROM WMST-L SUDDENLY STOPS?" Note: if you've arranged to receive WMST-L in edited digest form, skip to section C below. Otherwise, read on. A) If you receive a message from LISTSERV informing you that your WMST-L options have been set to NOMAIL, that means that mail from the list was repeatedly returned as undeliverable, probably because of a mail problem on your system. The fact that LISTSERV's notification reached you indicates that the problem was probably short-lived and is now resolved. You can set yourself back to MAIL by sending the message SET WMST-L MAIL to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU (or LISTSERV@UMDD for the few people who are still subscribed under a Bitnet address). B) If you haven't received a notification, but you also haven't received WMST-L mail for a day, send the following two-word message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU (or LISTSERV@UMDD if you are still subscribed under a Bitnet address): QUERY WMST-L If your message is successful, you should get back a message from LISTSERV telling you how your "options" are set. The key part will look something like this: > > query wmst-l > Subscription options for Jane Doe , list WMST-L: > > MAIL You are sent individual postings as they are received > FULLHDR Full (normal) mail headers (formerly "FULLBSMTP") > REPRO You receive a copy of your own postings > NOACK No acknowledgement of successfully processed postings Your options may vary; the important part is the first option, MAIL or NOMAIL. If the reply from LISTSERV says MAIL, contact your computer support staff to find out whether they're aware of a mail problem. If they don't know of any problem, contact me privately at KORENMAN@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU If the reply from LISTSERV says NOMAIL, that means your subscription has been set to NOMAIL. The most likely explanation for its being set to NOMAIL is that mail started to bounce and so I or my assistant set your subscription to NOMAIL but the notification from LISTSERV bounced, too. In that case, contact your system's computer support staff to find out whether the problem has been solved. If it has, you can set yourself back to MAIL (see section A above). If they aren't aware of a problem, your best bet is to contact me privately. Contact me also if the response from Listserv says you don't have a subscription: your address may have changed. If you have questions or encounter problems, please write to me privately at KORENMAN@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU . However, PLEASE TRY THE ABOVE STEPS FIRST!! Under NO circumstances should you send messages about your subscription to WMST-L. C) If you have arranged to get the WMST-L edited digest and you suddenly stop receiving copies, first check with the computer support staff at your institution to find out whether they are aware of any problems. If they're not, and if you're receiving other mail but not the digest, please write to Ira Gold at IGOLD@UMDD.UMD.EDU . In your message, tell him whether you receive your digests as files or as e-mail, and try to pinpoint as precisely as possible when you stopped receiving the digests. DO NOT SEND MAIL TO IRA GOLD UNLESS IT SPECIFICALLY CONCERNS A DIGEST PROBLEM, AND DO NOT WRITE TO HIM UNTIL YOU'VE DISCUSSED THE MATTER WITH THE COMPUTER SUPPORT PEOPLE AT YOUR INSTITUTION! Messages about other problems should be sent to KORENMAN@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU . *************************************************** Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 09:22:18 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary L Goldschmidt Subject: Re: Self-esteem and body image MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Thomas Gramstad wrote: > Some time ago I read about a group that had done research on women's > self-esteem, body type and ethnic background. . . . > > So I have two questions: Does anyone have a reference to this > particular research (online or journal/book references)? > And does anyone have references to other, similar research? > (And if so, do they reinforce or contradict the conclusions of the > above group?) One article that you may find helpful appeared in _Psychology of Women Quarterly_ 21 (1997): 173-206, "Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women's lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks." It looks at how sexual objectification in our culture impacts women's self-concept & body image, and how this in turn affects a variety of mental health variables (eating disorders, depression, etc.). The authors, Barbara Frederickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts attempt to look at the differential effects of objectification on women from different ethnic and racial groups. From what I remember, their findings and review of the literature in the field are congruent with the research you cite above. Another source of information which you may want to consult, and which other list members may be interested to know about, is the work of Ellen Fisher Turk, a photographer from New York who uses photography and journal writing to help women with extremely negative body images "re-see" themselves. She generally works with women who have suffered from some form of emotional or sexual abuse. She came to our campus to do a presentation, which included a slide show and tapes of journal excerpts. She has worked with women from various ethnic and racial groups, and therefore her work, although only anecdotal, might provide an additional perspective. Turk can be reached at 212/956-2040, or at Suite 807, 333 W. 57th Street, NY, NY 10019. Mary Goldschmidt, Ph.D. Director, The Women's Center Ramapo College of New Jersey 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, NJ 07430-1680 201/529-7462 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 10:57:33 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Monteverde Institute Subject: FACULTY SEMINAR IN COSTA RICA ON WOMEN'S STUDIES Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable ************* PLEASE SHARE WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES *********** GENDER AND WOMEN'S STUDIES FACULTY WORKSHOP IN COSTA RICA WOMEN IN COSTA RICA: Perspectives on Women's Cultural, Social, Institutional, and Organizational Reality in a Central American Society Instituto Monteverde (IMV) Monteverde, Costa Rica Seminar Dates: June 9-19, 1998, a total of 11 days Application Deadline: April 24, 1998 RATIONALE Women's lives take place within the context of their respective societies. Though international trends and tendencies will influence these societies, diverse cultures set different limits and open different spaces for participation. Thus, internationally agreed- upon principles with regard to women will see a variety of interpretations and applications. Moreover, historic experiences shape societies' responses to today's challenges. To open communications with women in a given society, to understand the framework within which they function, to appreciate the efforts they make to solve their problems and offer their contributions, in short to assess women's role in each society, we need to take a careful look at the context that surrounds their lives. The Gender/Women's Studies Faculty Workshop will stimulate university initiatives toward internationalizing curricula. The workshop will offer faculty and administrators the opportunity to learn about issues that affect world events, while they will share insights and experiences with educational and professional communities overseas. Thus they will gain a new view of their own discipline or mission within a broader international frame. The Gender/Women's Studies Faculty Workshop in Costa Rica will concentrate on the cultural, social, institutional, and organizational framework for women in Costa Rican society, a framework they are working to reshape, so as to achieve true equality and better opportunities. The diverse aspects of women's daily lives depend on Costa Rica's cultural values, social codes of behavior, as well as on local, regional, national, and international governmental or non-governmental institutions and organizations. During nine days of presentations, field site visits, and meetings with women leaders of different entities, in the form of roundtables, panel and group discussions, participants will gain insight into Costa Rican women's conditions and share their experiences. Interaction at the meetings and at evening receptions allow for contact between participants and guest speakers. During their stay in the rural Santa Elena-Monteverde region, workshop participants will visit with women in the towns of La Cruz, San Luis, Santa Elena, and Monteverde, observing rural women's role in environmental protection and sustainable development and their efforts to develop economic activities and community political participation. In addition, participants will have a chance to enjoy the spectacular natural environment of the region. HOST INSTITUTION The host institution for this seminar is the Instituto Monteverde (IMV), founded in 1986 to harmonize the educational and cultural needs of foreign students and local residents. Based in Monteverde (about 35 km north of the Pan-American Highway in Northwestern Costa Rica and 160 km from the capital city, San Jos=E9), the Institute works with the University of California Education Abroad Program, The Evergreen State College, SUNY Buffalo, the University of Maryland, the Costa Rican Universidad Nacional Aut=F3noma (UNA), the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), and the European Association for International Education (EAIE). It provides university-accredited semester courses in tropical biology, agro-ecology, independent field study and fieldwork methodology, Spanish and Costa Rican culture, architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and gender/women's studies. The Institute also offers "short" courses for high schools, college and university students, university professors, and other specialty groups, as well as the Gender/Women's Studies Faculty Workshop. Short course programs focus on the natural history, conservation ethic, and biodiversity of the tropics, selected issues in sustainable development, Costa Rican culture and Spanish, and gender/women's studies. In addition to its educational activities, the Institute administers community-based programs. These include: the Vida =46amiliar (Family Life) Program, which focuses on family issues such as the prevention of domestic violence, literacy, technical training and assistance, and youth identity; the Monteverde Ceramics Center, which operates in cooperation with the women's crafts cooperative CASEM; a community Volunteer Center; and the co-organization of the Monteverde Music Festival and partnership with the Monteverde Music Program, which provides music instruction and instruments for schools in the Monteverde area. =46ACULTY LEADER The workshop will be directed by Ilse Abshagen Leitinger, Ph.D., a comparative sociologist, coordinator of the Gender/Women's Studies courses of the Instituto Monteverde (IMV). Dr. Leitinger taught Women's Studies at the Universidad Nacional (UNA) as a Fulbright lecturer, and has years of experience with study-abroad programs and students' community-oriented, women-focused field research in Costa Rica, particularly in the Santa Elena-Monteverde region. She taught Sociology for 12 years at Grinnell College in Iowa. She is the editor and translator of The Costa Rican Women's Movement: A Reader. 1997. University of Pittsburgh Press. GUEST LECTURES Guest lecturers will be affiliated with Costa Rican universities, and with institutions and organizations that the workshop will explore and visit. WORKSHOP LOCATION The workshop will take place in part at various San Jos=E9 locations, in par= t at the IMV, and includes field site visits in the Santa Elena-Monteverde region. It includes one day for arrival, one for departure, four-and-a-half days in San Jos=E9, and four-and-a-half days in the Santa Elena-Monteverde region. The workshop will be offered in a combination of English and Spanish (with interpretation as needed), and will be open to 18 participants who may be new to or familiar with the issues addressed. HOUSING AND MEALS All housing, breakfasts, and lunches are included in the seminar cost. There are several non-included dinners and a number of group dinners during the seminar. Room occupancy is double. Single rooms can be requested at an extra charge, and must be requested in advance. LECTURES Listed below are the tentative lectures and site visits for the 1998 Costa Rica Workshop. The final program schedule will be similar in content and theme although specific session topics or schedules may change. Final schedules and a complete information packet will be sent to participants prior to the Workshop. * Introduction to Costa Rica * Introduction to Women's Situation in Costa Rica * Governmental Organizations Working with Women in Costa Rica * Non-governmental Women's Organizations * Support Organizations for Specific Women's Problems * Women at Work: Women in Cooperatives, in Assembly Industries, and in Small Enterprises * Women's Studies in Costa Rica * Introduction to the Santa Elena-Monteverde Region and its Community Organizations * Women's Roles in Rural Sustainable Development * Rural Women's Participation in Environmental Protection * Women and Political Leadership in Communal Politics * The Development of the Women's Crafts Cooperative Comisi=F3n de Artesanos Santa Elena - Monteverde (CASEM) * The Growth of La Campesinita, the Women's Canning Cooperative in La Cruz * Women in Rural Life SITE VISITS AND STUDY TOURS * Selected Governmental Organizations for Women * Selected Non-Governmental Organizations for Women and Women's Organization= s * Instituto de Estudios de la Mujer (IEM), Universidad Nacional (UNA) * Museo de Cultura Popular, Santa Luc=EDa de Barva de Heredia * Skywalk forest canopy bridges (optional) * Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, Hummingbird Gallery, Bajo del Tigre Trails, Butterfly Garden, Serpentario (all optional) * Productores de Monteverde (La F=E1brica de Quesos - Cheese Factory) * CASEM * La Campesinita * Sal=F3n Comunal, San Luis * Buen Amigo cooperative farm in San Luis (optional) SEMINAR COSTS The cost of this seminar is US$ 1,350 per person. International airfare is not included in this price. A $17 exit visa from Costa Rica, which can be purchased at the airport at the time of departure, is not included in the seminar costs. Optional events and related transportation costs are not included in the seminar fees. Program costs include all in-country transportation, all lodging with breakfast and lunch daily, group dinners as noted in the final program itinerary, guides and entrance fees, presentations and guest lecturers, and IMV tuition fees. TO RECEIVE AN APPLICATION FORM, COURSE ITINERARY, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Dr. Ilse Leitinger, Coordinator of Gender and Women's Studies Programs Instituto Monteverde Apartado 69-5655 Monteverde de Puntarenas Costa Rica, Central America Telephones (in Costa Rica): 506-645-50-53 or 506-645-53-65 =46AX: 506-645-52-19 e-mails: or ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 12:17:39 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Christine Smith Subject: NOMAS MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Does anyone have contact information for the National Organization of Men Against Sexism? You can respond privately. Thanks. Christine Smith csmith@vms.cis.pitt.du casmith@lclark.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 14:19:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Prazeres Subject: Re: women and language readers MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit These are other texts you might consider using: Baron, Dennis. Grammar and Gender (1986) (Yale UP) Cameron, Deborah (ed.) The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader (1990) (Routledge) Coates, Jennifer. Women, Men and Language (1993) (Longman) Graddol, David & Joan Swann. Gender Voices (1989) (Basil Blackwell) I. Prazeres University of Windsor Dept. of English Theresa Conefrey wrote: > I'm planning my dept's first ever women and language course > and would appreciate suggestions for a basic reader. The ones I'm > familiar with include Thorne and Henley (1975) Language and sex, > Thorne, Kramarae and Henley (1983) Language gender and society, > Hall and Bucholtz (1995) Gender articulated. > > What else is out there that would be suitable for undergraduates > unfamiliar > with women's studies? > Thanks, > > Theresa Conefrey > Department of English > University of Hawaii-Hilo ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 15:43:59 -0500 Reply-To: SEETCHM@lafvax.lafayette.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Elizabeth Seetch Subject: Re: teaching 'class'? Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I concur. My intro students, no matter their class year, are always impressed with what their foremothers were thinking and doing as little as 25 years ago. They may actually take for granted what their contemporaries are doing, but love to learn what was brewing before they were born, and thus they pay a special kind of attention. Beth Seetch seetchm@lafayette.edu > I agree with Ruby. Whatever happened to studying the feminist classics? > Carolyn Wright > ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu > On Thu, 5 Feb 1998, Ruby Rohrlich wrote: > > >> "Going back a generation or two" when teaching seems like a very good >> idea, Florence Howe. It amazes me when people look at the dates an >> article or book was written or published to discover its contents, >> and if it was dated in 70s they say it is "dated." They sure must >> miss a hell of a lot of good material using dates as a criterion of >> worth. Ruby Rohrlich >> rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu >> >> > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 18:02:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: teaching 'class'? Comments: To: Mary Elizabeth Seetch In-Reply-To: <56647.SEETCHM@lafvax.lafayette.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I still find it impowering to read Abigail Adams' letters to John! Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu > I concur. My intro students, no matter their class year, are always > impressed with what their foremothers were thinking and doing as little as > 25 years ago. They may actually take for granted what their contemporaries > are doing, but love to learn what was brewing before they were born, and > thus they pay a special kind of attention. > > Beth Seetch > seetchm@lafayette.edu > >> > >> > > > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 18:39:31 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Dr. Nancy Jabbra" Subject: "stages" of feminist research Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I haven't found much from WS that deals with these issues, at least not from a social science perspective (it may be out there, and I simply don't know). However, in ethnic studies these issues have been tackled, at least to some extent. Here are two authors: Mario Barrera, Race and Class in the Southwest, South Bend, Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, 1979 (this analysis does not include gender). Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Gender & Racial Inequality at Work: The Sources & Consequences of Job Segregation, Ithaca, New York, ILR Press (Cornell University), 1993. There is also a lot of Canadian literature dealing with the "vertical mosaic," much of it using census data. A brief review of much of this may be found in Ronald L. Cosper and Nancy W. Jabbra, Ethnic Inequality of Ethnic Groups in Atlantic Canada, International Journal of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies 1: 81-94, 1994. Most of this material does not include gender as a variable. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 21:21:12 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: coding 'citizen' Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Someone asked me for a cite for a statement of Susie Tharu's that I mentioned. I can't find the inquiry message but I've located the source for the statement.It's in Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender in Social Scientist March-April 1994 Vol.22, Nos 3-4. (published in India) She wrote, with Tejaswini Niranjana, about the 'subject of politics. The shaping of the normative human-Indian involved, on the one hand, a dialectial relationship of inequality and opposition with the clasical subject of western liberalism, and on the other hand, its coding as upper-caste, middle-class, Hindu and male' (p. 96). I think it's a useful conceptual way to think about citizen wherever we live. In citing this, working from memory, I used 'citizen' rather than 'subject' because it seemed appropriate to the context. beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 00:04:42 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Vision 2000 available from WMST-L MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Not long ago, there was some discussion on WMST-L of "Vision 2000," a document created "to ensure full and equitable participation by women in the New England Land Grant Universities" and to offer "a vision of where women . . . can and should be" at the start of the coming century. Daphne Patai's essay critical of "Vision 2000" ("Why Not a Feminist Overhaul of Higher Education?") was made available in the WMST-L file collection by its author. Now, thanks to Sabina Foote of the University of New Hampshire, "Vision 2000" has also been added to the WMST-L files. To get a copy of Vision 2000, send the following e-mail message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU: GET VISION 2000 If you'd also like a copy of Daphne Patai's essay, add a second line that says GET FEMINIST OVERHAUL Be sure to send this message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU, not to WMST-L. Many thanks to Sabina Foote and Daphne Patai for making these documents available on WMST-L. Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 07:42:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: origins of the personal is political? In-Reply-To: <01ITA10Z2O0I00611U@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'm forwarding this request from another list. Can anyone help with the history and origins of the slogan "the personal is political?" Kelley Crouse kcwalker@syr.edu -------forwarded message------------------ i've been trying to track down the source of the feminist slogan "the personal is political" and i'm not having much luck. does anyone out there either know the source, or have ideas where i might look? it starts to crop up in a lot of feminist anthologies as section/chapter headings in the 1980s, but never with a citation, suggesting that by then it was well-established (and i remember this to be true). feminist histories of radical/cultural feminism always say that the phrase was widely used throughout the 1960s, but never referecning a specific citation, speaker, group, or date. i've read many, many primary documents/books from the 1960s and still have had no luck. robin morgan uses a similar (but not exact) formulation in 1970 (in her introduction to "sisterhood is powerful"). unlikely as this may sound, it's the earliest reference i can find, given that the consensus in histories of radical/cultural feminism is that the slogan was coined in the 1960s. i'm wondering if anyone knows (remembers?) the origin of this phrase? i'm not even sure if it originated in the US, england, or perhaps australia (because of morgan). ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 08:33:53 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu" Subject: Re: origins of the personal is political? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Carol Hanisch has a brief essay called "The Personal is Political" in the Redstockings collection *Feminist Revolution* -- her essay is dated March 1969 (204-205). The essay defends consciousness-raising against the charge that it is "therapy." Hanisch states "One of the first things we discover in these groups is that personal problems are political problems. There are no personal solutions at this time." At 07:42 AM 2/7/98 -0500, Kelley Crouse wrote: >I'm forwarding this request from another list. Can anyone help with the >history and origins of the slogan "the personal is political?" > >Kelley Crouse >kcwalker@syr.edu Donna M. Bickford dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu Department of English and Women's Studies Program University of Rhode Island 315 Roosevelt Hall Kingston, RI 02881 ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 10:02:05 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: WMST-L's advertising policy (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: NOTE: Do not send commercial advertising to some or all WMST-L subscribers, not even privately. People who use their access to WMST-L to gather e-mail addresses to use for commercial advertising, or to give or sell to others, will be removed from WMST-L and barred from re-subscribing. However, if you have created a women's-studies-related book, video, etc. and wish to let subscribers know about it, you may announce it on WMST-L. Indeed, you are encouraged to do so. You may also mention other books and resources, even if you have a commercial interest in them, if you are responding to a specific query for which the books/resources are directly relevant. Please do NOT send notices about books, films, and other commercial resources that you have not created unless you are responding to a specific query. ****************** Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 10:31:52 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: the personal is political - 3 years of responses MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Queries about the origins of the phrase "the personal is political" have appeared on WMST-L with some regularity. They have elicited a number of responses. I did a quick database search for the phrase in the WMST-L archives stored on UMDD (only the last three years are stored at UMDD; the earlier years are on InforM, as my message below explains). Here is what that search turned up. Joan Korenman (korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu) *********************************************************** Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 14:03:53 EST From: Rosa Maria Pegueros Subject: "The personal is political" [PLEASE REPLY PRIVATELY since this question is bound to draw zillions of answers. I will post the answer to the list : PEGUEROS@uriacc.uri.edu] I am looking for the source of the quote, "The personal is political." I believe that Robin Morgan said it but I don't know when or in what context, or, in fact, if it was hers. Thanks. Rosie Rosa Maria Pegueros pegueros@uriacc.uri.edu University of Rhode Island Department of History phone: (401) 874-4092 80 Upper College Road, Suite 3 fax: (401) 874-2595 Kingston, RI 02881 =========================================================================== Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 18:04:16 -0500 From: MARTHA J HUNT Subject: Re: "The personal is political" i think margaret sanger said it first "the personal is political" ========================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 11:14:27 +1100 From: laurel guymer Subject: Re: "The personal is political" >i think margaret sanger said it first "the personal is political" I THOUGHT IT WAS CAROL STAINCH IN 1972???? ========================================================================== Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 15:03:03 -0000 From: "Renee J. Heberle" Subject: Re: "The personal is political" I thought it was Katie Sarachild... Dr. Renee Heberle, heberlrj@potsdam.edu Politics Department/Women's Studies Program 309a Satterlee Hall SUNY Potsdam Potsdam, NY 13676 Office Phone: 315-267-2555 Home Phone: 315-265-2513 =========================================================================== Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 20:17:21 -0300 From: Monica Tarducci Subject: Re: personal is political In Maggie Humm s "The dictionary or Feminist Theory" Columbus, Ohio Univ. Press, (second edition)1995 : "A fhrase first coined by Carol Hanisch in Notes from the second year (1970)......" Monica Tarducci billyr@mbox.servicenet.com.ar ============================================================================ Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 12:08:53 -0500 From: Anne Carson Subject: Re: personal is political In 1992 or 1993 there was a lengthy discussion of this question on this list, and as I recall someone traced the expression back to the 1950s. (Might have been Schumacher who first used the expression - it was a male social scientist at any rate.) Perhaps Joan could remind us how to access the WMST-L digest. Anne Carson Cornell University Law Library carson@law.mail.cornell.edu =========================================================================== Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 12:34:24 -0500 From: Joan Korenman Subject: Re: personal is political [in response to Anne Carson] All WMST-L messages are automatically archived in the WMST-L logfiles. The last three years of logfiles are available via LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU, and two sets of procedures exist for searching the logfiles. The instructions I learned from are available in a file called SEARCH LOGFILES. To get it, send the message GET SEARCH LOGFILES to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . More recently, a simplified procedure has been developed; many people prefer it (though I prefer the older, more complex instructions). Instructions for the simplified procedure are available on the web at http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/simplesearch.html or by email by sending the message GET SEARCH SIMPLE to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . I think the discussion Anne refers to took place within the past three years, but if in fact it took place before that, it will be in the older logfiles that are available in the Women's Studies Archive on InforM: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/Computing/WMST-L/Logfiles/ These logfiles cannot be searched using the Listserv procedures, just whatever search capabilities are available on your web browser. Joan ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================== Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 12:41:50 -0500 From: Steven Schacht Subject: Re: personal is political C. Wright Mills back in the 1950's wrote about the promise of sociology being the ability to take personal troubles/problems and to locate them in the context of public/political issues. Not sure this is the basis of this contemporary feminist slogan and theoretical insight, but it assuredly is a related outlook. Best wishes, Steven Schacht Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Sociology Montana State University ========================================================================== Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 07:42:28 -0500 From: Kelley Crouse Subject: origins of the personal is political? I'm forwarding this request from another list. Can anyone help with the history and origins of the slogan "the personal is political?" Kelley Crouse kcwalker@syr.edu -------forwarded message------------------ i've been trying to track down the source of the feminist slogan "the personal is political" and i'm not having much luck. does anyone out there either know the source, or have ideas where i might look? it starts to crop up in a lot of feminist anthologies as section/chapter headings in the 1980s, but never with a citation, suggesting that by then it was well-established (and i remember this to be true). feminist histories of radical/cultural feminism always say that the phrase was widely used throughout the 1960s, but never referecning a specific citation, speaker, group, or date. i've read many, many primary documents/books from the 1960s and still have had no luck. robin morgan uses a similar (but not exact) formulation in 1970 (in her introduction to "sisterhood is powerful"). unlikely as this may sound, it's the earliest reference i can find, given that the consensus in histories of radical/cultural feminism is that the slogan was coined in the 1960s. i'm wondering if anyone knows (remembers?) the origin of this phrase? i'm not even sure if it originated in the US, england, or perhaps australia (because of morgan). =========================================================================== Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 08:33:53 -0500 From: "dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu" Subject: Re: origins of the personal is political? Carol Hanisch has a brief essay called "The Personal is Political" in the Redstockings collection *Feminist Revolution* -- her essay is dated March 1969 (204-205). The essay defends consciousness-raising against the charge that it is "therapy." Hanisch states "One of the first things we discover in these groups is that personal problems are political problems. There are no personal solutions at this time." Donna M. Bickford dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu Department of English and Women's Studies Program University of Rhode Island 315 Roosevelt Hall Kingston, RI 02881 ========================================================================== ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 10:32:26 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Susan Belcher Subject: Re: the personal is political - 3 years of responses In-Reply-To: <01ITAMWF4SLU005S9V@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I believe that C.Wright Mills coined the term "the personal is political", probably in his book, __The Sociological Imagination___ in the 1950's. Susan M. Belcher Lecturer, Sociology and Women's Studies Athabasca University P.O. Box 11411 Edmonton, Alberta Canada T5J 3K6 Tel.: 477-5092 FAX: 492-2024 ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 12:23:02 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Annette McElhiney Subject: GUIDELINES FOR CROSS-LISTING COURSES Do any of you have guidelines for cross-listing courses with other departments in colleges that you would be willing to share? Annette Bennington McElhiney Professor of English/Women's Studies Metropolitan College of Denver Box 32 P.O Box 173362 Denver, Colorado 80217-3362 If so, please reply to be via snail mail at the address above or via my private e-mail address: mcelhina@ix.netcom.com Thanks for your help! ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 10:31:40 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: benita roth Subject: Re: personal is political Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" c.wright mills does NOT use the phrase "the personal is political" in _the sociological imagination_ that's carol hanisch's, as several people have noted. Mills, does, however, introduce the concept when he writes about the intersection of public issues and personal problems, of personal biography and history. Clearly the ideas that gave rise to the "personal is political" predate feminism, but feminism crystallized these concepts as they referred to the particular oppression of women. By the way, Mills _The Sociological Imagination_ is, despite some dated language, probably still the best statement of the sociological project that I know of. br Benita Roth, Ph.D. Dept of Sociology,UCLA roth@ucla.edu "Anatomy, like the bubonic plague, is history, not destiny." -- Chesler, _Women & Madness_ ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 13:34:25 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Re: GUIDELINES FOR CROSS-LISTING COURSES MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > Do any of you have guidelines for cross-listing courses with other > departments in colleges that you would be willing to share? I have a request to make of all WMST-L readers. Before you ask for information that might possibly have come up before, check the WMST-L filelist to see whether there's a file available that you can write for. To get the filelist, just send the 2-word mesage INDEX WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU (**not** to WMST-L). More information about this is contained in the WMST-L User's Guide: http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . As for policies for crosslisting courses, yes, there is such a file. Send the message GET CROSSLST POLICIES (note that CROSSLST is deliberately missing an "i") to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 14:00:04 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stacey Meadow Subject: Disabled lesbian network. In-Reply-To: <01ITAT6R98HU005Z8P@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi All: Does anyone know of any groups in the NYC area for disabled lesbians? I'd appreciate any references. Please respond privately. Thanks! ********************************************************************** Stacey Meadow Barnard College sm445@columbia.edu Women'sStudies/Psychology "Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is ommitted from biograpgy, censored in collections of letters, whatever is misnamed as something else, made difficult to come by, whatever is buried in the memory by the collapse of meaning, hidden under an inadequite or lying language... this will become not merely unspoken, but unspeakable." - Adrienne Rich ********************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 15:41:56 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: vision 2000 - response In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980205190401.00686558@cuny.campus.mci.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Thu, 5 Feb 1998, beatricekachuck wrote: > Vision 2000 seems to me an academic document in the liberal tradition of, > to quote Patai, "tolerance and intellectual openness." It lays out problems > and proposes solutions. The proposals are consistent with principles and > practices in universities and other agencies. After having read Vision 2000, I think it is a valent effort to make dramatic changes. My thoughts were "Gee, how many male students would want to go to these schools but they would be more marketable for the job opportunities than male students who do not attend these schools." I was pleased to see a bibliography. One in particular, Paula J. Caplan "Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A woman's guide for surviving in the academic world", 1993. This would need a strong push from the administration down since peer faculty usually evaluate you for retention and promotion and if they are not educated in the new methods and are resistant since they have tenure, what does the untenured faculty member do? Marina Koether ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 17:38:41 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: Vision 2000 available from WMST-L In-Reply-To: <01ITA10Z2O0I00611U@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear Joan: I was unable to get the attachment "Feminist Overhaul. Best Regards. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 22:02:51 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "pauline b. bart" Subject: Re: the personal is political - 3 years of responses Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 10:32 AM 2/7/98 -0700, you wrote: >I believe that C.Wright Mills coined the term "the personal is political", >probably in his book, __The Sociological Imagination___ in the 1950's. > >Susan M. Belcher >Lecturer, Sociology and Women's Studies >Athabasca University >P.O. Box 11411 >Edmonton, Alberta >Canada T5J 3K6 >Tel.: 477-5092 >FAX: 492-2024 >A similar idea was in C. Wright Mills when he spoke of private problems becoming public issues, as well as his discussion of the intersection of biography and history. Mills work on vocabulary of motives is also relevant, cinece we learned that what was called our "penis envy" was in fact our anger at our inequality. I have always maintained that a feminist analysis must be a sociological analysis. Admittedly I may be prejudiced. Best, Pauline B. Bart pbart@UCLA.EDU > ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 22:20:14 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "pauline b. bart" Subject: Re: origins of the personal is political? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 07:42 AM 2/7/98 -0500, you wrote: >I'm forwarding this request from another list. Can anyone help with the >history and origins of the slogan "the personal is political?" > >Kelley Crouse >kcwalker@syr.edu > >-------forwarded message------------------ > >i've been trying to track down the source of the feminist slogan "the >personal is political" and i'm not having much luck. does anyone out >there either know the source, or have ideas where i might look? > >it starts to crop up in a lot of feminist anthologies as section/chapter >headings in the 1980s, but never with a citation, suggesting that by then >it was well-established (and i remember this to be true). feminist >histories of radical/cultural feminism always say that the phrase was >widely used throughout the 1960s, but never referecning a specific >citation, speaker, group, or date. i've read many, many primary >documents/books from the 1960s and still have had no luck. > >robin morgan uses a similar (but not exact) formulation in 1970 (in her >introduction to "sisterhood is powerful"). unlikely as this may sound, >it's the earliest reference i can find, given that the consensus in >histories of radical/cultural feminism is that the slogan was coined in >the 1960s. > >i'm wondering if anyone knows (remembers?) the origin of this phrase? i'm >not even sure if it originated in the US, england, or perhaps australia >(because of morgan). > >Dear Women, As a member of what I call "The First Wave of the Second Wave" we never called ourselves "cultural feminists". That term has been applied to us pejoratively by people recently. We were always concerned with race and class, as a quick look at the table of contents of Sisterhood is Powerful by Morgan will show. best, Pauline Bart pbart ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 09:21:17 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Finding past messages (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: 10) "I'VE BEEN AWAY FOR TWO WEEKS. I'D LIKE TO SEE WHAT I'VE MISSED ON WMST-L DURING THE TIME I'VE BEEN GONE. IS IT POSSIBLE TO ACCESS PREVIOUS MESSAGES?" [also useful for new subscribers] Yes. All WMST-L messages are automatically archived. The 1991 archives are arranged in monthly logs; beginning in Jan., 1992, the logs were changed to a weekly format. To find out what logs are available, you can send LISTSERV the following command: INDEX WMST-L . You'll then receive a list of the available logs. To obtain the logs, send LISTSERV the following command: GET WMST-L [filename] where [filename] is the name of the log file you want. For example: GET WMST-L LOG9609a will get you the log for the first week ("a") in September 1996 (9609 refers to the 9th month of 1996). LOG9612b is the log for the second week ("b") in Dec. 1996 (December is the 12th month). (It's possible that the wording of your request may take a slightly different form, depending on your mail system, but what you want is WMST-L LOGnnnnl.) Warning: some of these logs are LARGE (> 300K). As a result, you may not be permitted to get more than a few logs on any given day (the current limit is 20 files or 2M - i.e., 2000K). NOTE: Logfiles from before 1995 are no longer available on UMDD. To make room for newer logfiles, they were moved to the Women's Studies archive on InforM (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/ ). As time passes, other old logfiles will also be moved to InforM. The WMST-L filelist contains instructions designed to teach you how to search the UMDD logfiles for specific subjects. The instructions I recommend are contained in a file called SEARCH SIMPLE. It explains the new, simplified search procedures. This file is available on the web or via e-mail. The web URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/simplesearch.html . To get it by e-mail, send the message GET SEARCH SIMPLE to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU. These instructions apply only to logfiles on UMDD, not those that have been moved to InforM. ******************* Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 07:47:38 -0800 Reply-To: jstarker@teleport.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Starker Subject: [Fwd: Death of Mary Roth Walsh] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Received: by smtp3 for jstarker (with Cubic Circle's cucipop (v1.21 1997/08/10) Sun Feb 8 07:27:54 1998) X-From_: owner-powr-l@uriacc.uri.edu Sun Feb 8 07:26:07 1998 Return-Path: owner-powr-l@uriacc.uri.edu Received: from pete.uri.edu (PETE.URI.EDU [131.128.1.12]) by smtp5.teleport.com (8.8.7/8.7.3) with ESMTP id HAA16430; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 07:26:05 -0800 (PST) Received: from pete.uri.edu (pete.uri.edu [131.128.1.12]) by pete.uri.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id KAA06675; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 10:19:09 -0500 (EST) Received: from URIACC.URI.EDU by URIACC.URI.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8c) with spool id 4936 for POWR-L@URIACC.URI.EDU; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 10:17:24 -0500 Received: from URIACC (NJE origin SMTP@URIACC) by URIACC.URI.EDU (LMail V1.2c/1.8c) with BSMTP id 9967; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 10:17:23 -0500 Received: from strato-fe0.ultra.net [146.115.8.190] by URIACC.URI.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R3a) via TCP with SMTP ; Sun, 08 Feb 1998 10:17:22 EST X-Comment: URIACC.URI.EDU: Mail was sent by strato-fe0.ultra.net Received: from smtp.ma.ultranet.com (d13.dial-13.mbo.ma.ultra.net [146.115.100.45]) by strato-fe0.ultra.net (8.8.5/ult.n14767) with SMTP id KAA02463 for ; Sun, 8 Feb 1998 10:18:20 -0500 (EST) X-Sender: goodenow@ma.ultranet.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Message-ID: <199802081518.KAA02463@strato-fe0.ultra.net> Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 10:18:20 -0500 Reply-To: Psychology of Women Resource List Sender: Psychology of Women Resource List From: Carol Goodenow Subject: Death of Mary Roth Walsh To: POWR-L@uriacc.uri.edu I was shocked to see, in this morning's Boston Globe, an article announcing the death of Mary Roth Walsh. She and her husband (also a professor at UMass Lowell) were found in the bedroom of their home in Arlington, MA, apparently dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. Neighbors had notified the police when mail and papers began accumulating. The Globe reported that the police did not suspect any foul play, but were uncertain at this time about whether the deaths might have been a double suicide or were just accidental. As most of you know, Mary was very active in Division 35, had organized many pre-conference workshops on the teaching of feminist psychology/psychology of women, and had edited a widely-used book on issues in feminist psychology. ------------------------------------------------------------ Carol Goodenow goodenow@ma.ultranet.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 16:07:40 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Patricia Lengermann Subject: personal is political Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: WMST-L Fn: Pat Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley Joephine Donovan in _ Feminist Theory_ (1985, Ungar) credits the phrase to a Carol Hanisch article of that title in _Notes from the Second Year_ ed. by Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt. New York: Radical Feminism. 1970. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 17:39:32 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Suzanne E Franks Subject: corporate/collective connections MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hello list members, I would like to know if anyone is aware of recent (or not so recent) feminist analyses of two prevailing trends in corporate culture: the total quality movement, and the "teaming" movement. Total quality is, as far as I understand it (being newly arrived in the corporate world from academia) a system of management, a semi-theoretical framework for doing business, and verges on what I would call a corporate religion in some places. It supposedly focues on the process, and attributes failure not to individuals but to problems with the process that when identified, can be fixed. "Teaming" is the concept of assembling teams to plan, manage, and carry out a project contracted for with a client or an internal project, rather tha= n having scattered and unconnected individuals working individually on aspects of a project. In both cases, some aspects of these = movements or approaches to doing business call to mind, at least for me, aspects of collective work that one might expect to find = practiced in feminist business environments. = Perhaps I should explain how this connection arose in my mind. I was rereading some comic strips by Alison Bechdel, a series called (I think) "Servants to the Cause" about a group of gays and lesbians working together to put out a newspaper. Some of the strips have episodes of conflict resolution, mediation/faciltating by group members, and I was looking at = these right after having been in a company sponsored training session where these kinds of concepts and the skills needed to practice them were= being discussed. = I don't mean to imply that the corporate world has suddenly gone feminist and collective decision making has taken over. Rather, it seems to me that some of these concepts have made their way into corporate culture, and I do believe that they have been co-opted and transformed to serve the needs of capitalism. I find this phenomenon fascinating and perhaps worthy of further study, and would like to know whether anyone else is looking into things like this, and if so, what sources have your found interesting/useful. My feeling is that = these movements are, in part, supposed to give employees more of a sense of power over and pride in their work, but many employees experience them as just another coercive attempt by the company to squeeze ever more labor out of the employees for the same price. I think there are environments where it can work well, but it can also be experienced as a method for convincing you to feel good about how hard you have to work for how little financial reward. = There may also be a connection to the spread of these movements through corporate culture and some of the interesting results list member= s were reporting to their use of the masculinity/femininity leadership trai= ts surveys in their classes. Indeed, the expressed idea of what constitutes= a good leader is changing in industry, though in practice, from what I have seen over the past six months, is that the "traditional" concept of a leader's personality and behavior is still very likely to be rewarded. Please reply privately unless you think this a topic likely to be of interest = to other list members. = Suzanne Franks sfranks2@compuserve.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 18:24:08 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathryn Troester Subject: The personal is political MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, While not saying "The personal is political" specifically, Claudia Jones, in her 1949 essay "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!" (originally published in "Political Affiars", re-published in "Words of Fire: An Antohology if African American Feminist Thought," New York: The New Press, 1995) wrote; "This means ridding ourselves of the position which sometimes finds certain progressives and Communists fighting on the economic and political issues facing Negro people, but 'drawing the line' when it comes to social intercourse or inter-marriage. To place the question as a 'personal' and not a political matter, when such questions arise, is to be guilty of the worst kind of Social-Democratic, bourgeois-liberal thinking as regards the Negro question in American life; it is to be guilty of imbibing the poisonous white-chauvinist 'theories' of a Bilbo or Rankin." (1995, p:117) This passage sugests to me that the concept did not pre-date (is pre-date the correct term?) feminism, as suggested in the discussion concerning C. Wright Mills' ideas, but that the concept has been with us far longer. kathryn troester troes001@metvax.metro.msus.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 19:04:33 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: benita roth Subject: Re: The personal is political Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" the post by kathryn troester makes an excellent point, and I would like to correct myself -- in fact the idea that on some level the personal is political is part and parcel of feminist and socialist women's activism -- think of Emma Goldman. In thinking of mills, I was trying to come up with a source that second wave activists would have been more directly influenced by, but I certainly did not mean to imply that it all started with mills. br At 06:24 PM 2/8/98 -0600, you wrote: >Hello all, > >While not saying "The personal is political" specifically, Claudia Jones, >in her 1949 essay "An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro >Woman!" (originally published in "Political Affiars", re-published in >"Words of Fire: An Antohology if African American Feminist Thought," New >York: The New Press, 1995) wrote; > >"This means ridding ourselves of the position which sometimes finds certain >progressives and Communists fighting on the economic and political issues >facing Negro people, but 'drawing the line' when it comes to social >intercourse or inter-marriage. To place the question as a 'personal' and >not a political matter, when such questions arise, is to be guilty of the >worst kind of Social-Democratic, bourgeois-liberal thinking as regards the >Negro question in American life; it is to be guilty of imbibing the >poisonous white-chauvinist 'theories' of a Bilbo or Rankin." (1995, p:117) > >This passage sugests to me that the concept did not pre-date (is pre-date >the correct term?) feminism, as suggested in the discussion concerning C. >Wright Mills' ideas, but that the concept has been with us far longer. > >kathryn troester >troes001@metvax.metro.msus.edu > > Benita Roth, Ph.D. Dept of Sociology,UCLA roth@ucla.edu "Anatomy, like the bubonic plague, is history, not destiny." -- Chesler, _Women & Madness_ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 07:49:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: WMST-L file collection (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: 11) "HOW DO I FIND OUT WHAT FILES ARE AVAILABLE FROM WMST-L, AND HOW DO I OBTAIN THE FILES I WANT?" To find out what files are available, send LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU (or, on Bitnet, LISTSERV@UMDD) the same command mentioned in the previous section: INDEX WMST-L. The list you'll receive from LISTSERV includes files as well as logs. To obtain the file(s) you want, send LISTSERV the following command: GET [filename] WMST-L where [filename] is the two-word name of the file you want. For example, suppose you send for the filelist (INDEX WMST-L) and see the following listing: * Policies for cross-listing courses with Women's Studies CROSSLST POLICIES ALL OWN V 79 436 92/12/07 20:41:03 To get this file, you'd send the message GET CROSSLST POLICIES WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD (Bitnet) or LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU (Internet). Note that [filename] consists of two words separated by a space and not a period. (Adding WMST-L after the two-word filename is optional; it simply makes sure that if two lists have a file with the same name, you'll get the right one.) IMPORTANT NOTE: women's studies syllabi are contained in a subdirectory called SYLLABI, while feminist film reviews are to be found in a subdirectory called FILM, and reference book mini-reviews are in the WMSTBOOK subdirectory. To find out what syllabi, film reviews, or reference book mini-reviews a subdirectory contains, send LISTSERV the command INDEX SYLLABI (or INDEX FILM or INDEX WMSTBOOK). To obtain the file(s) you want, send LISTSERV the following command: GET [filename] SYLLABI (or replace SYLLABI w/FILM or WMSTBOOK as needed) If you are requesting a film review, be aware that the filename always takes the form FILM REVx (e.g., FILM REV25); the name of the film is NOT the filename! You can request more than one file at once; just be sure to put each request on a separate line. LISTSERV will then send the file(s) to you either in a mail message or in Netdata format. You can force LISTSERV to send them in a mail message by adding F=MAIL at the end of each command. For example, GET [filename] FILM F=MAIL . Or, to retrieve files sent by LISTSERV in Netdata format, follow these instructions: If your e-mail address is on a VAX/VMS machine, when you get a message that one or more files have arrived at your e-mail address, you should type "RECEIVE *" (do not include the quotation marks) at the $ prompt. This command will put the file(s) into your main directory. You can then type "TYPE filename" (replace "filename" with the actual name of the file) to read the file. If it's a long file, you can read it more effectively by typing "TYPE/PAGE filename." If your e-mail address is on an IBM VM/CMS machine, either use your mailer front end or type RLIST and RECEIVE the file into your FLIST. Go into your FLIST to look at the file. If your e-mail address is on a different kind of machine OR you are using Profs or some other kind of similar mailing system, go ahead and try the above commands. If they do not work, CALL YOUR COMPUTER SERVICES OFFICE. The people there should be able to help you and/or give you a manual for your mailing system commands. NOTE: Many WMST-L files (and a lot more!) are also available on the Women's Studies archive on InforM, the University of Maryland's Online Information Service. The URL is http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/ . If you don't have access to the Web, you can telnet to inform.umd.edu . Select Educational Resources, then Academic Resources by Topic, then Women's Studies Resources. InforM contains a goldmine of online information about women. Do have a look! ******************* Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 20:47:48 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Paul Burnam Subject: Contacting Feminist Historians MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I want to contact three feminist scholars who published books about the National Woman's Party. They and their works are as follows: Becker, Susan D. The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment. Ford, Linda G. Iron-Jawed Angels. Lunardini, Christine A. From Equal Suffrage to Equal Rights. My main hope is that I can obtain the email addresses for these scholars. If not that, I would be most appreciative of learning with what institution or publisher they are affiliated. Please reply directly to me and not the list. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance. PAUL BURNAM, PUBLIC SERVICES LIBRARIAN Ohio Wesleyan University Libraries Delaware, OH 43015-2312 (740) 368-3240 (office) (740) 368-3222 (fax) Internet: pdburnam@cc.owu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:37:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: Source of quotation In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I don' know where that quotation comes from. How about substituting Marge Piercy's 'We make history or it makes us' beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net At 10:24 AM 2/5/98 -0500, you wrote: >I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me the source of the quotation, >"We must invent a history adequate to our needs." I once saw it on a ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 08:26:40 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Naomi Standen Subject: gender in Chinese language Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" [Note: the quotes are edited to the extent that I took them out of all caps.] >According to a Chinese teacher, one of my colleagues, the gender >distinction in the third person pronouns in the writing is not a recent >invention, but it has existed for a long time in the history of the >chinese language. I'd love to know exactly when the 'female' character came into being. My understanding (which may be wrong) was that it was one result of the linguistic changes happening from the late Qing (C19) onwards, which, being a medieval historian, I count as relatively recent! Can your teacher give you a date/period to share with us? >Incidentally, several researchers have recently >presented the women's characters--Chinese characters invented by women >for the use of women when women were not allowed to write the regular >(for-male use) Chinese characters--a somewhat different but basically >similar situation was observed in Japan, too, in the beginning of the >development of the Japanese writing: women did not have access to the >standard writing system. The interesting thing here is that in China the women's language was unheard-of until recently (there's a good article in _Engendering China_, four eds including Hershatter - don't have the book to hand), whereas in Japan women's writing is and has been widely celebrated as, for instance, providing the first novel anywhere in the world (_The Tale of Genji_). Drawing from the same Confucian base, and with similar patterns of production (at least in the post-C11 Chinese ideal), the cultures have done entirely different things with women's writing. Now there's a research project! -- Naomi Standen Department of History, Politics and Society University of Wisconsin-Superior nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 10:03:51 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "PLEN: Public Leadership Education Network" Subject: Vision 2000; Feminist Overhaul Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" This message was returned to me. I thought I was sending it to the address your message suggested. Am trying the WMST-L address instead. Marianne >>Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 10:07:01 >>To: LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU >>From: "PLEN: Public Leadership Education Network" >>Subject: Vision 2000; Feminist Overhaul >> >>Get Vision 2000; Get Feminist Overhaul. Please. Marianne Marianne Alexander Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) 1001 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 900 Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: (202) 872-1585 Fax: (202) 457-0549 E-mail: plen@clark.net ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 10:03:04 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Women's Presses Library Project, Mev Miller" Subject: Re: language, pedagogy, self-revelation, etc. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable =46rom the Women's Presses Library Project: In light of the current discussions on language, pedagogy, "how do you handle...," self-revelation wwwwwwwwwand other related topics, I'd like to offer the following title suggestions from o ur list. Perhaps there are some useful tools here. If you need assistance in locating these titles, please let me know. Mev Breaking the Patriarchal Code: The Linguistic Basis of Sexual Bias Louise Gou=EBffic Knowledge, Ideas & Trends (KIT) Offers a fascinating and learned look at our language and its subtle, hidden agenda which promotes the idea of male dominance, violence, political gain and control. 1996 1-879198-17-7 P $19.95 228pp. Calling: Essays on Teaching in the Mother Tongue Gail B. Griffin Trilogy Books Griffin charts her growth as a feminist teacher and also wrestles with larger issues of contemporary campus life including sexual harassment, faculty politics, male vs. female development, and classroom pedagogy. 1992 0-9623879-2-4 P $14.95 253pp. The Journal Project: Dialogues and Conversations Inside Women's Studies Dana Putnam, Dorothy Kidd and Elaine Dornan, Editors Second Story Press Through their journal writings, Women's Studies students talk about racism, sexism, violence against women, sexuality and school in this look at contemporary society. 1995 0-929005-69-4 P $12.95 224pp. Season of the Witch: Border Lines, Marginal Notes Gail B. Griffin Trilogy Books This book blends autobiography and literary criticism to examine conflicts currently raging around feminism, multiculturalism and political correctness, both on our embattled college campuses and on the larger American scene. 1995 0-9623879-5-9 P $16.95 272pp. WOMEN'S PRESSES LIBRARY PROJECT "...keeping women's words in circulation" Mev Miller Project Coodinator 1483 Laurel Ave. St. Paul, MN 55104-6737 612-646-0097 612-646-1153 (fax) wplp@winternet.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 14:20:41 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathleen Preston Subject: Getting other women faculty involved Comments: cc: johanna@CH2.CH.PDX.EDU Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Johanna Brenner asked (twice) for advice on how to get women faculty in other departments more involved in WS. Maybe nobody answered the first time because it's hard to know where to begin, especially if you don't know anything about her program. It's possible that her program is self-contained, perhaps even a department, with its own faculty, resources, and structure parallel to other departments. It seems that the problem is that there are feminists "out there" teaching courses that would be appropriately WS, perhaps even redundant on or overlapping the WS offerings. If that's the situation, one might think that a primary goal of WS is already being met, i.e., bringing a feminist perspective to the traditional curriculum. On the other hand, it's more likely that her WS program is a small struggling entity, offering some important and unique courses but lacking a solid base of faculty support and adequate resources. Perhaps there's even unpleasant competition between WS and other, similar, courses and faculty. Ideally, all like-minded faculty should be involved in the development and support of WS. It was relatively easy in the "old days" to find and engage each other, even without adequate compensation or time off. The goals of WS were so vital and exciting, and the sisterly fellowship so satisfying, that we just did it. Now things are more complicated. Seems to me we're at a critical juncture and must re-think our goals, threading carefully between institutional empire-building and marginalized martyrdom. There have to be new incentives, for individuals and departments, to join with WS. Cross-listing makes sense (see the recent WMST-L discussions), and joint appointments if you can wangle them. But the future strength of WS depends, I think, on redefining and clarifying the needs to be met, the continuing gaps and biases in academia, and new methods of attacking the old problems. The February issue of _The Women's Review of Books_ just arrived. It includes a section on academic issues -- excellent and challenging! Kathleen Preston Humboldt State Uiversity KathKnight@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 06:44:51 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: WMST-L Announcement Policy (User's Guide) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Today's monthly excerpt from the WMST-L User's Guide: ******************* 12) "MY UNIVERSITY HAS A JOB OPENING. MAY I POST AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON WMST-L?" WMST-L welcomes the posting of job and conference announcements, calls for papers, and the like, as long as the announcement has some explicit connection to Women's Studies. Announcements without such a connection should NOT be sent to WMST-L. The wish to reach more female candidates, however laudable, is NOT adequate reason to post non-Women's-Studies announcements. Heavy mail volume is a persistent problem on WMST-L; the list cannot accommodate the increased volume that a more liberal posting policy would bring. (Keep in mind that each year, there are literally thousands of academic job openings. Most institutions wish to show that they have tried to reach female and minority applicants. Whereas some commercial publications charge hundreds of dollars to carry even a small ad, WMST-L is free. Thus, unless we restrict postings, the list is likely to be INUNDATED with job announcements.) ************************ Each month, I post sections from the WMST-L User's Guide to remind subscribers of the list's resources and procedures. If changes have been made since the last time a section was posted, the subject header will begin "Revision:". Also, you can now consult the User's Guide anytime you'd like if you have access to the World Wide Web. The URL is http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/user-guide.html . You can also get a copy of the guide via e-mail by sending the message GET GUIDE WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . Joan Korenman Internet: korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu Bitnet: korenman@umbc ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:00:39 -0600 Reply-To: Kim M Romenesko Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kim M Romenesko Subject: Seeking co-author for *Biology of Women* text MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII A colleague who is not on this list asked me to forward a message for her. If you are interested in the opportunity presented below, please respond by e-mailing sloane@uwm.edu. Please do not respond to me or the list. Thanks! Kim Romenesko Center for Women's Studies UW-Milwaukee ---------- Forwarded message ---------- RESPONSE DEADLINE: March 10, 1998 Ethel Sloane, Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is looking for a co-author to revise and update the new (4th) edition of her book, BIOLOGY OF WOMEN, published in 1993 by Delmar Publishers. Ideally, the individual should be a biologist or have evidence of activity in the field of women's health. Professor Sloane prefers that the co-author has taught a women's studies course on issues of women's health or biology of women, used the book as a text, and has a similar attitude and writing style. For this 4th edition the individual will receive credit as co-author and the publisher will provide a $3K grant for research assistance, course buy-out, etc., as a one-time fee in lieu of royalties. It is anticipated that for subsequent editions, however, the person who is selected for the project will take over as sole author. Revising and updating in progress is to be submitted to Professor Sloane and should be completed by early 1999. Anyone who is sincere about assuming the challenge and responsibility of continuing to disseminate the information in the content of BIOLOGY OF WOMEN should e-mail a statement of interest and a very brief summary curriculum vitae to sloane@uwm.edu. Please circulate this to people who would be qualified and want to take this on. RESPONSE DEADLINE: March 10, 1998. Ethel Sloane, Professor Emerita Department of Biological Sciences University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201 sloane@uwm.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:59:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Betsy Keller Subject: request for suggestions for wmst speakers in NJ area MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am looking for suggestions for dynamic and interesting speakers for a lecture series at Rutgers in New Jersey. What it is really is a "mission course" for first-year students of Douglass College, which is the women's college of Rutgers. The course is called "Shaping a Life," and each week all 600-700 or so students come to a lecture by a prominent woman who talks about her life and her work. There are then small group section meetings where we discuss the lecture and readings that tie into it. In the past some of our speakers have been Helen Caldicott, Janice Davis Miller (domestic violence survivor and now lawyer), Jessica Govea (labor organizer and activist), and Cathy Bao Bean (author). We do not have much money for speakers, and so we can't consider big-ticket lecturers. What seems most crucial is that the speakers be able to speak comfortably about themselves, understand the specific nature of a very large audience composed mostly of 18 year old female students, and have a certain passion about their subject/career. Obviously we seek diversity in the speakers as well. If any WMST-L members have ideas about potential speakers (preferably in the New Jersey/New York area) or would even like to volunteer to speak themselves, please contact me off-list. Thank you. Betsy Keller elk@rci.rutgers.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:22:27 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Haessly Subject: Re: corporate/collective connections Comments: To: Suzanne E Franks In-Reply-To: <199802081739_MC2-3277-7B1B@compuserve.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I posted a rather lengthy response to Suzanne privately, including a number of references. Because some of my response to Suzanne has implications for others in Women's Studies and/or feminist issues, I am also posting selections from that response here to the list. Suzanne Frank asked: "I would like to know if anyone is aware of recent (or not so recent) feminist analyses of two prevailing trends in corporate culture: the total quality movement, and the "teaming" movement. Total quality is, as far as I understand it (being newly arrived in the corporate world from academia) a system of management, a semi-theoretical framework for doing business, and verges on what I would call a corporate religion in some places." There are two (actually three) differing concepts here (in Suzanne's original message --see below, and at work in corporate America: 1) Total Quality Management, 2) team work; and 3) feminist framework. Total Quality Management, or TQM as it is commonly refered to, is a system of management style attributed to Edward Deming who took the style to Japan in 1950 when it was rejected by US corporate leaders as too revolutionary. Most good introduction to management books will include TQM and Deming somewhere in the book. "[The] essence [of TQM] is that poor quality is unacceptable. . . Employees should be rewarded for spotting quality problems, not punished. To honor his contributions to their industries, the Japanese created the Deming prize, award annualy to the Japanese company that has attained the highest level of quality. An increasing number of U.S. firms (names some), are now using Deming's ideas to improve their quality" (Hellriegel and Slocum, 1992, p. 29). Chapter 20 covers the concept and practice in much greater depth. Companies who use TQM also tend to move toward a team decision-making process. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard discusses this team approach in __When Giants Learn to Dance__, 1989. Spirituality is another theme that has recently become wedded to business transformation. One of the best books that I have ever read about transforming a business is the book, __The Soul of a Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good__, written by Tom Chappell, founder of Tom's of Maine tooth paste fame. This book describes his own and his company's search for a way to stay focused on values that matter, and how team work helped in the process. Two books where women address these themes, either explicitly or implicitly, include Joline Godfrey's book __Our Wildest Dreams: Women Entrepreneurs Making money, having fun and doing good__ (1992), and __When the Canary Stops Singing: Women's Perspectives for Transforming Business__, edited by Pat Ballentine (1993). The Canary book was named one of the top ten business books of 1993. What is evident from all of this is that TQM preceded what some refer to as the First Wave of the Second Wave of Modern Day Feminism by more than a decade. It just wasn't known about or practiced much in the USA. It would be worth a study to see if TQM had any influence on rising feminist consciousness (or vv) in Japan. What is also evident from all these books (and their publication dates) is that this search for quality and team-work is a growing corporate phenomenon in the USA. In some of these books, there is an expressed feminist perspective, if by that one means a clear expression for inclusiveness, equality of opportunity, concern for people and the eco-system. What is also clear is that these terms and practices of them in corporate America can also be just words and efforts, as Suzanne notes, to give people a sense that they have a say, when --in fact -- they really don't. Some corporate trainers (internal and external) might engage in such practices. I wouldn't know what numbers. Perhaps, though, that is the power of involving people in the team-work process itself (whether one calls it feminist, or not); such involvement can lead to one's own empowerment, and that itself can lead to change. Suzanne questions whether such practices just co-opt workers. I don't have an answer to that. However, for me, it leads to a question of what feminist studies/values stand for. In 1968, just thirty years ago, some feminists were asking for roles as leaders of GM, DOW chemical company, and other major US corporations. Many of these companies were engaged in productions for hugh military contracts. Some of us wondered if having women head these corps without asking how it would be different, not only for themselves, but also for the world, it's children, and it's fragile eco-system, was working for the wrong goal. Birgit Brock Utne describes these feminists seeking equality and an end to discrimination without asking the harder life-connecting questions as people who want a bigger share of the pie without questioning the pie recipe itself (Feminist Perspectives on Peace Research and Peace Education, 1989). Women now head multinational corps. I am not certain how well all of them would be graded in answer to that "children and the environment" question. Lastly, the synergistic process provides ample evidence that ideas and concepts and even practices evolve and flow in vastly different and seemingly disconnected parts of the world. It seems important to remember that what we might refer to as feminist methodologies, practices of team building, and commitment to quality are not "owned" by feminists: they transend both time and gender, as well as culture and continent! Respectfully, and in peace, Jacqueline Haessly jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image Peace! On Sun, 8 Feb 1998, Suzanne E Franks wrote: > Hello list members, > > I would like to know if anyone is aware of recent (or not so recent) > feminist analyses of two prevailing trends in corporate culture: > the total quality movement, and the "teaming" movement. > Total quality is, as far as I understand it (being newly arrived in > the corporate world from academia) a system of management, > a semi-theoretical framework for doing business, and verges on > what I would call a corporate religion in some places. It supposedly > focues on the process, and attributes failure not to individuals but to > problems with the process that when identified, can be fixed. "Teaming" > is the concept of assembling teams to plan, manage, and carry out > a project contracted for with a client or an internal project, rather than > having scattered and unconnected individuals working individually > on aspects of a project. In both cases, some aspects of these > movements or approaches to doing business call to mind, at least > for me, aspects of collective work that one might expect to find > practiced in feminist business environments. > Perhaps I should explain how this connection arose in my mind. > I was rereading some comic strips by Alison Bechdel, a series > called (I think) "Servants to the Cause" about a group of gays > and lesbians working together to put out a newspaper. > Some of the strips have episodes of conflict resolution, > mediation/faciltating by group members, and I was looking at > these right after having been in a company sponsored training session > where these kinds of concepts and the skills needed to practice them were > being discussed. > > I don't mean to imply that the corporate world has suddenly gone > feminist and collective decision making has taken over. Rather, it > seems to me that some of these concepts have made their way into > corporate culture, and I do believe that they have been co-opted and > transformed to serve the needs of capitalism. I find this phenomenon > fascinating and perhaps worthy of further study, and would like to > know whether anyone else is looking into things like this, and if so, > what sources have your found interesting/useful. My feeling is that > these movements are, in part, supposed to give employees more > of a sense of power over and pride in their work, but many employees > experience them as just another coercive attempt by the company to > squeeze ever more labor out of the employees for the same price. > I think there are environments where it can work well, but it can also > be experienced as a method for convincing you to feel good about > how hard you have to work for how little financial reward. > > There may also be a connection to the spread of these movements > through corporate culture and some of the interesting results list members > were reporting to their use of the masculinity/femininity leadership traits > surveys in their classes. Indeed, the expressed idea of what constitutes > a good leader is changing in industry, though in practice, from what I > have seen over the past six months, is that the "traditional" concept of > a leader's personality and behavior is still very likely to be rewarded. > > Please reply privately unless you think this a topic likely to be of > interest > to other list members. > > Suzanne Franks > sfranks2@compuserve.com > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 13:16:31 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jill Bystydzienski Subject: Book contribution Comments: cc: sekhonj@gborocollege.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Dear List Subscribers, I have a mid-March deadline to get a co-edited book manuscript to a publisher and have just learned that one of the contributors who has been promising to send a chapter in on time, will not be able to do so. I wonder if anyone on this list might have work-in-progress or papers that they have already completed that could, with perhaps minor changes, be included in this anthology. The book is _Democratization and Women's Grassroots Movements Worldwide_ Jill M. Bystydzienski and Joti Sekhon (eds.) Publisher: Indiana University Press. We are seeking a chapter on South Africa or possibly another Sub-Saharan African country. Each of the chapters focuses on women's local organizations and activities in a different country (the countries included are India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Syria, Egypt, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Honduras, Russia, Poland, Belgium, Ireland, Australia, Canada and the US). Some of the chapters describe and analyze one women's grassroots organization, but others focus on several different ones. Each chapter provides some background information or context for its country, with an emphasis on the political and economic situation in general, and the status of women. Then each provides a case study of a women's organization or group or action (or several) by explaining its/their activities, organizational structure, how women are empowered by their participation, and how this/these organization(s) contribute to democratization. I would need to receive the finished chapter within a month. If you have any interest, please contact me immediately. Or if you know of anyone not on this list who may be interested, please pass on the message. Many thanks for your attention. Jill Bystydzienski Dept. of Sociology Franklin College Franklin, IN 46131 Tel. (317)738-8270 FAX (317)736-6030 e-mail bustydj@franklincoll.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 15:14:51 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Converted from OfficeVision to RFC822 by PUMP V2.2X From: "Linda Lopez McAlister, SWIP-L Moderator" Subject: New Film Review Added: The Tango Lesson On Saturday, February 6, I reviewed "The Tango Lesson" on "The Women's Show" on WMNF-FM (88.5), in Tampa, FL. These reviews are o now available from WMST-L's FILM FILELIST To obtain a copy of the article send the following command to listserv@umdd.umd.edu: GET FILM REV228 FILM To obtain a list of all the files available (film reviews and articles) send a message to the same listserv that says: INDEX FILM To get more than one item, put each command on a separate line: GET FILM REV6 FILM GET FILM REV14 FILM GET FILM ART001 FILM These reviews may also be obtained from the Web at URL: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/FilmReviews/ but there may be a considerable delay in their being put up on the web site. The opinions expressed in these reviews were mine when I wrote the review and represent one woman's opinion at a particular time.We have over 3000 subscribers to WMST-L so there are probably 2999 other views. If you would like to share yours, please do NOT do so on the WMST-L itself, but send your messages to me personally at the addresses below. I have appreciated the feedback I've received. Thanks. Linda ********************************************* Linda Lopez McAlister, Editor, HYPATIA; Listowner SWIP-L; Chair Dept. of Women's Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa. Tel. 813-974-0982/FAX 813-974-0336/mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 22:17:54 +0000 Reply-To: adena@gis.net Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Adena Cohen-Bearak Subject: Volunteers Needed In-Reply-To: <199802102038.PAA26852@home.gis.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: The G.I.R.L.S. Conference is a community project in Boston whose mission is to create a comfortable space for girls and young women to express themselves, learn leadership skills and make allies. It targets girls between 11 to 18. This day-long event, which will be held June 6th, will encourage peer leadership, community service and celebration of female role models. G.I.R.L.S. Conference. Seeks girls between the ages of 15 to 19 to plan the 1998 Girls' Conference at Simmons College in Boston, MA. This is a girl-run event. Call Marie at 617-482-1078, ext 232 to request an application to serve on the planning committee. Join G.I.R.L.S. Monthly Roundtable Discussion for girls and adults to organize for change Saturday, February 21 at Simmons College 10:00-1:00 p.m. Call Marie @ 617-482-1078 Ext 232 for more info. 1998 G.I.R.L.S. Conference Saturday, June 6, 1998 8:00-3:30 p.m. Simmons College Must register by Friday, May 29! Space is limited to 300. '98 G.I.R.L.S. Conference c/o Girl Scouts 95 Berkeley St., 4th Floor Boston, MA 02116 Phone: 617-482-1078 or 1-800-882-1662, Ext. 232 Fax: 617-482-9045 E-mail: girlsconf@ptgirlscouts.org Web Site: http://www.gis.net/~adena/girls.htm ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 07:00:58 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu" Subject: Women of Color in WMS Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Dear WMST-L Readers: I have been asked by one of our WMS majors to post the following message on wmst-l. If you can assist this student, please respond to her directly at [DADL2203@uriacc.uri.edu]. Do not respond to me or to the list. Thank you for your time. > Hi, my name is Dori Adler and I am presently a senior at the >University of Rhode Island. My majors are Women's Studies and Psychology and >I am in the process of finishing my last requirements for my Women's >Studies' career. I am participating in a senior Feminist Research course >this semester and we are curently working on a group "action project". This >project focuses on minority students in the Women's Studies program and >their representation in the courses and the major. I am writing to you to >find out if you could possibly send me information about your program and >the minority representation that you currently have. Also, if you do have a >signifigant number of minority women in your Women's Studies department-why >do you feel that they are there and what do you think we at U.R.I could do >to increase our minority population in our Women's Studies program? We are >interested in determining what are the barriers that are keeping minority >women from entering into our classrooms and also what are the reasons that >some women (who are involved) are attending? Any information that you could >provide would be greatly appreciated. With your help, we can plan and >organize an "action project" on our campus which would hopefully reach to >the minority women and increase our diversity in the classrooms. Thank you >very much for your time and effort. Please email me DADL2203@uriacc.uri.edu >at your earliest convienence. We are hoping to gather all our information as >soon as possible. Thank you very much and if you have any questions please >do not hesitate to email me. Thank you again, Dori Adler. > > Donna M. Bickford dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu Department of English and Women's Studies Program University of Rhode Island 315 Roosevelt Hall Kingston, RI 02881 ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 11:00:43 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Barbara Shircliffe Subject: Call For Papers-Women's Studies Anthology MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Calls for Papers "Rethinking the Masters' Tools? Institutionalizing Women's Studies in US Higher Education" Barbara Shircliffe, Barbara Scott Winkler, and Catherine Orr This interdisciplinary anthology will document and analyze women's = studies from its emergence within the women's movement to its = institutionalization in colleges and universities across the United = States. In this context, institutionalization is understood as a complex = and undertheorized process with historically and socially specific = locations based on race, class, gender and sexual politics. We want the = anthology to consider women's studies from a variety of disciplinary and = methodological perspectives. Therefore, submissions from any discipline = in the humanities or social sciences are also welcome. Authors are = encouraged to focus on one or more of the following themes. 1. "'By, For, and About Women': Theoretical Perspectives on = Institutionalization Women's Studies." Submissions for this section, = through case studies and/or general theoretical discussions, may provide = varying perspectives from which to understand the effects of diverse = forms of institutionalization on women's studies. Authors, however, = should address the ways the overall process of institutionalization was = shaped by historically and/or socially specific contexts of gender, = race, class, and sexual orientation. =20 2. "Building the 'Intellectual Arm of the Women's Movement': The = Emergence of Women's Studies in Women's Liberation." Submissions for = this section might examine the original founding individuals' and = groups' visions and rhetorical strategies used in program building. = Locating the creation and development of women's studies in the goals = and strategies of the contemporaneous women's movements, authors may = address how the local activism shaped individual programs or departments = vis a vis the administration, other grass roots political projects, and = broader social struggles such as Civil Rights, Black Power, the New = Left, and anti-colonial movements. Authors may also trace the changing = nature of program narratives, curriculum, and constituencies as a result = of institutionalization, retrenchment, increased or decreased community = involvement, internal strife, campus climate, or the success and/or = support of other social movement-based disciplines such as African = American, Chicano, Native American, or urban studies.=20 3. "Political Imperatives and Strategic Choices: Women's Studies in = Backlash Era." Submissions for this section may document internal = institutional politics and strategies as programs simultaneously attain = permanence and struggle against marginalization. Authors may address = how larger social, political, and economic forces such as the decline of = a mass base student movement, the rise of the New Right, economic = retrenchment, etc. as well as how local institutional politics = complicated and transformed individual program strategies. Authors = focusing future oriented and retrospective lessons learned essays are = particularly encourage to summit. =20 Deadline for Submissions: June 15, 1998=20 Manuscript length: Approximately 8500 words. Each submission should include a separate cover letter, abstract (250 = word maximum), and three copies of the abstract and manuscript. = Submissions should be mailed to Dr. Barbara J. Shircliffe, Department of = Psychological and Social Foundations, University of South Florida, 4202 = East Fowler Avenue, FAO 100U, Tampa, FL 33620 Email: shirclif@typhoon.coedu.usf.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 07:58:02 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Trimberger E. KAY" Subject: Video on Story of Jane Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am using The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan in a class this semester. It is about the underground abortion network in Chicago before Roe vs. Wade. I vaguely remeber that sometime in the last year there was a film shown on T.V. about this group. Does anyone know the exact title and on what network it was shown? Does anyone know where you can get a copy of the film? Does anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area have a copy of it? Thanks for your help. Kay Trimberger Sonoma State University 707-664-2086 ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu E. Kay Trimberger Coordinator and Professor Women's Studies Program Sonoma State University 707 664-2086/2840 Trimberg@Sonoma.edu ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 10:53:03 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kate Phillips Subject: call for papers and subscriptions MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The Michigan Journal of Gender & Law seeks submissions for our Fall 1998 and Spring 1999 issues. We welcome the contributions of the thinkers and writers in your organization. We also invite you to subscribe to our journal. MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF GENDER & LAW The Michigan Journal of Gender & Law seeks to create a forum beyond the confines of traditional legal discourse where activists, practitioners and scholars can engage in interdiscipliary dialogue on issues of gender, sexuality, race and class. By giving voice to concerned thinkers and writers from many fields, the Journal will foster not only the exchange of ideas, but the development of a community. The Michigan Journal of Gender & Law was founded in 1991 by a small group of feminist students at The University of Michigan Law School. We have grown to publish two issues a year which can be found in law libraries and private collections around the world, and in legal online services. OUR MISSION The central mission of the Michigan Journal of Gender & Law is to create a feminist legal publication that will help expand and develop legal discourse beyond traditional boundaries. The Journal is dedicated to providing a forum for exploring how gender issues, as well as related issues of race, class, sexual orientation, sexual identity and culture impact the lives of women and men. The Journal seeks to juxtapose and interweave theoretical and practical perspectives on gender issues in order to provide a bridge between the two. To achieve these purposes, the Journal will publish the views of legal scholars, activists, social scientists, practitioners, students, and others. PUBLICATION POLICY The Michigan Journal of Gender & Law accepts a variety of written works. We are interested in both traditional and non-traditional pieces that explore gender issues that are found in the law. Written pieces may include, but are not limited to, traditional law journal articles, essays, book reviews, briefs or other legal documents, speeches, critiques, fiction pieces and poetry. The Journal wishes to promote equal recognition of diverse voices and encourage the publication of pieces based on diverse experiences and viewpoints. In this manner, published pieces are not distinguished on the basis of the author's educational and/or occupational background. SUBMISSION PROCEDURE We require one (1) double-spaced "hard copy" manuscript only. We suggest but do not require an additional electronic version on 3.5" disk, in Word 7.0. (If Word 7.0 is unavailable to you, you may submit in WordPerfect or an older Word format) We are unable to accept email submissions. While all published pieces must conform to The BlueBook, 16th Ed. and The Chicago Manual of Style, we welcome submissions in other citation and style formats. Please use footnotes. We select articles on a rolling basis for our semi-annual publication dates. We only have a few spots left for the Fall 1998 issue, which we expect to fill by about the end of February or so. We hope to fill the Spring 1999 issue by the beginning of October. We will consider a piece for the earliest issue open at the time the piece arrives. Additional Hints for Authors: Please do not forget to consider your audience. This journal writes for an audience of mostly American lawyers, law professors and law students. If your piece intersects other fields it should be understandable by those that are not familiar with it. Likewise, if your piece analyzes law, it must be written towards an audience of lawyers. If you have not been to an American law school you may wish to consult a law graduate on the method and style of legal analysis if your piece analyzes law. We are often asked about length requirements for submissions. We have no length requirements, because different types of writing would require varying amounts of analysis. We look for pieces that develop original thoughts fully. Those that are research oriented pieces should show fruits of having researched the entire subject completely. The average length for accepted articles is 50-80 manuscript pages. Please send all submissions to the following address: Michigan Journal of Gender & Law Attention: Selection Coordinator University of Michigan Law School Hutchins Hall Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215 If you have further questions please contact: selection.mjgl@umich.edu (email) or (734) 763-7378 (phone) SUBSCRIPTIONS We welcome new subscribers to our journal. Please contact our Business Manager, Maureen Bishop for more information about subscriptions. Please write the above postal address, email maureena@umich.edu, or phone (734) 763-6100. We appreciate the support of our subscribers. Thank you very much for your interest in Michigan Journal of Gender & Law. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:53:55 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Barbara Peters Organization: Southampton College of L.I.U. Subject: Haitian Women MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hello, I wonder if anyone could direct me to some sources on women and Haiti. I have a Women's Studies student from there who has gotten very frustrated trying to find research on women from her country. Peace, Barbara "O wad some power the giftie gie us- to see oursels as others see us!" . . . Robert Burns TO A LOUSE Barbara J. Peters, Assistant Professor Social Sciences Division Long Island University - Southampton 239 Montauk Highway Southampton, NY 11968 (516) 287-8236 FAX: (516) 287-8203 e-mail bpeters@southampton.liunet.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 11:59:56 -0500 Reply-To: "jgrant@tui.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jaime Grant Organization: The Union Institute Subject: Re: Haitian Women Edwidge Danticat's novels/stories - Breath, Eyes, Memory and Krik Krak are incredible. -----Original Message----- From: Barbara Peters [SMTP:BPeters@SOUTHAMPTON.LIUNET.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 1998 10:54 AM To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU Subject: Haitian Women Hello, I wonder if anyone could direct me to some sources on women and Haiti. I have a Women's Studies student from there who has gotten very frustrated trying to find research on women from her country. Peace, Barbara "O wad some power the giftie gie us- to see oursels as others see us!" . . . Robert Burns TO A LOUSE Barbara J. Peters, Assistant Professor Social Sciences Division Long Island University - Southampton 239 Montauk Highway Southampton, NY 11968 (516) 287-8236 FAX: (516) 287-8203 e-mail bpeters@southampton.liunet.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 10:21:10 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Helen Irene Jones Subject: Vice President for Student Services MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I would like make known to as many potential applicants as possible that our university is currently undergoing a search for a Vice President for Student Services. You can learn more about the position by looking in the "Faculty/Staff" section of our Web page, located at www.unr.edu The University of Nevada, Reno is located at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains with access to many beautiful places. We have a very active student services faculty and staff, with a primary goal of supporting the academic mission of the university through a number of innovative arrangements. Please encourage applications, especially from women. Helen Jones, J.D. Women's Resource Center University of Nevada, Reno jones@admin.unr.edu tel: 702.784.4611 fax: 702.784.4607 Visit the virtual Women's Resource Center at: http://www.unr.edu/wrc/womens html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 13:35:39 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Maria Pramaggiore Subject: Re: Video on Story of Jane In-Reply-To: <199802111558.HAA04710@uclink2.berkeley.edu> from "Trimberger E. KAY" at Feb 11, 98 07:58:02 am MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit You may be referring to _Jane: An Abortion Service_, a film by Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy (1996). It's 58 minutes long and is distributed on video by Women Make Movies in NY--you can reach them at (212) 925-0606. It's a wonderful film--we are purchasing it for our WS program and featuring it in our 25th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade symposium in March. Maria Pramaggiore North Carolina State University Trimberger E. KAY wrote: > > I am using The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan in a class this semester. It > is about the underground abortion network in Chicago before Roe vs. Wade. I > vaguely remeber that sometime in the last year there was a film shown on > T.V. about this group. Does anyone know the exact title and on what network > it was shown? Does anyone know where you can get a copy of the film? Does > anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area have a copy of it? Thanks for your help. > > Kay Trimberger > Sonoma State University > 707-664-2086 > ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu > E. Kay Trimberger > Coordinator and Professor > Women's Studies Program > Sonoma State University > 707 664-2086/2840 > Trimberg@Sonoma.edu > ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Maria Pramaggiore * maria_p@unity.ncsu.edu Assistant Professor, Film Studies * Department of English * (919) 515-4138 office North Carolina State University * Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 * (919) 515-1836 fax * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 14:28:30 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: hagolem Subject: Re: Video on Story of Jane Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 07:58 AM 2/11/98 -0800, you wrote: >I am using The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan in a class this semester. It >is about the underground abortion network in Chicago before Roe vs. Wade. I >vaguely remeber that sometime in the last year there was a film shown on >T.V. about this group. Does anyone know the exact title and on what network >it was shown? Does anyone know where you can get a copy of the film? Does >anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area have a copy of it? Thanks for your help. > We used this video a couple of years ago and it worked very well. It is called Jane: an Abortion SErvice. We rented it from a place in Cambridge MA but I would hope it would be available much closer to you. i highly recommend it. i don't think it was made for television. marge piercy hagolem@capecod.net ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 14:21:50 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Dr. Nancy Jabbra" Subject: computer viruses Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I continue to acquire computer viruses that block my machine from booting, so then I have to run a virus scan diskette. I suspect that they come via e-mail, because my own diskettes are clean. The same viruses keep turning up, namely joshi and joshi.a, and they evidently are the problem. I get most of my e-mail from this list, although I can't prove that's where joshi comes from. At any rate, please check out your computers and floppies. Thanks. -Nancy Jabbra, Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, njabbra@lmumail.lmu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 14:36:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katherine Side Subject: Re: Video on Story of Jane In-Reply-To: <199802111558.HAA04710@uclink2.berkeley.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Kay, I am also trying to track down a copy of this video, for classroom use; I saw the film last year at N.W.S.A., which *I think* is called 'Jane.' And I am having a hard time, perhaps because I am looking for a copy of the video in Canada. My university library does not have a copy; neither does the interlibrary loan system, or the local women's bookstore that rents videos. I tried calling C.A.R.A.L., and they didn't have a copy, but said that it had been shown on public televsion in the U.S. They also suggested that I call the U.S. National Abortion Federation, in Washington. Their number is: (202) 667-5881. I have a call into the public relations assistant, but I haven't heard back from them. If anyone on the list knows how I might a copy of this video, I'd appreciate hearing from them. Please reply privately. Thanks, Katherine Side kside@acs.ryerson.ca Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria Street Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Trimberger E. KAY wrote: > I am using The Story of Jane by Laura Kaplan in a class this semester. It > is about the underground abortion network in Chicago before Roe vs. Wade. I > vaguely remeber that sometime in the last year there was a film shown on > T.V. about this group. Does anyone know the exact title and on what network > it was shown? Does anyone know where you can get a copy of the film? Does > anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area have a copy of it? Thanks for your help. > > Kay Trimberger > Sonoma State University > 707-664-2086 > ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu > E. Kay Trimberger > Coordinator and Professor > Women's Studies Program > Sonoma State University > 707 664-2086/2840 > Trimberg@Sonoma.edu > ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 14:52:56 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Re: computer viruses MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > I continue to acquire computer viruses that block my machine from booting, > so then I have to run a virus scan diskette. I suspect that they come via > e-mail, because my own diskettes are clean. The same viruses keep turning > up, namely joshi and joshi.a, and they evidently are the problem. I get > most of my e-mail from this list, although I can't prove that's where joshi > comes from. At any rate, please check out your computers and floppies. > Thanks. -Nancy Jabbra, Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, njabbra@lmumail.lmu.edu Hi, folks. The User's Guide asks that you not send messages about computer viruses to WMST-L. The above message should not have been sent, but since it was, let me explain that you cannot get a computer virus from simply reading your normal e-mail. You will NOT--repeat, NOT--get viruses from reading WMST-L messages. Viruses come from executable programs, not straight text messages. The one kind of virus that some people may get from e-mail is from downloading and opening some Microsoft Word attachments. But WMST-L messages do not include attachments, so you are not in danger from them. Please, folks, DO NOT SEND MESSAGES ABOUT COMPUTER VIRUSES TO WMST-L!!! They merely create unfounded anxiety. If you have a computer virus, it didn't come from WMST-L. Thus, there's no point in sending such messages to the list. I might add that, just as people take flu shots or get innoculations to prevent all kinds of human viruses from hurting them, so too you should consider using a virus protection program to provide protection for your computer. No program is infallible, but many are very very good. I use Norton Anti-Virus, which provides updates every month. It's one of several highly rated programs available. I think the March 1998 issue of PC World has a comparison of several. It's available online at http://www.pcworld.com/ . Joan ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 13:33:55 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joseph Boles Subject: Re: Video on Story of Jane MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Jane: An Abortion Service is by the talented filmmaker Kate Kirtz--Our colleagues at Women Make Movies distribute it 212-925-0606 orders@wmm.com It rents for $90 on video and costs 4245 for purchase Info can be found in their new catalogue-- ************************************************************************** Joseph Boles, Director Women's Studies Program Box 5695 Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011 Joseph.Boles@nau.edu 520-523-3300 **************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 17:17:13 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rubina Ramji Subject: Intro film on Islam In-Reply-To: ; from "dbic6066@uriacc.uri.edu" at Feb 11, 98 7:00 am Hi, I am looking for an introductory film to Islam, that includes the voices of women. If anyone has any ideas, please e-mail me at the address below. Thanks Rubina Ramji -- rramji@aix1.uottawa.ca University of Ottawa "Tota philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est" (To philosophise is to learn how to die) - Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 17:19:44 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathleen Laughlin Subject: Program Administrators Pre-Conference NWSA '98 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT ANNOUNCING A PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS LISTSERV FOR NWSA '98 Logon with suggestions for plenaries and workshops for the Program Administrators Preconference. Preconference co-chairs Sandra Squires, University of Nebraska-Omaha, and Kathleen Laughlin, Metropolitan State University, Minneapolis, are seeking volunteers for workshops and plenary panels. We ask that you respond by March 15, 1998. You subscribe to the listserv by e-mailing a message to: majordomo@s-cwis.unomaha.edu with the following line the body of the message (do not put anything on the subject line) subscribe NWSA login@server Example: subscribe NWSA squires@unomaha.edu Program administrators can also contact the preconference co-chairs directly at the following e-mail addresses and phone numbers: Kathleen Laughlin Metropolitan State University 730 Hennepin Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55403-1897 (612) 341-7254 e-mail: laughlink@msus1.msus.edu Sandra Squires Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE 68182-0054 (402) 554-3582 e-mail: squires@unomaha.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 20:41:49 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: 4 calls for papers/presentations MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT The following four calls for papers may interest WMST-L readers: 1) CFP: Gender and Knowledge (Grad Student Conference, Rutgers) 2) CFP: Carole Maso: The Sexuality of Narrative (1998 MLA) 3) CFP: Sexuality & Gender in 20th Century Europe (UK) 4) CFP: Feminist Practice in Qualitative Research (RFR) For more information, please contact the people named in the announcements, not WMST-L or me. Joan Korenman (korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu) ************************************************************* 1) Call for Papers and Projects The Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University invites submissions for its Fourth Annual Graduate Student Conference --- Gender and Knowledge --- April 3, 1998 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey The production, acquisition and legitimation of knowledge are gendered processes. This interdisciplinary graduate student conference seeks to explore, from multiple perspectives, the ways in which gender and knowledge are mutually constitutive. How is knowledge gendered--what is the role of gender in defining what is known and how we know? How do we learn about gender and sexuality? Do men and women acquire knowledge differently? How are academic disciplines created, and who creates them? How do we reproduce and legitimate knowledge? What types of knowledge are produced in various arenas? How is gender implicated in the transmission, advancement and reinvention of knowledge? What constitutes cultural knowledge? How do we change knowledge? We seek papers and creative projects that touch on themes relating to gender and knowledge. Additional focuses may include: Gendered learning and teaching Cultural knowledge and representation Formation of identity and subjectivity Cyberknowledge; "new" knowledges Knowledge production Libraries as gendered sites of knowledge Technology as a vehicle for knowing Sexuality as gendered knowledge Gender, knowledge and power Submission Guidelines: Abstracts due March 2, 1998 Individual paper abstracts, panel proposals and other program suggestions are invited. Please include name, departmental and institutional affiliation, address, phone number and email address. Paper or Panel Proposals: send three copies of a one-page abstract detailing the proposed project. Include paper or session title, names, phone numbers, addresses and email addresses of all participants. If possible, please email additional copy to jnelson234@aol.com. (Completed papers should be 8-12 pages in length.) Creative projects: send three copies of a one-page abstract describing the project as well as any slides, audio tapes or other appropriate media. We cannot guarantee return of these materials. If you have questions, feel free to contact Jennifer Brier (jbrier@eden.rutgers.edu) or Barbara Cutter (bcutter@rci.rutgers.edu). Send all proposals to: Graduate Student Conference Institute for Research on Women 27 Clifton Avenue Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ 08903 **************************************************************************** 2) CFP: Carole Maso: The Sexuality of Narrative Proposed Special Session 1998 MLA in San Francisco, Dec 27-30, 1998 Papers are solicited for a proposed Special Session at the 1998 San Francisco MLA on Carole Maso: The Sexuality of Narrative. This topic is meant to embrace, in the widest terms, papers that address the ligatures between narrative, gender, and desire in any or all of Maso's works. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, examinations of: the possible co-incidence of narrative desire and sexual desire; the relationships between feminine sexualities and Maso's innovative 'lyric narrative' or 'erotic etudes'; the status of lesbian sexualities in Maso's works. Submit 2 page abstracts by March 1, 1998 to: Grant Stirling Department of English phone: (416) 736-5166 (work) York University fax: (416) 736-5412 Toronto, Ontario e-mail: stirling@julian.uwo.ca Canada M3J 1P3 ************************************************************************* CALL FOR PAPERS: SEXUALITY AND GENDER IN 20TH CENTURY EUROPE 2-3 SEPTEMBER 1998 Since 1945, European politics, economics, society and cultural life has been radically transformed. The growth of feminist theory and the emergence of gay/lesbian studies in the 1960s-70s on the one hand, and the greater interface between the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies in the 1980s-90s on the other, provides scholars with the opportunity to make cross-cultural comparisons on a range of issues relating to sexuality and gender in 20th century Europe. How have these changes, and in particular the collapse of communism in the late 1980s-early 1990s affected sexuality and gender? This conference invites papers on either single countries or of a comparative or thematic nature. Innovative or path-breaking approaches which facilitate a fuller understanding or re-thinking of the past, present and future trends in sexuality and gender in contemporary Europe, East and West, are particulary welcome in ONE of the following areas: Literary,cutural, historical, sociological and political perspectives on gender issues; theorising sexuality and gender; historicising sexuality; gender and nationality; sexual discrimination; sexual minorities; feminism and the women's movement; gender and party politics; youth, sexuality and gender; sexual revolution: fact or fiction?; sexual inequality; sexuality and post-modernism; the construction of sexual identity; sexual and gender differences; sex and violence; sexuality and literature; ethnicity and gender; new sexual identities and values; sexuality and citizenship; sexual identity and politics; erotica and pornography; masculinity and femininity; bi-sexuality. The deadline for the submission of abstracts of up to 500 words is 16 February 1998. Notification of acceptance will be given by the end of March 1998. It is intended to publish a selection of the papers in an edited volume with a major publisher. Abstracts and informal enquiries in the area of history, politics and sociology should be addressed to Dr. Christopher Williams; or on literature and cultural studies to: Dr Petra Bagley, or Dr. Helen Jones, Department of Languages, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE; email:c.williams2@uclan.ac.uk / p.m.bagley@uclan.ac.uk / h.l.jones@uclan.ac.uk; tel: 01772 - 893927 or 893126; fax: 01772 - 892919 or 892909. ************************************************************************** 4) CALL FOR PAPERS: RFR (Resources for Feminist Research, Toronto, Canada) Feminist Practice in Qualitative Research Papers are invited for a special issue of Resources for Feminist Research addressing feminist practice in qualitative research. This issue aims to be interdisciplinary in scope and international in content. Articles should offer a reflexive critique of planning, collection and/or interpretation phases of the research process. We encourage submissions that explore ethical approaches to feminist research and discuss participant observation, interview, and ethnographic models of research from a variety of disciplinary standpoints. Authors wishing to contribute to this special issue should forward an abstract of the proposed paper to the editors by March 15, 1998. Deadline for submission of finished papers is August 1, 1998. Dr. Diane Tye Department of Folklore Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, NF A1B 3X8 dtye@morgan.ucs.mun.ca OR Linda Cullum Department of Sociology Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, NF A1C 5S7 lcullum@morgan.ucs.mun.ca ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 21:09:30 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: sandra basgall Subject: Re: computer viruses MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit It is not possible to get a computer virus by reading e-mail. You can get it, though, when you download. You should run everything you download through your virus check. Dr. Nancy Jabbra wrote: > > I continue to acquire computer viruses that block my machine from booting, > so then I have to run a virus scan diskette. I suspect that they come via > e-mail, because my own diskettes are clean. The same viruses keep turning > up, namely joshi and joshi.a, and they evidently are the problem. I get > most of my e-mail from this list, although I can't prove that's where joshi > comes from. At any rate, please check out your computers and floppies. > Thanks. -Nancy Jabbra, Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles, njabbra@lmumail.lmu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 22:06:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: corporate/collective connections In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" There are very serious questions to raise in presenting TQM (Total Quality Management) to students. On rewards for reporting quality problems. Students should understand risks to whistle-blowers. The fate of Karen Silkwood, perhaps an extreme consequence, should be recalled. And they should consider what would happen if one of the women, almost all race/ethnic minorities, in US chicken processing plants reported the filth on chickens that go on to stores. On teamwork. The point of teams in a business is for workers to cooperate to increase the employer's profits. The product or service is not at issue, its value to society or anyone is not considered; it could be to sell [explitive deleted], mean speed-up, increasing pressure on workers, fleeing to a low wage site, etc. As to equality of opportunity, that usually means opportunity to compete with others, the purpose of winning, what the winner will do not at issue, often the chance to 'go along to get along'. (Consider academic competition for jobs, promotions, publishing, etc) A case in point is Rebecca Mark, CEO of Enron, a Texas-based multinational power corporation, now moving into Pennsylvania (I think that's the state). In India, the Alliance of People's Movements is campaigning vigorously, focused on Enron to get it and its ilk out of the country. The objection is environmental degradation, profit-taking such that poor people couldn't afford the power, and taking over land where poor people live, leaving them to move to places less viable than where they are now. A leader in the protest campaign is Medha Patkar, the same woman who organized the campaign that got the World Bank and the Indian government to halt the Narmada Dam Project that was so destructive. Medha was in the US recently, developing a global alliance of support. Rebecca Mark has the support of the US State Dept in India. All of us in the US are implicated by this and whatever investment tax breaks Enron gets. (The same would be true for people in every country involved with the World Bank and the IMF, currently a stand-out for profit coups in South East Asia.) Congratulate Rebecca, a woman who 'made it', illustrating the success of feminists' agitation? I think feminists should support Medha. In sum, I believe it's important for students to read the subtexts in corporate teamwork critically, to come to grips with crucial differences in feminist schools of thought beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 04:24:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: corporate/collective connections In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980211220606.00696b68@cuny.campus.mci.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'll just say that I heartily agree with Beatrice on TQM, teamwork, etc. My research is on downsizing and middle and upper level managers. While the managers in my study agree that the ideas behind these practices had an egalitarian potential, they recognize that the practices don't really work--for a variety of reasons. And a point that hasn't been made is that, especially for lower level workers, who've always been protected by job descriptions, programs associated with TQM like Continuous QUality Improvement, actually translate into more work and less opportunity for advancement. A good person to contact would be Vicki Smith. She wrote _Managing in the Corporate Interest_ which has a chapter on the feminization of the managerial occupation. And, at the ASA's this past summer, she presented some of her research on a Silicon Valley firm which seemed to be rather progressive in its practices. While she didn't speak directly to the issues you raise, I'm sure that, given her work in the past, it is something that she had focused on in her research. Best Kelley Crouse ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 09:43:10 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Dolores Fidishun Subject: Re: computer viruses Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" You may not get a computer virus from plain email but attachments can contain viruses so it is a good idea to run a virus scan against them before you open them. Dolores Fidishun, Ed. D. Head Librarian Penn State Great Valley Graduate Center 30 E. Swedesford Road Malvern, PA 19355 email: dxf19@psu.edu phone: 610-648-3227 fax: 610-725-5223 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 09:41:23 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: millerc@SNYONEVA.CC.ONEONTA.EDU Subject: Undergraduate Women's Conference, SUNY-Oneonta Comments: To: powr-l@uriacc.uri.edu MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ************************************************************************** REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER REMINDER ************************************************************************* FINAL DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS FEB. 17, 1998 UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN'S CONFERENCE STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE AT ONEONTA TO BE HELD MARCH 27-29, 1998 ************************************************************************* To submit a proposal, send a 200-word summary of your presentation, together with your name, affiliation, phone, address, email, and type of work (paper, panel, workshop, creative work) to: Women's Studies Department Milne 315A State University College at Oneonta Oneonta, NY 13820 or email: fajaj58@oneonta.edu The conference will be held at the State University College at Oneonta, March 27-29. Presentations must be undergraduate work that address some aspect of women's lives. Submitted by, Cindy Miller ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 11:04:26 -0500 Reply-To: "jgrant@tui.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jaime Grant Organization: The Union Institute Subject: community-based programs in Latin America A friend of mine is selling the local women's bookstore after 10 years as a bookseller and wants to go to Latin American to do community-based work. Does anyone know of any such programs that have a tiny stipend and could use the labor and wits of one fine, strong feminist? She wants to make herself useful, and to get out of the little world she's been in for the past decade. Thanks in advance for your help. Jaime Grant Director The Union Institute Center for Women Jgrant@tui.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 11:31:05 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: computer viruses Comments: To: Dolores Fidishun In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII What is a virus scan? Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, Dolores Fidishun wrote: > You may not get a computer virus from plain email but attachments can > contain viruses so it is a good idea to run a virus scan against them > before you open them. > > Dolores Fidishun, Ed. D. > Head Librarian > Penn State Great Valley Graduate Center > 30 E. Swedesford Road > Malvern, PA 19355 > email: dxf19@psu.edu > phone: 610-648-3227 > fax: 610-725-5223 > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 12:12:15 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Dolores Fidishun Subject: virus scans-one last answer Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" There are several packages for sale that allow you to check your hard drive for any virus and help eliminate the virus. The program will usually not allow you to recover lost data. You need back up files for that. Although they are not 100% fool proof ( new viruses are developed all the time) they can help you to find most of them. There are a number of titles-check with your Computer Center of local computer or business store. McAffee and Norton Antivirus are good ones but there are others. There is also a fix that you can download from the Microsoft web site that will help you to not get the template virus that can be passed along by attachments opened in Word. Dolores Fidishun, Ed. D. Head Librarian Penn State Great Valley Graduate Center 30 E. Swedesford Road Malvern, PA 19355 email: dxf19@psu.edu phone: 610-648-3227 fax: 610-725-5223 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 12:11:26 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna Burnell (SOC)" Subject: socialization of women In-Reply-To: <01ISBUDWRLOI001LXJ@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I need some suggestions for readings using a feminist perspective of women's socialization/internalization of values for a research project I'm doing. I have checked this listserve's index but did not see any previous discussion on this. Any suggestions? Please reply privately, unless others indicate a listwide interest. Donna Burnell donna burnell / university of south florida office address: cooper hall / room 216 tampa, florida home phone: 813-733-844 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 11:49:03 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: thomas robert mueller Subject: Re: socialization of women In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I would be interested in seeing any inquires on this topic on the listserv. Tom Mueller ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas R. Mueller University of Illinois Ph.D. Student Geography 220 Davenport Hall MC-150 Urbana IL 61801 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, Donna Burnell (SOC) wrote: > I need some suggestions for readings using a feminist > perspective of women's socialization/internalization of values for a > research project I'm doing. I have checked this listserve's index but did > not see any previous discussion on this. Any suggestions? Please reply > privately, unless others indicate a listwide interest. > > Donna Burnell > > donna burnell / university of south florida > office address: cooper hall / room 216 > tampa, florida > home phone: 813-733-844 > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 13:09:22 MST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Analouise Keating Subject: Garland Press Hi, I have a question about Garland Press--or several questions, rather. Is it considered a "scholarly" press? In other words, will books or articles in anthologies published by Garland help one secure tenure? Or, would it be better to look for a university publisher? Please reply privately to me, at AnnLouise.Keating@enmu.edu Thanks in advance! ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 13:01:11 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Haessly Subject: Re: socialization of women Comments: To: "Donna Burnell (SOC)" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Try Belenky, et all,__Woman's Ways of Knowing__; Birgit Brock-Utne's __Feminist Perspectives on Peace Research and Peace Education__, especially the chapter on informal education, but also formal education; and for sources of research, see Shulamit Reinharz, __Feminist Research Methodologies__, or Judith Thompson Klein's __Interdisciplinary Research__ which both provide numerous references of research into related topics. Peace, Jacqueline Haessly jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image Peace! On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, Donna Burnell (SOC) wrote: > I need some suggestions for readings using a feminist > perspective of women's socialization/internalization of values for a > research project I'm doing. I have checked this listserve's index but did > not see any previous discussion on this. Any suggestions? Please reply > privately, unless others indicate a listwide interest. > > Donna Burnell > > donna burnell / university of south florida > office address: cooper hall / room 216 > tampa, florida > home phone: 813-733-844 > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 15:34:08 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Betsy Keller Subject: advice on film choices for intro class? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am teaching Intro to Women's Studies for the first time and could use some advice about choosing a feature film to show my class. I am also showing several documentary-style films, but in selecting a full-length film I particularly wish to model the process of deconstructing a piece of pop culture, so that when they go to the movies some of them may view them more critically. I have been planning to show "The Women" from 1939, directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Rosalind Russell. This could be useful for exploring the age-old notion that women are natural enemies, and additionally there are salient class and race relationships in it to be exploited. However I am vacillating about whether this is a good choice. For one thing, it is in black and white, and friends have suggested to me that students tend to turn off to those films. The age of the movie also worries me. Maybe if my ultimate goal is to teach analysis of popular culture I should choose something that is genuinely part of their current pop culture. Do people have suggestions about movies that have worked well for them? Betsy Keller elk@rci.rutgers.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 11:58:25 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katsue Akiba Reynolds Organization: Josai International University Subject: Re: gender in Chinese language MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit i also wanted to know "exactly when" and i asked John DeFrancis, a chinese language specialist who has been working on a chinese-english dictionary, a professor emeritus of the university of hawaii, who kindly faxed me three pages of Yuen Ren Chao's A GRAMMAR OF SPOKEN CHINESE (University of California Press, 1968, pp641-3). YRC writes: The borrowing of distinctions of gender in personal pronouns from Western languages into Chinese is one of those conscious attempts to change linguistic usage on which much effort has been spent and only slight changes of a marginal nature have resulted. It was about the time of the 1917 Literary Revolution that writers began to differenciate the third-person pronoun 'he' [character with the 'person' radical] , 'she' [with the 'woman' radical, and 'it' . Little attention was paid to the question of how these were to be pronounced, and most readers read all three as 'ta' when reading aloud. During the succeeding years i myself tried to give some linguistic status to these differentiated graphs by proposing the forms ....... so, Naomi Stunden is right about the innovation. i guess the distinction perhaps looked traditional to my chinese colleague since she is a relatively young person (in her late 30s?). being a feminist linguist, who have been interested in the development of the distinction between women's language and men's language in japanese, i am very much interested in chinese women and their language. the fact that there are several hundreds characters with the woman radical, almost all of which have negative meanings, the food-binding, and the exclusion of women from the use of characters seem to me very strong indications of sexism in the chinese society in the past to say the least. also, distinction created by the writers during the cultural revolution is not a simple borowing from the west. the chinese writers adopted the third person pronoun with the radical indicating 'person' as the masculine form, shich is an exact parallet to the 'male-as-norm' semantic rule that is typically seen in the generic use of 'man' and 'he/his/him' in English. it is interesting that Y.R. Chao, the author of the chinese grammar writes,"IDuring the subsequent years I myself tried to give some linguistic status to these differentiated graphs by proposing...." He tried to introduce the gender distinction in spoken chinese. this gives rise to several interesting questions concerning how sexism is coded in languages. Naomi Standen wrote: > > [Note: the quotes are edited to the extent that I took them out of all caps.] > > >According to a Chinese teacher, one of my colleagues, the gender > >distinction in the third person pronouns in the writing is not a recent > >invention, but it has existed for a long time in the history of the > >chinese language. > > I'd love to know exactly when the 'female' character came into being. My > understanding (which may be wrong) was that it was one result of the > linguistic changes happening from the late Qing (C19) onwards, which, being > a medieval historian, I count as relatively recent! Can your teacher give > you a date/period to share with us? > > >Incidentally, several researchers have recently > >presented the women's characters--Chinese characters invented by women > >for the use of women when women were not allowed to write the regular > >(for-male use) Chinese characters--a somewhat different but basically > >similar situation was observed in Japan, too, in the beginning of the > >development of the Japanese writing: women did not have access to the > >standard writing system. > > The interesting thing here is that in China the women's language was > unheard-of until recently (there's a good article in _Engendering China_, > four eds including Hershatter - don't have the book to hand), whereas in > Japan women's writing is and has been widely celebrated as, for instance, > providing the first novel anywhere in the world (_The Tale of Genji_). > Drawing from the same Confucian base, and with similar patterns of > production (at least in the post-C11 Chinese ideal), the cultures have done > entirely different things with women's writing. > > Now there's a research project! > > -- > Naomi Standen > Department of History, Politics and Society > University of Wisconsin-Superior > nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 15:59:49 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Margaret R Parker Subject: science course Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII To: Colleagues From: Margaret Parker, Director, Women's and Gender Studies at LSU Our program is proposing an interdisciplinary team-taught freshman-leve course entitled Evolution of Sex. We have support from the dean of Arts and Sciences and will be seeking support from the dean of Basic Sciences. We wonder whether anyone has designed such a course and what your experience has been. We hope to have it count toward the General Education requirement. Thanks for any suggestions. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 08:04:19 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rhoda Unger Subject: Re: socialization of women MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Could you be a little clearer about what you mean by values? I might be able to help, but this term is a little broad. Thanks, Rhoda Unger ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 09:39:52 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: science course Comments: To: Margaret R Parker In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Getting support from the dean of Basic Science is a very good idea. A number pf academic feminists have criticised traditional scientific attitudes, especially the approach to integrating women as higher-level students and in a professional capacity. Ruby Rohrlich research professor, anthropology department, The George Washington University rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 08:24:22 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Betty Glass Subject: Women in the Media course query Comments: cc: sylvia@scs.unr.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I am forwarding this request to WMST-L for a faculty member who is not a list member. Please send your replies to her directly. Thanks, Betty ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sylvia Ontanedabernales I am looking for resources to use in creating a Women Studies course -- Women in the Media -- Participation and Portrayal. It will cover a lot of ground quickly. Fifty to sixty percent will be about U.S minority women and women in developing countries. Any suggestions? I've surfed the internet and find much, but need some specific readings, particularly books the students can get a hold of. I teach this course in the Fall. WS 497--Special Topics. Any help will be appreciated. Sylvia Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales P.O. Box 13782 University Station Reno, NV 89507 Home:(702) 348-8742 Work:(702) 348-2772 Xt. 226 sylvia@pogonip.scs.unr.edu Media & Communications Consulting/Publishing & Production Services ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 12:33:15 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE An article published in the December issue of the Journal of Educatio= nal Psychology (Vol. 89, No. 4, p. 743=96751), and featured in the Februa= ry issue of the APA Monitor, raises serious questions about the validity= and usefulness of student evaluations. The researchers analyzed student evaluations from 600 classes, representing the range of undergraduate classes offered at the University of Washington. Accompanying the usu= al questions about the class and the professor, the evaluations also ask= ed students about the amount of work required in the class compared with other classes and the grades they expected to receive in the class compared with other classes. The data indicate that students are biased toward faculty who give hi= gh grades and require the least amount of work. The researchers found a direct correlation between faculty that give high grades and strong student evaluations. Because colleges and universities tend to rewar= d professors with consistently strong student evaluations, this trend translates to students truly getting something for nothing. =20 The authors identify the following disturbing implications: =95 Low student ratings may discourage instructors from setting high standards. =95 Students may gravitate toward less demanding, high-grading classe= s, spurring a drop in the number of demanding courses. =95 Grades may be artificially inflated because courses are less challenging. The researchers suggest modifying student evaluations to include how = much they have learned in addition to their overall satisfaction with the course. Call me cynical, but I suspect that student evaluations cent= ering on how much they have learned will be strongly tied to their satisfac= tion, and hence to high grades and courses that demand the least amount of = work. The cycle continues. The central issue in my mind, given the mounti= ng evidence that student evaluations are strongly biased, is the overall weight that universities give to them when considering faculty for te= nure, promotion, or other awards. Can anyone comment on how student evalua= tions are weighed? Angela ************************************************************* Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco"=20 ************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 12:14:57 -0500 Reply-To: "Barbara W. Gerber" Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Barbara W. Gerber" Subject: Resources for children (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Posting for someone who asked NWSA directly. Please respond to the person listed not WMST-L Thanks. -------------------------- Barbara W. Gerber, Ed.D. 1997-98 President Distinguished Service Professor National Women's Studies Assn. SUNY Oswego School of Education Ph:315-341-3282 gerber@oswego.edu FAX: 315-341-3198 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 22:14:13 -0800 From: Debbi J-H To: NWSA@umail.umd.edu Subject: Resources for children Hello, I am part of a small school in San Jacinto, Calif. and I am currently trying to put together some resources for a unit on women in history for all students in my school K-8th. I want to find books at lower reading levels that early readers can read about women of fame and courage. I would also like ideas on period pieces that help give a view of the role of young women at certain parts of time and history; such as the Witch of Blackbird Pond. Any ideas for catalogs or resources would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Debbi Jayne-Hutchinson ------------ End Forwarded Message ------------- ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 15:47:34 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sara Ebenreck Subject: Call for papers Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The Society for the Study of Women Philosophers (SSWP) invites proposals = for papers at our 1998 sessions to be held Dec. 28-31 in Washington, DC, = in conjunction with the meetings of the American Philosophical Association.= =20 Presentations may be on philosophical ideas in the work of women from any = of the world's traditions and on any of the following topics: =20 * Ways that women philosophers, past and present, have defined = what it means to be a woman and/or a woman philosopher. * Discovery of work by previously unrecognized women philosophers. = * Philosophical ideas in women poets, novelists, dramatists, etc. * An aspect of the thought of a recognized woman philosopher. * How the nature of philosophical work has been redefined through = women's contributions, or needs redefinition to become more = inclusive of women's contributions. * Reflections on experience in teaching the work of women = philosophers. * Reflections on the interrelationship between women's lives and = women's philosophies. Send TEN copies of a two-page abstract (or copies of the paper) to: =20 Sara Ebenreck, SSWP Program Chair Philosophy and Religious Studies Department St. Mary's College of Maryland St. Mary's City, MD 20686 E-mail: sebenreck@osprey.smcm.edu =20 DEADLINE: APRIL 15, 1998. =20 =20 Complete papers should be times for 45 minues or less, including discussion= Papers and proposals will be anonymously reviewed by the SSWP board. = Notification of acceptance will be made by early summer 1998. =20 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 15:44:21 -0000 Reply-To: A J M Colson Sender: Women's Studies List From: A J M Colson Subject: Lakehead University Summer Institute for Advanced Studies MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am writing as the administrator of the Lakehead University Summer Institute for Advanced Studies. You might be interested in the courses offered by this Graduate Summer Institute. Lakehead University Summer Institute for Advanced Studies http://www.lusias.org The Lakehead University Summer Institute for Advanced Studies offers graduate courses in the use of computing technologies for research in the humanities and social sciences. These courses would interest those scholars concerned to integrate the theories and methods of hypermedia into their own research in women's studies. This Graduate Summer Institute aims to promote and create a research environment where students can work with professional staff and researchers from leading institutions across the world. Students first learn about Hypermedia technologies, and then have the option to apply them to their own research materials. There are two sessions to choose from and all courses are taught at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The MacKenzie Ward Trust is collaborating with Lakehead University in organizing this innovative Graduate Summer School in 1998. The courses offered at LUSIAS aim to bridge the gap between technologies and the social sciences. The explosion of digital information has not yet been accompanied by a similar growth in software tools to manage and organize digital data. Hypermedia technologies offer the potential to resolve these information management problems. They will enable students to investigate issues from new angles and invite new ways of molding and presenting their research materials. The completion of courses allows students to gain graduate level credits or they can be used to further professional training. There are two sessions in 1998: Session I: May 11th to 30, 1998 Session II: July 6th to 25th, 1998 If you have any questions please contact: Alicia Colson LUSIAS Administrator ajmcolson@lusias.org http://www.lusias.org ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 13:45:33 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Billie Korstrom Subject: Dr. Vandana Shiva Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Does anyone have an e-mail address for Dr. Shiva. I have a FAX # but it doesn't seem to be connecting. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 19:15:51 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rosalie Riegle Subject: Michigan Women's Studies Association conference Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The Michigan Women's Studies Association's 25th anniversary conference will be held at Saginaw Valley State University, near I-75, just north of Saginaw, Michigan, on April 3-4, 1998. The topic is WOMEN & HEALTH CARE: LOCAL, NATIONAL & GLOBAL. For more information, go to http://www.svsu.edu/englishinfo/mwsa.htm on the Web or e-mail Rosalie Riegle. If you or your group has a Web page, we would much appreciate your inserting a link to this location, to help your members and constituents get our information. It can be removed after April 4, 1998. Thank you! Rosalie Riegle and the MWSA Conference Planning Committee, Saginaw Valley State University ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 23:00:43 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Florence Howe Subject: Fwd: WSQ call for papers on the relationship between activism and women's stu... Comments: cc: msn.comJNZGSL@RIT.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="part0_887428843_boundary" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_887428843_boundary Content-ID: <0_887428843@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Dear Friends: Given the conversation lately on the list, I thought you'd all be interested in this timely topic for a WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY issue. The general editor now is Janet Zandy, and the issue is published with the help of Rochester Institute of Technology where Janet teaches. Sara Cahill is the managing editor, out of The Feminist Press office. And each issue has guest editors. If you are interested in proposing or editing (co-editing) a future issue on a timely topic, write to Janet Zandy in the English department at RIT (e-mail: JNZGSL@RIT.edu); or to me, and I will forward. Cheers, Florence Howe (florench@aol.com) --part0_887428843_boundary Content-ID: <0_887428843@inet_out.mail.aol.com.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from relay17.mail.aol.com (relay17.mail.aol.com [172.31.106.71]) by air08.mail.aol.com (v38.1) with SMTP; Fri, 13 Feb 1998 02:05:37 1900 Received: from UPIMSSMTPSYS04 (upimssmtpsys04.email.msn.com [207.68.152.41]) by relay17.mail.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id CAA21378 for ; Fri, 13 Feb 1998 02:05:36 -0500 (EST) Received: from UPIMSSMTPUSR04 - 207.68.143.160 by email.msn.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:58:53 -0800 Received: from default - 153.35.24.3 by email.msn.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:58:52 -0800 Message-ID: <000001bd35e1$9d851420$03182399@default> From: "Sara Cahill" To: "Florence Howe" Subject: WSQ call for papers on the relationship between activism and women's studies Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 10:01:35 -0800 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Dear Florence, Can you please post this call on the UMD Listserve? Thanks very, very much. Sara Call for Papers Women's Studies Quarterly Women's Studies and Activism: Theories and Practice Edited by Diane Lichtenstein and Colette Hyman Women's Studies Quarterly is now seeking submissions for a special issue entitled Women's Studies and Activism: Theories and Practice, slated for publication in spring/summer 1999. The issue will focus on the relationship between feminist activism and academic women's studies, with an emphasis on how and what to teach undergraduates about this relationship. The purpose of the issue is twofold: first, to provide women's studies scholars and teachers with new theoretical perspectives on the interconnections between "theory" and "practice" and to re-examine that dichotomy itself; second, to assist women's studies teachers in integrating practical as well as philosophical questions regarding feminist social change work into women's studies courses. Toward these ends, the editors are seeking articles exploring the "practice"/"theory" nexus, discussions of classroom strategies from teachers who have attempted to make the connection between activism and academe, and statements from activists about how their work for social change benefitted from their education in women's studies and/or how the field of women's studies could make itself more useful to direct social change activism. Issue editors are Colette Hyman, associate professor of history and former director of women's studies, Winona State University, and Diane Lichtenstein, professor of English and former co-chair of women's studies, Beloit College. Please submit by September 1, 1998 a disk and two hard copies of essays no longer than 15 typed, double-spaced pages to Diane Lichtenstein, Department of English, Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511. --part0_887428843_boundary-- ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 12:02:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades In-Reply-To: <01ITJ5CIBZ2Q001ZTI@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Weight of student evaluations for tenure, promotions? My observations over 28 years in CUNY has been that they are part of the political process in these matters, i.e., they weigh as much as the judges want them to, given other reasons for retaining or promoting and the number of slots available. beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 12:27:45 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980214120211.00686d9c@cuny.campus.mci.net> from <"beatricekachuck"@Feb> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I agree entirely with Beatrice. I, too, have seen teaching evaluations used every which way depending on the underlying desires of the committee looking at them. I would say that in cases of utter disaster or utter brilliance the game is harder to play, but most teaching evaluations have at least some mixed messages, and these allow ample space for particular arguments to be made. DP -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 13:27:44 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Barbara Winkler Organization: West Virginia Network Subject: Women's learning styles MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Last week in my Intro class I did a section on Women and Education. According to some of the research, women and men have different learning styles that often disadvantage women in the U.S. classroom - women are said to be more comfortable with cooperative learning than the competitive style of men, etc. My question emerges from a student who is from India who questioned whether these differences are culturally based. I was wondering if anyone had info on women's learning styles in other cultures, especially India? Thanks for your help. Barbara Scott Winkler bwinkler@wvu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 14:04:41 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Linda Rohrer Paige Subject: CALL for Contributors, Southern Women Playwrights Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi Folks: I hope that some of you interested in women playwrights and the American South will consider submitting to this volume. My colleague and I are greatly excited about it. Linda Rohrer Paige CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS SOUTHERN WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS: NEW ESSAYS IN LITERARY HISTORY, CRITICISM, AND PERFORMANCE Contributors are sought for a collection of new essays on Southern women playwrights to be published by the University of Alabama Press. The editors solicit submissions exploring: * * * The sources and causes of the traditional neglect of Southern women's drama, including new-historical considerations of the place of women's writing and performance in the South; Thematic issues, such as treatments of archetypes and stereotypes and intersections of race, class, and gender; or Generic topics, including the ways in which contemporary performance theory, particularly feminist, might help to illuminate the achievement of these playwrights. * * * We welcome submissions on all Southern women playwrights, especially on authors other than Lillian Hellman, Beth Henley, and Marsha Norman. Send inquiries, completed papers (20 pages maximum), or detailed proposals (2-3 pages) to either editor by by June 1, 1998: Robert L. McDonald Linda Rohrer Paige Department of English and Fine Arts Department of Literature and Philosophy Virginia Military Institute P. O. Box 8023 Lexington, Virginia 24450 Georgia Southern University mcdonaldrl@vmi.edu Statesboro, Georgia 30460-8023 lpaige@gsaix2.cc. gasou.edu Linda Rohrer Paige Associate Professor Department of Literature and Philosophy P. O. Box 8023 Georgia Southern U. Statesboro, GA 30460-8023 Ph. 912-681-0222 FAX: 912-681-0653 e-mail: lpaige@gsaix2.cc.gasou.edu or lpaige@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 14:14:47 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades In-Reply-To: <01ITJ5CIBZ2Q001ZTI@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable At 12:33 PM 2/13/98 -0600, you wrote: >Accompanying the usual >questions about the class and the professor, the evaluations also=20 asked >students about the amount of work required in the class compared with >other classes and the grades they expected to receive in the class >compared with other classes. leftFrankly, it is my view that ALL evaluations ought to ask these questions. And, more importantly, that they then be used in the process of interpreting the prof's evals. Oh stop me, I'm waxing utopian! >Because colleges and universities tend to reward >professors with consistently strong student evaluations, this trend >translates to students truly getting something for nothing. =20 leftConsumer driven, Total Quality Management in operation! >The authors identify the following disturbing implications: > >=95 Low student ratings may discourage instructors from setting high >standards. leftYup. So does student whining, grade grubbing, and a line of students outside my office wanting to know if there's 'any way you can reconsider the grade you've given me. I really, really need an A in this class, 'cause I'm failing (failed) Chemistry" leftI dunno, but I always wonder why they aren't sitting in their Chemistry professor's office. >=95 Grades may be artificially inflated because courses are less >challenging. leftReally? Who knew!? Also, because you'd like to avoid above: whining and grade grubbing. >Can anyone comment on how student evaluations >are weighed? leftI agree with Beatrice and Daphne that they are highly politicized and highly subjective. Still, what I suspect happens and my spin on what I've seen happen is that the 'climate' changes subtly. Standards are lowered in response to the rhetoric from the administration, particularly if that rhetoric draws on the language of TQM and the belief that quality improves when the production process is driven by consumer demand. Bleh! There is the perception that one's evaluation will be given weight and thus there is, in an anticipation, a tendency to do whatever one can to ensure that one's evaluations indicate that one is 'doing a good job' The path of least resistance, then, is clearly to either 1). spend a lot of time being really good at teaching (and probably deflecting one's attention from publishing and service) or to 2). ratchet down expectations and courseloads in an effort to, yup, please the customer and get good evals. Not much of a choice. Really, if Nissan were to study academia and put these principles in action, then they'd be making cars that got 100miles to the gallon, lasted years with no signs of wear and tear, were comfortable in every way, cost under 10k, and pumped their own gas! Kelley, taking the opportunity to gripe at mid-term > >Angela >************************************************************* >Dra. Angela Pattatucci >Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras >a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu > >"De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco"=20 >************************************************************* > > ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 16:58:15 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Nissan and student evaluations Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980214141447.007c8d30@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit But, Kelley, the result would be better/cheaper cars, right? Whereas in academe, you're right, the result seems to be worse teaching. There has also been a study (can't remember author now, sorry) showing that students evaluate professors based on how much professors seem to conform to students' own ideas. Since students often don't understand when a professor plays devil's advocate, or tries, for the sake of historical accuracy and intellectual integrity, present a position that isn't the prof's own view, the students regularly misunderstand what's going on and express odd evaluations not of the prof's teaching but of what they take to be the professor's beliefs. No question the net result is worse teaching, grade inflation, and a generally spreading rot through the academy. -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 18:19:10 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: Nissan and student evaluations In-Reply-To: <199802142158.QAA26584@emily.oit.umass.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 04:58 PM 2/14/98 -0500, you wrote: >But, Kelley, the result would be better/cheaper cars, right? Sort of, but this assumes that this is our only need or desire. While the Japanese model *might* be comparatively superior to the older US model, it isn't clear that it's preferable if we start to ask different sorts of questions. First, from a consumer perspective Nissan makes superior cars, but only if we believe that the only thing consumers want is better/cheaper cars. In other words, what Nissan cannot do--precisely because it operates in a capitalist market--is provide the conditions under which we might ask other questions: "are cars (private transportation) even a good thing, in the long run?" Instead, they give us choices, perceived as freedom, within a limited range of consumer options. We get some ability to provide feedback insofar as we are consumers of cars, but we do not get the opportunity to ask bigger questions insofar as we are citizens who might also ask: "how much are your employees paid?" "do they have truly meaningful work?" "do we really want to produce cars and further pollute the earth?" Second, from the perspective of workers there has been some research that indicates that workers are completely stressed out under these conditions, despite US based management rhetoric to the contrary. It's not clear that this model, then, is such a good thing. It might produce superior cars, but at what cost? One need only look at the results of this model as it has been applied to firms like Microsoft to see the toll on human life it takes. They have lots of autonomy and creative input on the job, but they work very long stressful hours and do not go to their children's soccer games. Finally, Nissan has no interest in *completely* catering to consumer demands, whereas universities do have some interest in catering to *some* student demands. The interests of corporatons and consumers are fundamentally opposed. One wants to sell the most products, for the highest price, with the lowest amount of investment in the product. The other wants the best product, at the lowest price, with the least amount of hassle. In contrast, the adminstration of a university and its students--though increasingly conceived of as consumers--are not at such loggerheads in terms of their structural locations within the organization or, more broadly, within the institution of academe. Universities want the most tuition monies as possible (among other sources of 'income') with the least amount of investment in labor and overhead. Students--and admittedly this is a generalization--want the to pay the least amount of tuition possible, get the best grades possible for their tuition investment, with the least amount of work. And, like capitalist firms, universities also have no interest in broadening students' understandings of their needs and desires so that they might start to ask what a meaningful education is or should be. To do so might mean greater expenditures and investment in teaching, a notoriously labor-intensive enterprise if there ever was one. Now, I must add a caveat about where I'm coming from. In no way do I hold all students morally culpable for their self-interested positions with regard to education. Surely, some students come to college wanting the best, most challenging education possible and do not need to read Adrienne Rich's commencement speech on claiming an education. Just as surely, some students *are* indeed morally culpable and do come to school looking to make the grade at any cost, wholly uninterested in the edifying possibilities of a college education. The vast majority, however, are caught in the middle of an overly rationalized, bureaucratized, increasingly profit-motivated system of schooling that sees them as merely "tuition bearing beings" -- a system bound to alienate them every step of the way. We shouldn't be surprised that they behave the way they do at times. Daphne, if you or anyone else knows the refs for that study, I'd appreciate it if you could forward it. Thanks for asking me to clarify this. These ideas have been percolating on the back burner for awhile, but I haven't had the opportunity to force myself to think them through. I now know how I'm going to organize that article I have to submit by March 1st! Kelley ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 10:32:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Brenda Brasher Subject: teaching evaluations Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain I appreciate the insights from some of the seasoned faculty on this list regarding the politics of weighing teaching evaluations. My question is, what should one do when it becomes obvious that the political game is afoot? I am in my second year of teaching at a small liberal arts college. My professional accomplishments have been outstanding (i.e., I published a book & two journal articles in the past year & already have a research grant for the summer.). My department is extremely pleased with me. I have been actively involved in college life. My tenure track contract was renewed; however, I received a very critical assessment from the Committee on Faculty. The sole ground the committee gave for this less-than-admirable assessment was student evaluations; however, a thorough review of my student assessments does not back up such an assessment. For example, I was verbally charged by my dean with "going off the syllabus." Now one could readily argue that to do this is not exactly a major academic crime & can be, in fact, warranted by class dynamics, etc; however, the fact is, I did not "go off the syllabus" in any of my courses. Looking at my course reviews from all students, I found that only one student out of all the students who evaluated me made such a claim; yet, this one student's comment was taken as 'gospel' by the committee & charged as a failing on my part. The fact that the vast majority of the students in my courses rated me as "outstanding" was, although mentioned by the dean in his opening remarks, totally discounted in the committee's overall assessment. Thus, I concur that there is a politics to weighing student evaluations. My question is, what are the most effective tactics to employ in responding to it? Thanks for any advice, etc. Brenda E. Brasher Mount Union College brashebe@muc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 12:17:54 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Re: teaching evaluations Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Brenda's example of one negative comment being pickedup and amplified as if it represented average opinion was precisely the sort of thing I had in mind when I spoke of the way committees (and individuals) can "use" evaluations every which way. One suggestion--but I'd like to hear whether others think this is counter productive--is to write a letter pointing out that one comment has been given undue weight, and providing a more objective oversee of what the evaluations as a whole show. This example (of going "off" the syllabus) is another way in which teaching evaluations contribute to poorer teaching. I have been made aware that students hate it when a change is made in the syllabus, even if it's both necessary and beneficial (say, the result of some missed days, or of realizing that this particular gorup would students would benefit more from something other than was planned for week 6, or whatever). I believe in general teachers need to speak up more in defense of their own autonomy and responsibility over their own classrooms. -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 14:41:50 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <199802151717.MAA26288@emily.oit.umass.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I have had similar problems with teaching evaluations. My evaluations have improved over the course of 4 terms. During my recent evaluations, it was suggested that they improved because I was making the test component of the grading scheme less than 50% and using active learning and cooperative learning exercises in the classroom. However, where I had the most improvement, the General Education Chemistry classes, the course was entirely test based. Yet I was accused of having too difficult tests for those GenEd classes. So, it is very apparent that your evaluators are biased and will pick and choose what they want to believe. It is not a fair assessment since they have inside knowledge from disgrunted students and the ones who say, "hey I am learning alot from Dr. Koether" are dismissed. I have a question!!! Do males instructors who are very formal at all times get better evaluations than female instructors who actually learn the names of their students and talk to them in and out of class on all subjects? Or more simply...Do male instructors get better evaluations than female instructors? By the way, students do come to Chemistry instructors and ask for a grade change too. Marina ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 16:36:26 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: males vs. females on evaluations In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I know there is research on this subject and much controversy. My own personal observation is that the best evaluations typically go to men who are easy graders and very friendly and accessible to their students. Much the same is, I expect, true of female teachers. Sometimes it's quite clear one valuations what's going on - when student after student has almost nothing to say about the course but does comment what a "great guy" or "terrific person" the teacher is - whatever the gender. I stopped putting much stock in teaching evaluations long ago when my students couldn't even decide with any unaninimity whether I got to class on time or what was the language of instruction. Ho hum. D. -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 16:51:58 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Women's Studies at Denison University Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I wonder if it might help to refer to these evaluations as "student evaluations" rather than "teaching evaluations" in order to emphasis that teaching might be evaluated in other ways as well. I as well as others often call them "teaching evaluations" but I am increasingly suspicious of this label. It seems to me that this consumer model of education (student as primary evaluator) makes teaching critical thinking in the classroom more risky. Eloise Buker Denison University On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Brenda Brasher wrote: > I appreciate the insights from some of the seasoned faculty > on this list regarding the politics of weighing teaching > evaluations. My question is, what should one do when > it becomes obvious that the political game is afoot? I > am in my second year of teaching at a small liberal arts > college. My professional accomplishments have been > outstanding (i.e., I published a book & two journal articles > in the past year & already have a research grant for the > summer.). My department is extremely pleased with me. > I have been actively involved in college life. My tenure > track contract was renewed; however, I received a very > critical assessment from the Committee on Faculty. The > sole ground the committee gave for this less-than-admirable > assessment was student evaluations; however, a thorough > review of my student assessments does not back up such > an assessment. For example, I was verbally charged by my dean > with "going off the syllabus." Now one could readily argue > that to do this is not exactly a major academic crime & can > be, in fact, warranted by class dynamics, etc; however, > the fact is, I did not "go off the syllabus" in any of my courses. > Looking at my course reviews from all students, I found that > only one student out of all the students who evaluated me > made such a claim; yet, this one student's comment was > taken as 'gospel' by the committee & charged as a failing > on my part. The fact that the vast majority of the students > in my courses rated me as "outstanding" was, although > mentioned by the dean in his opening remarks, totally > discounted in the committee's overall assessment. Thus, > I concur that there is a politics to weighing student evaluations. > My question is, what are the most effective tactics to employ > in responding to it? Thanks for any advice, etc. > > Brenda E. Brasher > Mount Union College > brashebe@muc.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 13:58:20 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: CE Randall/D Lynne Subject: Martha Stewart Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'm in the midst of writing a paper on Martha Stewart as an example of adult education in the 1990's. I've not had much luck finding sources outside of the internet and Martha's books/magazines/TV show/web site addressing her as a positive example, let alone an exmple of feminism. Does anyone know of sources I should look at? What are folks thoughts about her current success and visibility? Carla Randall mergalan@unixg.ubc.ca ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 17:42:44 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rhoda Unger Subject: Re: males vs. females on evaluations MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII I published a study nearly 20 years ago that found that women faculty members were penalized in their teaching evaluations for being rigorous while there was no effect on the teaching evaluations of men. These data were collected from real teaching evaluations so I tend to believe them. I have cited this study before on wmst which has had similar discussions on this topic in the past. I suspect there is a file and, perhaps, Joan can tell us if this is true. Thanks, Joan. Rhoda Unger ungerr@alpha.montclair.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 18:27:36 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Bev Ayers-Nachamkin Organization: Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA 17201 Subject: Re: Martha Stewart MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I don't know if it will be useful to you or not, but there was a long article on Stewart in the Sunday NY Times. I think it was the Business/Money section of 2/8/98. ======================== CE Randall/D Lynne wrote: > > I'm in the midst of writing a paper on Martha Stewart as an example of > adult education in the 1990's. I've not had much luck finding sources > outside of the internet and Martha's books/magazines/TV show/web site > addressing her as a positive example, let alone an exmple of feminism. > Does anyone know of sources I should look at? What are folks thoughts > about her current success and visibility? > > Carla Randall > mergalan@unixg.ubc.ca -- Bev Ayers-Nachamkin Dept. of Psychology Wilson College 1015 Philadelphia Ave. Chambersburg, PA 17201 bayersna@epix.net ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 12:39:04 +1300 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Adele Subject: "missing girls" MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Are there any demographers out there who could tell me where to find an article or two (comprehensible to the nonspecialist) on the "missing girls" or "missing women" in the statistics of some countries ie, there is not (or were not) as many females in the population as one would expect? I'm not thinking of modern China with the one child policy, but examples where the causal factors may be less immediately obvious. I've been reading an historical demographer who claims that low numbers of females in an indigenous population last century were simply the result of maternal mortality, while many historical sources (by Western observers) say that female infanticide was a contributing factor. & I'm lookingfor some comparative material to try to evaluate his argument. Thank you. Adele Fletcher University of Canterbury a.fletcher@phil.canterbury.ac.nz ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 23:44:14 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judy Evans Subject: Evaluations (was Re: males vs. females on evaluations) In-Reply-To: <01ITM89M3RPU95O871@alpha.montclair.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Rhoda Unger wrote: > I published a study nearly 20 years ago that found that women faculty > members were penalized in their teaching evaluations for being rigorous > while there was no effect on the teaching evaluations of men. These data > were collected from real teaching evaluations so I tend to believe them. > I have cited this study before on wmst which has had similar discussions on > this topic in the past. I suspect there is a file and, perhaps, Joan can > tell us if this is true. Thanks, Joan. There are I think 2 files, EVALS1 and 2 -- sorry to pretend to be you, Joan! -- that can be retrieved in the usual way. --------------------------------------- Judy Evans jae2@york.ac.uk Typing, Dragon Dictate's. Opinions mine ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 17:47:43 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Ann Lamanna Subject: Re: "missing girls" In-Reply-To: from "Adele" at Feb 16, 98 12:39:04 pm Content-Type: text The demographer who is known for work in this area is Amartya Sen. I would search for that name in a standard bibliographic search source. I'm not a demographer, so not familiar with all his publications. You might also search the journals DEMOGRAPHY or POPULATION STUDIES or POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW. M.A. Lamanna> mlamanna@cwis. unomaha.edu > Are there any demographers out there who could tell me where to find an > article or two (comprehensible to the nonspecialist) on the "missing > girls" or "missing women" in the statistics of some countries ie, there is > not (or were not) as many females in the population as one would expect? > > I'm not thinking of modern China with the one child policy, but examples > where the causal factors may be less immediately obvious. > > I've been reading an historical demographer who claims that low numbers of > females in an indigenous population last century were simply the result of > maternal mortality, while many historical sources (by Western observers) > say that female infanticide was a contributing factor. & I'm lookingfor > some comparative material to try to evaluate his argument. > > > Thank you. > Adele Fletcher > University of Canterbury > a.fletcher@phil.canterbury.ac.nz > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 23:59:27 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judy Evans Subject: Re: "missing girls" In-Reply-To: <199802152347.RAA24225@cwis.unomaha.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Mary Ann Lamanna wrote: > The demographer who is known for work in this area is Amartya Sen. > I would search for that name in a standard bibliographic search > source. Add "famines" or "development" -- esp. the latter -- and I think you'll get near the right book -- he's written rather a lot! The one you really want was reviewed in the New York Review of Books some while back. > I'm not a demographer, so not familiar with all his publications. It isn't my field either. A development economist might know, or even a mathematical economist, because they will know more about Sen. --------------------------------------- Judy Evans jae2@york.ac.uk Typing, Dragon Dictate's. Opinions mine ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:26:13 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "barta-smith, nancy" Subject: WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY AND WIRING PROBLEMS Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I want to apologize to the list: I've been waiting for several months to announce the 25th Anniversary issue of Women's Studies Quarterly, even though I've known from the mail that comes and goes across this list, that it would answer a great many questions that keep coming up. I've waited because The Feminist Press has been trying to get its WEB up and running since last December. We finally moved in late July, unfortunately into a landmark building on the City College campus with very poor wiring. We are still having problems, but we hope to solve them by January (still more bad wires in the building!). So I am simply going to say that the 25th Anniversary Issue of WSQ, edited by the late Elaine Hedges and Dorothy Helly, recapitulates the history of Women's Studies by printing 400 pages of material from the issues beginning in 1972, including early reports from Programs all over the country, as well as the history of the NWSA, begun in the pages of WSQ, and then from WSQ's subscriber base, as WSQ committed itself to helping the organization to get established. In addition to this history, the issue includes a long essay by Judith Allan that is critical of current trends; a shorter essay by Ann B. Shteir on graduate programs; a long essay by Florence Howe on trends and problems worldwide; and an Introduction by Hedges and Helly. It's over 500 pages and worth $18.00. Or for $30.00 you can subscribe for 1997 and get the issue about to appear: Teaching African Literatures in a Global Literary Economy, edited by Tuzyline Jita Allan. Your other option is to take a three-year sub for $70.00. Next year, the two issues are: Working Class Studies, edited by Renny Christopher, Lisa Orr, and Linda Strom; and Internationalizing the Curriculum, edited by Deborah Rosenfelt. Janet Zandy of the Rochester Institute of Technology is now the Editor of the WSQ, and in 1999, the two issue scheduled are Women and the Environment; and Women, Science, and Technology. So the three-year sub is a bargain. Institutional rates are $40 for one year; $100 for three years. When we get onto the Web, I'll let you know at once. We will have a special section devoted to THE WOMEN'S GUIDE TO THE WIRED WORLD, edited by Shana Penn, also just out. To order by phone: 212-650-8966 To talk to me: 212-650-8147 To phone in general: 212-650-8890 To FAX: 212-650-8893 Thanks for listening: Florence Howe florench @aol.com Nancy A. Barta-Smith Department of English--314 Spotts World Culture Slippery Rock University Slippery Rock PA 16057 nancy.barta-smith@sru.edu "A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far"--Adrienne Rich "...those who can see pain unmoved, will live to inflict it"--Mary Wollstonecraft "The past is over, much of the future is luck, there is always something of beauty here and now"--Barta-Smith ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:51:20 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Marina corrected me: > By the way, students do come to Chemistry instructors and ask for >a grade change too. Many apologies. This happened last term, so the particular example was on my mind. My point isn't so much that they see a sociology/women's studies prof as more accessible and, perhaps, manipulable than a chemistry professor. Rather, my point is that they actually have the nerve to tell me that they need in a good grade in my class to balance the poor grade in another class. But I am curious now. Do they ask you to change the grade by telling you they're failing another course--whatever that might be? Best, Kelley ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:06:47 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980215195120.007d5100@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Kelley Crouse wrote: > Marina corrected me: > > By the way, students do come to Chemistry instructors and ask for > >a grade change too. > Do they ask you to change the grade > by telling you they're failing another course--whatever that might be? Some want to keep a grade point average to stay in the honors program, others just want to see what they can get out of you. One student asked if I would change 2 D's I gave her to 2 C's for three months so that her grades would look good to the judge and I am sure financial aid. She was going through a divorce. It is my perception that Chemistry grades are more cut and dry than sociology grades - I am wrong here Kelley? Marina ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 20:02:23 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Susan Koppelman Subject: Re: teaching evaluations Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit This is not an answer to Brenda's questions, but questions of my own there were prompted by hers, and by an afternoon spent two years or so ago, when we were just getting to know each other, with a group of local alumnae from my all women students undergraduate institution. We had another gathering with new people joining what had become our "old" group in Oct. this year and the same phenom. recurred. I imagine it does whenever alums. get together for the first time. We talked about our teachers. The group represents women from the classes of '47 thru '85 (many many gaps, and the majority of us are from various '60s classes). Every one of us has at least one, most of us two degrees beyond the B. A. Every one of us has, at one time or another, been involved professionally in the academic world at some level, in some capacity. First we talked about the pain and shock we each experienced in freshman comp. It seemed to us, all these years, decades, later, that the purpose of the course had been not to teach us anything except that we weren't very good, weren't as good as we had been led to believe by our high school experiences, and had no business thinking that we were "good" writers. Most of us commented on the fact that the cruelty of the experience had left us with some sort of writing block for some length of time -- some of them never required a sense of ease and facility writing. There was a radical division between those who remembered EXACTLY the name and appearance of our fresh. comp. teachers and those who had no more idea of who had been in front of that classroom than they knew who had first used a sharpened stone as a knife to kill another human being. (This made us think and talk about recovered memories and accusations of false memory syndrome, etc.) Then we began talking about the teachers we had loved, the courses we had loved. It was teaching/.teacher/course evaluation time! And delivered with the benefit of many years' distance from the experience. I won't go into anymore detail, but I will tell you this: almost none of us had revised our original evaluations of our teachers. As women in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60, and 70s, we discovered that the opinions/conclusions we had arrived at when we were 16-22 about these important people in our lives had not changed in the ensuing years, had become, if anything, stronger. The teachers we had loved, the classes we had enjoyed, were the ones that had been the most intellectually and emotionally useful to us over all the years. Susan Koppelman <> ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:57:03 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Georgia NeSmith Subject: Re: teaching evaluations/co-op learning Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit In a message dated 2/15/98 4:41:59 PM, Marina wrote: << During my recent evaluations, it was suggested that they improved because I was making the test component of the grading scheme less than 50% and using active learning and cooperative learning exercises in the classroom. >> I find this very interesting. I have always used active & cooperative learning exercises, but they don't necessarily result in good evaluations. Some of my students have complained "and I had to teach the whole course to myself!" Some students love that stuff. Others gripe constantly that they just want to know what I want them to do so they can do it. They would rather take objective tests than make decisions. It's not until they get out into the working world that they appreciate what I did for them. Georgia NeSmith, Phd --Writer, Editor, Writing Coach, Poet, Photographer, Artist --Proprietor, The Writers' Edge and RubyToozdy Productions --Adjunct professor Rochester Institute of Technology gnesmith@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 17:25:50 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Margo Okazawa-Rey Subject: follow-up on Jane Story query In-Reply-To: <199802112323.PAA16482@diana.sfsu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable For all interested in Jane Story video, I am sending following information about the video and about Judith Arcana, one of the early members of the group, who is available to speak to your classes. ABORTION EDUCATION/CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING An excellent documentary film, its creation partially funded by a grantfrom PBS, is finally making its way onto public television screens, but may not yet have been scheduled for viewing in your region or city.=20 "Jane: An Abortion Service" has been shown on PBS in many cities,especially around the time of the 25th Roe v. Wade anniversary in January of '98. Written and directed by Nell Lundy and Kate Kirtz, shown at the Sundance, LA and New York film festivals among others, screened at NWSA in its first year out, "Jane" waited two years after its premiere in Chicago to actually make it onto the small screen. "Jane" tells the story of a small underground counseling/clinic service that functioned for four years in Chicago before abortion was "legal" in the USA. The filmmakers encourage (and are sometimes able to attend) screenings to benefit abortion clinics and related groups. Likewise, some former Janes, like me, may be available to visit and talk with your group. Copies of the tape can be purchased "for educational use" - call 212/925-0606 (NYC) or email orders@wmm.com. You can also get copies by calling Nell at 773/465-0538 (CHGO). Moreover, it's important to urge and support "Jane"'s airing on public TV. Call your PBS station's Customer Service representatives and tell them you want this movie shown - preferably more than once - on your local public television station. And, especially where your local clinics and counseling services need a pep rally - everywhere, these days - do consider these possibilities=85=85=85=85= mix and match; use any combination: + Screen the video - if you charge even a small amount for tickets, you can use it to benefit your local abortion providers and counselors. + Invite one or both of the filmmakers to come to your event/class/program/screening to do q&a/discussion after the movie.=20 + Invite me to do a reading/performance of my writings about abortion. For examples, see "She Said" in Calyx, Winter, 1998, 17.3, and "Abortion Is a Motherhood Issue" in Mother Journeys, Feminists Write about Mothering, ed. Maureen T. Reddy, Martha Roth and Amy Sheldon, Spinsters Ink, 1994 (1995 winner of the Minnesota Book Prize for Nonfiction). (Women's Studies teachers - you can also use Laura Kaplan's book about the service [The Story of Jane, Pantheon, 1995], now in paperback.) For clinics, other abortion services, and women's studies groups, travel expenses only, no fee. I'm especially interested in talking to young women. Probably that's because I had some extraordinary good luck when I was young, coming to consciousness in the late 1960's. Like Oliver Wendell Holmes, I believe that, through great good fortune, in youth my heart was touched with fire. I lived in, and helped to make, some powerful history - and I want to offer a witness, to speak of that history, to put the past to use in these hard times, to carry it with us into the future. + Encourage women who've had abortions to meet together and talk, CR-group style, to help each other know and tell the truth about their intense emotions and thoughts. Don't let anti-abortion terrorists be the only ones to address and define this experience in women's lives. You can reach Kate and Nell as noted above; you can reach me at the numbers/addresses below - we do like to work together. Judith Arcana (a former Jane) =20 4034 NE Royal Court Portland, OR 97232 phone: 503/736-1136 fax 503/234-6993 jarcana@ibm.net=20 Margo Okazawa-Rey Professor School of Social Work San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA 94132 415 338-6187 (tel) 415 338-0591 (fax) ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 21:23:29 -0500 Reply-To: Stacey Meadow Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stacey Meadow Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <439abc59.34e79021@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi, I'm only an undegrad, but I've done some research on gender bias in students' evaluations of college professors. Two factors seemed to be the biggest causes of inequity - first of all, whether the professor was teaching in what was considered a "gender appropriate" field, (ie. female professors in the hard sciences seemed to do worse than their male counterparts, as well as their female counterparts in departments like English) The other determining factor was whether or not the professor was percieved to have certain gender specific personality traits. Female profs were expected to be more nurturing, more available to students etc, while male professors were admired for traits like strong aggressive leadership. There are also studies that show that the traits students most positively associate with men are the same traits they indicate must be present in effective leaders. This is very much like the exercise Kelley Crouse introduced to the list a few days ago. I have a list of references on the subject. If anyone is interested, feel free to email me. Stacey Meadow ********************************************************************** Stacey Meadow Barnard College sm445@columbia.edu Women'sStudies/Psychology VIEW MY BRAND NEW WEBSITE AT: http://www.columbia.edu/~sm445 ********************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:29:58 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Miriam Harris Subject: Women's Festival MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I remember a few weeks ago someone inquired about women's festivals. At that time I knew there was one in Arkansas but could not remember details. I received a registration form this week and will post information here: 9th Annual Northwest Arkansas Women's Festival and Conference "Women's Role in American Culture" U of Ark. March 5-8 Old Main 501 Fayetteville, Ark. 72701 For more information contact Vickie Keely --501/521-8562 Patricia Romanov 501/575-2954 Kelly Kuntz 501/582-4790 Sponsored by Gender Studies Program Humanities Dept. Fulbright College room 506 Old Main (rest as above) PLEASE DIRECT ALL QUERIES TO THESE FOLKS NOT TO ME -- I'M JUST PASSING ON THE INFO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Miriam K. Harris, Ph.D. Lecturer, Business and Technical Communications School of Management -- UT-Dallas PO Box 830688 Richardson, Texas 75083-0688 mharris@utdallas.edu 972/883-6822 of. 972/883-6823 fx. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 07:17:17 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 07:06 PM 2/15/98 -0600, you wrote: > It is my perception that Chemistry grades are more cut and dry >than sociology grades - I am wrong here Kelley? > >Marina Hi Marina, Are you addressing the assumption that objective, multiple choice exams are more cut and dry than subjective, essay exams? Kelley ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 07:48:48 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "N. Benokraitis" Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Women's Studies at Denison University wrote: > I wonder if it might help to refer to these evaluations as "student > evaluations" rather than "teaching evaluations" in order to emphasis that > teaching might be evaluated in other ways as well. I as well as others > often call them "teaching evaluations" but I am increasingly suspicious of > this label. > "Student opinions" or "student thoughts" might be more appropriate than "student evaluations." Students can certainly react to questions such as whether or not I showed up for class, whether or not I returned exams, etc. but "evaluation" connotes an assessment of worth or importance. There's no evidence that students can make such assessments. Neither can colleagues, it seems to me, who are teaching in different disciplines or very different specializations in the same discipline. I can sit in on a chemistry class and have some reactions about whether the faculty member seemed organized, answered questions (or ignored them), and so on. But how the halibut could I evaluate someone in chemistry, literature, etc.?!? niki benokraitis, sociology, u of baltimore nbenokraitis@ubmail.ubalt.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 08:25:25 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stacey Meadow Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, N. Benokraitis wrote: > Students can certainly react to questions such as > whether or not I showed up for class, whether or not I returned exams, > etc. but "evaluation" connotes an assessment of worth or importance. > There's no evidence that students can make such assessments. Neither can > colleagues, it seems to me, who are teaching in different disciplines or > very different specializations in the same discipline. This is a topic of particular interest to me , so I feel like I need to address what Nikki wrote. Clearly, as undergraduates, students are not capable of looking at a faculty member's CV with any degree of real authority. Sometimes we can't really tell what material was left out of a course sillabus. I do think, however, that it is extremely problematic to dismiss the entire notion of student feedback on professors, for that is like saying that issues like availability to students, approachability, comprehensability in the classroom are unimportant. The student eval forms are also sometimes the only permanant statement students can make about grossly inappropriate behavior on the part of a faculty member, which the college or university is unwilling to investigate. (This has been the case in several instances I am aware of at my previous institution.) I think it might be more useful to create alternate ways of going about student evals - perhaps make them optional. Let the students who really don't care say othing, but allow those who feel strongly one way or another to voice their views. Or maybe it is useful to begin to investigate how to change the way they are used by faculty evaluation committees - if colleagues are evaluating one another's "worth" at a particular institution, it would seem that they could figure out that isolated negative evals (like the ones *they* recieve from time to time,) are not really indicative of a faculty member's entire performance. Stacey ********************************************************************** Stacey Meadow Barnard College sm445@columbia.edu Women'sStudies/Psychology VIEW MY BRAND NEW WEBSITE AT: http://www.columbia.edu/~sm445 ********************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 11:26:08 UT Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Deidre Hill Subject: unsubcribe unsubcribe ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 09:08:34 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <199802151717.MAA26288@emily.oit.umass.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Daphne-Do you mean that YOUR students actually READ the syllabus! Pardon my sarcasm. Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, DAPHNE PATAI wrote: I have been made aware that students > hate it when a change is made in the syllabus, even if it's both > necessary and beneficial (say, the result of some missed days, or of > realizing that this particular gorup would students would benefit more > from something other than was planned for week 6, or whatever). I > believe in general teachers need to speak up more in defense of their > own autonomy and responsibility over their own classrooms. > -- > ====================== > Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 09:26:05 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980215195120.007d5100@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII My experience is that they say ( two weeks after the NEW semester has started) that they need a higher grade from me so as not to lose a scholarship, or to stay on the dean's list. While most of my evaluations over the past three semesters have been very positive, the few that have not really have come from those who have literally not done the work or not done what was required according to the syllabus.As an adjunct instructor who loves to teach, this has been particularly disheartening. As someone who hopes to find a fulltime position in academia I wonder if these few evals will keep from attaining my goal. Carolyn ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu > Rather, my point is that they actually have the nerve to tell > me that they need in a good grade in my class to balance the poor grade in > another class. But I am curious now. Do they ask you to change the grade > by telling you they're failing another course--whatever that might be? > > Best, > Kelley > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 09:53:08 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Converted from OfficeVision to RFC822 by PUMP V2.2X From: "Linda Lopez McAlister, SWIP-L Moderator" Subject: New Film Review Added (Belatedly): Titanic On Saturday, February 13, I reviewed "Titanic" "The Women's Show" on WMNF-FM (88.5), in Tampa, FL. This review is now available from WMST-L's FILM FILELIST To obtain a copy of the review send the following command to listserv@umdd.umd.edu: GET FILM REV229 FILM To obtain a list of all the files available (film reviews and articles) send a message to the same listserv that says: INDEX FILM To get more than one item, put each command on a separate line: GET FILM REV6 FILM GET FILM REV14 FILM GET FILM ART001 FILM These reviews may also be obtained from the Web at URL: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/FilmReviews/ but there may be a considerable delay in their being put up on the web site. The opinions expressed in these reviews were mine when I wrote the review and represent one woman's opinion at a particular time.We have over 3000 subscribers to WMST-L so there are probably 2999 other views. If you would like to share yours, please do NOT do so on the WMST-L itself, but send your messages to me personally at the addresses below. I have appreciated the feedback I've received. Thanks. Linda ********************************************* Linda Lopez McAlister, Editor, HYPATIA; Listowner SWIP-L; Chair Dept. of Women's Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa. Tel. 813-974-0982/FAX 813-974-0336/mcaliste@chuma.cas.usf.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 08:54:21 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Susan Tucker Subject: Re: Martha Stewart In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I have long thought Martha Stewart's work would make an interesting topic for women's studies. Good for you for pursuing it. I don't know of anything on her but I would think that comparing her to Catherine Beecher, to the works of The Boston Cooking School magazine, and to, say, the home economics curriculum and its rhetoric within the early twentieth century -- these might lead to significant comparisons. Susan Tucker Curator of Books and Records Newcomb College Center for Research on Women Tulane University New Orleans, La. 70118 susannah@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 10:19:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Vera Whisman Subject: another view on teaching evals MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT A different experience re: teaching evaluations: I have, for years, had outstanding teaching evaluations; the chair of my dept once said they were "to die for." My experience in dealing w/ the academic worplace, however, has been that this has hindered, not helped, my career. Perhaps becaue of the sort of thinking we're seeing here? (i.e., using student evaluations of teachers leads to poor teaching) Is the assumption made that, therefor, one who gets them must be a poor teacher? I believe, on the other hand, that my high evaluations come from one source: an absolute commitment to treating students with respect, fairness, and genuine concern for them as whole human beings. Come to think of it, the dept may have known just what it was doing when it decided not to promote me :) Vera Whisman ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 09:48:18 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Sharon L. Migotsky" Subject: Evaluations/Composition MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I'd like to add my thoughts about student evaluations and First-semester composition, in response to Susan Koppelman's recent posting about the remembered "harshness" of composition instructors. I think it's important to note that different types of classes lead to different expectations on the part of the students, and therefore different evaluations, as well. For example, I teach composition, and therefore have to deal with: 1. the fact that I only teach required courses that students feel coerced to sign up for; 2. I teach a class that's "only" English, and therefore expected to be easy (I would guess that few students whine that chemistry is "supposed" to be easy, although they may think it's too difficult for an introductory level course); 3. I have 18 students to a class. This is a luxury, I know--but because I'm often the only instructor who knows a first-year student's name (all their other classes are large lecture halls with 200 or so other students) it's expected that I'll be the understanding teacher who will inflate grades, play psychiatrist, etc. All of these things impact evaluations. Also, take into account that composition is traditionally taught by drastically underpaid graduate assistants who are not perceived as "real" teachers (often by faculty, as well as by students), and that writing is intensely personal, and therefore an extremely difficult subject to teach or assign a grade to. Most students in writing fall back to the "that's my opinion" stance; my argument that, "all homosexuals are evil and should be shot on sight" is not an appropriate rhetorical strategy given an academic audience is seen as dismissing any opinion that doesn't agree with my feminist agenda. Any suggestion that developing a variety of different voices and strategies for different writing purposes is seen as a devaluing of the Romantic ideal of "personal voice." Any suggestion on my part that doctors not always be referred to as "he," and that "lazy people on welfare" not only shouldn't always be considered to be African -American females, but that the underlying assumptions of this stereotype should be examined critically, are dismissed as "PC propaganda." Many students feel as Susan Koppelman felt, that First-semester composition serves only to deflate and silence students. I think we should consider, though, why it seems as though certain subjects should not be allowed to impose rigorous standards, and why one might still feel slighted some years after a class if the experience was not as affirming of our self-opinion as we thought it should be. Part of this, of course, stems from the traditional approach to first-semester composition as a "writing from personal experience" course; although, from a feminist pedagogical standpoint this can be desirable, it also asks students to impose certain academic and rhetorical strategies on a genre that operates in a different mode, and can have the writer at cross-purposes. One last note on evaluations: aside from the fact that graduate instructors are dismissed as "Not real instructors" (perhaps removing some of the sting if a student's writing is evaluated as "average"--of course, trying to mesh a feminist pedagogy with a set of decidely non-feminist evaluative criteria presents its own problems), gender plays a role in student evaluations even in "female" fields such as English. For example, my department started a new program last semester where new Master's students, instead of teaching first-semester comp. during their first-semester as graduate students, would assist an experienced graduate instructor (deemed a "good teacher" by the department). I am a PhD candidate at the dissertation stage who has taught for over six years at four different institutions; my "mentees" were both first-time teachers and new Master's students. In both cases, we approached the semester as a "team-teaching" situation, and never gave the students any background on our experience, the mentoring program, etc. The student evaluation form, though, asked students to evaluate the "senior" teacher and the "junior" teacher individually. The majority of students assumed that my mentees--both male--were the senior teachers. Sorry for such a long posting--I'm wading my way through a stack of student compositions (one of which says, "This advertisement was geared towards high-class people, not women"), and I just had to ramble. Sharon L. Migotsky Illinois State University 4240 Stevenson Hall Normal, IL 61790 E-mail: slmigot@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 10:27:29 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980216071717.007c3650@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Kelley Crouse wrote: > At 07:06 PM 2/15/98 -0600, you wrote: > > It is my perception that Chemistry grades are more cut and dry > >than sociology grades - I am wrong here Kelley? > >Marina > Hi Marina, > Are you addressing the assumption that objective, multiple choice exams are > more cut and dry than subjective, essay exams? > Kelley Ah, now you are assuming that I use multiple choice exams. I don't. I mean that if 5X5-4 = 16. It can't be 5 or anything else. If the units of measure are missing, a point is removed. I give essay exams too. Describe the three generations of pesticides. But those essays are to the point and there is only one right answer. Of course, I have been scolded for using essay exams in chemistry. Marina ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 10:39:03 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: another view on teaching evals In-Reply-To: <01ITN76232XE0005MQ@hws.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Vera Whisman wrote: > I believe, on the other hand, that my high evaluations come from one > source: an absolute commitment to treating students with respect, fairness, > and genuine concern for them as whole human beings. > Come to think of it, the dept may have known just what it was doing > when it decided not to promote me :) > Vera Whisman You were not promoted and you had high student evaluations? I agree with your interpretation of the source of high evaluations. What does you evaluation look like? The last question on mine which is what is taken to be gospel : What is your overall evaluation of this teacher? outstanding, excellent, very good, good, or poor. I rank usually just above very good and once excellent. That is not good enough in my department. Marina ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 12:19:01 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Diana H Scully Subject: Re: "missing girls" In-Reply-To: ; from "Adele" at Feb 16, 98 12:39 pm The International Women's Tribune Center (IWTC) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), in a joint publication, "Gender Violence" indicate that the world population is short my about 60 million women and they attribute the cause to selective abortion of female fetuses, female infanticide, withholding of food and medical treatment from women and girls, and wife murder. I believe their statistics are generated from another United Nations publication, "The world's Women: Trends and statistics 1979-1990." You can find more information on the internet at the UN Women Watch site, www.un.org/womenwatch/ Diana Scully > > Are there any demographers out there who could tell me where to find an > article or two (comprehensible to the nonspecialist) on the "missing > girls" or "missing women" in the statistics of some countries ie, there is > not (or were not) as many females in the population as one would expect? > > I'm not thinking of modern China with the one child policy, but examples > where the causal factors may be less immediately obvious. > > I've been reading an historical demographer who claims that low numbers of > females in an indigenous population last century were simply the result of > maternal mortality, while many historical sources (by Western observers) > say that female infanticide was a contributing factor. & I'm lookingfor > some comparative material to try to evaluate his argument. > > > Thank you. > Adele Fletcher > University of Canterbury > a.fletcher@phil.canterbury.ac.nz > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Diana Scully Professor of Sociology & Director of Women's Studies Virginia Commonwealth University Box 843060 Richmond, Virginia 23284 804.828.4041 (phone) 804.828.4983 (fax) dhscully@vcu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 12:27:42 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carole E. Adams" Subject: Teaching and tenure MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII We don't seem to have answered Brenda's specific question -- what is the tenure-track prof to do, given the literature on student evaluations? The answer is to "be prepared," and part of that is to show your senior colleagues that you respect their teaching and the work culture you've landed in. Part of it is to educate them about what you are really doing in and out of the classroom. Here are some ideas: 1. Your senior colleagues love to think they are wonderful teachers (and some might be!). Go to your department chair, other senior men, possibly women, in and outside the department. Maybe even the dean. Don't just pick people you know are friendly; include someone who may be sceptical of new-fangled topics, etc. Be as frank as you'd like -- I myself would say that the dean cautioned me for straying from the syllabus. Ask them to give you an hour over coffee to go over your syllabi and theirs in a comparable course. Ask to sit in on a class of theirs. Ask them to sit in on a class of yours. 2. Plan ahead for your meetings with these profs to present material to them to counter possible (future) unfavorable criticism -- e.g. say "Now I know I have used sources written by women here. This is why I have done this; does this still 'cover the curriculum'"? 3. Also invite some of these profs to presentations you make, e.g. a brown-bag lunch, a talk in the community. 4. Ask their advice about all sorts of things having to do with work culture (should you offer to sit on X committee? would he be interested in team-teaching a course sometime on topic X that combines his expertise with yours?). 5. When you put together a tenure file, be armed with statistics presented as graphics. Your department and college should be able to make available ALL the evaluation stats, which you can put on a chart (e.g. to show that you are in the top 10% on evals overall, or whatever). I agree that the issue of effective teaching is a political minefield; therefore, much of the above is really a political solution. Carole Adams Uni of Central Florida ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 12:51:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Christine Smith Subject: Re: teaching evaluations MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII It seems to me that teaching evaluations are used by committees for whatever they want. If they don't like you, they will find the one evaluation by a disgruntled student. If they do like you, they will ignore blatant signs of incompetency. I am on the academic job market, and have been for 4 years now. I've had a series of temporary and adjunct positions, and was hired in them because of my great teaching evaluations. But I've been told that if a position opens up, I don't have enough publiciations. So I'm good enough to teach there for years, with glowing student reports, but I'm not good enough to hire into a tenure-track position. I really like to teach more than I like to publish, but it seems to me that having good teachers is not a primary goal of colleges (even liberal arts ones). I'm increasingly looking at community colleges, because they do emphasize teaching. BTW, I do have some publications, and recently submitted another. I also present every year at conferences in my field. Christine Smith Lewis & Clark College csmith@vms.cis.pitt.edu casmith@lclark.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 13:03:50 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Florence Howe Subject: Re: WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY AND WIRING PROBLEMS Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Thanks to those who have been commiserating. We are still not up, though we have a beautiful design and text awaiting. We moved in July; it's only mid- February. Florence Howe (florench@aol.com) ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 13:19:05 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Lynn H. Collins" Subject: Re: Teaching and tenure Comments: To: "Carole E. Adams" In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi, Susan Basow has done a lot of research on bias in student evaluations of teaching. She has a chapter describing and summarizing her findings in our (Lynn H. Collins, Joan C. Chrisler & Kathryn Quina) forthcoming book, "Arming Athena: Career strategies for academic women" that should be out this summer. Sage is the publisher. It should be a good chapter for chairs, deans, and others (lawyers?) influencing decisions in the tenure process, as well as the candidate herself. Lynn H. Collins, Ph.D. *****23rd Annual Association for Women in Psychology Conference***** Baltimore Hilton & Towers, March 5-8th, 1998 For registration information please contact me at: Applied Psychology & Quantitative Methods University of Baltimore 1420 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21201-5779 or e-mail: lcollins@ubmail.ubalt.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 13:06:45 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: Student Evaluations In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Marina Koether wrote: > Ah, now you are assuming that I use multiple choice exams. I > don't. I mean that if 5X5-4 = 16. It can't be 5 or anything else. If > the units of measure are missing, a point is removed. P.S. I know the answer is wrong! It made you think! This was an example of where a student insisted that the answer was 16 and I couldn't convince him otherwise. Aren't the answers cut and dry in chemistry but more possibilities exist in sociology? You can teach a student to be PC but he still might say racist and homophobic things outside of class. Marina ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 13:10:14 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: <01ITNC3UU72Q96HJIW@vms.cis.pitt.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Christine Smith wrote: > I really like to teach more than I like to publish, I think it is easier to teach than to publish because the student walks into your office everyday but setting time aside to publish is more difficult and not staring you in the face. Keep on applying....practice makes perfect. Marina ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:12:38 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 10:27 AM 2/16/98 -0600, you wrote: > Ah, now you are assuming that I use multiple choice exams. I >don't. I mean that if 5X5-4 = 16. It can't be 5 or anything else. Gosh Marina, I hope this isn't a trick question. I thought the answer would be 21! But, you know us sociologists: either were mathematically challenged or suffer from physics envy, so perhaps my algebra fails me ;-) Still, I'm wondering what you're getting at by saying that Chemistry grades are more cut and dry. Would this be the student's perceptions?: ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:12:36 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stacey Shimizu Subject: Re: Evaluations/Composition In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Most students in writing fall back to the "that's my opinion" stance.... Any >suggestion that developing a variety of different voices and strategies >for different writing purposes is seen as a devaluing of the Romantic >ideal of "personal voice." I know that this thread is tangential to the discussion of evaluations, but I feel the need to add my 2 cents (and vent). In addition to the "it's my opinion" defense, what I encounter in personal conferences with students and on evaluations is the argument that, when I try to eliminate jargony language, slang, cliches and a sort of hip-ironic wink-wink-nudge-nudge tone, or to impose any sort of grammatical order, I am interfering with their "style." As for evaluations, I truly do want student feedback, but I find myself increasingly willing to dismiss their "evaluations" of my teaching--in part because so many of them, who never came to my office, feel free to evaluate whether I "was available during office hours"; because so many of them, when asked if they "put forth [their] best effort," respond by saying, "Yes. I read all the assigned texts, came to class and did the assignments"; because so many of them complain that they shouldn't be required to watch movies outside of class; because.... I'm still searching for a way to get honest, thoughtful and useful feedback from my students. I'd be interested in any questions or techniques that other list members use that seem to produce useful information not only about the course design and my performance, but also of the students' expectations and performance, and which would tell me to some extent what the students' think they have learned. Any suggestions? --Stacey Shimizu Stacey Shimizu Department of English Illinois Wesleyan University Bloomington, IL 61702 (309) 556-3241 sshimizu@titan.iwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:29:10 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Miriam Harris Subject: grade change requests Comments: To: Kelley Crouse In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980215195120.007d5100@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I never had humanities students hound me for grade changes. But I could write a book on the incidents I experienced teaching MBAs business communications. I was "stalked" outside my office, followed in from parking lots, and even called long distance during the xmas holidays. I've never had a group so consumed with getting an A. "What do I have to do . . . " I'd say: write A work. That's not the answer they wanted at all. It was extremely stressful. All semester and even worse after grades came out. Some students were openly hostile at receiving a B. Their reasons had to do with maintaining an A average more than anything else == making excuses about their student aid being increased if they had a 4. average, which the director of the program assured me was not true. Also they claimed all job interviews went to 4. and that I held their careers in my hands. Need I say more? Stress! Miriam K. Harris, Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas mharris@utdallas.edu Private Address PO Box 670 665 Dallas, Texas 75367-0665 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 16:34:55 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "William W. Pendleton" Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The message below and other discussion of this topic raise the question of what are the criteria for tenure in fact, rather than in general, service, scholarship and teaching. Efforts to create a merit badge set of steps, dear to the heart of untenured faculty seeking asurance and administrators fearful of law suits, have actually been less than effective. I suggest that condition resultws from the nature of faculty relations and the subjectivity of the process, neither of which can be substantially changed. I was once told with some accuracy that the first question to ask when considering someone for tenure is whether you would be willing to have lunch with them every Friday until you retired. If the answer was no, look for the reasons they should not be tenured. If the answer was yes, look for reasons to award tenure. Regardless of publications, grants, student evaluations, that dynamic remains at work. When asked by untenured faculty what is needed to assure the awarding of tenure, the only reply that is truthful is the offer of a tenured position at another university. On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Brenda Brasher wrote: > I appreciate the insights from some of the seasoned faculty > on this list regarding the politics of weighing teaching > evaluations. My question is, what should one do when > it becomes obvious that the political game is afoot? I > am in my second year of teaching at a small liberal arts > college. My professional accomplishments have been > outstanding (i.e., I published a book & two journal articles > in the past year & already have a research grant for the > summer.). My department is extremely pleased with me. > I have been actively involved in college life. My tenure > track contract was renewed; however, I received a very > critical assessment from the Committee on Faculty. The > sole ground the committee gave for this less-than-admirable > assessment was student evaluations; however, a thorough > review of my student assessments does not back up such > an assessment. For example, I was verbally charged by my dean > with "going off the syllabus." Now one could readily argue > that to do this is not exactly a major academic crime & can > be, in fact, warranted by class dynamics, etc; however, > the fact is, I did not "go off the syllabus" in any of my courses. > Looking at my course reviews from all students, I found that > only one student out of all the students who evaluated me > made such a claim; yet, this one student's comment was > taken as 'gospel' by the committee & charged as a failing > on my part. The fact that the vast majority of the students > in my courses rated me as "outstanding" was, although > mentioned by the dean in his opening remarks, totally > discounted in the committee's overall assessment. Thus, > I concur that there is a politics to weighing student evaluations. > My question is, what are the most effective tactics to employ > in responding to it? Thanks for any advice, etc. > > Brenda E. Brasher > Mount Union College > brashebe@muc.edu > Wm W. Pendleton Department of Sociology Emory University Atlanta, Ga. 30322 socwwp@emory.edu 404 727-7524 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 16:43:23 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Gail Dines Subject: Summer Institute: Media Education in a Violent Society Wheelock College will be holding its fourth Summer Institute on Media Education in a Violent Society. The five-day institute takes place at Wheelock College in Boston from July 6-10, 1998. The purpose of the institute is to explore the role that media play in helping to shape our development, attitudes, behavior and culture. Participants will examine how to develop media literacy curriculum for the classroom and how to encourage critical viewing skills in children, youth and adults. The core faculty include Gail Dines, professor and author of Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality, and editor of Gender, Race and Class in the Media. Diane Levin, professor and author of Remote Control Childhood: Combatting the Hazzards of Media Culture, and Petra Hesse, producer of The World is a Dangerous Place: Images of the Enemy on Children's Television. The Institute is designed for teachers, parents, students and human service professionals. For more information, please e-mail Gail Dines at whe_dines@flo.org. Thank you, Gail Dines ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 17:17:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: JoAnn Castagna Subject: Re: Evaluations/Composition In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Stacey Shimizu asked how to make student evaluations more meaningful. Perhaps, like other skills, this is something that needs to be recognized as a skill that can be acquired, something that does take thoughtfulness and attention. for instance, if possible, you might ask students at the beginning of a course what they would put on an evaluation, what are the areas in which they think they can/should be evaluating their instruction. even if you are going to have to use a standard evaluation form, you could at the same time that you distribute the syllabus, distribute copies of the form and have a discussion of what student expectation and instructor goals are in each of the areas covered. Students at The University of Iowa developed a "student core," a set of questions that can be used in addition to what the department or instructor is interested in, that reflect what students feel are important aspects of a class [these students, by the way, did include a question on how well the class conformed to the syllabus provided--but they were more concerned about courses in which promised material never appeared]. another thing that might be done is to do mid-term evaluations that are discussed in the class. when i taught, i would have those evaluations read not by me but by a committee of students, who took some class time to report to the class what the perceptions at midterm were. then, we could discuss what should/could/would be different in the second half of the semester. JoAnn Castagna joann-castagna@uiowa.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 16:45:01 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Debra Kirkley Subject: Re: Teaching and tenure MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit One of the tips I was given when I completed my first faculty annual evaluation turned out to be really wonderful advice. I was told that my student evaluations didn't have to be perfect but that I should proactively respond to them in each year's self evaluation. Each year, I include a section in which I discuss my ratings and analyze what I suspect to be the reasons behind high and low ratings. One year I had great evaluations except for one single student who rated me poorly on everything! I explained that indeed one single student had failed the course and I wouldn't be at all surprised that she was expressing her anger and probably wasn't very objective in evaluating me. Another year I explained a dip in ratings because I was teaching a brand new course in the curriculum. It wasn't perfect (as a first-run never is). Additionally, I offer an action plan for changes I'll be making in response to the student's comments. So far, I have found my administrators to be very supportive of this practice. There are many strengths and many weaknesses in the process of student evaluations. But as long as we are doing them, we ought to show that we are doing our best to be responsive to any component that may reflect the need for real change. Debra ******************************************************************* Debra Kirkley, PhD (c), RNC Assistant Clinical Professor Texas Woman's University College of Nursing Dallas, TX 75235 dkirkley@twu.edu ..snip >We don't seem to have answered Brenda's specific question -- what is thetenure-track prof to do, given the literature on student evaluations? The answer is to "be prepared," ..snip ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 16:52:41 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Shelley Reid Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Niki's comments, > Neither can >colleagues, it seems to me, who are teaching in different disciplines or >very different specializations in the same discipline. I can sit in on a >chemistry class and have some reactions about whether the faculty member >seemed organized, answered questions (or ignored them), and so on. But how >the halibut could I evaluate someone in chemistry, literature, etc.?!? bring up another question for me. Do any of your evaluation forms ask students to make comparative evaluations: i.e., "Did you learn more in this class [or 'from this professor'] compared to other classes you've taken?" Since I spend a week or two in my writing class on just what kind of logic goes into writing a fair and balanced comparative evaluation, I agree with the person who suggested that students need to be educated in such a process to be able to provide useful data/responses. Or, on another tack, do the formal reports of eval. numbers, or the deans & tenure cttes who read them, keep track of "faculty averages" or otherwise compare faculty scores to one another across classes, ranks, and/or disciplines? I would think that people who are teaching cross-listed courses might run into exactly the sort of "how in the halibut" situation Niki describes -- if so, what kinds of coping skills have you developed? shelley ***** Shelley Reid English Department, Austin College (Home of the Fighting Kangaroos) Sherman, TX 75090 SREID@austinc.edu ***** ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 18:47:21 -0600 Reply-To: suzanne.bunkers@Mankato.MSUS.EDU Sender: Women's Studies List From: Suzanne Bunkers Subject: Kinds of Assessment MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII I've been following the thoughtful conversation about evaluation and assessment and wanted to add one more element that I've incorporated into my courses. At mid-term and at the end of the term, I ask students to complete an open-ended "self-assessment" form in addition to instructor and course assessments/evaluations. On the self-assessment, I ask students to evaluate their performance in the course thus far, their attendance and participation, the quality of their written work and analysis of course readings. I ask them to tell me what letter grade they believe they've earned thus far as well as why. Then I ask them to offer me specific suggestions on how I can improve the course for the rest of the term. In the ten or so years that students have been doing self-assessment in addition to course and instructor evaluation, I've seen them take themselves more seriously as important contributors to the success of the course. The self-assessment opportunities are also a chance to comment at length rather than fill in little circles on multiple choice, computerized evaluations. My next goal is to get self-assessment onto my web site (under construction) for each course that I teach. ---------------------- Suzanne Bunkers suzanne.bunkers@Mankato.MSUS.EDU ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 20:35:07 +1100 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Alison Brookes Subject: Seminar - Australian Women's Research Centre Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The Australian Women's Research Centre is delighted to announce the first of the the 1998 Seminar Series presentations: "International Feminist Perspectives on Women and Social Class" Presented by Pat Mahony The seminar will begin with an account of how Christine Zmroczek and Pat Mahony became interested in Women and Social Class as a political project and how their edited book _Class Matters_ helped to clarify understanding of the social construction of 'working classness'. _Class Matters_ also raised further questions which will be the main subject of the seminar: how class 'works' in diverse geographical and cultural locations, how class discriminations are actively taught and the way that new technologies and communications render class unstable. Pat Mahony is Professor of Education at Roehampton Institute London. She has worked for many years in the areas of equal opportunities and teacher education and is currently engaged in a number of research projects exploring the impact and significance of government policy in these areas. Her books include _Schools for the Boys?_; _Learning our Lines_ (edited with Carol Jones); _Promoting Quality and Equality in Schools_ (edited with Ruth Frith); _Changing Schools: Some International Perspectives on Working with Girls and Boys_; _Class Matters_ (edited with Christine Zmroczek); _Reconstructing Teaching within Re-invented Government_ (forthcoming with Ian Hextall) and _International Feminist Perspectives on Women and Social Class_ (forthcoming with Christine Zmroczek). AWORC invites all interested people to attend the Seminar. Where: Deakin University, Burwood Campus, Room M-205 When: March 2nd, 4.00 - 6.00 pm For further details or information, please contact: Alison Brookes, School of Social Inquiry, Deakin University. email: alib@deakin.edu.au ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 07:52:17 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Faye Johndrow Subject: Re: unsubcribe In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > unsubcribe > Faye Johndrow fjohndro@polaris.umuc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:00:48 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judy Evans Subject: Re: unsubcribe In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Faye Johndrow wrote: > > unsubcribe > > > Send this to listserv@umdd.umd.edu -- or you'll be trapped on the list forever :) --------------------------------------- Judy Evans jae2@york.ac.uk Typing, Dragon Dictate's. Opinions mine ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 08:36:10 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Dr. A.V. Soady" Subject: Re: CALL for Contributors, Southern Women Playwrights MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Linda ...I haveswitchwd you to friday at 3:45. Not a good spot insome ways, but that was all that I could do. cheers, viki ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 08:21:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: on Subject Line MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I've just learned about a feature of WMST-L that some subscribers may find useful. You now have the option of having "[WMST-L]" included in the subject header. This may help you to tell at a glance which mail is from WMST-L even if your mail system doesn't give you other clues (some mail systems show the mail as coming from WMST-L, while others show the mail as coming from the individual poster). Not everyone will want to sacrifice part of the subject line in order to include [WMST-L], but if you DO want to do that, send the command QUERY WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU to find out what your current settings are. You should get back a message that looks something like this: > Subscription options for Joan Korenman , list WMST-L: > > MAIL You are sent individual postings as they are received > FULLHDR Full (normal) mail headers (formerly "FULLBSMTP") > REPRO You receive a copy of your own postings > NOACK No acknowledgement of successfully processed postings Your options may be different, but the important thing is to find out what your HDR option is. It may be FULLHDR (like mine), SHORTHDR, IETFHDR, DUALHDR, FULL822, or SHORT822. Save that information, because if you don't like any changes you make, you'll need to know what to set your header back to. OK. Once you have the information about what your HDR option is, you can send a second message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU that says SET WMST-L SUBJECT This will result in [WMST-L] appearing at the start of every subject header line that comes from WMST-L. For example, I recently received a message from the list about the subject header "Seminar - Australian Women's Research Centre" . It appeared in my index of messages as "Seminar - Australian Women's Research Ce" . If I'd set the SUBJECT option, my index listing would have been something like "[WMST-L] Seminar - Australian Women's Res" . If you later decide that you don't like this option, you can change back to what you had (in my case, FULLHDR) by sending another message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU saying SET WMST-L [option], where you replace [option] with whatever your old HDR option was (in my case, the message would say SET WMST-L FULLHDR ). Please be sure to send all these messages to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU Do NOT reply to this message. Do not send any of the above messages to WMST-L. Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 08:44:18 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: how (not) to unsubscribe MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT In the last day or so, several people who apparently can neither read (the User's Guide) nor spell have sent totally inappropriate messages to the list asking to "unsubcribe" [sic]. I don't know how they managed to sign ON to the list without being able to read or spell, but I will not unsubscribe them without a message from their physician testifying to the fact that they have become mentally incapacitated and therefore cannot do this simple task for themselves. As the User's Guide and the welcome letter and any number of reminders on WMST-L have made clear, if you receive WMST-L as individual messages and wish to unsubscribe, you should simply send the message UNSUB WMST-L to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU . (UNSUBSCRIBE WMST-L and SIGNOFF WMST-L will also work.) If you get the EDITED DIGEST, you should send the following two-line message to that same address: AFD DEL WMST-L PACKAGE WMST-L UNSUB WMST-L You may think you're too busy to bother, but my time is just as valuable as yours. If your address has changed since the time you signed on to WMST-L and thus you are unable to unsubscribe from that address, simply write to me PRIVATELY explaining the situation and whether you get individual messages, the edited digest, or whatever. Writing to me under such circumstances is perfectly legitimate, as long as you do so privately, not via WMST-L. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation. Joan ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 07:41:13 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Elana Newman Subject: encouraging students to read syllabi Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Carolyn Wight's comment about syllabi prompted me to tell her about my latest policy in trying to encourage students to read the syllabi. She suggested I share it with the list.... This semester students in my Psychology and Gender class were told that the first exam would have at least one question on the syllabi. Sadly enough only 42% got it correct. In reviewing the exam with the class, I discussed my surprise at this response and told them another question or 2 will be on the next exam...It's sad, but shaping behavior may be the way to go!!! Elana Newman, Ph.D. University of Tulsa Department of Psychology 600 South College Avenue Lorton Hall 308 Tulsa OK 74104-3189 (918) 631-2836 Fax (918) 631-2833 elana-newman@utulsa.edu OR newmane@centum.utulsa.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:53:04 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judy Evans Subject: Re: on Subject Line Comments: To: Joan Korenman In-Reply-To: <01ITOG63QJRM001BT0@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Joan Korenman wrote: > I've just learned about a feature of WMST-L that some subscribers > may find useful. You now have the option of having "[WMST-L]" included in > the subject header. This may help you to tell at a glance which mail is HEY! -- YES! -- that would save having to unsubscibe ;-) --------------------------------------- Judy Evans jae2@york.ac.uk Opinions mine alone... . ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 09:03:21 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Traci Kelly Organization: University of Minnesota Crookston Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980217074113.006f9d48@centum.utulsa.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT In all of my lower division courses, I give a quiz on the syllabus the day after it is handed out. It helps some. It might be a bit heavy handed, but I figure it's kinder than them not bothering to read it and then getting docked a lot when they don't follow its guidelines later. > This semester students in my Psychology and Gender class were told that the > first exam would have at least one question on the syllabi. [clip] > Elana Newman, Ph.D. > University of Tulsa Traci Kelly tkelly@mail.crk.umn.edu Postal address: Traci Kelly University of Minnesota, Crookston 109 Conference Center 2900 University Ave Crookston, MN 56716-5001 phone: 218 281 8273 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 08:45:27 -0700 Reply-To: Kari B Mcbride Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kari B Mcbride Subject: teaching composition MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII As someone who taught first-year composition for 8 years, I was really disheartened to read that students in their 70s retain negative feelings about their college composition courses and the instructors. From my point of view, this doesn't seem to be an accurate assessment of either the classes or the teachers, but misplaced blame that has remained misplaced for decades. It seems unlikely that all of the women reminiscing had uniformly bad composition teachers, so I would argue that, on that basis alone, logic suggests that other factors are more significant than the courses or the instructors, none of which are identical from school to school or from generation to generation. For a variety of reasons, students come to college composition unprepared to do college writing. Partly, it has to do with the fact that high school teachers are overworked, have too many students, and just don't have the time to teach students how to write. But it also has to do with the difference between what is expected of high school and college writing. Many students have never engaged in analysis, evaluation, or argumentation, and it's hard to make the shift from the modes or forms they were used to using. There is nothing more difficult than communicating to students, semester after semester, that they now have to work to a different standard. As Sharon Migotsky suggested, many factors come into play here regarding gender and position within the academy. But the bottom line is that writing is hard work, and the only way to get better at it is to do it over and over again--to put time and effort into the process. If students are busy telling themselves that the class and the teacher are bad or wrong, improvement is not likely to be the result. As it happens, I received consistently strong evaluations in composition classes, but teaching those classes was among the most costly emotional experiences I have ever had--very similar the kind of psychic energy I put out teaching Introduction to Women's Studies, where faculty tend to be blamed for bad teaching when they ask students to stretch their minds and do things differently. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 12:17:12 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I have often compared the classroom of the 90's to a restaurant. Students are the clients dining out and we are the waitresses and waiters. If something in a student's "meal" isn't just right, they send it back. It is discouraging to see institutions of higher learning going the same route as the primary and secondary education system in the U.S.A., where student grades don't seem to correlate very well with achievement. These days, students often come to class with a variation on the theme of Rene Descartes, "I exist, therefore I deserve an A". (*smile*). I asked the question about how student evaluations are "weighted" because I found this relevant to the topic of being "out" about one's feminist politics and commitment to feminist issues which appeared on WMST-L recently. It has been my experience that if a faculty member is perceived as a "problem" (regardless of whether she really is or not), and the issue surrounding her problem status is viewed as a "hot potato", meaning that it carries potential liabilities if the institution calls her specifically on it, then student evaluations suddenly take on great significance. It seems to me that the knowledge that student evaluations are being stockpiled by institutions and could *potentially* be used against a faculty member at some point in the future is in itself sufficient to modify the behavior of many faculty. Thus, the overall message seems to be that if you are "normal", meaning that you strictly adhere to cultural mores existing within the school and match the prevailing definition of what a "good faculty" member is, whether that's Monday's definition or Thursday's, you probably don't have much to worry about. Student evaluations will be "kept in perspective". However, if you are not "normal", for whatever reason that might be, watch out. Student evaluations, even if they are generally favorable, may be used against you. Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:03:53 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Catherine Hopwood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII TYPE: INDEX WMST-L Catherine Hopwood ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 13:29:19 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Linda Anderson Subject: les/gay programs Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" does someone have a listing of university lesbian/gay studies programs which are minors or tracks? please respond privately. thanks. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Linda L. Anderson tel: 203/432-0845 Women's Studies Program fax: 203/432-8475 Yale University email: linda.anderson@yale.edu P.O. Box 208319, 315 WLH New Haven, CT 06520-8319 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 16:08:17 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn Dipalma (WOS)" Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi In-Reply-To: <34e9a7331b62004@mhub0.tc.umn.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I haven't given quiz or exam questions about the syllabus, but in my largest classes I have asked that students turn in a signed statement that says that they have read the syllabus carefully. I explain that the syllabus is very detailed and that I want to make sure that they've read it carefully so that they can ask any questions they may have. I ask for these on the second day of class. It seems to help students to recognize their own responsibility and it usually generates some good questions. On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Traci Kelly wrote: > In all of my lower division courses, I give a quiz on the syllabus > the day after it is handed out. It helps some. It might be a bit > heavy handed, but I figure it's kinder than them not bothering to > read it and then getting docked a lot when they don't follow its > guidelines later. > > > > This semester students in my Psychology and Gender class were told that the > > first exam would have at least one question on the syllabi. > [clip] > > Elana Newman, Ph.D. > > University of Tulsa > Traci Kelly > tkelly@mail.crk.umn.edu *********************************************************************** * Carolyn DiPalma, Ph.D. email: cdipalma@luna.cas.usf.edu * * Assistant Professor phone: 813-974-0979 * * Department of Women's Studies fax: 813-974-0336 * * 4202 East Fowler Ave., HMS 413 * * University of South Florida * * Tampa, FL 33620-8350 * *********************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 17:33:09 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Communicating course policies in the syllabus provides written documentation of what is expected of students, and for that reason is a good idea. However, the original post on this was about student complaints that a faculty member had departed from the syllabus. Pardon my ignorance, but why should ANY faculty member be held negatively responsible for such a thing? Does the world stand still while the course is being taught? Are we supposed to ignore pertinent current events or new information because most of us are not clairvoyant and did not include them on the syllabus? The departing from the syllabus complaint sound analogous to student outcries that a test question is unfair because the material isn't covered in the textbook. What kind of administration takes such student complaints seriously? Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 11:06:56 -0500 Reply-To: Jo-Ann Pilardi Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jo-Ann Pilardi Subject: M. Stewart/diversity MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII >From my daughter-in-law, who works at a fancy restaurant in Manhattan, I hear that there is an Af-American alternative (to Martha Stewart) surfacing: Barbara Smith (not the feminist, but owner of another fancy restaurant--popular with the NY black uppwardly mobile crowd). Soon she will produce a show just like M.S. A source for research into this whole area would be the Women's Culinary Alliance in NY--it pools the thoughts and opinions of women from all aspects of the culinary world. Jo-Ann Pilardi, Towson University WMST, jpilardi@towson.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 11:35:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Linda Kuzmack Organization: People For the American Way Subject: Radical right Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I am beginning research on scholars and articles/books that deal with the = radical right and/or the religious right's attacks on women. I would = appreciate it if scholars on wmst-l would tell me about the work they are = doing in this area, or about the work of their colleagues. Where might I = find a bibliography on this area? Thank you, Linda Gordon Kuzmack lkuzmack@pfaw.org = ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 17:21:19 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: JoAnn Castagna Subject: Re: departing from the syllabus In-Reply-To: <01ITP12DCELU002SA2@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I think that while instructors may see only virtue in departing from the syllabus, students could use an evaluation question about "departing from the syllabus" to signal what does (unfortunately) occur in some classrooms--days of vague digressions or instructor inattention that results in student frustration because nothing is being done/covered. Students in courses that are part of sequential groups (e.g. language courses, math courses, sequential science courses) may worry that if all the promised materials on a syllabus are not covered, if instructors decide not to cover some material, they will not be properly prepared for the next course--and it would be appropriate for administration to be concerned if that were a recurring complaint about an instructor. JoAnn Castagna joann-castagna@uiowa.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:43:25 +0900 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: matthew and christina Subject: Re: Martha Stewart Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > I'm in the midst of writing a paper on Martha Stewart as an example of > adult education in the 1990's. I've not had much luck finding sources > outside of the internet and Martha's books/magazines/TV show/web site > addressing her as a positive example, let alone an exmple of feminism. > Does anyone know of sources I should look at? What are folks thoughts > about her current success and visibility? > i don't know if this will be of any use to you, but Margaret Talbot wrote an interesting essay "Les Tres Riches Heures de Martha Stewart" (in English) which appeared in _The Anchor Essay Annual_ vol 1, edited by Phillip Lopate, published by Anchor Books / Doubleday, NY, 1997. christina matthew@sanmedia.or.jp ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 22:10:29 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: Women's learning styles In-Reply-To: <01ITKL5Z7O98RTEBHC@wvnvms.wvnet.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The student from India who suggested that learning styles are culturally based is right, of course. We learn how to learn - over a period of time in a culture/s. This doesn't mean there's no human agency, no innovative or original thought, only that learning develops in a context. Given this understanding, generalizations about differences in learning styles between women and men in the US are highly questionable whether stated as 'tendencies' or within certain parameters: too many intervening cultural variables are involved. Such generalizations fall into the 'essentialist' trap, ignoring changing relations and processes. Studies of women's learning styles, the Belenky et al. and other followers of Gilligan's initiative maximize sex/gender differences, following the paradigm set by studies of men as does research that reports such definitive markers as race and class. What do I know about Indian learning styles? I taught in India, a country probably more diverse culturally than the US, caution that my view of learning there reflects impressions derived from particular context, personal contacts and reading, not systematic research. I gave a graduate course in Women's Studies at a highly selective university in New Delhi (admission via tests administered across the country; a govt. institution, like most postsecondary schools, it's tuition-free with subsidized housing and food; the language of instruction is English, as it is in major postsecondary institutions in a nation with 17 officially recognized languages; affirmative action with quotas, required by law in all state agencies is practiced.) I also talked with students and faculty at various college and university campuses elsewhere in the country, with some illiterate urban and village women and with many educated people outside education settings, had contact with primary and secondary school personnel and with children. Teaching styles are diverse; they include lectures that transmit received knowledge, preparation for external exams (English-style practice, tho not at my university), class discussions and keen critical analyses. On the basis of my experience, I'd say learning styles vary substantially in India. beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 22:19:49 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: teaching evaluations In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The best advice I can think of, Brenda (and others caught in the political web of tenure), is to consult friends in your dept, the chair if possible on how to deal with the unfair view of that committee. Put your response in writing? speak to someone there? find others to speak for you? find out who is blocking you? (acting on unfair, unreasonable, untrue evidence) There's probably a committee or someone above the committee that's badmouthing you, so that you will go forward with a cloud that others will not have. This warrants at least hinting at a grievance if there's a faculty union. (Tenure is often competitive; only a certain number will get it.) Will that matter? Does your own dept. chair make the pitch for her/his faculty to upper echelons? Did you get a strong pitch? (lies from the 'pitcher' about what s/he said are not unknown, so you'd have to find out if you can from someone who heard it). Is sex discrimination an issue, e.g., a man or men with less of the valued attributes competing with you, getting preference? Messy, rough road that I didn't have, fortunately, until well past the tenure point, had some notion by then of how things go. Don't be too easily discouraged. Stay centered, firm, cool as you can. Treat the problem like a political campaign. Good luck! beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net p.s. I can't resist a comment in response to those negative ones on English teachers and students' writing. My unforgettable English 1 prof, a teacher from whom I learned a great deal about writing, accepted without comment the red ink I used to write some of my papers, with initial capital letters in words I thought important; she focused on other matters. I think she knew she was dealing with a youngster searching for a way to express ... something. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 05:04:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Ted, Sylvia and Robin Morgan Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" An acquaintance asked the following and I was wondering if anyone on list knew of the answer: >Query: does anyone have a DATE for that Robin Morgan poem "the >Arraignment" -- which begins "I accuse/ Ted Hughes" of murdering >Sylvia Plath? l971? If anyone can help, I need to know ASAP-- by >Wednesday Feb 18. After that it will be TOO LATE. Thanks, Kelley Crouse kcwalker@syr.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 07:58:24 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: LAURA KRAMER Subject: syllabi, contracts, disclaimers MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII I believe we (people at MSC, then) were told years ago that a syllabus has the status of a contract (e.g., if you say the grade is based on a certain formula and then give a grade other than that arrived at through applying the formula) it is a breach...I have no idea if this is accurate. But if it is, or is believed to be so, there is reason to be concerned about CERTAIN KINDS of departures from syllabus. Because reality and plans never match, I include a disclaimer like statement on the syllabus (this is generally about dates, which I say may change slightly but there'll be at least a week's notice of a change - student, implicitly, better keep in touch). I think it could be worded to include additional materials/topics could be introduced as appropriate... Laura Laura Kramer Professor of Sociology Montclair State University Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 (973) 655-7168 KRAMERL@ALPHA.MONTCLAIR.EDU ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:18:15 AST4ADT Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "D.K. van den Hoonaard" Organization: St.Thomas University Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades I found myself combining this discussion with the one on teaching English composition. I find that today's students are quite resistant to the idea that we have a higher (or different) standard than the one they had in high school. As well, I teach Sociology and Gerontology--many students deeply resent my belief that they should be able to write well--spell things right and use sentences that include verbs, etc. This has an impact on student evaluations. In addition, I think that some students may resist a woman's trying to get them to think critically and analytically more than they resist a man's attempt to do the same thing. Students regularly comment in their evaluations that I'm too critical (or even sarcastic although I don't think I am). It makes me wonder if students expect their women profs to "mother" them, to always build up their egos and never say anything negative. I always try to include suggestions for how to improve a paper in my comments, but that is also seen as negative. A colleague, who studies course evaluations, is looking into the research for me. He's already reported to me that men, in general, get higher evaluations than women. D.K. van den Hoonaard Gerontology Program St.Thomas University Fredericton, N.B., Canada Email DKVDH@StThomasU.ca ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:43:16 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit D.K. van den Hoonaard wrote: > A colleague, who studies course evaluations, is looking into the > research for me. He's already reported to me that men, in general, > get higher evaluations than women. In an effort to champion research conducted prior to 1990 (*smile*), the following studies listed below found that in comparably matched groups according to educational level, skill, and experience, men are consistently rated higher than women in job qualifications. Women receive less recognition and prestige for contributions made and are viewed as less knowledgeable and having lower levels of expertise compared to their male counterparts. Bayer, A.E. & Astin, H.S. (1975). Sex Differentials in the academic reward system. Science, 188, 796-802. Deaux, K. & Emswiller, T. (1974). Explanations of successful performance on sex-linked tasks: What is skill for the male is luck for the female. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 80-85. Etaugh, C. & Kasley, H.C. (1981). Evaluating competence: Effects of sex, marital status, and parental status. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 6, 196-203. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:33:39 +0000 Reply-To: smithleo@pilot.msu.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Leonora Smith Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Re the discussion on "departing from the syllabus" I make a distinction between the "syllabus," and the "assignments." I see the syllabus as (more or less) a contract between the students and the faculty member in terms of what the purposes of our work together are, how, in general, we are expecting to accomplish them, and, in general, how the students will be evaluated. A "syllabus" however, is not the same as a list of activities, readings, assignments, etc. which, in my course, is generally sketched out but my no means predetermined. I no longer hand out a dated list of upcoming assignments; I'm committed to a pedagody which involves students in making decisions about the what we do when, how much and how often, so I now give a general outline, write daily assignments on the board (like in the old days) and give a short list of due dates for more complex assignments. I still get some complaints about being "confused" but I encourage e-mail questiosn to deal with that. I say a little confusion is a sign of a mind trying to get somewhere and it ought to be honored for that reason. Good discussion. Leonora Smith ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 10:56:17 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Diana H Scully Subject: Re: Radical right In-Reply-To: <1998Feb17.105600.1792.187989@www.pfaw.org>; from "Linda Kuzmack" at Feb 17, 98 11:35 am I'm sending this to the list because I think it might be of general interest. The National Women's Studies Association newest publication, authored by Danielle Currier and me, is THE NWSA BACKLASH REPORT: PROBLEMS, INSTIGATORS, AND STRATEGIES. It is based on a survey of Women's studies Directors/Chairs and contains information on the types of problems their programs/departments and faculty have experienced, the types of strategies used against them as well as their own defenses, the instigators and right-wing groups currently organized on college campuses. It is available through NWSA (7100 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, MD 20740) for $10. Diana Scully > > I am beginning research on scholars and articles/books that deal with the = > radical right and/or the religious right's attacks on women. I would = > appreciate it if scholars on wmst-l would tell me about the work they are = > doing in this area, or about the work of their colleagues. Where might I = > find a bibliography on this area? > > Thank you, > > Linda Gordon Kuzmack > lkuzmack@pfaw.org = > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Diana Scully Professor of Sociology & Director of Women's Studies Virginia Commonwealth University Box 843060 Richmond, Virginia 23284 804.828.4041 (phone) 804.828.4983 (fax) dhscully@vcu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 00:33:12 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Jeff Finlay, Crossroads" Subject: American Studies Opportunities & News, Week Ending Feb 15 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT AMERICAN STUDIES OPPORTUNITIES & NEWS INDEX Week Ending February 15, 1998 Sponsored by the American Studies Association and provided as a free service to the community by the American Studies Crossroads Project (http://www.georgetown.edu/crossroads) What follows is only an index. To get any item you will need to send a separate message to LISTSERV@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM The following items were posted recently to American Studies Opportunities & News. To get any item send the message GETPOST OPPORTUNITIES followed on the same line by the item number to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com (example: to get the first posting below, send the message GETPOST OPPORTUNITIES 913 to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com For the first and second, send the message GETPOST OPPORTUNITIES 913 918). For best results, send messages exactly as given in the example format (GETPOST is one word). Don't put commas or periods between the item numbers; don't put anything in the subject line of your message. Jobs ==== 921 Am Litt/Women's Studies, U Glamorgan Wales (tenure, Feb 23) 915 Black/Women's Studies, CUNY-Lehman College (tenure, Mar 2) 917 Latino/a Studies, SUNY Buffalo (tenure, due Mar 2) Fellowship Opportunities ======================== 910 Postdoc in Humanities, Kentucky Commonwealth (due March 1) Calls for Contributions to Books/Journals/Media =============================================== 942 Female Authored Slave & Neo-Slave Narratives (essays) 952 Gender/Race/Class/Ethnicity, for Int'l Review of Social Hist 941 Women & Dictatorship, for Women's Studies Journal Events, Institutes, Seminars & Special Notices ============================================== 948 CD-ROM, Women's Resources International (review) 935 Directory of DC Area American Culture Scholars 951 Michigan State U Women's Studies Colloquia Series, Spr98 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can Search the holdings of the Opportunities archive at http://home.dc.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?S1=opportunities ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:37:48 -0600 Reply-To: "cklewis@indiana.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Camille K. Lewis" Subject: Re: Ted, Sylvia and Robin Morgan Comments: To: "kcwalker@syr.edu" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 1973. See this website for the info: http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/iwd/monster.htm This website is particularly useful for e-texts of the SCUM Manifesto, Morgan's "Goodbye to All That," etc. I thought perhaps the whole group would be able to use it. Hope you get this in time! Camille Lewis Indiana University Communication and Culture -----Original Message----- From: Kelley Crouse Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 1998 4:04 AM To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU Subject: Ted, Sylvia and Robin Morgan An acquaintance asked the following and I was wondering if anyone on list knew of the answer: >Query: does anyone have a DATE for that Robin Morgan poem "the >Arraignment" -- which begins "I accuse/ Ted Hughes" of murdering >Sylvia Plath? l971? If anyone can help, I need to know ASAP-- by >Wednesday Feb 18. After that it will be TOO LATE. Thanks, Kelley Crouse kcwalker@syr.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:50:04 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Libra Subject: looking for panelists for women/art conference MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello, I am looking for people who would like to form a panel related to my proposed subject, "The Female Subject among American Women Artists, 1963-1983" for the May 18th "Women and the Arts" Conference at Rutgers. The deadline is Feb 20th so responses are needed quickly! (although I think there is some flexibility with this date) This paper is based on research completed for my dissertation which I have just completed. I will be graduating from NYU in May. I am in the Humanities Education Program in the Dept. of Culture and Communication in the School of Education. Currently I am teaching Women's Studies at SUNY New Paltz. I look forward to hearing from some of you! Denise Bauer libra@warwick.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- "The Female Subject among American Women Artists, 1963-1983" This will be an interarts exploration of how a selection of American women artists represented the female subject during the period around the Women's Movement, 1963-1983. I will consider how the sociopolitical and cultural context of the Women's Movement helped shaped remarkably common themes and issues among women visual artists, poets, filmmakers and performance artists. I will explore for example, the subject of childbirth and pregnancy as expressed by artists like Joyce Chopra in her autobiographical film Joyce at 34, by painter Alice Neel in her series of pregnant nudes, by Judy Chicago in "The Birth Project" and by the performance, "The Birth Trilogy" at Womanhouse. Other themes during this period included women's relationships with women as articulated in Adrienne Rich's book of poetry, Dream of a Common Language and Claudia Weill's film, Girlfriends and feminine identity as explored by Faith Ringgold in her story quilts and Marisol in her haunting female sculptural forms. By looking closely at women's aesthetic expressions of women during the particularly transformative historical moment of the Second Wave Women's Movement, I will forge a uniquely synthesized account of feminism and contemporary American art and culture. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 14:33:44 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Laura Sells Subject: syllabus exercise In-Reply-To: <01ITPUMK6PWU95OG5U@alpha.montclair.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Below is an exercise that I use the first day of class to cover syllabus issues. Rather than read over the syllabus with the students first thing, I have them fill out this worksheet. Then I have them discuss their answers in small groups. I use it because a. In my experience, class time is often wasted because students ask the same questions over and over again without listening to what other students are asking. This exercise eliminates that problem entirely. Also, most of the syllabus is usually self-explanatory, but students are not entirely focused because of the hectic first day of class. In small groups, students are forced to engage with the syllabus and the students answer the questions for each other and figure things out on their own. b. Also, the worksheet nearly always evokes that standard questions about "male bashing," passing the class if you're not a feminist, and so forth. The worksheet allows these fears to be addressed in a productive fashion--it gets them out on the table on the first day of class, in an anonymous manner, and then lets me confront them directly rather than let them percolate over the semester. c. Finally, the group exercise helps to set the tone of the class as emphasis on cooperative learning, it models how our other cooperative learning exercises will operate, and it lets the students feel more comfortable with me and each other. The exercise takes about the same amount of time as going over the syllabus repeatedly. The entire exercise takes about 30 minutes and covers most of the ground that I would have covered if I just lectured. WORKSHEET: First Day of Class Exercise Please read the all directions before beginning. PART I Please spend a few minutes reflecting on your expectations for the class, on any fears you might have about the class, and on any questions you have about the syllabus, course procedures, assignments, etc. Then briefly answer the questions below. 1. What is your greatest fear about the class (if you have one)? 2. What do you what you want to accomplish or learn in this class? 3. What questions do you have about the syllabus, assignments, procedures, etc? PART II In groups of 5 students discuss your answer to question 3 (and questions 1 and 2, if you want to). Each group should then vote on the most important question they have about the syllabus and class, and report back to the class. Next, as a class, we will process your questions about the syllabus. Last, I will take up your answers to questions 1 and 2, and read selected responses out loud to the class. If you want to remain anonymous, please do not write your name on this paper. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 09:05:35 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Nancy M. Whitt" Subject: women in poverty MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII I am compiling a bibliography of U.S. literature on contemporary women in poverty, such as Dorothy Allison's "Bastard Out of Carolina". I would appreciate suggestions. Please respond privately. Thanks. ----------------------------------------- Nancy M. Whitt Professor of English Samford University Birmingham, AL 35229 Phone: 205-870-2458 Fax: 205-870-2112 E-mail: nmwhitt@samford.edu "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)" Walt Whitman ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 13:31:37 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Brenda Cooper Subject: quotes from women MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" One of my students is updating our Women's Studies web site, and we would like to inclunde a link to quotes from famous women. Could you please send me your favorite quotes, and we'll include them in the list. Thanks. Brenda Cooper bcooper@cc.usu.edu Brenda Cooper, Director Women's Studies Department of Communication Utah State University Logan, UT 84322-4605 801-797-3253 "I think it will be truly glorious when women become real people and have the whole world open to them." Isak Dinesen, 1923 ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 11:20:00 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Michael Kimmel Organization: SUNY at Stony Brook Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Yesterday, Angela Pattatucci wrote: > I have often compared the classroom of the 90's to a restaurant. Students > are the clients dining out and we are the waitresses and waiters. If > something in a student's "meal" isn't just right, they send it back. It > is discouraging to see institutions of higher learning going the same > route as the primary and secondary education system in the U.S.A., where > student grades don't seem to correlate very well with achievement. These > days, students often come to class with a variation on the theme of Rene > Descartes, "I exist, therefore I deserve an A". (*smile*). > I'm relatively new to this list, though not at all new to feminist work. (I've taught gender courses for more than 15 years.) But I was somewhat surprised by this post because it seemed to shift the agency entirely to the students. If feminism taught me anything it was that relationships between professors and students are relationships of power, and that the inequalities of gender are complicated by inequalities of institutional position. What's more, power is often invisible to thoise who wield it. In the restaurant metaphor, it's the students who *seem* to have the power, but I would bet from their position they don't feel that way. After all, the waitresses and waiters do not decide if the customer gets to eat at all. At the same time, the metaphor does speak to a sense of entitlement that our students - or at least my students - seem to walk around with these days (the clever rephrasing of Descartes). My students often act as if they are there to be made comfortable, and that whatever makes them uncomfortable - like a new idea that does not accord with commonsense TV talk show psychobabble - ought not be spoken in class. They're not there for education, and they know it; they're there for processing and credentialing, and education, if it happens at all, may be a reltively pleasant or unpleasant side dish. I think our analysis has to take acount of *both* these experiences; stressing their power as consumers alone, or stressing our overweening power alone will not get us to the place where we can really engage how the classroom is different fromm the classrooms that we remember (and imagine) that we inhabited as students. It's in that contradiction between our power and their sense of entitlement that much of our contestation lies. Michael Kimmel - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael Kimmel Professor Department of Sociology SUNY at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794 phone: (516) 632-7708 fax: (516) 632-8203 email: mkimmel@datalab2.sbs.sunysb.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 15:26:38 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Laura Sells Subject: McEducation In-Reply-To: <199E44B0B0D@datalab2.sbs.sunysb.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I really liked Michael's analysis of the restaurant metaphor. But I find McDonald's to be a more persuasive metaphor than the sit-down fern bar type of restaurant. McDonaldization seems to be a big theme these days, and I find it really fits my experience in teaching. I think that the "academy's" shift to a Total Quality Management orientation hamstrings the learning process and contributes to undergraduates' desire for high- calorie, low-nutritional content. What frightens me about this process, though, is that the alternative rhetoric I hear from teacher/waitstaff/burger flippers, which is what I sometimes feel I really am, is the "Back in My Day we actually had to read" orientation that institutionalizes and canonizes women's studies in ways that make me very uncomfortable. What I'm really trying to say is this: what is the difference between active learning, cooperative education, bells and whistles, culti-multuralism, diversity, total quality management teaching, on the one hand, and on the other, a geniune feminist pedagogy that teaches "to" the students through alternative teaching strategies that attempt to challenge the institution of the academy and, now, the institution of women's studies. Last semester I taught a section of Intro to Women's Studies that was overflowing with people who were there just for the Gen.Ed. credit. I found myself saying to them the exact same things in the exact same authoritative and arrogant tone that I heard my Freshman English teacher say to students who challenged traditional interpretations of the poem of the week. This is not the image of women's studies that I want to project as a feminist teacher. Where's the feminist middle ground? Laura Sells Department of Women's Studies University of South Florida Tampa, FL ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 15:34:21 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades In-Reply-To: <314599A7CAE@academic.stu.StThomasU.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" All I can say is that I extend a hearty thanks to all who've written in. I no longer feel so alone in my frustration with what I've encountered. Even as a grad TA I had students literally yell at me for writing extensively on their papers in an effort to help them improve their writing. I did so because that is what my hs teachers and profs did for me and I don't think I'd be where I am today without their help. So, I felt I was giving back the gift that I had been given, only to increasingly find that students resent my gift. Very frustrating to say the least. Oh I have students here and there who do appreciate it, I have a few notes from some who've felt I've changed their lives, and I generally get very good evals. I think what concerns me is that under the onslaught of this indifference and, occassionally hostility, I feel that my commitment to feminist pedagogies is steadily eroding and that, more and more, there isn't any institutional support that will support me in my effort to keep up the fight. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 16:08:24 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: quotes from women In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Oh how exciting. We're doing the same, but building a website for William Smith from scratch as part of the intro course. So, please send those fav quotes to me too! Thanks ever so much. I'm sure they'll be thrilled Kelley kcwalker@syr.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 17:55:36 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Miriam Harris Subject: Re: women in poverty Comments: To: "Nancy M. Whitt" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The Beans of Egypt Maine by Carolyn Chute is another. The Color Purple by Alice Walker Beloved by Toni Morrison Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor Miriam K. Harris, Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas mharris@utdallas.edu Private Address PO Box 670 665 Dallas, Texas 75367-0665 On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Nancy M. Whitt wrote: > I am compiling a bibliography of U.S. literature on > contemporary women in poverty, such as Dorothy Allison's > "Bastard Out of Carolina". I would appreciate suggestions. > Please respond privately. Thanks. > > ----------------------------------------- > Nancy M. Whitt > Professor of English > Samford University > Birmingham, AL 35229 > Phone: 205-870-2458 Fax: 205-870-2112 E-mail: nmwhitt@samford.edu > > "Do I contradict myself? > Very well then I contradict myself, > (I am large, I contain multitudes.)" > > Walt Whitman > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 20:24:24 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joe Amato/Kass Fleisher Subject: query: male/female writers Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" for a bibliography, i'd appreciate hearing from folks who know of any books/articles dealing with differences in the processes/products of male and female writers. respond privately and if you like i'll post a list for all. thanks kassie fleisher ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 00:41:54 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Susan Koppelman Subject: a story about teaching about, in response to, male/female writers Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit In a message dated 98-02-18 21:26:44 EST, you write: << for a bibliography, i'd appreciate hearing from folks who know of any books/articles dealing with differences in the processes/products of male and female writers. respond privately and if you like i'll post a list for all. thanks kassie fleisher >> Kassie, I'm curious to know something. Are you presupposing that there ARE differences in the processes/products of male and female writers, or are you investigating IF there are differences in the processes/products of male and female writers. In either case, in which dimensions of product and process would you postulate that the differences are manifest? I remember when feminists began first to take positions on and theorize from those positions about the diffderences or absences of differences and then I remember when some began to investigate whether or not there were in fact differences and I remember reading, listening to, participating in that discussion. I am wondering if you are taking a position or if you are asking for information about the various positions vis a vis the question of whether at all and if so what and where there might be differences. Be that as it may, I would like to tell you, if you don't already know about it, that the longest and most successful at passing gender poseur among writers that I know of is James Tiptree, Jr./Alice Sheldon. Do you know that story? It is a wonderful one. Read Robert Silverberg's introduction to what I believe was her first or perhaps her second collection of short stories! You'll howl with laughter! And Joanna Russ has some wonderful stories to tell, and perhaps letters to share some day about their correspondence when Joanna believed that Alice was James -- and Alice's response to Joanna's response to the discovery that James was Alice. A wonderful story. One year many years ago, I taught a literature course and decided to include an absolutely even number of male and female authors in the syllabus. And I did. But several of the women writers had published under male pseudonyms, and I included their works on the syllabus as written "by" their male pseudonyms. So in fact, to one who did not know that these writers were gender masked, it appeared that the syllabus was about 25-30% women writers and the rest men writers. Well, the students looked at the syllabus (some of them has heard rumors that their teacher was a -- GASP -- radical feminist; this was @1972) and looked at me and some of them complained loudly, more whiningly than litigiously, "But the whole thing is all WOMEN!!!" I asked them to count the writers they thought were women and the writers they thought were men and to take out their little calculators (in those days we were just all starting to carry them) and do the math and tell me what percent were women and what percent were men. One could assume, in those days, that college sophomores knew how to take percents. Can you still? And they did as I asked and then looked at me, startled, because they saw for themselve how they mis-saw, how they thought that when women weren't invisible, they seemed to take up the whole room!!! I said to them, "I will ask you on your midterm, in an essay question, to explain to me why you mis-saw in that way." By midterm, if they couldn't do that, it was because they refused to, didn't want to say it out loud, even on paper. But they knew. . . . And I, of course, not wanting to rub their noses in it too wickedly, made that promised essay question one of several they could choose among. No one HAD to answer it -- but each of them had to read it. Love and Kisses, All you Wonderful Feminists Who Are Taking the Women's LIberation Revolution into the camp of the enemy -- The Intellectual Police Stations. Susan Koppelman <> ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 09:19:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: liora moriel Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980218153421.007e5410@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII This is a crucial issue, and not an easy one. There are good restaurants and fast food greasy spoons--and lots in between. There are exuberant, motivated students and there are sleep-walkers--and lots in between. Feminist discourse is all about eschewing easy dichotomies, and this is no exception. Students want good grades, and I have learned to include in my syllabus a section demystifying this concept. Basically, it's a recipe for good grades that places the onus on the student to be alert in class, interactive with me and others, to budget the time to rewrite papers before handing them in, including a focus on clear argumentation, etc. For my part, I include mid-term evaluations that will determine the way the second half of the semester will be structured to ensure the students get the best from me. I firmly believe that motivation is more important than intelligence (assuming college students are at least average in intelligence) and that if I present interesting material in ways that engage their minds and hearts they will do well and enjoy the process. I am known as a tough but fair grader at this point, and I stress that from the first. The students are expected to write coherent papers with some insight into the material in hand, and I am always there to answer questions (e-mail or office hour) about content (grammar etc. is not my concern--they are urged to go to the university writing center for that. Students who are not native speakers and others who have special problems beyond that can meet with me during office hours and several come and use that time thoroughly and well, so we both benefit). Finally, to ensure they know what's in store, they must complete a waiver saying they've read and understood the syllabus (incl. the part about sexually explicit and other challenging material) if they wish to remain in my sections. AND I give a writing assignment on the first day that I grade by the second so that they have a good idea of how I grade and why (lots of comments in pencil which, I remind them, are NOT reflections of them personally but of their writing only, with a view to helping them identify areas they need to improve and strengths they can build on). Sure, I have some nasty evaluations and some students who claim they do the work, not me (for example, when they do presentations...) But in my department there is at least one supervisor visit a semster for TAs (which I am; we are independently responsible for our own syllabus, however) and this balances student evaluations somewhat. Naturally (alas) in the tenure process a lot of extraneous issues are part of the puzzle and personality conflicts, politics etc. play a huge role, so that evals can be used as Rorschach (sp.?) tests. Liora Moriel Comparative Literature Program University of Maryland 2107 Susquehanna Hall College Park, MD 20742-8825 lioram@wam.umd.edu "We have cooperated for a very long time in the maintenance of our own invisibility. And now the party is over." - Vito Russo ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 11:15:44 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Schweitzer Subject: Anti-motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A colleague in a social science discipline teaches that "anti-motherhood" is a significant component of the women's movement. I should add this is a female colleague. She gave some isolated quotes from Simone de Beauvoir, said (early) Freidan found motherhood "boring", and then quoted from some recent pundits who have been in the press a l lot. When I responded that was a misrepresentation of the feminist movement, she answered, "My point is not about what the majority of feminists think. The majority of women who call themselves feminists do not even know who Firestone is -- and why should they? Academic feminism has strayed awfully far from advancing the interests of women." Well! I asked her to explain this term "anti-motherhood" and asked where she got it -- from within feminism or within feminism's critics -- but in the meantime I thought I would ask the rest of you -- is my perception wrong? I did not think this was a major component of academic feminism. For a reading of what academic feminism IS, I thought this list was a pretty good source. And does anyone know where this phrase "anti-motherhood" came from (unless she made it up herself). Side note: a bit scary what female academics can be teaching students is "academic feminism". Mary Schweitzer, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of History/Women's Studies Villanova University (on medical leave since January 1995) mailto:schweit2@ix.netcom.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 09:09:10 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Nancy M. Whitt" Subject: PBL Bibliography MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII I am sending this message for a colleague who is not on the list (though I am working with her on her project). Please send responses directly to njhiles@samford.edu. Thanks you. Nancy Whitt If anyone is working with approaches to Problem-based Learning for women in the Humanities, I would appreciate receiving references to published material,information on ongoing studies, and findings from your own classroom experience (in descending order of preference). For the purposes of my research, problem-based instruction is defined by student-centered pedagogies constructed around students' self-directed approach to a real-life problem or set of problems. I am compiling a bibliography and will be happy to share my findings with contributors who indicate interest. Please respond privately to: Jane Hiles Subject: PBL Thanks very much. ---------------------------------------- The light which we have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge. John Milton, Areopagitica Jane Hiles Email: njhiles@samford.edu Associate Professor Voice: (205) 870-2039 Department of English Fax: (205) 870-2112 Samford University Birmingham, AL 35229 --- End Forwarded Message --- ----------------------------------------- Nancy M. Whitt Professor of English Samford University Birmingham, AL 35229 Phone: 205-870-2458 Fax: 205-870-2112 E-mail: nmwhitt@samford.edu "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)" Walt Whitman ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 08:39:56 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Nicolette Czarrunchick Subject: Job.UCSC WMST Vis. Asst. Pr Subject: Time:8:33 AM OFFICE MEMO Job.UCSC WMST Vis. Asst. Prof. Date:2/19/98 Please POST VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN WOMEN'S STUDIES POSITION: The Department of Women's Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, announces the opening of an Assistant Professor in Women's Studies during the 1998-99 academic year, with expertise and ability to teach in one of the following areas: feminist theory, women of color in the United States, popular culture, or film studies. Four courses will be taught over three quarters, and some advising will be expected. Position is subject to administrative approval of funding . There is the possibility that the position could be renewed for a second year. CLOSING DATE: April 10, 1998 Please refer to provision #T97-40 in your reply. RANK: Visiting Assistant Professor SALARY: $41,200 - $45,900, commensurate with qualifications and experience. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. completed by June 1998. University level teaching experience. Ability to relate to a diverse student population. APPLY TO: Applicants should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, three current letters of recommendation (considered confidential materials), syllabi, student evaluations of teaching, and a writing sample to: Emily Honig, Chair Women's Studies Department Kresge College University of California Santa Cruz, California 95064 Please refer to provision #T97-40 in your reply. EFFECTIVE DATE: 1998-99 academic year. Possibility of renewal for 1999-2000. CLOSING DATE: April 10, 1998 end-of-file nmc ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 12:00:04 -0500 Reply-To: "Leah C. Ulansey" Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Leah C. Ulansey" Subject: McEducation vs feminist pedagogy In-Reply-To: <199E44B0B0D@datalab2.sbs.sunysb.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Michael Kimmel wrote: > If feminism taught me anything it > was that relationships between professors and students are > relationships of power, and that the inequalities of gender are > complicated by inequalities of institutional position. What's > more, power is often invisible to thoise who wield it. > [snip] > > I think our analysis has to take acount of *both* these experiences; > stressing their [students'] power as consumers alone, or stressing our > overweening power alone will not get us to the place where we can > really engage how the classroom is different fromm the classrooms > that we remember (and imagine) that we inhabited as students. It's > in that contradiction between our power and their sense of > entitlement that much of our contestation lies. > Very interesting discussion! I'm glad Michael made the above point and I also agree with Laura that student "consumer power" ( as in evaluations) sometimes adds up to nothing more than the "power" to swallow a generic McEducation--with or without ketchup, postmodernism on the side (ah, choice). And we "burger-flippers" sometimes risk our jobs and positions when we try to promote more substantive fare (or, God forbid, home cooking). Some interesting questions lurk behind this discussion: is feminist knowledge more resistant to commodification than other forms of knowlege? And is the commodity form necessarily bad (undemocratic? unscholarly?) for the dissemination of knowledge? As I see it, market driven education dispels certain educational pieties and superstitions that deserve to be debunked (for instance, ethnocentric notions about what constitutes an educated person) but it creates a free-for-all in which the same old social hierarchy can find new opportunities to reproduce and justify itself in some fancy new way. In other words, to oversimplify a bit, I get the feeling that educational feudalism is dissolving in the throes of educational capitalism. Neither one is inherently hospitable to feminism, though on the whole, I personally prefer the openness and unpredictability of the marketplace to the rigidity of the feudal order. One other thing: I don't think we can generalize about the politics of knowledge-acquisition that motivate "our students" because those students are a far from homogeneous group. For starters, some come to college fully expecting that they will soon be earning more and wielding more social power than we do; for others, we are the first of many intimidating gatekeepers who will bar or admit them to the inner sanctum of professional-managerial status. These two different (though sometimes overlapping) groups of students will almost inevitably make different use of the feminist knowlege we manage to convey to them, no? Even within one and the same classroom, there are different educations going on. Leah Ulansey leou@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu > > > > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Michael Kimmel > Professor > Department of Sociology > SUNY at Stony Brook > Stony Brook, NY 11794 > > phone: (516) 632-7708 > fax: (516) 632-8203 > > email: mkimmel@datalab2.sbs.sunysb.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 12:50:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jerry Diakiw Subject: Re: women and language readers In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Anyone have any good suggestions for readings about the problems of immmigrant, professional women breaking into the professions(eg. nursing, engineering,teaching) in Canada or the USA? Would appreciate any help. Please send privately. Jerry ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 12:51:04 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sharon Jacobson Subject: if men could menstruate Several years ago, there was a handout called If Men Could Menstrauat , I think it was put out by NOW. I used to have a copy of it in my files but it has mysteriously disappeared. Is this by any chance still available and if so could someone tell me where I could get a copy. Thanks. -- ************************************************************* Honesty is more than just not being dishonest. It is an active choice to be responsible for the choices we make before we act upon them so that we can stand up for them and not be tempted to be dishonest. Sharon Jacobson, Ed. D. SUNY Brockport Women's Studies Program sjacobso@acspr1.acs.brockport.edu ************************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 12:48:25 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Von Bakanic Organization: College of Charleston Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: "Your message dated Thu, 19 Feb 1998 11:15:44 -0500" <34EC5AB0.7C26@ix.netcom.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mary Schweitzer said: > A colleague in a social science discipline teaches that > "anti-motherhood" is a significant component of the women's movement. I > should add this is a female colleague. She gave some isolated quotes > from Simone de Beauvoir, said (early) Freidan found motherhood "boring", > and then quoted from some recent pundits who have been in the press a l > lot. > When I responded that was a misrepresentation of the feminist movement, > she answered, "My point is not about what the majority of feminists > think. The majority of women who call themselves feminists do not even > know who Firestone is > And does anyone know where this phrase "anti-motherhood" came from > (unless she made it up herself). > Side note: a bit scary what female academics can be teaching students > is "academic feminism". I suspect that she is referring to the early radical feminist ideas ( Shulasmith Firestone among them). Initially the assumption in radical feminism was that the oppression of women was caused by their ability to produce children. Patriarchy emerged as a way men could claim the children women bore. Men needed sons to preserve their power and status. The need to control women sexually was a means of making sure that the sons a woman bore were the sons of the man claiming them. Early radical feminist work included the possibility of using technology as a way to solve gender oppression. By finding ways to reproduce that did not involve men owning/controlling women, the need for gender oppression would disappear. As the theory developed the focus shifted to patriarchy as a structural form. Patriarchal heirarchies enforced by violence are widespread throughout many societies and within many social institutions. Radical feminists quickly moved beyond the early genesis of patriarchy by understanding that it is a structure or form of organization that oppresses everyone. Reproductive Rights remain a strong part of radical feminism but the emphasis now is on women controlling their own sexual and reproductive choices. _____________________________________________________________________ Von Bakanic, Ph.D. (803) 953-7105 Dept. of Sociology internet address: College of Charleston bakanicv@cofc.edu Charleston, S.C. 29424 FAX (803) 953-5738 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 11:13:15 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joseph Boles Subject: Re: if men could menstruate MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII The text of this short essay can be found at http://www.one-web.net/Humor/If%20Men%20could%20Menstruate ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:16:00 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: jeannie ludlow Subject: Re: if men could menstruate In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi Sharon, "If Men Could Menstruate" was written by Gloria Steinem and was published (I think) in the very first issue of _Ms._ magazine in 1972. If your library does not have it, or cannot get it for you, let me know. I still use it in my intro classes, when I introduce the various "types" of feminisms. Jeannie __________________________________________________________________________ . . . Thus wrote ) Jeannie Ludlow ( "Lord, you know me, a woman, partly brave / ) jludlow@bgnet.bgsu.edu ( I'm liable to say and partly good, ) Women's Studies ( anything; so if who fought with what / ) Popular Culture ( I've offended she partly understood ) Bowling Green SU ( anybody, well hence she was labelled / ) Bowling Green OH 43403 ( . . . tough." harpy, shrew and whore ) ( --Dolly Parton --Adrienne Rich ) ( ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:24:33 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: race, ethnicity, & nationality MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit We have a saying here: "Naces in Puerto Rico; eres puertorriqueno". Translated, it means that if you are born in Puerto Rico, you are Puerto Rican. This is a statement that celebrates our diversity. We certainly have our problems in other areas, and their is always room for improvement, but in my admittedly biased opinion, we are much less racist, on any level, than North Americans. To this end, I sent an email to President Clinton, suggesting that he use Puerto Rico as a model in his national discussion on race. The idea that one person would be considered more Puerto Rican than another by virtue of skin color or how many generations their family has been on the island is a completely foreign concept to us. However, we are far from perfect (*smile*). Each year, the University of Puerto Rico circulates a diversity questionnaire to all employees seeking to gather statistics on race/ethnicity, age, sex, and position held at the University. I have always been irritated by the racial/ethnic categories presented. For example, if a person is Black, but wasn't born in a Latino country and doesn't speak Spanish, everything is okay. They simply check that they are Black. However, if they happen to be both Black and Latino, it's as if they cease to be Black anymore. They are supposed to check the "Hispanic" category. In this instance, a hierarchy exists where ethnicity occupies a more dominant position to race. This year, at the bottom of the last category, there was a notice stating that if you are Asian, you should check that category regardless of whether you were born in Puerto Rico or another Latino country, and speak Spanish. This struck me as strange. In this case, race took precedence over ethnicity. Why? Many might say, what's the big deal? After all this IS Puerto Rico we're talking about. This was precisely the response that I received when I brought my questionnaire over to Central Administration to inquire about the practice. However, we have a substantial Asian population here, most of whom were born here and speak Spanish as their primary language. Why does this university consider them not to be Hispanic? I pointed out that it would be relatively easy to simply expand the categories, but was basically told to mind my own business (*smile*). The entire experience has been disorienting to me and has caused me to think about how racial, ethnic, and nationality hierarchies are constructed in different cultures. I am wondering if anyone has performed a cross-cultural analysis of how these hierarchies are established? Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:32:01 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Michael Messina-Yauchzy Subject: Re: if men could menstruate In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii" "If Men Could Menstruate" by Gloria Steinem was published in the October 1978 issue of Ms. It is reprinted in two popular anthologies: Feminist Frontiers, ed. by Richardson, Taylor, and Whittier, and Men's Lives, ed. by Kimmel & Messner. Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney did a hilarious skit based on the same premise in their original "Kathy and Mo Show," which was broadcast on both HBO and Lifetime. I have bugged the networks and Najimy's people to make the tape available for purchase, but with no success. (I use a copy for class that a student of mine taped from Lifetime). If you can find it, see it. Michael At 01:16 PM 2/19/98 -0500, you wrote: >Hi Sharon, > >"If Men Could Menstruate" was written by Gloria Steinem and was published >(I think) in the very first issue of _Ms._ magazine in 1972. If your >library does not have it, or cannot get it for you, let me know. I still >use it in my intro classes, when I introduce the various "types" of >feminisms. > >Jeannie > >__________________________________________________________________________ > . . . Thus wrote ) Jeannie Ludlow ( "Lord, you know me, > a woman, partly brave / ) jludlow@bgnet.bgsu.edu ( I'm liable to say > and partly good, ) Women's Studies ( anything; so if > who fought with what / ) Popular Culture ( I've offended > she partly understood ) Bowling Green SU ( anybody, well > hence she was labelled / ) Bowling Green OH 43403 ( . . . tough." > harpy, shrew and whore ) ( --Dolly Parton > --Adrienne Rich ) ( > Michael Messina-Yauchzy Ph.D. candidate, Interdisciplinary Social Science M.A., Sociology 413 Maxwell Hall Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13244 Home page: http://web.syr.edu/~mmessina/Index.html E-mail: mailto:mmessina@mailbox.syr.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:42:29 -0500 Reply-To: psymazur@ACS.EKU.EDU Sender: Women's Studies List From: Liz Mazur Organization: Eastern Kentucky University Subject: Re: if men could menstruate MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sharon Jacobson wrote: > > Several years ago, there was a handout called If Men Could Menstrauat > , I think it was put out by NOW. I used to have a copy of it in > my files but it has mysteriously disappeared. Is this by any chance > still available and if so could someone tell me where I could get a copy. > Thanks. > > -- > > ************************************************************************* Its by Goria Steinem and is reprinted in The Lanahan Readings in the Psychology of Women (Edited by Tomi-Ann Roberts), 1997. That book reprinted it from Steinem's Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Elizabeth Mazur psymazur@acs.eku.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:06:08 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rhoda Unger Subject: If men could menstruate MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII We also reprinted the article in our anthology: M. Crawford & R. Unger (1997). In our own words: Readings on women and gender. New York: McGraw Hill. It is still an excellent consciousness raiser for students. We need more such pieces that appear non-threatening because of their sense of humor. Rhoda Unger ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:22:36 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Schweitzer Subject: more questions about feminism and motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I hate to display my ignorance here. 25 years of feminist study and I don't know these names. Who are "Firestone and Oakely", and are they "anti-motherhood"? Are they typical of "feminist scholars"? in the forefront of "radical feminism?" Do they publish in academic journals or popular mags and the trade press? Do they have university positions and Ph.D.s? Scholars -- or pundits? (George Will being an example of a "pundit".) I wouldn't be so concerned if this woman wasn't out there TEACHING this stuff. Then again, maybe I'm the one with the wrong-headed idea that motherhood is perfectly compatible with "modern feminism." Mary Schweitzer, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of History, Villanova University (on medical leave since January 1995) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:28:34 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Gina Oboler, Anthropology & Sociology, Ursinus College" Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood So I gather Firestone is the example put forward by your colleague to support claims about "academic feminism." Did she cite other examples of the precise work she is criticizing? It seems to me that if the premise to be demonstrated is that "academic feminism" is "anti-motherhood," then what is necessary is to show that these "anti-motherhood" tendencies are present in the texts most commonly used in Women's Studies or feminist-oriented courses. One could, for example, sample the syllabi that are available through this list. I seriously doubt that Firestone is in the "Top Ten" list, though I'm unsure what is. More to the point, perhaps, what is this "anti-motherhood" thing? Can you pin your colleague down more on exactly what she means by it? One assumes it to mean a position that holds that being mothers is inherently bad for women. I know very few academic feminists who think that. But do we argue that the notion that a woman can only achieve womanly fulfillment as a mother is bad for women who wish not to be mothers or seek major avenues of fulfillmentelsewhere? *I* certainly do. Do I argue against the mandate that all women become mothers? Sure thing. Would I argue that a huge drawback to the way the housewife/mother role was traditionally structured was that it left women dreadfully economically dependent? Yep. Am I concerned about the cultural tendencies to blame mothers for whatever goes wrong in families? Sure am. Do I see a link between women roles as mothers and the feminization of poverty? Yeah..... Do I think that the solution for any of this is for women to reject motherhood? Certainly not! I always thought (and still do) that feminism is about giving women more choices, not about rigidly prescribing *any* set of roles. Does any of this make me "anti-motherhood" in your colleague's eyes? I wonder..... -- Gina (an academic feminist, daughter and grandaughter of feminists, and mother of two more feminists) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:59:08 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Gina Oboler, Anthropology & Sociology, Ursinus College" Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood Shulamith Firestone's book THE DIALECTIC OF SEX was written in the early 70s. Von Bakanic described it well. But I don't think this was an "initial" position of feminism -- I think it was *one* theory of *one* feminist writer. It didn't really make a lot of headway. Ann Oakley wrote WOMAN'S WORK in 1974. A chapter in this book is "The Myth of Woman's Place II: Motherhood." Oakley makes a pretty standard critique of the then-current (and not yet moribund) cultural construction of motherhood: It is not true that women are meant to be mothers by "nature" -- hormones do not drive us to need fulfillment as mothers. Women who do not mother are not frustrated and unhappy. There are many other avenues to fullment as women. Children can grow up healthy and happy with other kinds of caregivers besides mothers, etc... These arguments might have been radical in 1974, but do not seem all that radical in 1998. Feminists did not then and do not now try to convince women that anything is wrong with liking the child caregiving role -- only that if you do not find it ultimately fulfilling, there's nothing wrong with you; if you want to avoid or share it, it's OK. Does your colleague believe that women are biologically predisposed to be better caregivers than men, that there is a "maternal instinct"? And has she read anything published in the last 25 years? One of the most appalling things about this to me is that someone would be teaching what the general thrust of *any* field is, without being knowledgeable about current research anbd theory in that field. -- Gina ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:07:34 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Why not take an activist approach and invite this faculty member to publicly debate this issue, an exercise which might ultimately motivate her students to question those assumptions in her classes. However, if you choose to go this route, I would suggest phrasing the debate topic in more generalized terms. Posing the question "Is feminism anti-motherhood?" is similar to asking a man when was the last time that he cheated on his wife. The question assumes the answer. Angela ************************************************************* Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ************************************************************* ---------- > From: Gina Oboler, Anthropology & Sociology, Ursinus College > To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU > Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood > Date: Thursday, February 19, 1998 1:28 PM > > So I gather Firestone is the example put forward by your colleague to > support claims about "academic feminism." Did she cite other examples of > the precise work she is criticizing? > > It seems to me that if the premise to be demonstrated is that "academic > feminism" is "anti-motherhood," then what is necessary is to show that these > "anti-motherhood" tendencies are present in the texts most commonly used in > Women's Studies or feminist-oriented courses. One could, for example, sample > the syllabi that are available through this list. I seriously doubt that > Firestone is in the "Top Ten" list, though I'm unsure what is. > > More to the point, perhaps, what is this "anti-motherhood" thing? Can you > pin your colleague down more on exactly what she means by it? One assumes > it to mean a position that holds that being mothers is inherently bad for > women. I know very few academic feminists who think that. But do we argue > that the notion that a woman can only achieve womanly fulfillment as a mother > is bad for women who wish not to be mothers or seek major avenues of > fulfillmentelsewhere? *I* certainly do. Do I argue against the mandate that > all women > become mothers? Sure thing. Would I argue that a huge drawback to the way > the housewife/mother role was traditionally structured was that it left > women dreadfully economically dependent? Yep. Am I concerned about the > cultural tendencies to blame mothers for whatever goes wrong in families? > Sure am. Do I see a link between women roles as mothers and the feminization > of poverty? Yeah..... Do I think that the solution for any of this is for > women to reject motherhood? Certainly not! > > I always thought (and still do) that feminism is about giving women more > choices, not about rigidly prescribing *any* set of roles. > > Does any of this make me "anti-motherhood" in your colleague's eyes? I > wonder..... > > -- Gina (an academic feminist, daughter and grandaughter of feminists, > and mother of two more feminists) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 12:18:45 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Anita Sheth Subject: Re: lesbain mothering for the childless lesbain lover MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Is there any material on lesbains who have no children who are in relationship with mothers who are now lesbains? What are the possibilities for dynamics with the lover's daughter? Is there anything written on the role and responsibilities, especialy where the daughter remains closed to the lover and the mother wants the lover and daughter to share a talking dynamic? What if all attempts fail? Any suggestions? -- _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 15:32:36 -0500 Reply-To: Jo-Ann Pilardi Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jo-Ann Pilardi Subject: anti-motherhood, etc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII It is really hard to believe that people studying feminism for 25 years have never heard of Shulamith Firestone (THE DIALECTIC OF SEX), nor understand the anti-motherhood discussions that were produced by what we now call "The Second Wave," but was then just called Women's Liberation, beginning with Beauvoir's discussions of motherhood in THE SECOND SEX, in 1949. Let's remember a bit of reproductive history here: the pill was introduced in the early/mid 1960's. Though it has its problems, it offers a much greater degree of predictability and "control over our bodies" than any previous contraceptive techniques. Though I agree with some of what Von Bakancic stated about this, I wouldn't agree that the main element of radical feminism was anti- motherhood. It was patriarchy: the system of men oppressing women. Motherhood became one conduit for that, according to this analysis, but hardly its only dimension. Reading some of the Second Wave pieces in my feminist theory course this semester, I've noticed that my students are sometimes shocked at these analyses, yet when I explain them, within the historical context, they understand them quite well. It also seems to me a small step (and one that anti-feminists would love to see us take) from trashing feminist analyses of how motherhood is used in patriarchal society to jumping on the family values bandwagon. I, for one, don't want to go there. Jo-Ann Pilardi, Towson Univ. jpilardi@towson.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 15:03:59 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Suzanne Wallace Subject: Re: teaching evaluations As to Brenda's question regarding the "most effective tactics" for handling politically tinged assessments of a faculty member's student evaluations, I know only one useful tactic and I offer it for what it's worth. I believe that faculty should read and carefully analyze and summarize -- in writing -- each set of student evaluations that we receive. This allows us to point out where the "vast majority" of student reactions are, identify outliers as exactly that, and provide context for whatever odd or weird comments may exist. If this is done with some thought, accuracy and honesty and "attached" to sets of evaluations, it is more difficult for others to distort the findings. And if actual problems are identified by students, it also allows us to validate them and state how they will be addressed in future classes. The downside, of course, is the amount of time and emotional effort involved -- which should not be necessary to spend in a perfect world. Suzanne Wallace Associate Professor/Economics Central College Pella, Iowa 50219 wallaces@central.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:18:14 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Schweitzer Subject: Defining feminist ideology in the academy MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit As I've been reading responses to my original queries, I have been struck by something. "Feminist ideology" seems often to be defined by the writings of a very few, those in a set of privileged (if I may say so) academic disciplines. We feminist historians don't seem to fit at all! Nor would the feminist economists I associate with. "Feminist ideology" apparently resides in literary analysis, philosophy -- where else? It is disconcerting for me, as a participant IN the early women's movement in the 1970s. Who speaks for me in some of these debates? Many of the voices that we took as (frankly) publicity hounds are taken seriously today as speaking FOR the women's movement -- we certainly didn't think so at the time! Can anyone else articulate this better? Where does "feminist ideology" reside in the academy? Mary Schweitzer, Villanova University (on leave) schweit2@ix.netcom.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:30:01 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: Defining feminist ideology in the academy In-Reply-To: <34ECA196.14B7@ix.netcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" We have, as it were, reinscribed the canon it seems to me Mary. But, then, I've never thought that we could actually get rid of 'canons' but only that we must be more vigilant about what we do with them, etc. Kelley ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:39:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kelley Crouse Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: <34EC5AB0.7C26@ix.netcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" While I do not agree that anti motherhood is currently a strong component of the women's movement, I must say that it would be a mistake to deny that it has been. If not, then why is it that my 1983 copy of Richardson's and Taylor's Feminist Frontiers--one of the most widely used texts for many years--contains not one section on motherhood specifically? And, why do you suppose that both bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins (among others) have both felt compelled to point out the anti-motherhood, indifferent to-family-stance of some variants of early second wave feminism? As for Shulamith Firestone, though I've only read excerpts, she certainly seems to me to be a central figure in early Second Wave Feminism. And, it also seems to be an assumption held by the chroniclers and metatheorists of feminist theory --women like Linda Nicholson (who included an excerpt from The Dialectic of Sex in her recent anthology) and Alison Jaggar and Rosemarie Tong, standard texts used in theory courses and both of which deal with Firestone's work extensively. Firestone, too, is often the target of more contemporary critiques of what some feel is a white middle class bias in early second wave feminism (hooks, Spelman, Collins). Whether this is true or not according to those who were there is another issue. And, even then, it seems that this sort of testimony has been challenged recently. Indeed, even Michael Kimmel challenged us similarly recently. Kelley ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 16:35:23 -0500 Reply-To: Rachel Roth Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rachel Roth Subject: Snitow on "anti-motherhood" In-Reply-To: <009C20CB.1FB26FE0.92@acad.ursinus.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Try Ann Snitow's essay "Feminism and Motherhood: An American Reading," in the Spring 1992 issue of Feminist Review, pp. 32-51. She wants to argue that "feminism set out to break both these taboos -- those surrounding the experiences of mothers and of the non-mothers," but that "in the long run we were better able to attend to mothers' voices (or at least to begin on that project) than we were able to imagine a full and deeply meaningful life without motherhood" (p. 33). And she has a great time-line of feminist literature on motherhood. R.R. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 15:51:56 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sandra Donaldson Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980219163911.007ff7e0@mailbox.syr.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII There's also the term anti-natalism, which referred to the tremendous social pressures on women to become mothers. The glorification of motherhood and vilification of the childless were concerns. Sandy Donaldson ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:09:23 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: Student Evaluations Get Failing Grades In-Reply-To: <314599A7CAE@academic.stu.StThomasU.ca> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII To D.K: Yes, I agree. Getting students to write a correct citation is a problem. My last class received a hand-out with sample APA citations along with encouragement to buy the manual.Most were seniors. Only two citations were ever handed in correctly writen. We reviewed the problem each time I handed back their papers - and ,of course, I noted the error on their papwers while grading. Points were always lost. But, I believe college students should graduate with the ability to write and cite works. Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, D.K. van den Hoonaard wrote: > As well, I teach Sociology and Gerontology--many students deeply > resent my belief that they should be able to write well--spell things > right and use sentences that include verbs, etc. This has an impact > on student evaluations. > > D.K. van den Hoonaard > Gerontology Program > St.Thomas University > Fredericton, N.B., Canada > Email DKVDH@StThomasU.ca > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:15:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: syllabus exercise In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII What do you for those students who register for the class late? For evening classes that could be as much as three weeks after class begins. CWright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu > Below is an exercise that I use the first day of class to cover syllabus > issues. Rather than read over the syllabus with the students first thing, > I have them fill out this worksheet. Then I have them discuss their > answers in small groups. I use it because > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:30:52 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Vashti K. Braha" Subject: Re: Defining feminist ideology in the academy In-Reply-To: <34ECA196.14B7@ix.netcom.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Mary's post speaks to two issues I've been mulling over very recently. On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Mary Schweitzer wrote: (snipped) > "Feminist ideology" apparently resides in literary analysis, philosophy > -- where else? > > Can anyone else articulate this better? Where does "feminist ideology" > reside in the academy? I have just completed a thesis on essentialism. After spending months reading every viewpoint I could find on it in feminist theory, I began to notice that a characteristic of the "anti-essentialist" position is that the most furor over it seems to come from people in literature and languages. It's nearly impossible to find anyone who self-identifies as both a feminist and an essentialist, but when I look at those who are labeled as essentialists by others, I find that the psychology and philsophy fields are better represented among these feminists than they are among "anti-essentialists." Oddly, essentialism is a philosophical concept, at least traditionally, so I would have expected such a raging debate (in the '80's anyway) to have been centered in philosophy. And when it comes to the "essentializing" of PEOPLE, it seemed logical to me that cognitive psychologists would have the most input. Some of the most insightful discussions I have found on this "structuring debate for feminist theory" have been by philosophers (Jane Roland Martin, Marilyn Frye, Vicki Kirby) and psychologists (George Lakoff, Rhoda Unger, Sandra Bem)!! But for some reason, the vehemence of the anti-essentialists maybe, the tone and agenda of the debate seems to have been set more from the direction of lit. crit. This has left me wondering about a feminist ideology, like Mary does. The second issue is the old one about interdisciplinarity. If Women's & Gender Studies is to be truly interdisciplinary, then one or two disciplines should not be setting the tone for it! Vashti Braha (New College of USF) |"I am going into the desert where human beings are free like | | lions...Since the rebellion of Lilith, I am the first free | | woman...Thinking of my glorious rebellion, they will say, | | Vashti disdained being a queen that she might be free." | "The Veil of Vashti" Renee Vivien (1904) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:40:08 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Anita Sheth Subject: Re: Defining feminist ideology in the academy MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Have read the book titled "Unsettling Relations: the university as a site of feminist struggles" Bsnnerji,H et all, Women's press, Toronto,1991 Anita Sheth Univ. of Toronto ---"Vashti K. Braha" wrote: > > Mary's post speaks to two issues I've been mulling over very recently. > On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Mary Schweitzer wrote: > (snipped) > > "Feminist ideology" apparently resides in literary analysis, philosophy > > -- where else? > > > > Can anyone else articulate this better? Where does "feminist ideology" > > reside in the academy? > > I have just completed a thesis on essentialism. After spending months > reading every viewpoint I could find on it in feminist theory, I began to > notice that a characteristic of the "anti-essentialist" position is that > the most furor over it seems to come from people in literature and > languages. It's nearly impossible to find anyone who self-identifies as > both a feminist and an essentialist, but when I look at those who are > labeled as essentialists by others, I find that the psychology and > philsophy fields are better represented among these feminists than they > are among "anti-essentialists." Oddly, essentialism is a > philosophical concept, at least traditionally, so I would have > expected such a raging debate (in the '80's anyway) to have been centered > in philosophy. And when it comes to the "essentializing" of PEOPLE, it > seemed logical to me that cognitive psychologists would have the most > input. Some of the most insightful discussions I have found on this > "structuring debate for feminist theory" have been by philosophers (Jane > Roland Martin, Marilyn Frye, Vicki Kirby) and psychologists (George > Lakoff, Rhoda Unger, Sandra Bem)!! But for some reason, the vehemence of > the anti-essentialists maybe, the tone and agenda of the debate seems to > have been set more from the direction of lit. crit. > This has left me wondering about a feminist ideology, like Mary does. > > The second issue is the old one about interdisciplinarity. If Women's & > Gender Studies is to be truly interdisciplinary, then one or two > disciplines should not be setting the tone for it! > > Vashti Braha (New College of USF) > > > |"I am going into the desert where human beings are free like | > | lions...Since the rebellion of Lilith, I am the first free | > | woman...Thinking of my glorious rebellion, they will say, | > | Vashti disdained being a queen that she might be free." | > "The Veil of Vashti" Renee Vivien (1904) > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:57:42 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Where is this vilification on the one hand and glorification on the other supposed to take place? I have never had children, out of choice, and have never been vilified for it. What settings is this discussion about? Evidently not universities in modern times. DP -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:47:14 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jo Trigilio Subject: sexual harrassment surveys MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The sexual harrassment committee at my university has decided to survey faculty, staff and students about their experiences of sexual harrassment. We need a survey that will allow us to identify problematic behaviors, even if the respondent does not recognize the behavior as a form of sexual harrassment. We are in the process of compiling surveys used by other colleges and universities to provide us with ideas. where might i find surveys? If you have a sample of one used at your institution, we would most appreciate having a copy. Jo Trigilio Philosophy California State University, Chico Chico, CA 95929 trigilio@ecst.csuchico.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 18:04:25 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: Re: sexual harrassment surveys Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Responding to Jo's request: if people don't think there's a problem, why is the university trying to identify these supposed problems? Where is the authority of experience (to not coin a phrase) usually attributed to women? Should it now give way to the authority of administrators? DP -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:24:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Edrie J Sobstyl Subject: Re: sexual harrassment surveys In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII PLEASE post this to the list!!! I have been suggesting such a survey at my school since I started teaching here 3.5 yrs ago, and am always regarded with that "what planet are YOU from?!" stare! ***************************** Edrie Sobstyl School of Arts and Humanities University of Texas at Dallas P.O. Box 830688 Richardson Tx 75083-0688 (972) 883-2365 (972) 883-2989 (fax) On Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:47:14 -0800 Jo Trigilio wrote: > The sexual harrassment committee at my university has decided to survey > faculty, staff and students about their experiences of sexual harrassment. > We need a survey that will allow us to identify problematic behaviors, > even if the respondent does not recognize the behavior as a form of sexual > harrassment. We are in the process of compiling surveys used by other > colleges and universities to provide us with ideas. where > might i find surveys? If you have a sample of one used at your > institution, we would most appreciate having a copy. > > > Jo Trigilio > Philosophy > California State University, Chico > Chico, CA 95929 > trigilio@ecst.csuchico.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 17:40:08 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Miriam Harris Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Mary, Firestone is Shulamith Firestone and she wrote an imp. book called THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION, 1970, Morrow. As I recall, she came from an orthodox Jewish background and for her, in those early years, motherhood was a male enforced institution which ultimately meant the end of woman's freedom and intellectual productivity. I've seen several books by Annie Oakely but have not read them. I think they are from that period too. So much has been written in the last 28 years -- as you and I know, there is a balance available now both in theoretical works and in life and even in society's acceptance of motherhood and professional careers as compatible life style possibilities. Miriam K. Harris, Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas mharris@utdallas.edu Private Address PO Box 670 665 Dallas, Texas 75367-0665 On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Mary Schweitzer wrote: > I hate to display my ignorance here. 25 years of feminist study and I > don't know these names. Who are "Firestone and Oakely", and are they > "anti-motherhood"? Are they typical of "feminist scholars"? in the > forefront of "radical feminism?" Do they publish in academic journals > or popular mags and the trade press? Do they have university positions > and Ph.D.s? Scholars -- or pundits? (George Will being an example of a > "pundit".) > > I wouldn't be so concerned if this woman wasn't out there TEACHING this > stuff. Then again, maybe I'm the one with the wrong-headed idea that > motherhood is perfectly compatible with "modern feminism." > > Mary Schweitzer, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of History, Villanova University > (on medical leave since January 1995) > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 19:36:13 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: BETH ANN RABINOVICH Subject: WOMEN IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am planning a 2-day seminar on women in cross-cultural perspective (sponsored by a psychology department). I would very much appreciate suggestions for films that are easily obtainable and in-class activities. Please respond privately. In advance, thank you for your help. Beth A. Rabinovich, Ph.D. bethannr@erols.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 20:40:50 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: hagolem Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 02:22 PM 2/19/98 -0500, you wrote: >I hate to display my ignorance here. 25 years of feminist study and I >don't know these names. Who are "Firestone and Oakely", and are they >"anti-motherhood"? Are they typical of "feminist scholars"? in the >forefront of "radical feminism?" Do they publish in academic journals >or popular mags and the trade press? Do they have university positions >and Ph.D.s? Scholars -- or pundits? (George Will being an example of a >"pundit".) > >I wouldn't be so concerned if this woman wasn't out there TEACHING this >stuff. Then again, maybe I'm the one with the wrong-headed idea that >motherhood is perfectly compatible with "modern feminism." > >Mary Schweitzer, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of History, Villanova University >(on medical leave since January 1995) > Shulamith Firestone was a very iimportant early feminist theorist, activist and organizer. i have no idea what academic credentials she had or didn't have. There were no women's studies courses, let alone departments when Shulamith Firestone and the Redstockings were active. She was a radical theorist who was concerned with the oppressive structure of the family as well as the economic system. her writings are still valuable and interesting. marge piercy hagolem@capecod.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 19:35:25 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marilyn Edelstein Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Re: Daphne Patai's posting on this thread (which my e-mail system doesn't allow me to quote), asserting that there is no "vilification" of women who haven't had children and no glorification of those who have--I'm not sure which previous posting used these particular words (vilify/glorify) and whether that post-er was referring to academic feminism/ists as having these attitudes toward motherhood. But it seems fairly obvious to me that these are , at least in a general way, widely held cultural attitudes.That is, that women who do not have children are often viewed as virtual "freaks" or objects of pity, while devoted mothering is treated, in all sorts of cultural "texts" and discourses (not the least of which is Christianity--anybody heard of the Virgin Mary?). There have been several fairly recent books on women who are childless (by choice, by chance, by virtue of infertility, etc.), one, e.g., by Mardy Ireland, and most of these provide more than anecdotal evidence of the normativity of motherhood for women, within contemporary U.S. culture but certainly not solely there. And, even though several recent post-ers have denounced the ostensible prominence of literary studies in contemp. academic feminism, I might refer Daphne et al. to texts by such writers as Sandra Cisneros, who wonderfully illustrates cultural and religious pressures on Chicanas to be mothers (in, e.g., "Little Miracles, Kept Promises). I realize I'm drifting a bit off-topic here, but I'd be surprised if I were the only "childless/child-free" woman on this list who has not been asked by many women "out in the world" whether I have children, and then been asked, when I say no, "why not?" (no one asks women with children, I think, "why did you have them?"--at least not in casual conversation). And are there really women out there who have not also been the recipients of pitying if sympathetic looks from mothers when one says one doesn't have children? The common "pop-cultural" "pundit-world" association of feminism with hostility to or rejection of motherhood seems part of a feminist backlash, to me, even if, as previous post-ers have pointed out, some feminists, esp. in the early part of the "Second Wave" may have critiqued social/cultural pressures on women to have children and suggested that some women might find life fulfilling without children. Neither of these positions is, of course, the same as saying "a real woman/feminist shouldn't have children" and I still haven't heard anyone mention a feminist who has expressed this "anti-motherhood" sentiment. Much in our culture, on the other hand, still suggests, and not only sub-textually, that "real women" should have children. Marilyn Edelstein, English, Santa Clara Univ. medelstein@scuacc.scu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 22:44:57 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: "missing girls" In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Vibhuti Patel goes behind the 'frozen data' in reports on the 'missing females' in 'Women and Structural Adjustment in India,' in Social Scientist Vol.22, Nos. 3-4, March-April 1994. The journal is available at R-271; Greater Kailash 1; New Delhi 110 048; India Patel analyses the context in which females 'disappear', shows how discrimination against girls and women is exacerbated by state policies, in particular, the Structural Adjustment Programme [the IMF/World Bank box]. Contributing factors, e.g.,less use of health facilities by women than men (most of what gets funded, especially by Western agencies, is for reproduction matters), the huge proportion of girls working in export factories exposed to dangerous chemicals and generally dreadful working conditions, disproportionately more food given to men and boys and an updated way to express prejudice against females: female foeticide. Generally, she notes, women have been increasingly devalued because they can't do the kind of productive work they had done formerly. beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 01:09:25 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Schweitzer Subject: Re: feminism and "antimotherhood" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am finding this an interesting discussion on what feminism "is" in the academy -- I misspoke yesterday (or did not make myself clear) -- I did not mean to say I had never heard of Shulamith Firestone -- rather, the colleague was talking about feminism TODAY, and I couldn't figure out who was publishing named Firestone NOW. That was thirty years ago! (Hard to accept, isn't it?) I had said that her arguments sounded to me like those from the late '60s, early 70s -- not arguments common today. But she insisted this was what contemporary academic feminism was all about. And SHE is the one who said academic feminists are antimotherhood. Which would not bother me if she were not a professor.... BTW, the Redstockings do not predate the first women's studies programs in the U.S. by very much, if at all. Mary Schweitzer ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 08:31:25 +0200 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Dina Haruvi Subject: Re: if men could menstruate In-Reply-To: <01ITRFX1V2LE8Y6X0V@NAUVAX.UCC.NAU.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hello, I just tried and could not get the essay at this ad.dress. can you check it please thanks dina Haruvi Tel-Aviv University On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Joseph Boles wrote: > The text of this short essay can be found at > > http://www.one-web.net/Humor/If%20Men%20could%20Menstruate > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 22:32:09 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Max Dashu Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > Initially the assumption in radical feminism was that the oppression of >women was caused by their ability to produce children. Nyet, nyet, nyet. Some, such as Firestone, identified this as the problem, but in my experience few (radical feminist) second-wavers agreed with this, and were in any case suspicious of her proposal that technology (another male-controlled field) could be a solution. Much more attention was given to critiquing patriarchy as a cultural, economic and political construct. I think it is a mistake to equate articles that made it into print (few enough in the early 70s) with the general tone of what was going on in the movement. There's an ephemeral quality to it that's difficult to document, especially for the feminists who were not white and/or middle-class. This creates problems for historians coming afterward, but generalizations such as the above, at the very least, are highly misleading. Also, providing child care for events was a big issue. There were often tensions between mothers and women without children, but agreement was general that collective support such as child care was necessary to free women from the nuclear lockdown, so that they could attend events and be politically active. Max Dashu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 22:57:38 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Thomason Subject: Re: quotes from women In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Saw your note when catching up on my ooooold mail. Could you send me the address of your site? thanks. Jackie >One of my students is updating our Women's Studies web site, and we would >like to inclunde a link to quotes from famous women. > >Could you please send me your favorite quotes, and we'll include them in >the list. > >Thanks. >Brenda Cooper >bcooper@cc.usu.edu > >Brenda Cooper, Director >Women's Studies >Department of Communication >Utah State University >Logan, UT 84322-4605 >801-797-3253 > >"I think it will be truly glorious when women become real people >and have the whole world open to them." >Isak Dinesen, 1923 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 08:18:46 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jerry Diakiw Subject: Immigrant Women MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Apologies for this repeat post, but I inadvertently sent it out under a different subject heading. Anyone have any good suggestions for readings about the problems of immmigrant, professional women breaking into the professions(eg. nursing, engineering,teaching) in Canada or the USA? The role of "gate-keepers" and the feminization of poverty are particular foci. Would appreciate any help. Please send privately. Jerry ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 09:30:52 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: motherhood as normative Comments: cc: DAPHNE PATAI In-Reply-To: <01ITRX3DADYY007OC3@scuacc.scu.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I did not deny that having children is "normative" (I actually think it's normal, too) or that women feel pressures (often from their own mothers, apparently). I denied that "vilification" is the usual response to women who don't have children. Vilification is not the same thing as queries or (even) critical comments. This is the same sort of hyperbole that tells us that universities are single-sex institutions (male)--something I was reading recently in a 1997 essay. No doubt it's exaggerated and unwarranted respect for motherhood (and for children) that led to the extreme disproportion between male and female deaths on the Titanic. iDP -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 09:19:10 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Stirm, Jan" Subject: Redstockings MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Hi Everyone, Recently several of the posts have mentioned the Redstockings; my Women's Studies class and I have recently finished reading their manifesto, along with various other statements of purpose and so forth, ane we were wondering about a context for it. Our anthology doesn't give much information on them (we've found more on others, or others include more identification information in the text itself). Could someone (probably privately, off list) give me a quick background to the group, or perhaps suggest an article? Many thanks, Jan Jan Stirm JStirm@monm.edu English Department / Women's Studies Monmouth College Monmouth, IL ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 10:37:04 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Camille Kaminski Lewis Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Comments: To: Marilyn Edelstein In-Reply-To: <01ITRX3DADYY007OC3@scuacc.scu.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Let me just reiterate Marilyn's description of the cultural pressure on women to become mothers. The pressure may be less academic and more popular, common culture, but it is there and alive and well. I am a 29-year-old married graduate student who is perfectly happy in my non-maternal status, but also infertile (right now) due to health problems. Even if my health were more "normal," children would not be my choice right now. Within academic circles, this has never been a problem. People don't ask, don't care, and don't even notice. I like it that way. It's my business. But outside of the academy, people pity you, resent you, question you, and scold you. Parents ask for grandchildren. New acquaintances say "We hope you have children soon, dear." Sisters-in-law lecture you on how your biological clock is winding down now that you are near thirty and that you had better do something about it and how good you are with children. Wearing a looser shirt gets all kinds of "happy" congrats on your new family. I have a friend who just found out (after years of trying to conceive) that she cannot. She's devastated, depressed, and in despair. I empathize with her grief, but that was all she wanted in the world and that was all that was expected of her. Encouraging her is difficult. While I've enjoyed the academy's freer perspective, the non-academic world's double-bind between womb and brain is alive and well--and needs to be challenged. Camille Lewis Communication and Culture Indiana University On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Marilyn Edelstein wrote: > Re: Daphne Patai's posting on this thread (which my e-mail system > doesn't allow me to quote), asserting that there is no "vilification" > of women who haven't had children and no glorification of those who > have--I'm not sure which previous posting used these particular > words (vilify/glorify) and whether that post-er was referring > to academic feminism/ists as having these attitudes toward > motherhood. But it seems fairly obvious to me that these are > , at least in a general way, widely held cultural attitudes.That > is, that women who do not have children are often viewed as > virtual "freaks" or objects of pity, while devoted mothering > is treated, in all sorts of cultural "texts" and discourses > (not the least of which is Christianity--anybody heard of the > Virgin Mary?). There have been several fairly recent books > on women who are childless (by choice, by chance, by virtue > of infertility, etc.), one, e.g., by Mardy Ireland, and > most of these provide more than anecdotal evidence of > the normativity of motherhood for women, within contemporary > U.S. culture but certainly not solely there. And, even > though several recent post-ers have denounced the ostensible > prominence of literary studies in contemp. academic feminism, > I might refer Daphne et al. to texts by such writers as > Sandra Cisneros, who wonderfully illustrates cultural and > religious pressures on Chicanas to be mothers (in, e.g., > "Little Miracles, Kept Promises). I realize I'm drifting > a bit off-topic here, but I'd be surprised if I were the > only "childless/child-free" woman on this list who has > not been asked by many women "out in the world" whether > I have children, and then been asked, when I say no, > "why not?" (no one asks women with children, I think, > "why did you have them?"--at least not in casual conversation). > And are there really women out there who have not also been > the recipients of pitying if sympathetic looks from mothers > when one says one doesn't have children? The common > "pop-cultural" "pundit-world" association of feminism with > hostility to or rejection of motherhood seems part of a feminist > backlash, to me, even if, as previous post-ers have pointed > out, some feminists, esp. in the early part of the "Second > Wave" may have critiqued social/cultural pressures on women > to have children and suggested that some women might find life > fulfilling without children. Neither of these positions is, > of course, the same as saying "a real woman/feminist shouldn't > have children" and I still haven't heard anyone mention a > feminist who has expressed this "anti-motherhood" sentiment. > Much in our culture, on the other hand, still suggests, > and not only sub-textually, that "real women" should have > children. Marilyn Edelstein, English, Santa Clara Univ. > medelstein@scuacc.scu.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 10:37:46 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Helen M. Bannan" Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" While we're on this thread about Firestone, I wonder if anyone knows what ever happened to her? I include anthologized selections from her book in my Classics of Feminism course, and generally try to give some biographical context to each of our authors, but have been stumped finding later info on her. Any citations or information appreciated! Helen Bannan, Center for Women's Studies, West Virginia University ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 09:44:30 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: thomas robert mueller Subject: Re: Redstockings In-Reply-To: <310156AA3B6BD011AFFD00805FFE5849011EDA7B@nts3.monm.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII If it is okay please reply to the message below on the Listserv, because I would be very interested in that information Tom Mueller On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Stirm, Jan wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > Recently several of the posts have mentioned the Redstockings; my > Women's Studies class and I have recently finished reading their > manifesto, along with various other statements of purpose and so forth, > ane we were wondering about a context for it. Our anthology doesn't > give much information on them (we've found more on others, or others > include more identification information in the text itself). Could > someone (probably privately, off list) give me a quick background to the > group, or perhaps suggest an article? > > Many thanks, Jan > > Jan Stirm > JStirm@monm.edu > English Department / Women's Studies > Monmouth College > Monmouth, IL > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 11:04:21 -0500 Reply-To: msacks@world.std.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marc Sacks Subject: Re: a story about teaching about, in response to, male/female writers MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Kassie: For an article on this that I found particularly fascinating, read "The Gender Fallacy," by William C. Dowling. You can find it at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/gender.htm. At the very least, consult this essay before assuming anything about differences in male and female writing styles. Here's another project: Read books by James Morris and Jan Morris. Is James's work different from Jan's in any identifiable way? (If you don't know those names, so much the better.) Marc Sacks msacks@world.std.com Susan Koppelman wrote: > In a message dated 98-02-18 21:26:44 EST, you write: > > << for a bibliography, i'd appreciate hearing from folks who know of any > books/articles dealing with differences in the processes/products of male > and female writers. respond privately and if you like i'll post a list for > all. > > thanks > kassie fleisher > > >> > > Kassie, I'm curious to know something. Are you presupposing that there ARE > differences in the processes/products of male and female writers, or are you > investigating IF there are differences in the processes/products of male and > female writers. In either case, in which dimensions of product and process > would you postulate that the differences are manifest? ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 08:15:39 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marilyn Edelstein Subject: Re: motherhood as normative MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII In my previous posting on motherhood as culturally normative, I implied but meant to say more explicitly (posting late at night after a long day of student conferences is not ideal) that I agree that referring to "vilification" of non-mothers was hyperbolic, as Daphne just noted, although I'd say that the previous posting that may have used that term and also referred to the "glorification" of motherhood was being less hyperbolic about the latter than the former (if still a bit exaggerated, at least in some cultural contexts). Motherhood is far more widespread than non-motherhood; scholarship, not only by feminists, on motherhood is far more widespread than scholarship on non-motherhood. The fact that there has been a huge amount of feminist scholarship on motherhood--from numerous disciplines and perspectives--and comparatively little on non-motherhood is itself a partial argument against the claim that feminists, taken collectively, are hostile to motherhood (which I think some anti-feminists would expand, with no evidence, to being hostile to mothers, which I don't think any feminists have ever been). Marilyn Edelstein medelstein@scuacc.scu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 11:24:29 -0500 Reply-To: sandyl@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sandra Lorean Organization: University of Florida Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Camille Kaminski Lewis wrote: > > Let me just reiterate Marilyn's description of the cultural pressure on > women to become mothers. The pressure may be less academic and more > popular, common culture, but it is there and alive and well. > I agree with this 100%. We've been studying advertisements in my media seminar and someone brought a Nike ad to class showing a woman jogging with the caption: "You are a wife, you are a mother, you are the inspiration to all womanhood." I was horrified! This is not only an obvious prescription for traditional gender roles, but an implicit proscription against other ways a woman can live her life. By creating (recreating the existing) hierarchy of value placing "wife and mother" at the top, as the "inspiration to all womanhood" it suggests that all other ways of being for women are less inspirational and some pitiable. This is just one ad. We are inundated with many, many such images in both advertising and other cultural "texts." Sandy Lorean ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 10:42:41 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marina Koether Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: <34EDAE3D.690C@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi all, Some more comments below: > "You are a wife, you are a mother, you are the inspiration to all > womanhood." > I was horrified! This is not only an obvious prescription for > traditional gender roles, but an implicit proscription against other > ways a woman can live her life. By creating (recreating the existing) > hierarchy of value placing "wife and mother" at the top, as the > "inspiration to all womanhood" it suggests that all other ways of being > for women are less inspirational and some pitiable. > Sandy Lorean If you choose not to have children, you are being selfish. If you can't you are pitied but given the option of adoption. Have you notice lately that if you have too many, you are also pitied? If you don't have a daughter or a son, yet have two children, you are also pitied for not being able to produce both or ridiculed for trying 4 times and hence have four children of the same sex? Marina C. Koether, Ph.D., M-Koether@neiu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 12:52:23 -0500 Reply-To: sandyl@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sandra Lorean Organization: University of Florida Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I sent my Media professor some of our discussion, and he wrote this response: > The interesting thing about the Nike ad is how this copy on one page is > juxtoposed with copy on the next page, which pictures a Nike walking > shoe, with the retort: "You are sick of hearing it." > > Thus, this two page Nike ad, exploits women's dissatisfaction with the > limitations of traditional roles, by channeling their discontent into > the purchase of a commodity, i.e., a walking shoe, rather than > motivating them to take social and political action to challenge those > constrictive roles. > > According to Nike, liberation from the equation of motherhood with > womanhood can be found by walking away from it (pun intended). > > Michael Leslie > mleslie@jou.ufl.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 12:34:50 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: the Cheshire Cat Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: <01ITRX3DADYY007OC3@scuacc.scu.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I would add my agreement to this - although I'm young (29) I'm habitually considered as a sort of a teenager in my culture (Jewish) because I don't have children - I'm considered to be not quite an adult, and thought of and *treated* as much younger than I actually am.(This isn't always a disadvantage, but it can be very irritating). Not to mention the amount of pressure that is placed on me by the very same people to produce some children -after all, I'm a married woman now. Academia may in some places be different, but I suspect it's only because of the inverse of the problem. WOmen who are trying to be academics are often considered not as serious if they have children, primarily because it *is* difficult to go through the tenure process if one is also the primary caretaker of children. Alana Suskin alanacat@wam.umd.edu On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Marilyn Edelstein wrote: > Re: Daphne Patai's posting on this thread (which my e-mail system > doesn't allow me to quote), asserting that there is no "vilification" > of women who haven't had children and no glorification of those who > have--I'm not sure which previous posting used these particular > Sandra Cisneros, who wonderfully illustrates cultural and > religious pressures on Chicanas to be mothers (in, e.g., > a bit off-topic here, but I'd be surprised if I were the > only "childless/child-free" woman on this list who has > not been asked by many women "out in the world" whether > I have children, and then been asked, when I say no, > "why not?" (no one asks women with children, I think, ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 12:39:26 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: thomas robert mueller Subject: Take Back the Night March Comments: To: Sandra Lorean In-Reply-To: <34EDC2D7.5A09@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I am doing research on the Take Back the Night March, does anyone know if there are any academic articles out there on this subject? Thank you for your time and effort Tom Mueller ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas R. Mueller University of Illinois Ph.D. Student Geography 220 Davenport Hall MC-150 Urbana IL 61801 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Friends I will remember you, pray for you, and when another day is through, I will still be friends with you." -John Denver ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 14:07:36 -0500 Reply-To: msacks@world.std.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marc Sacks Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit hagolem wrote: > > > Shulamith Firestone was a very iimportant early feminist theorist, activist > and organizer. i have no idea what academic credentials she had or didn't > have. There were no women's studies courses, let alone departments when > Shulamith Firestone and the Redstockings were active. She was a radical > theorist who was concerned with the oppressive structure of the family as > well as the economic system. her writings are still valuable and interesting. > > marge piercy hagolem@capecod.net For general interest, you can find an essay by Shulamith Firestone called "Women in the Radical Movement," in something called "Notes from the First Year." New York: New York Radical Women, 1968. This is available on the web in http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/notes/. The directory above this has lots of interesting feminist writings from the early days of modern feminism. Marc Sacks msacks@world.std.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 15:00:35 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Re: Take Back the Night March MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Tom Mueller writes: > I am doing research on the Take Back the Night March, does anyone know if > there are any academic articles out there on this subject? There has been a LOT of discussion about Take Back the Night on WMST-L. Two files exist in the WMST-L file collection that contain some of that discussion. To get them, send the following two-line message to LISTSERV@UMDD.UMD.EDU: GET TAKEBACK NIGHT1 GET TAKEBACK NIGHT2 Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 16:46:23 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Re Ann Oakley: Read, "Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in terms." In H. Roberts, Ed., Doing Feminist Research.1981 Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 14:51:51 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: hale bolak Subject: social psych text Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I may have asked this question before. I am looking for a decent intro text in social psych that does a good enough integration of gender and international issues. Any suggestions? Please respond privately. Hale Bolak hcbolak@ncgate.newcollege.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 17:21:33 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Comments: To: Sandra Lorean In-Reply-To: <34EDAE3D.690C@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > In response to Sandra: I am a mother and much more. I happen to really like the NIke ad. It says to me, and my children, that it is possible for me to be much more than a mother- NIke is socially sanctioning that. And growth doesn't end with becoming a wife or a mother.That women can be and ARE many things -including what they want to be- I think that is a wonderful message for my daughters to hear - whether they have children or not. This maybe the 90's but too many women still think that because they are mothers - and most are-that their life is stalled.They think of themselves as wives and mothers and nothing else. And all together too many women still think they are nothing without a man- andif they "have " a man then their life should be complete. I always believed feminism to be about choices.That 's what I love most about feminism that it gives me choices and supports me to make choices in my own best interests Sometimes,though, when I read responses on this listserve,I begin to think that feminists themselves set too many limits for women. I have four daughters-two working as professionals, two in grad school.One does not want children, the others can't wait to have children.How wonderful to be able to have the choice.All are an inspiration to me. Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu > We've been studying advertisements in my media > seminar and someone brought a Nike ad to class showing a woman jogging > with the caption: > > "You are a wife, you are a mother, you are the inspiration to all > womanhood." > > I was horrified! This is not only an obvious prescription for > traditional gender roles, but....... > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 17:28:25 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: NOW on-line query In-Reply-To: <01ITT21REWT2002BOK@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Could anyone tell me how to get to the NOW web site? Many thanks, DP -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 17:46:05 -0800 Reply-To: sells@luna.cas.usf.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Laura Sells Subject: Nike and Motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Oh the evils of capitalism. This is precisely one of the many reasons I hate Nike so much. As Jean Kilbourne points out in her famous video, Still Killing us Softly, advertisers co-opt social change to sell. While I appreciate the point of a positive message in the Nike commercials, I have a hard time seeing those ads without remembering that my freedom to be or not to be a mother and wife is at the expense of slave labor in third world countries. I'm not so sure how wonderful the message is in this light. Please remember that Nike is being boycotted by multiple human rights organizations including NOW. If you are interested, please visit the official Boycott Nike homepage at the following address: http://www.saigon.com/~nike/ Thanks for letting me have the soapbox for a moment, Laura Sells Department of Women's Studies University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620 > I happen to really like the NIke ad. It says to me, and my children, that > it is possible > for me to be much more than a mother- NIke is socially sanctioning that. > And growth doesn't end with becoming a wife or a mother.That women can be > and ARE many things -including what they want to be- I think that is a > wonderful message for my daughters to hear - whether they have children or > not. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 16:49:52 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: thomas robert mueller Subject: Re: NOW on-line query In-Reply-To: <199802202228.RAA30240@emily.oit.umass.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The address is www.now.org On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, DAPHNE PATAI wrote: > Could anyone tell me how to get to the NOW web site? Many thanks, DP > > -- > ====================== > Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 15:12:22 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rain Healer Subject: Graduate schools with L/G/B/T tracks MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Does anyone have information on graduate schools with tracks in L/G/B/T studies? Please reply privately. Thank you. Rain Healer ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 17:43:49 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sherry Walker Subject: Re: Graduate schools with L/G/B/T tracks In-Reply-To: <34EE0DD6.999202C0@lennon.csufresno.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I too would be interested in this information. thanks, sj walker swalker@frank.mtsu.edu On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Rain Healer wrote: > Does anyone have information on graduate schools with tracks in L/G/B/T > studies? Please reply privately. Thank you. > > > Rain Healer > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 19:09:27 -0500 Reply-To: msacks@world.std.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marc Sacks Subject: Re: NOW on-line query MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I thought I'd try the obvious: http://www.now.org. Oddly enough, it worked. Marc msacks@world.std.com DAPHNE PATAI wrote: > Could anyone tell me how to get to the NOW web site? Many thanks, DP > > -- > ====================== > Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 19:24:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Gail Dines Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood It seems to me that a central issue of the Nike ad is the way in which media uses our lives, expereinces and struggles to sell a product. And what a product!!! Nike is, like all corporations, involved in mass exploitation of its workers, especially their women workers in developing countires. How disgusting to sell Western women an ideology through a product that is produced through enslaved labor. Our aim should be to close these corperations down, not discuss the possible virtues of their ads. Gail Dines ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 19:22:50 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: NOW and more MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > The address is www.now.org > > > On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, DAPHNE PATAI wrote: > > > Could anyone tell me how to get to the NOW web site? Many thanks, DP I'd like to point out that links to the NOW web site as well as to information-rich websites for a number of other feminist organizations can be found at Women's Studies/Women's Issues Resource Sites (http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/links.html ). I'd also like to ask that when people provide web addresses, they give the full form, beginning with http:// (or whatever other protocol applies) and with a space between the end of the address and any punctuation. If the address is provided in this full form, it can be accessed directly by a number of software programs (e.g., Eudora, Netterm). However, most of these programs can't handle URLs that lack the initial http://, and they also get confused by periods placed immediately after the URL. Many thanks. Joan ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 19:42:10 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Michele McGrady Subject: Re: Graduate schools with L/G/B/T tracks Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I would also like the information if possible! thanks! Michele McGrady ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 20:12:54 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: sasha Subject: citation please MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Can anyone give me the citation for the following quote?: "I don't want a piece of the pie; I want a whole new recipe" Thanks sasha@worldchat.com "Pay attention to what they tell you to forget" Muriel Rukeyser, Poet ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 20:51:26 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Libra Subject: anti-motherhood and When Women Work... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A few responses to the thread on "anti-motherhood" I recently heard through a friend of Shulamith Firestone's that she (Firestone) is working on a book, about what I'm not sure but I guess we will hear when it is published. She is living in NYC. Also, she was a painter (I believe earning an MFA) before she wrote The Dialectic of Sex. As for myself, the mother of a two year old who has also just completed her dissertation and is looking for full time faculty position in Women's Studies, I recently came across a very interesting and I think important book on feminist mothering called -When Mothers Work: Loving Our Children Without Sacrificing Ourselves- by Joan K. Peters (Addison-Wesley, 1997) Has anyone read it? I found it to be significant in uncovering the old myths we still carry around with us about being "all sacrificing, ever present, etc." and supportive of the basic premise that happy, satisfied, often gainfully employed or otherwise occupied women make the best mothers. I'd be interested to hear what others on the list thought of this book... ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 17:03:16 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "B.J. Eaton" Subject: Re: NOW on-line query In-Reply-To: <199802202228.RAA30240@emily.oit.umass.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Could anyone tell me how to get to the NOW web site? Many thanks, DP > >-- >====================== >Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu http://www.now.org This was listed in the fall issue (Volume 8, Number 3) of the National Women's Studies Association NWSAction newsletter on Page 12. :-). Regards, B.J. Eaton, NWSAction Editor * Richardson, Texas * bjeaton7@airmail.net * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 21:01:03 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: holzman Subject: Re: sexual harrassment surveys In-Reply-To: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" There's a "Sexual Experiences Questionnaire" in _Academic and workplace sexual harassment_, by Michele Paludi and Richard Barickman (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1991). At 02:47 PM 2/19/98 -0800, you wrote: >The sexual harrassment committee at my university has decided to survey >faculty, staff and students about their experiences of sexual harrassment. >We need a survey that will allow us to identify problematic behaviors, >even if the respondent does not recognize the behavior as a form of sexual >harrassment. We are in the process of compiling surveys used by other >colleges and universities to provide us with ideas. where >might i find surveys? If you have a sample of one used at your >institution, we would most appreciate having a copy. > > >Jo Trigilio >Philosophy >California State University, Chico >Chico, CA 95929 >trigilio@ecst.csuchico.edu > __________________________ Clare Holzman 330 West 58th Street, 404 New York, NY 10019 212 245 7282 holzmr01@mcrcr.med.nyu.edu __________________________________________________ ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 22:50:28 -0500 Reply-To: msacks@world.std.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marc Sacks Subject: Re: Notes from the First Year Comments: To: sasha MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit sasha wrote: > > > I was wondering if you have other sites that you might care to pass on. > I'm particularly interested in original writings from the radical side of > the movement. > Here's some interesting HTMLs you can add to your bookmark file: Androgyny & Gender Dialectics FEMINIST COLLECTIONS Women's Studies: Reading Room Women's Studies Resources (U. of MD) Sexual Harassment Sexuality and Culture I've got a bunch more, but I think these are closest to what you were asking about. I don't know how-all radical it is; you'll have to decide for yourself. I've also got a few bookmarks on queer theory. Marc msacks@world.std.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 23:56:07 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Carolyn I. Wright" Subject: Re: Nike and Motherhood Comments: To: Laura Sells In-Reply-To: <34EE31DD.271B@luna.cas.usf.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII But, Laura, your freedom is NOT at the expense of slave labor.It is the result of your OWN labor. Yes, we should all work against the exploitation of women while remembering that Nike is not the only company by any means to do so-(lets look at Virginia Slims and women's lung cancer rate, and other "supporters" of women- thre are manyways to define exploitation) and we all have our own way of working against that exploitation. I for one have never bought a pair of Nike's -I can't afford them. I shop at Pay Less and heaven only know how many women those shoes exploit!i shop in retailstores and I know they exploit their sales women ( I've been one) and I eat at restaurants and I know they often mistreat their waitresses. But I live in a capitalistic country within a capitalistic world and I choose to. Given that,I must act, to the best of my ability, to help others while taking what I can give to myself. So I'll take the positive messages of Nike and use them to my betterment- but they'll probably never get my money- unless they take over Pay Less. Carolyn Wright ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Laura Sells wrote: > Oh the evils of capitalism. This is precisely one of the many reasons I hate > Nike so much. As Jean Kilbourne points out in her famous video, Still Killing us > > Softly, advertisers co-opt social change to sell. While I appreciate the point > of a > positive message in the Nike commercials, I have a hard time seeing those ads > without remembering that my freedom to be or not to be a mother and wife is at > the > expense of slave labor in third world countries. I'm not so sure how wonderful > the > message is in this light. Please remember that Nike is being boycotted by > multiple > human rights organizations including NOW. If you are interested, please visit > the > official Boycott Nike homepage at the following address: > http://www.saigon.com/~nike/ > > > Thanks for letting me have the soapbox for a moment, > Laura Sells > Department of Women's Studies > University of South Florida > Tampa, FL 33620 > > > I happen to really like the NIke ad. It says to me, and my children, that > > it is possible > > for me to be much more than a mother- NIke is socially sanctioning that. > > And growth doesn't end with becoming a wife or a mother.That women can be > > and ARE many things -including what they want to be- I think that is a > > wonderful message for my daughters to hear - whether they have children or > > not. > ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 16:18:34 +0200 Reply-To: shoshana@research.haifa.ac.il Sender: Women's Studies List From: Shoshana Mayer-Young Subject: motherhood, Firestone and others MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On motherhood, feminism, Firestone and others: "=85the first demand for any alternative system must be: 1. The freeing= of women from the tyranny of their reproductive biology by every means available, and the definition of the childbearing and childrearing role to the society as whole, men as well as women =85 To thus free women fro= m their biology would be to threaten the social unit that is organized around biological destiny, the family.(pp206-7) =85 But what if there is an instinct for pregnancy? I doubt it. (p.233)"Shulamith Firestone, (THE DIALECTICS OF SEX, Bantam 1971). There is also a fascinating account of alternative childrearing styles known until then. All this is meant to whet the appetite to (re)read this basic book to the history of radical feminist thought, much of which will still be appreciated as expressions of our aspirations - however utopian, in a sense romantic, it may sound today. I, for myself, use excerpts from it in my classes. I would like, however, to recommend another book , I think important for feminist discussions on motherhood, which at the time of its publishing whipped up quite a storm: Badinter, Elizabeth, THE MYTH OF MOTHERHOOD , Souvenir Press 1980. The author argues that there might not be a maternal instinct per se. For example, newborns in Europe were, for centuries, farmed out, under often brutal conditions, by any family who could afford it, to country peasant wetnurses where they might have remained for years , an experience that many children did not survive. Personal mothering was considered in bad taste, an indelicate nuisance. She argues that it were cultural changes that brought back the idea of personal mothering, like Rousseu's back-to-nature ideas and Freud's revelations of the importance of early experiences . A fascinating record of the social history of motherhood. Aries's CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD (Vintage, 1962) also throws some light on the topic.Shoshanna, shoshana@research.haifa.ac.il ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 09:00:01 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Phillipa Kafka Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I have on occasion had students sign the syllabus in the past, because, as I still tell them, the syllabus is a contract between us. On the first night of class I give them ca. 10-15 mins. to read the syllabus, sometimes in groups of 3 or 4, sometimes individually, for the purpose of then questioning me about it. I then entertain their questions--which generally last for 1/2 hr., sometimes more-- and in doing so, essential elements get verbalized and confusions surface for clarification which they seem to appreciate. Also since the questions for class discussion based on the readings are worth ca 25 % over the course of the semester in terms of their grades are on the syllabus, they continually have to refer to the syllabus while at home reading their texts and during class. >Return-Path: >Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 16:08:17 -0500 >Reply-To: "Women's Studies List" >Sender: "Women's Studies List" >From: "Carolyn Dipalma (WOS)" >Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi >To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU > >I haven't given quiz or exam questions about the syllabus, but in my >largest classes I have asked that students turn in a signed statement >that says that they have read the syllabus carefully. I explain that the >syllabus is very detailed and that I want to make sure that they've read >it carefully so that they can ask any questions they may have. I ask for >these on the second day of class. It seems to help students to recognize >their own responsibility and it usually generates some good questions. > >On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Traci Kelly wrote: > >> In all of my lower division courses, I give a quiz on the syllabus >> the day after it is handed out. It helps some. It might be a bit >> heavy handed, but I figure it's kinder than them not bothering to >> read it and then getting docked a lot when they don't follow its >> guidelines later. >> >> >> > This semester students in my Psychology and Gender class were told that the >> > first exam would have at least one question on the syllabi. >> [clip] >> > Elana Newman, Ph.D. >> > University of Tulsa > >> Traci Kelly >> tkelly@mail.crk.umn.edu > >*********************************************************************** >* Carolyn DiPalma, Ph.D. email: cdipalma@luna.cas.usf.edu * >* Assistant Professor phone: 813-974-0979 * >* Department of Women's Studies fax: 813-974-0336 * >* 4202 East Fowler Ave., HMS 413 * >* University of South Florida * >* Tampa, FL 33620-8350 * >*********************************************************************** > > Dr. Phillipa Kafka Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies Women's Studies J303 Kean University Union, New Jersey 07083 ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 10:54:13 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Leah C. Ulansey" Subject: Re: motherhood, Firestone and others In-Reply-To: <34EEE23A.77B2@research.haifa.ac.il> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, Shoshana Mayer-Young wrote: > The author argues that there might > not be a maternal instinct per se. For example, newborns in Europe > were, for centuries, farmed out, under often brutal conditions, by any > family who could afford it, to country peasant wetnurses where they > might have remained for years , an experience that many children did > not survive. Personal mothering was considered in bad taste, an > indelicate nuisance. Just to add to this: wasn't it the cultural norm on Southern US plantations to have white children wetnursed by enslaved black women, because white women of the plantation-owning class were presumed to be too delicate for that aspect of mothering? I don't know if there is or isn't a maternal instinct as such, but cultural constructions of mothering certainly vary, providing an opportunity to advantage some people and disadvantage and oppress others. Another aspect of "constructed mothering" that some feminists have challenged, I think, is the presumption that mothering is "pure" in the sense of being asexual. I think some feminists have argued that we could redefine what sexuality is in a positive way by assuming that sexuality is a continuum that includes many aspects of biological reproduction (eg., breastfeeding), not just phallocentric intercourse and insemination. The idea that parenting has a "sexual" componant is unsettling to many people (myself included) because we assume that sexualized relations between adults and children necessarily mean an unhealthy imposition of adult erotic demands on children. But a great deal in that debate depends on how "sexuality" is defined, what its presumed limits are, and to what extent our fears are a result of conditioning (by Christianity?) leading us to assume (rightly? wrongly? I don't know) that sexuality as such is threatening and evil unless properly controlled. One last reference: journalist Betty Rollins wrote a very affecting autobiographical book called (I think) *First You Cry.* The book was mostly about her experience with breast cancer, as I recall, but it dealt with other things along the way, including Rollins feelings about choosing not to have children. Sometime in the seventies, she wrote an article for, I think it was the New York Times Magazine, about being "childless by choice." In it, she speculated that the culture gives positive reinforcement to women who bear children precisely because without that positive reinforcement, too many women might choose not to have children. Rollins writes that she got an outpouring of letters from women who deeply appreciated her raising the subject. Leah Ulansey leou@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 15:18:58 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Suzanne Hildenbrand Subject: Mapping the world of women's Comments: To: feminist@mitvma.mit.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII info services... is a project to be undertaken in conjunction with the KnowHow Conference on women's information to be held in Amstedam (Netherlands) August 22-26 1998. Details of the mapping project are given below (from the website for the conference). I urge everyone engaged in or knowing of relevant work to submit descriptions. It will help to build a great resource for the study of women around the world. Mapping the World The Mapping the World project will increase the visibility and accessibility of women's information services for their clients. The project is an inventory of women's information services throughout the world, compiled by the organizers of the Know How Conference using existing inventories and the Know How Conference network of contacts. The final product of Mapping the World will be made available on the Internet. For people without Internet access, the product will be made available in an alternative form. The inventory wil consist of data on international, national and local women's information services, on gender specific information sections in governmental organizations, on women's documentation and research centres connected to universities, and on resource centres in which, among others, women's information is collected. The inventory will also cover relevant media, web sites, articles on women's information, bibliographic information and, where possible, photographic and audio-visual material and other non-written material. The organizers of the Know How Conference ask all readers of this to participate in creating Mapping the World by sending material. The material can be written, photographic, audio-visual, digital, etc. The deadline for receipt of this material is April 1st, 1998. Please send your information to: Know How Conference IIAV Obiplien 4 1094 RB Amsterdam The Netherlands. Digital material can be sent to knowhow@iiav.nl Please use the following suggestions as a checklist for the information you send: Name Contact Person Address Telephone number Fax Number Email Address HTTP business hours year in which the service began history of the organization funding sort of organization and client profile services provided collection: Give information on the sort, size, the languages it is avaliable in. Automazation of databases subject top ten systems of indexing own publications activities structural relationships with other organizations, companies, and networks relationships with women-oriented media contacts and journalists --SH ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 15:35:37 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Dolores Fidishun Subject: women's studies statistics In-Reply-To: <01ITTAYZ3HZS002AJ2@UMBC2.UMBC.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Does anyone know a good source for (or the actual numbers for) the percentage of women and men among women studies faculty and students? Thanks in advance! Dolores Fidishun ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 14:59:33 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Miriam Harris Subject: Re: Take Back the Night March Comments: To: thomas robert mueller In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII look at: FIGHT BACK! FEMINIST RESISTANCE TO MALE VIOLENCE ed by Frederique Delacoste and Felice Newman, Cleis PRess, 1981 and MY JEWISH FACE & OTHER STORIES, Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1990 Miriam K. Harris, Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas mharris@utdallas.edu Private Address PO Box 670 665 Dallas, Texas 75367-0665 On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, thomas robert mueller wrote: > I am doing research on the Take Back the Night March, does anyone know if > there are any academic articles out there on this subject? > > Thank you for your time and effort > Tom Mueller > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Thomas R. Mueller > University of Illinois > Ph.D. Student > Geography > 220 Davenport Hall > MC-150 > Urbana IL 61801 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > "Friends I will remember you, pray for you, and when another day is > through, I will still be friends with you." > -John Denver > ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 16:43:55 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood In-Reply-To: <34EC867C.73AA@ix.netcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Shulamith Firestone, in the Dialectics of Sex, concerned with the oppression of women, located the root cause in their physiological involvement in bearing children - so, she recommended the development of technology to do that. Sort of a combination of marxist requirement to find a material basis for oppression and Huxley 'brave new world' She may have read Marx & Engels assertion that the division of labor begins naturally with sex, women go on to take care of the family and the gender division of labor goes on from there by women's natural or preferential choice. Firestone's analysis is interesting; her recommendation was controversial among feminists and others when it first appeared, still is. Other chapters in the book are more useful, I think. A good distinction between 'motherhood' as institution and 'mothering' and analysis of it is in Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born. Other chapters on the a connection between women and nature is highly questionable, I think, to say the least. Please note also that the references to 'modern' and 'early', etc. feminism and feminist theory locate these in the US as tho they were universal. Yet, there are and were, of course, feminisms elsewhere, e.g. Asia, Africa and Cnetral America. More perception of location could improve perspectives? beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 17:12:21 -0500 Reply-To: sandyl@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sandra Lorean Organization: University of Florida Subject: Gayle Rubin MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Does anyone have the full citation for Gayle Rubin's classic article "Traffic in Women: Notes on the "Political Economy" of Sex."? Thank you in advance, Sandy ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 14:19:34 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathryn Feltey Organization: The University of Akron Subject: Lesbian FAmilies Conference - Kent State University - March 14, 1998 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit An all-day conference will be held on Saturday, March 14, 1998 at Kent State University Student Center: Lesbian Families: Outlaws in Love. The conference will include workshops on topics such as legal issues, health, relationships, children, and much more. There will be a panel on gay/lesbian/bisexual youth and a keynote address by Karen Williams, noted commedianne and activist. Karen, the mother of two sons, will also conduct a workshop on raising sons. The conference fee is $25.00/$12.50 for students and seniors. Included in the fee is a parallel conference for children to be held the same day. For information or a registration form, contact Women's Studies (330-972-7008) or the KSU Women's Resource Center (330-672-9232). Please spread the word about this conference to your students and associates. -- Kathryn M. Feltey kfeltey@uakron.edu Director of Women's Studies 330-972-7008 phone University of Akron 330-972-5264 fax Akron, OH 44325-6218 ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 15:21:57 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Trimberger E. KAY" Subject: Anti-Motherhood Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" For an eaxcellent historical perspective (20th century) on this issue, I recommend: Elaine Tyler May, Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans & The Pursuit of Happiness New York: Basic Books, 1995. For an analysis on the relationship between second wave feminism and motherhood, I recommend Lauri Umansky, Motherhood Reconceived: Feminism and the Legacies of the Sixties. (NYU paperback, 1996). I second the prior recommendation on the article by Ann Snitow on Feminism and Motherhood. E. Kay Trimberger Coordinator and Professor Women's Studies Program Sonoma State University 707 664-2086/2840 Trimberg@Sonoma.edu ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 21:20:49 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Diana York Blaine Subject: anti-motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Only a culture with irrational support for motherhood would cheer the births of seven babies to one woman. Note also that although she and her husband obviously cannot financially support a family of eight children (let alone their emotional needs), I have not heard angry voices raised against them as I have heard raised against the "Welfare Queens" who have children. This whole episode has caused me to realize that when we say "a woman's place is in the home" we refer to _white_ women (and of course in this case prominently Christian as well). Women of color, unfairly represented as the sole face of welfare, are simultaneously being ordered "back to work" even as we attack the grieving mother in the "nanny" murder for working a mere three days outside of her home. Meanwhile here in the great state of Texas many are cheering a state employee for removing a baby placed with two lesbians although it was against her official orders. Motherhood a construction? You'd better believe it. And, as usual in the United States, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation (et al) supply the material. You may call this anti-motherhood feminism if you wish, but I call it textual analysis which, as a literary scholar, I have been trained to do. Diana York Blaine University of North Texas dblaine@unt.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 23:39:25 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: vanishing WS websites MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT As many of you know, I maintain an extensive listing of Women's Studies programs, departments, and research centers around the world that have a website (http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/programs.html ). I found today that a number of sites had changed their address (URL), usually without leaving behind any clue as to where they could be found. In most cases, I was able to track down the new URL, but sometimes I could not. I see little point in publicizing inaccurate information. I have thus removed the following institutions from my listings; as far as I can tell, the Women's Studies programs at these institutions no longer have their own web page: Bard College California State University, Northridge Eastern Illinois University Texas Woman's University I think that following programs probably DO still have websites, but their institutions' home pages have provided dead links; unless I can get updated info, these programs too will be removed: Amherst College Brigham Young University University of Southern California Carleton University (Canada) I'd be delighted to add more Women's Studies programs to my listing (it currently includes more than 350 sites). If you know of a site I've missed (or a current URL for any of the above programs), please let me know. (But please first check to be sure I don't already have it. The listing is at http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/programs.html ) Many thanks. Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 23:57:26 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Deborah Nathanson Subject: Re: vanishing WS websites Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hello, Everybody- I'm currently doing some research focusing on Deaf women, and there is some material that I had been trying to access on the gopher system, and I keep coming up with the message that the server is down. The material is from the Michigian State University, and the exact url address is as follows: gopher://burrow.cl.msu.edu/00/msu/dept/deaf/deaf-alert/victorian women If there is anybody who might be able to access this material, please let me know because I have been struggling days and days to get through. It is vital that I obtain this particular document for the research I am currently conducting. Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Please respond privately. Thank you, Deborah Nathanson Dnjn8cats@aol.com University of Minnesota ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 11:10:46 +0100 Reply-To: a7400819@unet.univie.ac.at Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jutta Zalud Subject: Motherhood as normative MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A personal observation. As far as I can remember I have never been asked by a man when I was finally going to marry and have children. Such questions always came frome women. (I am 42 now.) Sometimes I ask myself who is it who "keeps women in their place" though I don't neglect the influence of publicity, literature, society as a whole. Jutta Zalud -- ************************************************** Jutta Zalud Deublergasse 48/5 A-1210 Wien Phone (home): ++43-1-272 99 02 Phone (office): ++43-1-712 10 01 ext. 76 Fax: ++43-1-713 74 40 email: bwj@aon.at or: a7400819@unet.univie.ac.at ************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 11:34:19 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rhea Cote Organization: University of Maine Subject: Teaching at a Correctional Facility MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I am beginning a new position teaching at a minimum security correctional facility with male and female adult populations. I am interested in beginning writing groups, and would like to know what has been done for research, curriculum, pedagogy, etc. in this area. Also, I am interested in reading on the subject of corrections and looking for suggestions. Thank you in advance. Rhea Cote Robbins Charleston Correctional Facility Charleston, Maine Rhea_Cote@umit.maine.edu RJCR@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 11:44:55 -0500 Reply-To: "Kim Vaz (WOS)" Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Kim Vaz (WOS)" Subject: Caribbean women in politics Comments: cc: acarey1@oswego.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I am posting this request for Avonelle: I am looking for material on Caribbean women in politics during the last 20 years. Anything will be helpful: names of women, references to books and articles, suggestions about patterns and trends. Avonelle Carey-Fraites State University of New York at Oswego ************************************************************************ Kim Marie Vaz, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Women's Studies Mailpoint# HMS 413 University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620 813-974-0985 vaz@luna.cas.usf.edu ************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 13:01:55 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Lea Pickard Subject: social movements in Mexico MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear List Members- I am beginning my anthropological doctoral research and am looking for information on my topic: women's involvement in grassroots social movements in Mexico, particularly those social movements concerned with reproductive rights and abortion. I am familiar with many of the works avaliable through my University Library, but would like to be in touch with anyone currently doing this type of work. If anyone has any information on scholars doing research on this area, women involved in these movements, or publications concerning this topic, please respond privately to the email address listed below. Thank you in advance for any information! Lea Pickard PhD Program - Dept. of Anthropology University at Albany-State University of New York Albany, NY 12222 Lepick@concentric.net ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 14:16:19 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jo-Ann Pilardi Subject: Re: Caribbean women in politics Comments: To: "Kim Vaz (WOS)" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Lynn Bolles, on fac. at U. Md., College Park, does work on Caribbean women--particularly union activity. She's in the Women's Studies Dept. Jo-Ann Pilardi, Towson U., jpilardi@towson.edu On Sun, 22 Feb 1998, Kim Vaz (WOS) wrote: > I am posting this request for Avonelle: > > I am looking for material on Caribbean women in politics during the last > 20 years. Anything will be helpful: names of women, references to books > and articles, suggestions about patterns and trends. > > Avonelle Carey-Fraites > State University of New York at Oswego > > > > ************************************************************************ > Kim Marie Vaz, Ph.D. > Associate Professor > Department of Women's Studies > Mailpoint# HMS 413 > University of South Florida > Tampa, FL 33620 > 813-974-0985 > vaz@luna.cas.usf.edu > ************************************************************************** > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 11:41:34 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Dr. Aprahamian" Subject: Re: Gayle Rubin (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: Re: Gayle Rubin Gayle Rubin's "The traffic in women: Notes on the 'political economy' of sex", may have seen several publications, but it was one of the articles in the collection entitled Toward an Anthropology of Women, edited by Rayna R. Rapp, pp. 157- 210, Monthly Review Press, 1975, New York and London. According to the notes on the contributors to the volume, Gayle Rubin was working on her doctorate in anthropology and teaching in the Women's Studies programme at the University of Michigan. Gayle Rubin's aforementioned article was also included in the 1984 volume entitled Pleasure & Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, edited by Carol Vance (Boston). Sima Aprahamian, Ph.D. Simone de Beauvoir Institute E-mail: aprhsma@alcor.concordia.ca On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, Sandra Lorean wrote: > Does anyone have the full citation for Gayle Rubin's classic article > "Traffic in Women: Notes on the "Political Economy" of Sex."? Thank you > in advance, > Sandy > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 14:58:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jill Bystydzienski Subject: Re: citation please Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Birgit Brock-Utne, Norwegian feminist peace activist and scholar says the following in her book, _Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Peace Education_: "Applying a liberal feminist perspective to reality, one is concerned with the opportunity women and men have to compete equally for a share of the pie, but not with the distribution of the pie and not with, what to me is more important, the basic recipe that the pie is made from" (Pergamon, 1989: 20). Jill Bystydzienski Sociology & Women's Studies Franklin College Franklin, IN 46131 (317)738-8270 At 08:12 PM 2/20/98 -0800, you wrote: >Can anyone give me the citation for the following quote?: > >"I don't want a piece of the pie; I want a whole new recipe" > >Thanks >sasha@worldchat.com > >"Pay attention to what they tell you to forget" >Muriel Rukeyser, Poet > > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 15:48:12 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: sasha Subject: Re: citation please MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jill Bystydzienski wrote: > > Birgit Brock-Utne, Norwegian feminist peace activist and scholar says the > following in her book, _Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Peace Education_: > > "Applying a liberal feminist perspective to reality, one is concerned with > the opportunity women and men have to compete equally for a share of the > pie, but not with the distribution of the pie and not with, what to me is > more important, the basic recipe that the pie is made from" (Pergamon, 1989: > 20). This may have some connection to the citation I'm looking for, however, my recollection is that it was said, earlier, by a black activitst/feminist/lawyer from the U.S. I'm still looking :-) Sasha sasha@worldchat.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 16:04:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Patricia Lengermann Subject: PhD programs in Women's Studies Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" We are trying to counsel undergraduate women's studies majors who may be thinking about going on in women's studies. If you know of a program that offers a Ph.D. in women's studies, either free-standing or connected to some other department, could you please let us know. You can reply privately to: Pat Lengermann at pml4cornell.edu or jill niebrugge-brantley at jn-b@wells.edu Please note that the third character in Pat's e-mail is a letter "el" not a numeral "one." Thank you for your help. pat and jill ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 16:08:39 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DIana Grossman Kahn Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood In-Reply-To: <34EC867C.73AA@ix.netcom.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In regard to the discussion of feminism and motherhood, I recommend for limited use with the following criticism the first chapter of Ann Roiphe's book FRUITFUL. In her first chapter she goes over the early 70's on the issue of feminist anti-natalism. Her point is that during these 70's feminism lost ground in the nonacademic perceptions of what feminism consists of, and thus lost many mainstream working class women. Furthermore, I think that she has a good point inthat we "We =us" lost the ground of standing for helping ordinary working women have their babies under better conditions, that "we" should have taken some stands for pregnancy leave with pay, and better supported daycare. She thinks this would have subverted or prevented peculiar notion that the Republicans have manipulated lately, that they are for "family values" when their policies are very unfriendly to families. I have many criticisms of the book otherwise, and I am not recommending it in general. I read it partially out of wondering what ground produced Katie roiphe, her daughter, whose work is dreadfully ahistorical, and seems to criticize her own strange construction of "feminism". But this is exactly the point of the original concern of the initiator of this string: If an academic woman understands the feminist agenda in this way, we have to face the fact that we are not presenting ourselves in a fully useful way to the women who need us. This is part of the problem that is indicated in surveys which show that young women of the 80's who take for granted the advantages which we of the second wave won for them, respond "No" when asked if they are feminists. We academics on this line can be enlightened and get it in perspective the function of the antinatalism in relation to women's vulnerability to patriarchy. However, on the national PRAXIS level, I think there is good reason for fem. organizations to take possession of this middle ground. It's pathetic that it took a democratic pres. in 1990's to finally make pregnancy leave mandatory, and its still outrageous that we do not mandate paid pregnancy leave in America. Diana Grossman Kahn Women's Studies Program Oberlin College ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 17:13:40 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Phyllis Povell Subject: Call for papers Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 17:13:39 +0200 (IST) From: POVELL Subject: Call for papers To: wmst-l@umdd.umd.edu Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ---------- Forwarded message ---------- INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EDUCATIONAL BIOGRAPHY SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS Proposal Information: Individual papers, panel discussions and other presentation formats are welcome. (Individual Papers - 30 minutes, Panels - one hour, or symposia - 75 minutes). Proposals should include a title and a 250-350 word abstract describing the importance of the topic and the approach taken. Possible topics include but are not limited to the following: Ethical issues in life writing Collective biographies Role of biography in the history of education Oral history Plot structures of educational biographies Feminist approaches to life writing Use of life narratives in classroom instruction Publishing biographies Experimental approaches to life-writing Narrating Lives Biography and fiction Collective Biography Epistemological issues in biography and autobiography Gender related dimensions Send your proposals, addresses, phone numbers and your e-mail number (if you have one) to: Brian W. Taylor (506) 453-3513 (Main Office) University of New Brunswick (506)452-6032 (Office Direct Line) Dept. of Educational Foundations (506)453-4765 (fax) Fredricton, NB JCAMPBEL@unb.ca email E3B 6E3 Canada NOTE: The following items should be included: 1) One copy of the proposal which does not include the name of the author or other identifying information; a cover page which includes name, address, phones, fax, and email. 2) A self-addressed envelope 3) A brief vita of one or two paragraphs on a separate sheet of paper. Please include your address, all phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses Please Note: The deadline for paper proposals is March 9, 1998. Presenters are responsible for reserving and paying for audio-visual equipment. Please make arrangements with the hotel (312/787-6100, ext. 7210). Hotel: Chicago Holiday Inn/Chicago City Center, 300 East Ohio Street (800/465-4329; 312/787-6100; fax: 312/787-6259). Hotel Rates: Rates are $131 single and double $141. Committed guest rooms will be held until April 9, at which time they will be released. Reservations received after the cut- off date will be accepted on the basis of availability up to the contracted Group Block at the hotel's prevailing rates. If more persons reserve early than are in the guaranteed room block, the rooms could be taken prior to the cut-off date so please reserve early. The Holiday Inn is located two blocks west of Michigan Avenue on East Ohio St. Very centrally located. Water Tower, New Pier, Art Institute, Planetarium, Michigan Ave. shopping and dining and theaters are in walking distance or short cab rides. The Holiday Inn has pool, sauna, whirlpool, steam room, and additional equipment that is free to guests. Indoor tennis, racquet ball, and massage are available on the premises for an additional charge. Dates: April 30, May 1, 2, 1998 (Some rooms have been reserved for those who come early and for those who plan to stay over the weekend.) Registration: $70 before March 7, 1997, $80 after March 7, 1997 (includes lunch) STUDENT REGISTRATION IS $5.00 ( does not include lunch). Send registration to Phyllis Povell. Membership: $55 (includes Vitae Scholasticae): Persons presenting papers must be current in their dues. Mail to: Phyllis Povell, 14 Gray Avenue, Dix Hills, NY 11746 Povell@eagle.liunet.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 16:20:32 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joe Amato/Kass Fleisher Subject: query: male/female writers Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" thanks to susan koppelman and marc sacks for their comments about my query, and to those who responded privately with works they've found. sorry to be slow in answering susan's question, am fighting the el nino flu -- to clarify, i'm not really interested in making *any* assumptions; am interested in compiling a list of works that discuss any differences the scholar (?) perceives in the processes or products of writing by women and men. am *not* interested in works dealing with reader reception, as that seems to have been covered well enough (thanks for the stories, tho!). if the writer thinks no differences exist, that's cool. if the writer thinks these differences are "essential," cool. if the writer thinks the differences are the results of acculturation/socialization, cool. if the writer's dealing with process, that's cool; product (i.e., "style") would be a separate issue, also cool. we have, for instance, _women's ways of knowing_, which would suggest that there may be some work done on women's ways of writing what they know.... anyway, you get the gist. thanks for the help and for the direction. kassie fleisher amato@charlie.cns.iit.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 19:56:28 -0300 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Monica Tarducci Subject: Re: social movements in Mexico MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Supongo que si estudias este tema entendes el espanhol. Si no es asi avisame y te escribo en mi pesimo ingles.... Conoces la revista mexicana Debate feminista? Es muy buena. Pues su directora Marta Lamas dirige una ONG se llama GIRE Grupo de Informacion en Reproduccion Elegida. Email: gire@laneta.apc.org Podrias empezar por alli. contestame como te fue Un abrazo y suerte! Monica Tarducci (yo tambien soy antropologa) ---------- > From: Lea Pickard > To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU > Subject: social movements in Mexico > Date: domingo 22 de febrero de 1998 15:01 > > Dear List Members- > > I am beginning my anthropological doctoral research and am looking for > information on my topic: women's involvement in grassroots social > movements in Mexico, particularly those social movements concerned with > reproductive rights and abortion. > > I am familiar with many of the works avaliable through my University > Library, but would like to be in touch with anyone currently doing this > type of work. If anyone has any information on scholars doing research > on this area, women involved in these movements, or publications > concerning this topic, please respond privately to the email address > listed below. Thank you in advance for any information! > > Lea Pickard > PhD Program - Dept. of Anthropology > University at Albany-State University of New York > Albany, NY 12222 > Lepick@concentric.net ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 11:52:21 +1100 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: michael flood Subject: Teaching at a Correctional Facility Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Rhea Cote wrote: >I am beginning a new position teaching at a minimum security >correctional facility with male and female adult populations. [snip] On working at least with *men* in prison, I know of the following; Carter, Keith 1996 "Masculinity in prison", in Pilcher, Jane and Coffey, Amanda (eds) Gender and qualitative research, Aldershot, Hants, England: Avebury Denborough, David (ed) 1996 Beyond the prison: Gathering dreams of freedom, Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications (Includes Chapter 8 "Who is imprisoned? Exploring issues of masculinity", Chapter 12 "Talking about men's violence, talking about prisons", and more) Devor, Holly 1988 "Teaching women's studies to male inmates", in Tancred-Sheriff, Peta (ed) Feminist research: Prospect and retrospect, Kingston & Montreal, Canada: Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women Thurston, Richard 1996 "Are you sitting comfortably? Men's storytelling, masculinities, prison culture and violence", in Mac an Ghaill, Mairtin (ed) Understanding masculinities: Social relations and cultural arenas, Buckingham & Philadelphia: Open University Press (And I've got a further list of references on prisons and masculinities if you're interested.) Cheers, michael flood. E-mail: Michael Flood Phone: [02] 6279 8468 (w). PO Box 26, Ainslie ACT, 2602, AUSTRALIA. -- XY magazine: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~gorkin/XY/xy.htm -- The men's bibliography: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/mensbiblio/MensBiblioMenu.html -- Pro-feminist men's FAQ: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/pffaq.html -- Women's Studies Web Page: http://www.anu.edu.au/womens_studies/ ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 15:26:20 +1000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Heather Brook Subject: Re: Teaching at a Correctional Facility Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Apart from Michael Flood's suggestions, there's a book called _Prisons and Women_ by Blanche Hampton [1993]. It's not specifically about teaching, but would be well worth the read. Publication notes on my copy say it's available in North America through: International Specialized Book Services, 5804 N.E. Hassalo Street, Portland, Oregon Ph: (503) 287 3093; Fax: (503) 280 8832. I can't recommend this one highly enough . . . ____________________________________________ brook@coombs.anu.edu.au Heather Brook (Political Science Program, RSSS, Australian National University) ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 00:55:38 -0800 Reply-To: sharons1@airmail.net Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sharon Snow Organization: Texas Woman's University Subject: Re: Teaching at a Correctional Facility MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I co-teach an empowerment class for women at the county jail and am also interested in resources about pedagogy and curriculum. Sharon Snow sharons1@airmail.net Rhea Cote wrote: > > I am beginning a new position teaching at a minimum security > correctional facility with male and female adult populations. I am > interested in beginning writing groups, and would like to know what has > been done for research, curriculum, pedagogy, etc. in this area. > Also, I am interested in reading on the subject of corrections and > looking for suggestions. Thank you in advance. > > Rhea Cote Robbins > Charleston Correctional Facility > Charleston, Maine > Rhea_Cote@umit.maine.edu > RJCR@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 09:34:14 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: anti-motherhood MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Forwarded message: >From 71774.1305@compuserve.com Sun Feb 22 12:52:40 1998 Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 12:49:07 -0500 From: Cathy Young <71774.1305@compuserve.com> Subject: anti-motherhood (fwd) Sender: Cathy Young <71774.1305@compuserve.com> How does Diane Blaine know that the people who attacked the mother in the "nanny case" for working (who were a pretty small fringe, by the way; she told TIME magazine that the ratio of sympathy mail to hate mail that she got was about 100:1) are the same people who want to send welfare mothers to work? In fact, some conservatives who are knows for their strong advocacy of traditional sex roles (including George Gilder) have spoken out against welfare reform based on sending the mothers to work, not only on the grounds that mothers with young children ought to stay home, but on the grounds that all this focus on job training for women will further undermine men's ability to fulfil the provider role. (Feel free to post this to the WoSt list.) forwarded by:-- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 10:11:44 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katherine Side Subject: Re: Childlessness/Anti-Motherhoodd In-Reply-To: <199802212321.PAA24653@uclink2.berkeley.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, Trimberger E. KAY wrote: In addition to Elain Tyler May's book, here are some other titles on the topic of childlessness: Bartlett, Jane (1994) Will You Be Mother? Women Who Choose to Say No (London: Virago). (reviewed in Ms., Vol. VI, no.1 July/August p. 78) Safer, Jeanne (1996) Beyond Motherhood: Choosing A Life Without Children (New York: Pocket Books). Veevers, Jean (1980) Childless By Choice (Butterworth). Dowrick, Stephanie and Grunberg, Sybil (1980) Why Children? (London: The Women's Press). Marshall, Helen (1993) Not Having Children (Melbourne: Oxford University Press). Reti, Irene [Ed.] (1992) Childless By Choice: A Feminist Anthology (McNaughton and Gunn). Morell, Carolyn (1994) Unwomanly Conduct: The Challenges of Intentional Childlessness (London: Routgers). There are also numerous articles in journals and other sources, but I would be inclined to agree with a previous poster that this scholarship doesn't come close, in volume, to feminist scholarship on the topic of motherhood and mothering. Morell's 1994 book (above) clearly suggests the presence and persistence of stigmas around childlessness for women. Katherine Side kside@acs.ryerson.caa Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria Streett Toronto, Ontario Canada > For an eaxcellent historical perspective (20th century) on this issue, I > recommend: Elaine Tyler May, Barren in the Promised Land: Childless > Americans & The Pursuit of Happiness New York: Basic Books, 1995. > > For an analysis on the relationship between second wave feminism and > motherhood, I recommend Lauri Umansky, Motherhood Reconceived: Feminism and > the Legacies of the Sixties. (NYU paperback, 1996). I second the prior > recommendation on the article by Ann Snitow on Feminism and Motherhood. > E. Kay Trimberger > Coordinator and Professor > Women's Studies Program > Sonoma State University > 707 664-2086/2840 > Trimberg@Sonoma.edu > ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 10:17:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: JENNIFER HAMMER Subject: Re: Anti-Motherhood MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Re books on anti-motherhood, another one that may be helpful is _"Bad" Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America_, edited by Molly Ladd-Taylor and Lauri Umansky and published this past November by New York University Press. With best wishes, Jennifer Hammer Associate Editor New York University Press NYUP Customer Service: 1-800-996-6987 or 212 998 2575 Jennifer Hammer Associate Editor New York University Press 70 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012 HammerJ@elmer5.bobst.nyu.edu NYU Press website: http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 08:50:04 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sandra D Shattuck Subject: Re: Teaching at a Correctional Facility In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Sun, 22 Feb 1998, Rhea Cote wrote: > I am beginning a new position teaching at a minimum security > correctional facility with male and female adult populations. I am > interested in beginning writing groups, and would like to know what has > been done for research, curriculum, pedagogy, etc. in this area. > Also, I am interested in reading on the subject of corrections and > looking for suggestions. Thank you in advance. Although this text is not geared towards your population, this recent book is a great how-to for getting writing groups. The authors, who are here in Tucson, mentioned that their research turned up lots of books on forming reading groups and really no books on forming writing groups. I've used this book in my own writing group and find it really helpful. Writing Together: How to Transform Your Writing in A Writing Group. Dawn Denham Haines, Susan Newcomer & Jacqueline Raphael. NY: Perigee Book (Putnam), 1997. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 13:01:55 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Erin Connell Subject: Queer Studies Colloqium MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII FYI. QUEER STUDIES SYMPOSIUM ----------------------- interdisciplinary student conference February 28, 1998 Health Sciences Center, Rooms 1A4 and 1A6 McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario PROGRAM: 9:00 - registration 9:30-9:40 introduction - Room 1A4 9:45-11:15 Sessions 1a and 1b -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1a - Room 1A4 Kevin Winkler (Hunter College, City University of New York): "Your mother is up here working!": Bette Middler, the Continental Baths, and the Mainstreaming of Gay Male Sensibility. Scott MacNeil (McMaster University): Skinheads and Fairies - Authentic Gay and Straight Drag: Gender Performances in 'Lilies'. Jason Siroonian (McGill University): Gay Pornographic Videos: The Emergent Falcon Formula. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1b - Room 1A6 Diane Naugler (York University): Envisioning (Our)selves, Envisioning Communities: The Work of the Imagination for Readers of Lesbian Pulp Fiction. Tara E. Hunt (University of Calgary): Queers in the Cornerstore Rag: Ruby Slippers, Wicked Witch of the West, or There Is No Place Like Home? - The examination of the inclusion of the lesbian voice in mainstream media and how it shapes identity. Marc Oullette (McMaster University): Sexing the Garden. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11:15-11:30 - coffee break 11:30-13:00 - Sessions 2a and 2b ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2a - Room 1A4 Loralee Gillis (York University): Queering Bodies: HIV Positive Women and Sexuality. Ann Pollock (Brandeis University): The queers at the center of high-tech reproduction: A lesbian body sells her eggs. Andrea Noack (York University): Towards a Lesbian Barbie?: Theorizing the Possibility of a Sexually Idealized Lesbian Image. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2b - Room 1A6 Nancy Renwick (Concordia University): Leo Mantha and Bud Jenkins: Gender Norms and Queer Identity in Cold War Canada. Kathryn Campbell (York University): Who is a Lesbian Anyway? A Discussion of Lesbian Jurisprudence. Jodi Hoar (University of Toronto): Listening to the Heretics: An Exploration of Essentialist Arguments in Christian Ethics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13:00-14:50 lunch break 13:40-14:40 - Room 1A4 *** Readings of poetry and short fiction *** by: Rick Douglass-Chin Trish Sajah Christina Starr 14:50-16:20 - Sessions 3a and 3b --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3a - Room 1A4 Lars Rains (City University of New York): Settling the Score: Locating Same Sex Desire in Musicological Discourses. Nigel Brent Lezama (University of Western Ontario): Les Paradigmes de l'Homosexualite dans la Litterature Medievale. Stephen K. Ong (University of Pennsylvania): The Treatment of the Homoerotic in Shakespeare. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3b - Room 1A6 Kyes Stevens (Sarah Lawrence College): The Presence of Lesbian Sexulaity and the Ideology of the Body in the Writing of Lillian Smith. Wesley Crichlow (O.I.S.E.): Buller Men and Batty Bwoys: Hidden Men in Toronto and Halifax Black Communities. Rick Santos (Binghampton University): Imagining Homosexuality: Poststructuralism, the Construction of Queerness and the Question of Inclusion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 16:20-16:30 - coffee break 16:30-17:30 - Session 4: workshop/open discussion - Room 1A4 At the beginning of this session, a few people will make short statements in which they share their experiences with and perspectives on doing queer studies. Following that, the floor will be opened for audience members to join the discussion. The session will end with information on upcoming events and closing remarks. This will mark the end of the queer studies symposium. We invite everybody to join us to the graduate pub on the McMaster campus for drinks after that and also to have dinner with us at a local restaurant (with prices suitable to student budgets). ALL WELCOME! registration fee: sliding scale - suggested: $ 3 - 10 (includes refreshments) ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 13:17:34 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: SHAY-rock Subject: Kitchen Table Press MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Jaime M. Grant's essay in the Summer 1996 edition of Signs described the working coalition between the Union Institute and Kitchen Table Press. I used this example in an essay about coalition politics and am interested in following up on the success found or troubles faced by this transition coalition since the article was written and published. If anyone on the list has information or citations that might be useful in this follow-up pursuit, please email me privately. Thank you in advance, and thanks for reading, Alison Sherrick '98 William Smith College Geneva, NY 14456 sherrick@hws.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 13:44:00 PST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Saad, Shahnaz" Subject: Re: Motherhood as normative I am 34, and I have been asked this question by both genders. S. Chris Saad, PhD ssaad@wcupa.edu ---------- A personal observation. As far as I can remember I have never been asked by a man when I was finally going to marry and have children. Such questions always came frome women. (I am 42 now.) Sometimes I ask myself who is it who "keeps women in their place" though I don't neglect the influence of publicity, literature, society as a whole. Jutta Zalud ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 14:02:24 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: JoAnn Castagna Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Diana Grossman Kahn writes [small excerpt]: >We academics on this line can be enlightened and get it in perspective the >function of the antinatalism in relation to women's vulnerability to >patriarchy. However, on the national PRAXIS level, I think there is good >reason for fem. organizations to take possession of this middle ground. >It's pathetic that it took a democratic pres. in 1990's to finally make >pregnancy leave mandatory, and its still outrageous that we do not mandate >paid pregnancy leave in America. This message, does not seem to recognize that there has long been a split between those feminists who want laws that acknowledge "facts" about women, and those that do not. I'm not sure what "mandatory pregnancy leave" would be--would it be a way for employers to require women to leave work at some specified date in a pregnancy? Certainly, the family and medical leave act, which covers only a small percentage of workers, is not a "mandatory pregnancy leave"... similarly, mandated paid pregnancy leaves are not neutral, they are pronatalist. the absense of such leaves is not necessarily anti-natalist, but in thinking about work and life issues, it seems to many feminists better not to define those issues around child bearing... the debates around "protections" of women workers in the 20s and the debates about pregnancy and work today are worthwhile topics for feminist investigation in the classroom. i doubt, however, if it possible (and perhaps not even desirable) to find some "middle ground" on which all feminists will agree. JoAnn Castagna joann-castagna@uiowa.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 14:30:19 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: elizabethe plante Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.16.19980223124017.2697b2ca@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 02:02 PM 2/23/98 -0500, you wrote: >Diana Grossman Kahn >writes [small excerpt]: >>We academics on this line can be enlightened and get it in perspective the >>function of the antinatalism in relation to women's vulnerability to >>patriarchy. However, on the national PRAXIS level, I think there is good >>reason for fem. organizations to take possession of this middle ground. >>It's pathetic that it took a democratic pres. in 1990's to finally make >>pregnancy leave mandatory, and its still outrageous that we do not mandate >>paid pregnancy leave in America. > >This message, does not seem to recognize that there has long been a split >between those feminists who want laws that acknowledge "facts" about women, >and those that do not. I'm not sure what "mandatory pregnancy leave" would >be--would it be a way for employers to require women to leave work at some >specified date in a pregnancy? Certainly, the family and medical leave >act, which covers only a small percentage of workers, is not a "mandatory >pregnancy leave"... similarly, mandated paid pregnancy leaves are not >neutral, they are pronatalist. the absense of such leaves is not >necessarily anti-natalist, but in thinking about work and life issues, it >seems to many feminists better not to define those issues around child >bearing... >the debates around "protections" of women workers in the 20s and the >debates about pregnancy and work today are worthwhile topics for feminist >investigation in the classroom. i doubt, however, if it possible (and >perhaps not even desirable) to find some "middle ground" on which all >feminists will agree. > >JoAnn Castagna >joann-castagna@uiowa.edu > Elizabethe Plante Director Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program 202 Huddleston Hall 73 Main Street Durham,NH 03824 http://www.unh.edu/student-life/sharpp/sharpp.html ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 09:02:35 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Adrienne Regnier Subject: Women's studies theory Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi, I'm looking for current on-line discussions of WS theory. I'm interested in questions like: are WS and feminism the same thing? what are their relationships to each other? is WS about biology or gender as a social construction? etc. Any suggestions? Thanks, Adreinne Regnier aregnier@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 15:17:02 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Dr. Nancy Jabbra" Subject: ws theory Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" It was feminist students who created women's studies through their desire to learn more about themselves. And, yes I cover both biology and social construction of gender in my intro to ws. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 14:43:18 +0000 Reply-To: dr70@umail.umd.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna L. Rowe" Organization: American Studies/Women's Studies University of Maryland College Park Subject: Through the Looking Glass MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit For doctoral research on women's prison narratives in the U.S. during the 20th century, I am trying to locate any women who have ever been affilitated with the women and children's prison newsletter "Through the Looking Glass." It appears to have been published from about 1976 to 1985 out of Seattle, WA. The core group of editors may have been connected to the Lesbian community there. I'm interested in both activist women on the "outside" and women who made contributions to the newsletter from the "inside." A full run of this newsletter has yet to be located, although several Universities own scattered issues/volumes. If you or your institution owns any volumes of this newsletter, please contact me. If you were *in any way* affiliated with the newsletter, please get in touch. I would like to interview as many women as possible, from as many perspectives as possible. This was a very radical publication and my aim is to explore its impact in prison reform, as well as document the contributions of possibly hundreds of imprisoned women writers, poets, and radicals. Please circulate this message as widely as you can. I welcome any leads or information regarding the women who were involved with the project. Donna Rowe Doctoral Candidate American Studies/Women's Studies Departments University of Maryland College Park email: dr70@umail.umd.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 07:11:05 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Haessly Subject: Re: Nike and Motherhood Comments: To: "Carolyn I. Wright" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In __Feminist Perspectives on Peace Research and Peace Education__, (1989) Birgit Brock-Utne refers to a practice called "Girlcott" which was initiated by women in a number of countries, including Canada, to support companies and products which support policies and practices friendly to women, children, and the fragile eco-system. It is a much more positive, and economicallly viable practice than just engaging in "boycotts". This is not to suggest that "boycotts" are not needed and effective (the Farm Workers succeeded in obtaining some small gains against growers of grapes and lettuce, as did the textile workers in JP STevens plants, and the Nestle boycott aided women and infants in numerous impoverished regions of the world. However, "girlcotts", where people are making informed efforts to purchase products that sustain the earth, from companies that engage in just hiring and promotion practices, pay adequate wages for meaningful work, and encourage responsible business practices in communities where they are engaged, offer the possibility of creating real social and political and environmental justice for women and children everywhere. Nowhere is the motto "the personal is political" as evident as in the consumer life-style choices we each make every day of our lives for ourselves and our families, for our personal choices DO impact on the quality of life (and at times, at the expense of the freedom of others) for all. If Women's Studies is about anything, it surely must be about helping ourselves and the women with whom we engage, as educators and activists, understand this basic issue in the global economy. Peace, Jacqueline Haessly jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image Peace! On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Carolyn I. Wright wrote: > But, Laura, your freedom is NOT at the expense of slave labor.It is the > result of your OWN labor. Yes, we should all work against the exploitation > of women while remembering that Nike is not the only company by any > means to do so-(lets look at Virginia Slims and women's lung cancer rate, > and other "supporters" of women- thre are manyways to define exploitation) > and we all have our own way of working against that exploitation. I for > one have never bought a pair of Nike's -I can't afford them. I shop at Pay > Less and heaven only know how many women those shoes exploit!i shop in > retailstores and I know they exploit their sales women ( I've been one) > and I eat at restaurants and I know they often mistreat their waitresses. > But I live in a capitalistic country > within a capitalistic world and I choose to. Given that,I must act, to the > best of my ability, to help others while taking what I can give to myself. > So I'll take the positive messages of Nike and use them to my betterment- > but they'll probably never get my money- unless they take over Pay Less. > Carolyn Wright > ciwright@mailbox.syr.edu > On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Laura Sells wrote: > > > Oh the evils of capitalism. This is precisely one of the many reasons I hate > > Nike so much. As Jean Kilbourne points out in her famous video, Still Killing > us > > > > Softly, advertisers co-opt social change to sell. While I appreciate the point > > of a > > positive message in the Nike commercials, I have a hard time seeing those ads > > without remembering that my freedom to be or not to be a mother and wife is at > > the > > expense of slave labor in third world countries. I'm not so sure how wonderful > > the > > message is in this light. Please remember that Nike is being boycotted by > > multiple > > human rights organizations including NOW. If you are interested, please visit > > the > > official Boycott Nike homepage at the following address: > > http://www.saigon.com/~nike/ > > > > > > Thanks for letting me have the soapbox for a moment, > > Laura Sells > > Department of Women's Studies > > University of South Florida > > Tampa, FL 33620 > > > > > I happen to really like the NIke ad. It says to me, and my children, that > > > it is possible > > > for me to be much more than a mother- NIke is socially sanctioning that. > > > And growth doesn't end with becoming a wife or a mother.That women can be > > > and ARE many things -including what they want to be- I think that is a > > > wonderful message for my daughters to hear - whether they have children or > > > not. > > > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 10:20:40 -0500 Reply-To: "jgrant@tui.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jaime Grant Organization: The Union Institute Subject: Re: Redstockings For background on Redstockings, see Alice Echols' Daring to be Bad. -----Original Message----- From: thomas robert mueller [SMTP:tmueller@STUDENTS.UIUC.EDU] Sent: Friday, February 20, 1998 10:45 AM To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: Redstockings If it is okay please reply to the message below on the Listserv, because I would be very interested in that information Tom Mueller On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Stirm, Jan wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > Recently several of the posts have mentioned the Redstockings; my > Women's Studies class and I have recently finished reading their > manifesto, along with various other statements of purpose and so forth, > ane we were wondering about a context for it. Our anthology doesn't > give much information on them (we've found more on others, or others > include more identification information in the text itself). Could > someone (probably privately, off list) give me a quick background to the > group, or perhaps suggest an article? > > Many thanks, Jan > > Jan Stirm > JStirm@monm.edu > English Department / Women's Studies > Monmouth College > Monmouth, IL > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 10:40:52 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Nicole Trombley Subject: science and nationalism Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am currently researching NSF and the use of appeals of the US's "national interest" to justify funding for science (proving its relevance to society). Part of my project is to add nation and nationalism to an intersectional analysis of science (in other words race, gender, class, sexuality and nation). Though there is much material on NSF's initial appeals to nationalism in the early Cold War (especially following Sputnik), I am wondering if anyone knows of specifically feminist works that are trying to make connections between science and nation and/or nationalism (not specifically related to NSF). I appreciate any suggestions. Thank you, Nicole Trombley tromblnm@email.uc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 16:18:26 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stephanie Chastain Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain When I was a working on my PhD, I had occasion to speak with a very well-known, respected and highly paid professor in an adjunct department. I was discussing with him the contents of a class which I was taking from him and the use of the class material for a doctoral project. After making some remarks bordering on harassment about how well I looked for my age (40), he said, "you have a child; you have a husband, why do you need a Ph.D?" The fact that motherhood (and marriage) present particular problems for women who are in academia is not, I believe, in question. Scholarship and academia have favored those women who were not so attached and this is profoundly reflected in university culture and often as far as WS. And, in addition, I have always felt that I was viewed as somewhat "handicapped" because I had a child which speaks directly to the issue of pregnancy as illness in another (?) discussion on the list. my best to all of you. Stephanie Chastain Seattle chastsg@dshs.wa.gov ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:01:04 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Feminist Teacher Subject: Re: teaching evaluations/co-op learning Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I have always used active & cooperative learning >exercises, >Some students love that stuff. Others gripe constantly that they just want to >know what I want them to do so they can do it. They would rather take >objective tests than make decisions. It's not until they get out into the >working world that they appreciate what I did for them. > Sorry this may be an old thread now... As an undergrad student, I must admit that I prefer good discussion to anything else (especially lecture). However, I think your comment that students resist making their own decisions until they leave school for the working world assumes that people in the working world are allowed, encouraged, or even required to make their own decisions. Many people in the working world are allowed, encouraged and sometimes required to do the opposite. I think it is dangerous to assume that any style of learning is specifically useful for everyone or that once you force the decision-making process on anyone they are sure to be grateful for it once they leave the bubble of undergrad classroom settings. Maybe those who do not want to have an opinion are not even suited for your area of study... Sometimes these assumptions get established because the professor is not really listening to the students. It can be easier to hear what you want to hear and chalk it up to inexperience. M jessica Vaile Chief Editorial Assistant _Feminist Teacher_ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:48:13 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathy Miriam Subject: Re: Redstockings Comments: To: Jaime Grant In-Reply-To: <01BD410D.DC3E69A0.jgrant@tui.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Jaime Grant wrote: > For background on Redstockings, see Alice Echols' Daring to be Bad. > and then go back to to the original sources to fill in the gaps and the context. Kathy Miriam kmiriam@cats.ucsc.edu > > > -----Original Message----- > From: thomas robert mueller [SMTP:tmueller@STUDENTS.UIUC.EDU] > Sent: Friday, February 20, 1998 10:45 AM > To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU > Subject: Re: Redstockings > > If it is okay please reply to the message below on the Listserv, because I > would be very interested in that information > > Tom Mueller > > > On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Stirm, Jan wrote: > > > Hi Everyone, > > > > Recently several of the posts have mentioned the Redstockings; my > > Women's Studies class and I have recently finished reading their > > manifesto, along with various other statements of purpose and so forth, > > ane we were wondering about a context for it. Our anthology doesn't > > give much information on them (we've found more on others, or others > > include more identification information in the text itself). Could > > someone (probably privately, off list) give me a quick background to the > > group, or perhaps suggest an article? > > > > Many thanks, Jan > > > > Jan Stirm > > JStirm@monm.edu > > English Department / Women's Studies > > Monmouth College > > Monmouth, IL > > > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:27:21 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jyl Josephson Subject: Journal Rankings--Women's Studies MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Dear Colleagues; I am writing to inquire about journal rankings for women's studies journals. As part of tenure and promotion procedures, my university requires each department chair to rank journals in which promotion candidates have published. I am sure that many other universities have similar requirements. Since I am housed in a political science department, we have an established list for journal rankings within the discipline, but only one journal that might be called a women's studies journal is included. Thus, I would like to hear from list members who have established a ranking system for these journals, either within women's studies programs or within their discipline. In addition, any articles that might provide empirical evidence (through surveys of women's studies faculty, for example) for specific rankings of journals would be very helpful. I did search the archive and did not find any discussions that seemed to be on this specific subject. I should also note that I do recognize how problematic such "ranking" systems are, but, as noted above, these rankings are required by the university's procedures. Please reply privately; if there is general interest I will post results of this inquiry to the list. Thank you! Jyl Josephson Jyl Josephson Department of Political Science Box 41015 Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX 79409 (806) 742-3121 bqjyl@ttacs.ttu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:42:13 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Deborah Nathanson Subject: WMST-L INDEX Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit WMST-L INDEX ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 16:21:16 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Re: Journal Rankings--Women's Studies MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Related to Jyl's question, are do citation indices exist where one could gage the relative importance of a published manuscript, regardless of the rank of the journal it is published in, by virtue of how often and in what context it is cited by other authors. This would seem to be a more independent way to assess a person's relative contribution to the field than some arbitrary ranking system of journals. I am aware of such and index for the biological sciences but do not know if there are others. If these indices do exist, can they be accessed through the internet. ************************************************************* Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:21:33 CST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Shahin Gerami Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 20 Feb 1998 19:24:06 -0500 from Gail Dines wants Nike plant in the South closed to stop exploitation of the wom en of the South. Is this women of North/ white western women deciding for the Other women? Did we ask the Nike workers if they want their plant closed? Waht alternative are we proposing? I mean other than Unemployment. Shahin Gerami ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:36:58 -0600 Reply-To: Diana York Blaine Sender: Women's Studies List From: Diana York Blaine Subject: anti-motherhood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In Cathy Young's attempt to discredit my argument that "motherhood" is a construction (which she is unable or unwilling to do), she misprepresents my post. I am not analyzing what factions make what claims or asserting that "the same people" who attacked the nanny mom for working want to send welfare mothers back to work. In fact a careful close reader will note that I use the pronoun "we." I stand by my claim that popular discourse on these topics has included, prominently, the sentiments I noted. Diana York Blaine University of North Texas dblaine@unt.edu How does Diane Blaine know that the people who attacked the mother in the "nanny case" for working (who were a pretty small fringe, by the way; she told TIME magazine that the ratio of sympathy mail to hate mail that she got was about 100:1) are the same people who want to send welfare mothers to work? In fact, some conservatives who are knows for their forwarded by:-- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:07:09 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Rachel Murphree Subject: Re: Journal Rankings--Women's Studies In-Reply-To: <01ITYQIJ5HFM001GQ7@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Related to Jyl's question, are do citation indices exist where one could >gage the relative importance of a published manuscript, regardless of the >rank of the journal it is published in, by virtue of how often and in what >context it is cited by other authors. This would seem to be a more >independent way to assess a person's relative contribution to the field >than some arbitrary ranking system of journals. I am aware of such and >index for the biological sciences but do not know if there are others. > >If these indices do exist, can they be accessed through the internet. Citation indexes do exist for the other disciplines; they are called *Social Sciences Citation Index* and *Arts and Humanities Citation Index*. Many university libraries should have these volumes in their reference collection. They are available online through a database called Web of Science, produced by ISI. Due to its nature and uniqueness, this product is often prohibitively expensive, imho, so I would think only the larger research libraries may subscribe to it. These databases are also available through Dialog, which may be available for mediated searching (i.e. the librarian searching), possibly for a fee, depending on library policies. They are called Social SciSearch and Arts and Humanities Search, respectively. In the pre CDROM/Web world, this was the only way to do online searching. --Rachel Rachel Cassel Murphree, Reference Librarian Criminal Justice and Women's Studies Subject Specialist Electronic Resouces Coordinator University of Texas El Paso Library El Paso, TX 79968 915-747-6715 murphree@utep.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:58:05 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jo Trigilio Subject: ph.d. programs in ws MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? someone else recently posted a similar request and asked for private responses. It would be great if the responses could be posted on the list. thanks Jo Trigilio Dept. of Philosophy CSU - Chico ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:24:30 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Diana H Scully Subject: Re: ph.d. programs in ws In-Reply-To: ; from "Jo Trigilio" at Feb 24, 98 1:58 pm The National Women's Studies Association second addition of a "Guide to Graduate Work in Women's Studies," is available for purchase through the NWSA National Office, 7100 Baltimore Ave., Suite 301, College Park, MD 20740. It contains information on Masters and Ph.D. programs in Women's Studies. Diana Scully > > Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's > studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's > studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of > universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? someone else > recently posted a similar request and asked for private responses. It > would be great if the responses could be posted on the list. > > thanks > > Jo Trigilio > Dept. of Philosophy > CSU - Chico > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Diana Scully Professor of Sociology & Director of Women's Studies Virginia Commonwealth University Box 843060 Richmond, Virginia 23284 804.828.4041 (phone) 804.828.4983 (fax) dhscully@vcu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:35:40 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Georgia NeSmith Subject: Re: teaching evaluations/co-op learning Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit In a message dated 2/24/98 1:02:16 PM, M jessica Vaile wrote: <> I don't think training students to be robots in any way prepares them for the working world, even if they do end up in an extremely hierarchical work structure. Teaching active, critical thinking gives them more power and control over their own lives. Perhaps they "want" to be in such jobs because they can't imagine any other possibilities for themselves. This is an issue that gets discussed in my classes. Regardless of what employers ask of them, people still must make decisions about the extent to which they are willing to go along with something they believe to be wrong (or simply stupid, unreasonable, unproductive, etc.). They also have to make decisions about how they can develop productive ways to respond to the conditions they find themselves in. I *do* listen to my students. I ask them about their hopes for the future, the kind of work they want to do, what they value, what their past experience in school has been. I find that the resistance to making their own decisions does not come from their lack of desire to do so. It comes from the lack of opportunity and encouragement they received in most of the rest of their educations. It's unfamiliar, and it scares them. And if there is no support for such methods within one's department and/or in the larger university, their fear of the methods will be reinforced. This has happened frequently with me. Yet many of the "resistors" have tracked me down later to thank me for what I did for them. Moreover, in the current working world with so much emphasis given to shared decision making and total quality management, workers *are* being expected to make their own decisions--even in manufacturing environments. For instance, for a news story I interviewed the manager of a local precision tool & die company that has totally changed its manufacturing processes, virtually doing away with the assembly line. He said the people who are having the most problems with the new processes are the older generations, the ones who came into the industry between 1945-1960, when "do what you're told" was the order of the day. As was discussed earlier on this list, management practices (or at least management ideology) have dramatically changed over the last 10-15 years. Even if only lipservice is given to the idea of workers sharing the decision making, workers still need to be able to identify and negotiate their way through the ideology. I.e., they have to make their own decisions. It's a *major* critical thinking challenge to be able to figure out what the boss *really* wants when she/he is saying the opposite. I tell my students that I push them to make their own decisions because I won't be there to tell them what to do, for instance, when a boss asks them to write a report. Whatever people write, they must make decisions for themselves about their audience, purpose, and best means of accomplishing what they set out to do within the political conditions of their work environment. Whatever their textbooks say about good writing, it may be politically wise to do the opposite. Finally, while I believe one should listen to students' expressions of their needs and interests, I don't believe we should necessarily give them what they say they want & need. Our job as teachers is to enable them to be and do *more* than what they are able to articulate when they arrive at our classroom door. I also tell them that it is precisely because they so rarely get this in their other classes that I feel absolutely committed to doing it in mine. They get plenty of the lecture/memorize/regurgitate style. They need to be exposed to something different. They need experience with alternatives. And I can think of no better an argument *for* those alternatives than the cases of several black women graduate students whom I am currently coaching through their doctoral degrees. The *biggest* hurdle they have had to get over is understanding that in *graduate school,* professors want *your* ideas, not just a rehash of what other people said. All throughout their educations, no one wanted to know what they thought. In fact, no one suggested to them that graduate school might be a possibility. If *we* do not provide students with the opportunity to see a different world for themselves, who will? Georgia NeSmith Writer/Photographer/Editor/Writing Coach Adjunct Faculty, Rochester Institute of Technology gnesmith@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:42:42 -0500 Reply-To: Cynthia Harrison Sender: Women's Studies List From: Cynthia Harrison Subject: Re: PhD programs in Women's Studies Comments: To: Patricia Lengermann In-Reply-To: <199802222104.QAA02648@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII George Washington offers a Ph.D. in Public Policy with a concentration in Gender and Social Policy and a Ph.D. in Human Sciences with a field in women's studies. (We also offer an M.A. in women's studies and an M.A. in public policy with a concentration in women's studies.) On Sun, 22 Feb 1998, Patricia Lengermann wrote: > We are trying to counsel undergraduate women's studies majors who may be > thinking about going on in women's studies. If you know of a program that > offers a Ph.D. in women's studies, either free-standing or connected to some > other department, could you please let us know. You can reply privately to: > Pat Lengermann at pml4cornell.edu or jill niebrugge-brantley at > jn-b@wells.edu Please note that the third character in Pat's e-mail is a > letter "el" not a numeral "one." Thank you for your help. pat and jill > Cynthia Harrison Associate Professor History/Women's Studies Funger 506G The George Washington University 2201 G Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20052 telephone: 202-363-4356 e-mail: harrison@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu fax: 202-994-7249 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:52:18 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Ending the "anti-motherhood" thread MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I am writing to ask that we bring an end to the "anti-motherhood" thread. It has moved from a discussion of resources and scholarly representations to a discussion of societal issues, and such discussion lies outside the scope of this list. Thanks once again for your understanding and cooperation. Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 18:08:30 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: Re: ph.d. programs in ws MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's > studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's > studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of > universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? Thanks to the efforts of an undergraduate WS major and the WS secretary at UMBC, the listing of Women's Studies Programs, Departments, and Research Centers at http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/programs.html will VERY SOON add annotation about graduate programs at the listed programs (currently there are about 350 listings; a small but growing percentage of these have graduate programs). I'm hoping to have this information added by the end of the week. I'll make an announcement to the list at that time. Joan Korenman ***************************************************************************** * Joan Korenman korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * U. of Md. Baltimore County * * Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ***************************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 18:15:06 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: DAPHNE PATAI Subject: anti-motherhood (fwd) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:26:19 -0500 From: Cathy Young <71774.1305@compuserve.com> Subject: anti-motherhood (fwd) Sender: Cathy Young <71774.1305@compuserve.com> "Popular discourse" is, of course, a pretty all-encompassing term. I would say that at least as indicated by the media and the entertainment industry, "popular discourse" in the last 2 decades has assumed that it's normal for mothers to work. (In 1990, American Psychology, the leading journal in its discipline, refused to publish a rejoinder to a pro- maternal employment, pro-day care article; is that part of "popular discourse" too?) This does not mean that there haven't been voices critical of mothers working, at least when their children are very young (many specify under age 3). But in a pluralistic society one would expect that. What I can say with certainty is that many mothers who stay home, particularly those who regard full-time motherhood as a vocation rather than "time off" from a career, regard their lifestyle as a "countercultural" one and are very resentful of what they see as a blitz of media images which glorify career women and put down women at home. I would suggest that many people tend to vastly exaggerate, in their own minds, the prevalence of speech and images that they find vexing or threatening to their identity; this is equally true, I would imagine, of working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. forwarded by -- ====================== Daphne.Patai@spanport.umass.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 19:13:40 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Eileen O'Connor Subject: Re: ph.d. programs in ws In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Clark University and York University (Canada) are among the few institutions offering women`s studies programmes. You could find more information using the Peterson`s Guides for graduate studies. These guides should be at your university library, but you could also take a look at their site on internet. Good luck. R. Tremblay University of Ottawa On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Jo Trigilio wrote: > Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's > studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's > studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of > universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? someone else > recently posted a similar request and asked for private responses. It > would be great if the responses could be posted on the list. > > thanks > > Jo Trigilio > Dept. of Philosophy > CSU - Chico > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 00:28:46 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judy Evans Subject: Re: Journal Rankings--Women's Studies In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19980224140709.006c39b8@utep.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Rachel Murphree wrote: > Citation indexes do exist for the other disciplines; they are called > *Social Sciences Citation Index* and *Arts and Humanities Citation Index*. > Many university libraries should have these volumes in their reference > collection. We do, and we, and our Library, are not rich! > They are available online through a database called Web of Science, > produced by ISI. Due to its nature and uniqueness, this product is often > prohibitively expensive, imho, so I would think only the larger research > libraries may subscribe to it. Here we have nationally-arranged cheap access to such material: I don't know whether the link is to the Web of Science, I think not. Access is almost always direct, but we have to register with the services involved. There are of course doubts about citation counts as an indicator of quality -- the national research assessment scheme, which evaluates all departments in the UK every 5 years, dropped them as being too mechanical and insufficiently reliable. --------------------------------------- Judy Evans jae2@york.ac.uk Typing, Dragon Dictate's. Opinions mine ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 20:44:07 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "William W. Pendleton" Subject: Re: Journal Rankings--Women's Studies In-Reply-To: <01ITYQIJ5HFM001GQ7@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I have always found the ranking of journals a rather silly game. The best journals, at least in my field, have some rather poor stuff, and there is some rather good stuff found in other places. Departments surrender their proper authority when they play this game, especially if they put too much emphasis on it. Evaluate the work itself, is it good scholarship and does it show promise of more to come. That is the important question. Journals, even the best, are subject to fads and fashions in terms of methods and topics. Rely too much on them fails not only the candidate, but scholarship generally which is demonstrated by the work itself and should be evaluated by the qualified faculty. If I had my way, reviewers outside the department would not receive a curriculum vitae and the research they evaluated would be in manuscript form only, no publisher indicated. After all, what we seek is their evaluation of the scholarship, not their impression of how others evaluate it. Internally, I think we would be better served if we did the same. Current populatity in the field of ideas is only a weak indicator of quality which, if given too much emphasis, distorts our purpose. Wm W. Pendleton Department of Sociology Emory University Atlanta, Ga. 30322 socwwp@emory.edu 404 727-7524 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 21:04:40 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Gail Dines Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood I think the first question to ask regarding Shahin Gerami's post is did the West ever ask the women in developing countriesif they wanted western capitalists to set up shop in their countires, take land from the people and destroy the local economies? Gail Dines ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 21:21:43 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi In-Reply-To: <199802211400.JAA22073@pop.cybernex.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" If you think of a syllabus as a contract that professors write and students must sign, you're getting a coerced agreement. The principle of contracts is that they are instruments to which two parties agree after negotiation. Of course, there is often coercion involved, when one party has more power than the other. However, when one of the signers has not even an opportunity to negotiate the agreement ... beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net At 09:00 AM 2/21/98 -0500, you wrote: >I have on occasion had students sign the syllabus in the past, because, as I >still tell them, the syllabus is a contract between us. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 22:58:57 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Lisa Bowleg Subject: ISO Refences Re: Multicultural Definitions of Beauty Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Help! I'm a panelist on an upcoming panel at our Women's Center on "Who Is Beautiful? Attaining Multicultural Definitions of Beauty" and am looking for some exemplary books (or articles on this topic). I'm especially interested in literature related to beauty standards and ideals for Latinas and Middle Eastern women (recognizing of course that both groups are geographically/regionally/culturally diverse groups). I've references such as the "Beauty Myth", and some great articles from various women's studies and psychology of women anthologies, but would like to know if there are any must-reads that I should check out? Please respond to me privately. Thanks much. Best wishes, Lisa Bowleg, Ph.D. Women's Studies Program Georgetown University, ICC 587 Washington, DC 20057 Telephone: (202) 687-3115 E-mail: bowlegl@gunet.georgetown.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 22:59:39 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Lisa Bowleg Subject: ISO Refences Re: Multicultural Definitions of Beauty Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain I'm especially interested in beauty standards and ideals for Latinas and Middle Eastern women (recognizing of course that both groups are geographically/regionally/culturally diverse groups). ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 23:39:19 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Arnie Kahn Subject: Re: anti-motherhood (fwd) In-Reply-To: <199802242315.SAA02330@emily.oit.umass.edu> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, DAPHNE PATAI wrote: (actually forwarded) > "Popular discourse" is, of course, a pretty all-encompassing term. I > would say that at least as indicated by the media and the entertainment > industry, "popular discourse" in the last 2 decades has assumed that it's > normal for mothers to work. (In 1990, American Psychology, the leading > journal in its discipline, refused to publish a rejoinder to a pro- > maternal employment, pro-day care article; is that part of "popular > discourse" too?) I'd just mention for the record that there is no journal called American Psychology. Arnie Arnie Kahn kahnas@jmu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 22:48:24 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Batya Weinbaum Subject: motherhood (not anti) but feminist at NWSA Anyone who wants to continue the discussion on the experience of being a mother in academe, we have a roundtable at the next NWSA on Feminist Motherhood: From Individual Suffering to Social Activism. Many similar stories will probably be told--about the director of the dis. who said why did I need a phd, now that I had a baby. . .We are also going to have a follow up afterwards about activism within NWSA on motherhood issues. Batya Weinbaum East Hardwick VT batyawein@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 23:21:09 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stacy Rye Subject: Women's Studies Studies Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am a graduate student in Sociology at the University of Montana-Missoula in search of a website or other resource that is related to evaluating a Women's Studies program. My thesis topic is studying the impacts of U of M's WS department, and I would like see if anyone knows of a study that has been done in the past or is presently taking place. Datasets on the internet are proving very hard to come by. Any information would be much appreciated. Please post here, or email me privately. Thank-you, Stacy Rye University of Montana-Missoula chrisw@mssl.uswest.net ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 08:20:42 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katherine Side Subject: Re: ph.d. programs in ws In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I thought I'd post this to the list generally as this question often comes up. Althought it is not the only source or the definitive source of information about Ph.D. programmes, it might help to look at the Anniversary Issue of Women's Studies Quarterly (Spring/Summer 1997). The theme of the issue was Looking Back, Moving Forward: 25 Years of Women's Studies History, and this issue it contains some articles about Ph. D. programmes in Women's Studies; see "The Women's Studies Ph.D.: A Report from the Field" by Ann B. Shteir pp. 388-403. At the end of the article, she lists contacts for the programmes discussed. Hope this helps, Katherine Side kside@acs.ryerson.ca Department of Sociology Ryerson Polytechnic University 350 Victoria Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M5B 2K3 On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Jo Trigilio wrote: > Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's > studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's > studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of > universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? someone else > recently posted a similar request and asked for private responses. It > would be great if the responses could be posted on the list. > > thanks > > Jo Trigilio > Dept. of Philosophy > CSU - Chico > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 09:39:18 -0500 Reply-To: msacks@world.std.com Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marc Sacks Subject: Re: anti-motherhood (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cathy Young wrote: > > What I can say with certainty is that many mothers who > >stay home, particularly those who regard full-time motherhood as a > >vocation rather than "time off" from a career, regard their lifestyle as > >a "countercultural" one and are very resentful of what they see as a blitz > >of media images which glorify career women and put down women at home. I have often wondered if the rise of religious fundamentalism, especially among women, is related to this sense of full-time motherhood as "countercultural." Since a lot of it grew up around opposition to abortion, acceptance of gays and lesbians, and to the general "mainstream" culture, I suspect that "traditional"-type people with nowhere else to go have been drawn to movements that support and validate the way they've been living all along. Regardless of the agenda of the leaders of the Religious Right, many of the followers, including far more women than one would expect in such a patriarchal movement, simply want to find safety in a world they find crumbling or no longer accepted. Marc Sacks msacks@world.std.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 10:01:39 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Haessly Subject: Re: ph.d. programs in ws Comments: To: Jo Trigilio In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The Union Institute offers Ph.D programs in WOmen's Studies, as well as in public policy as related to women's studies. ALso has strong faculty support for studies in G/L/B. Please add The Union Institute, which has an established "Center for Public Policy" Women's Center, and Office for Social Responsibility in DC. The Union Institute offers both undergraduate and doctoral level degrees, and includes outstanding women studies faculty: Chandra Talpade Mohnaty, Rita Ardetti, Judith Arcana, Rhoda Linton, Elizabeth Minnich, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Mary Sheerin, Among others. TUI's Women's Center sponsors the annual Audre Lorde award for integration of scholarship with community need. Call 1-800-486-3116, or the Women's Center - 1-202-667-1313 Peace, Jacqueline Haessly jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image Peace! On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Jo Trigilio wrote: > Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's > studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's > studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of > universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? someone else > recently posted a similar request and asked for private responses. It > would be great if the responses could be posted on the list. > > thanks > > Jo Trigilio > Dept. of Philosophy > CSU - Chico > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 08:29:41 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathy Miriam Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood In-Reply-To: <980224210440.c591@FLO.ORG> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII In addition to Gail's point, another response to Shahin's post: I believe that objections to Nike are hardly the sole or exclusive product of Western women but reflect international coalitions of workers within the US and outside of the West, as well as other coalitions of activists and intellectuals. Shutting down these plants is one ideal--as is ending capitalism; shorter term strategies involve many other tactics such as boycotts, education and so forth. Kathy Miriam kmiriam@cats.ucsc.edu On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Gail Dines wrote: > I think the first question to ask regarding Shahin Gerami's post is > did the West ever ask the women in developing countriesif they > wanted western capitalists to set up shop in their countires, take > land from the people and destroy the local economies? Gail Dines > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 12:44:49 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Invitation to Activism MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit The Puerto Rico Status Act, sponsored by Rep. Don Young of Hawaii, that is supposed to give the people of Puerto Rico a genuine opportunity for self-determination, is expected to be debated on the House floor in early March. Rep. Gerald Solomon (N.Y.), head of the rules committee, was quoted in the Feb. 21st issue of El Vocero (one of the 3 major newspapers here) as wanting members of the Congress to have an "open and honest debate regarding the *appropriateness* of allowing such a large group of Hispanics to enter into the union" (translated from Spanish -- emphasis mine). I have written a summary of the issues surrounding Gerald Solomon and the Puerto Rico status act along with a call for activism to combat this and other xenophobic and racist attitudes toward Puerto Ricans and Latino people in general. Please write to me personally for a copy, if this interests you. Feel free to post it for students in your department to read. The issues surrounding the Puerto Rico Status Act would serve as a good contemporary platform to introduce and explore issues surrounding race, class, gender, culture, and what it means to be privileged. I would be happy to help interested parties. Again write to me personally. Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco" ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 12:58:04 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Angela Pattatucci Subject: Nike/Images of women in advertising MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE By concentrating on the content of ads we often miss another equally important issue that is expressed in the quote below. ". . . When one sees the images of women in television and advertisin= g, it's hard not to drown in a pool of insecurity. For example, who can forget the portrayal of a =91complete=92 woman presented in the telev= ision commercial for Enjolie perfume. She was able to (1) bring home the b= acon (career), (2) fry it in a pan (domestic expertise), and (3) never let= her romantic partner forget that he was a man (sensuality). All of this,= and she was physically attractive and had a great singing voice! I grew = up with the feeling that women were to be all-powerful, wonderful, career-oriented, super-wives and mothers who freelanced as runway mod= els.=20 And yet, I was never instilled with the confidence that I could achie= ve even one tenth of that image." Olsen, Kimberly G. (1998). Women, Science and Self-Esteem. In:=20 Pattatucci, A.M. (Ed.), Women in Science: Meeting Challenges and Transcending Boundaries. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA., pp. 61-66. ************************************************************* Dra. Angela Pattatucci Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Rio Piedras a_pattatucci@upr1.upr.clu.edu "De poetas, tontos y locos todos tenemos un poco"=20 ************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 12:13:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Stacey Meadow Subject: French lesbian poets??? In-Reply-To: <01ITZX7VN18200039D@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Alright - I realise this is a somewhat odd request... but does anyone know of any contemporary french lesbian (or feminist) poets, who deal with with either one or both of those topics explicitly in their work? (I'm taking an undergraduate level french lit analysis class - and if we read one more misogynist piece about some dead man's wife, I'm going to scream.) Info is much appreciated - feel free to respond privately. Stacey ********************************************************************** Stacey Meadow Barnard College sm445@columbia.edu Women'sStudies/Psychology VIEW MY BRAND NEW WEBSITE AT: http://www.columbia.edu/~sm445 I'm the sanest person in my world. ********************************************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 09:15:12 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathy Kerns Subject: Announcing SPLSHA series and Web Site (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Helene Cixous will be coming to Stanford on March 16 as part of the Presidential Lectures Series. For more information see the press release below. There will be an accompanying web site at http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/cixous/index.html on March 2. Kathy Kerns Reference Librarian/Feminist Studies Stanford University http://prelectur.stanford.edu/ A team composed of Humanities and Area Studies Resource Group curators (HASG), Research and Instructional Technologies Support Group staff (RITS), and Library Systems staff is designing and editing content for a web site in support of the recently announced Stanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanities and Arts (SPLSHA). This project will be managed by HASG, drawing upon the editorial and subject expertise of its curatorial staff. The project team is composed of Peter Blank (Art & Architecture Library) and Adan Griego (Latin & Iberian Collections), Site Co-Editors, Jennifer Kindred (RITS), Site Designer, and Jonathan Lavigne (Systems), Web Sovereign. The series, directed by Professor Hans "Sepp" Gumbrecht, will bring several distinguished scholars, artists and critics to the Stanford University campus for lectures, panel discussions, and a variety of related interactions with faculty and students. Funded by the President's Office, the program will explore new roles and relationships for the Humanities and Arts in the academic community as we approach the 21st Century. The web site will consist of a main space devoted to the lectures and symposia, with a speakers' calendar, links to the Humanities and Arts at Stanford, and an ongoing discussion component focusing on specific questions posted by Gumbrecht, as well as INDIVIDUAL SITES on the participating lecturers, authored primarily by curators from within HASG. The SPLSHA lecture schedule for Winter and Spring Quarter, along with the individual site authors, is as follows: Christo and Jeanne-Claude, March 2; Site Author, Peter Blank. Peter Eisenman, March 9; Site Author, Peter Blank. Helene Cixous, March 16; Site Author, Mary Jane Parrine (Romance Languages Collections). Harold Bloom, May 18; Site Author, Bill McPheron (William Saroyan Curator for British and American Literature). Please visit the site for additional information regarding scheduled events. Each speaker will also participate in a discussion panel. All events are free and open to the public. The Christo and Jeanne-Claude site is now up, the Eisenman site will be up very soon, with the Cixous site to follow. Please explore the texts, images, and links on each of these sites. http://prelectur.stanford.edu/ Regards, Peter Blank ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 11:07:36 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Anna M. Zajicek" Subject: Women's Studies Conference Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am looking for help in locating some information about the 1998 New Mexico Women's Studies conference in Las Cruces, March 19-21. I have been checking different web sites and women's studies calendars, but I was not successful. I would greatly appreciate it if somebody could help me with this. Thanks. Anna Zajicek. Anna Zajicek, PhD Department of Sociology University of Arkansas 211 Old Main Fayetteville, AR 72701 ph. (501)575-5149 e-mail azajicek@comp.uark.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 12:37:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Phillipa Kafka Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > > >From: Phillipa Kafka >Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi > >Dear Beatrice: >Students are not powerless. They voluntarily enroll in university. Going >beyond school, after 18, is a privilege, not a right under the law. > >When they enroll in university, the primary contract, they agree to certain >stated conditions in the student handbook and elsewhere, and, in terms of >our discussion, in the catalogue offerings, which is perhaps, the next most >important contract made between them and their schools. > They see what they have to take if they wish to major in something, what >they have to take to get a degree, when the courses are given, what >days/nights. This is what the university believes will prepare them for >afterwards--at any given time. We all know that requirements and electives >change over time. But when they enroll, they are essentially agreeing to >abide by the rules and regulations, the requirements in effect at the time >of their enrollment. > Even after they have made certain decisions about courses to take, >students can drop out, change majors, minors, and in terms of many courses, >at least where I teach, there are various sections of those courses. For >example, what I teach, a general education course, Landmarks of World >Literature, has a huge amount of sections, a very large pool from which the >students can choose. They have a period of time to withdraw with a 100% >refund, go to another class, they have another period of time to withdraw >with a 50% refund, and even after that, many of us are liberal in permitting >students who wish to withdraw far into the semester, although they do lose >their money. >Another reason that they are not totally supine victims of the system, >students, and I remember this from my own experience, also have grapevines. >They tell their friends whom to take, whom to avoid. > >Some years ago our department requested that we inform the students that >they are under contract and gave us a form for their signatures to agree to, >although I had thought of the idea more infomrally than that, and I haven't >used it in years, taking advantage of my seniority. But I still do say it >verbally, on occasion. What I do dispute is that students are customers and >that the customer is always right, which has nothing to do with Beatrice's >position, but was a thread on the web in defining what students are. > >Also, I don't think of a contract as necessarily adversarial between >students and a university/and professors, although I do agree with Beatrice >that a contractual relationship between involuntary signatories, as would >be the case with mandated education, as with public school and high school >students, is irrational. Ultimately, going to university is voluntary and >not a legal necessity. Parents don't have to send children to university and >children over 18 don't have to agree to go, or children can go, even if >parents object (as in my case). >Phillipa. >P.S. >>Return-Path: >>X-Sender: bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net >>Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 21:21:43 -0500 >>Reply-To: "Women's Studies List" >>Sender: "Women's Studies List" >>From: beatricekachuck >>Subject: Re: encouraging students to read syllabi >>To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU >> >>If you think of a syllabus as a contract that professors write and students >>must sign, you're getting a coerced agreement. The principle of contracts >>is that they are instruments to which two parties agree after negotiation. >>Of course, there is often coercion involved, when one party has more power >>than the other. However, when one of the signers has not even an >>opportunity to negotiate the agreement ... >> beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net >> >>At 09:00 AM 2/21/98 -0500, you wrote: >>>I have on occasion had students sign the syllabus in the past, because, as I >>>still tell them, the syllabus is a contract between us. >> >> >Dr. Phillipa Kafka >Professor of English and >Director of Women's Studies >Women's Studies J303 >Kean University >Union, New Jersey 07083 > > Dr. Phillipa Kafka Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies Women's Studies J303 Kean University Union, New Jersey 07083 ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 13:03:14 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Dr. Isabelle White" Subject: Womanist Identity Attitude Scale MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I'm requesting information for a student who's doing a research project for which she wants to use either Womanist Identity Attitude Scale or a similar scale. Could anyone provide information about the availability and use of such scales? Respond privately to wmswhite@acs.eku.edu and I'll pass the information along to her. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 15:46:30 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judy Beris Subject: Re: ISO Refences Re: Multicultural Definitions of Beauty Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit You might be interested in any essay, "Inside a Moroccan Bath" by Hanan al- Shaykh in MINDING THE BODY ed. by Patricia Foster. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 16:44:34 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Vashti K. Braha" Subject: Re: French lesbian poets??? In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII How contemporary must a French lesbian/feminist poet be for your class? Just in case the Edwardian decade is not too early, I would really recommend Renee Vivien as an antidote to the usual stupid assigned readings for undergrads. Naiad Press published English translations of her poetry in the 1970's. (She wrote poetry from about 1900-1909). There is a website of lesbian love poetry that features Renee Vivien, and I think the original French versions are available there. I found it searching for "renee vivien". I also forwarded your request on to a professor of French (officially) and of Gender Studies (unofficially) and she'll probably reply privately. Vashti |"I am going into the desert where human beings are free like | | lions...Since the rebellion of Lilith, I am the first free | | woman...Thinking of my glorious rebellion, they will say, | | Vashti disdained being a queen that she might be free." | "The Veil of Vashti" Renee Vivien (1904) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 16:49:20 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Judith Robinson Chanin Subject: Misogyny Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I am searching for a word or an expression that describes the opposite of misogyny. Please respond privately. Judith Robinson Chanin JRChanin@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 11:52:01 -0400 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Michael Kimmel Organization: SUNY at Stony Brook Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS In-Reply-To: <199802191412_MC2-33FB-4626@compuserve.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > I am sending this information to the list with the hopes that some of you > may be interested in participating in any of the activities. Please post, > resend to other lists etc. > Thank you Michael Kimmel ----------------------------------------------------- > > > 23rd NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEN AND MASCULINITY > > 6-9 August 1998 > SUNY at Stony Brook > Stony Brook, NY > > > The National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) announces the 23rd > National Conference on Men and Masculinity, 6-9 August 1998, at SUNY at > Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY. (For those unfamiliar with the geography, > Stony Brook is a suburb of New York City, about 1 1/2 hours away, on the > north shore of Long Island. It is near world famous beaches, vacation > spots, and the state's growing wine industry.) > > This year's theme for the conference is PROFEMINIST MEN, 2000: COMMITTED TO > JUSTICE, WORKING FOR CHANGE > Keynote speakers will include Gloria Steinem, Jill Nelson and Martin > Duberman. > > Workshop proposals may be sent - by 1 May - directly to the conference > coordinator: > Sue Brown > M&M Conference > P.O. Box 481 > Mastic, NY 11950 > > email address: mm23conf@aol.com > > > The M&M Conference is annually preceded by three one-day institutes, all on > 6 August: > (1) Ending Men's Violence > (2) Profeminist Men's Studies > (3) Homophobia Education > > This year, the EMV institute will bring together some of the leaders from > some of the major Batterer Intervention Programs around the country, > including the Duluth Project and EMERGE and will focus on Community > Commitment to End Domestic Violence and Working with Men Who Batter. > Those who are interested in participating in that workshop should also send > inquiries to the conference coordinator, same address as above. > > --------------- > > PROFEMINIST MEN'S STUDIES > > > CALL FOR PAPERS > > Please consider this also a call for proposals and for papers for the > Profeminist Men's Studies One-Day Institute. We are committed to seeking a > diversity of tiopics and presenters. Papers from any discipline welcome, > including research on violence, representations of masculinity in the > media, teaching about men and masculinity, historical development of > masculinity, therapeutic interventions and strategies, spirituality, > literature wll be considered. One-page abstracts should be sent by 1 May > to: > > Men's Studies Conference > 16 De Koven Ct. > Brooklyn, NY 11230 > > or to RBran999@aol.com > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael Kimmel Professor Department of Sociology SUNY at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 11794 phone: (516) 632-7708 fax: (516) 632-8203 email: mkimmel@datalab2.sbs.sunysb.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 17:21:28 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna M. Hughes" Subject: Re: Misogyny In-Reply-To: <4aebb51e.34f491e2@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Janice Raymond in her book A PASSION FOR FRIENDS: TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY OF FEMALE AFFECTION coined the term gyn/affection. Donna Hughes Carlson Endowed Chair University of Rhode Island dhughes@uriacc.uri.edu At 04:49 PM 25-02-98 EST, you wrote: >I am searching for a word or an expression that describes the opposite of >misogyny. > >Please respond privately. > >Judith Robinson Chanin >JRChanin@aol.com > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 13:24:11 PST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Peggy Sparkman Subject: Re: Help with vita In-Reply-To: <199801232102.PAA06302@staff2.cso.uiuc.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; X-MAPIextension=".TXT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi! All, I am a recent graduate of a master's program in Humanities and am teaching an Intro to WS class. I need to update my vita to reflect this teaching experience but I'm feeling pretty unsure about how to add this information. Do any of you have suggestions? Any help with vita writing in general would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you have your vita on line would you mind sending me your address if you don't mind sharing. Thanks to all Peggy Sparkman Western Kentucky University lakota@wku.campus.mci.net ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 18:02:24 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "William W. Pendleton" Subject: Re: Help with vita In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII With respect to the request, many departments have web pages for each faculty member with a curriculum vitae available. The sites for Emory are found at http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/departments.html. Not every faculty has a vita posted, but many do. Many other schools do the same so that way you can get a look at several rather quickly. On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Peggy Sparkman wrote: > Hi! All, > > I am a recent graduate of a master's program in Humanities and am teaching > an Intro to WS class. I need to update my vita to reflect this teaching > experience but I'm feeling pretty unsure about how to add this information. > Do any of you have suggestions? Any help with vita writing in general > would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you have your vita on line would > you mind sending me your address if you don't mind sharing. > > Thanks to all > > Peggy Sparkman > Western Kentucky University > > lakota@wku.campus.mci.net > Wm W. Pendleton Department of Sociology Emory University Atlanta, Ga. 30322 socwwp@emory.edu 404 727-7524 ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 17:32:11 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: molinda s lauxmiller Subject: Re: Women's Studies Studies I'm helping a colleague who lost track of an acquintance from the mid "60's who taught in Oregon and San Francisco. If anyone has knowledge of the whereabouts of Barabara Hitchcock (native New Orleans resident) please have her e-mail me for contact with Beth. Sorry to post this but it's of great importance to Beth. Thanks molinda@juno.com _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 17:14:38 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Linda Bergmann Subject: Midwest MLA Call for papers Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Call for Papers forum on TRAVEL WRITING/WRITING TRAVEL: THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF LOCATION at the Midwest Modern Language Association Meeting November 5-7 1998 Regal Riverfront Hotel St. Louis, Missouri This forum will consider papers on aspects of travel writing related to the development of genres of travel writing and to the work that travel writing does. Possible topics include writing the rise of tourism; the economies of travel and travel writing; travel writing and national identity; travel writing and concepts of nature and society; gender in travel writing. Send abstracts or papers by April 1, 1998 to: Linda S. Bergmann Department of English University of Missouri-Rolla Rolla, MO 65409 (573) 341-4685 bergmann@umr.edu Linda S. Bergmann Associate Professor of English and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum University of Missouri-Rolla Rolla, MO 65409 (573) 341-4685 bergmann@umr.edu ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 18:40:59 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Florence Howe Subject: Re: ph.d. programs in ws Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit I'm somewhat surprised by this question, but perhaps that's only because of my age. WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY has been publishing either every year or every other year a full list of women's studies programs in the U.S. and their degree offerings--since 1972! Go to your library! The most recent issue was published as the 25th anniversary issue--spring/summer 1997. It also contains a look back at the history of more than 25 years of women's studies. Or if you want the issue, fax 212-650-8893. Cheers, Florence Howe (florench@aol.com) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 18:13:55 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jill Zahniser Subject: Ph.D. programs by university MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Several students have recently asked me about Ph.D. programs in women's > studies. I searched the files on INFORM and could only find women's > studies programs listed by state. where might I find a list of > universities that offer graduate degrees in women's studies? The National Women's Studies Assoc used to keep a list organized by state and by university. They are located on the College Park campus of the U of Maryland, ph: 301-405-5573, and probably also on the WWW. Jill Zahniser zahniser@minn.net ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 18:16:14 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jill Zahniser Subject: quotes by women MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 13:31:37 -0700 > From: Brenda Cooper > Subject: quotes from women > > One of my students is updating our Women's Studies web site, and we would > like to include a link to quotes from famous women. > My own publishing company, Caillech Press, has issued three volumes of a smaller book called And Then She Said. The most recent volume(1995) is And Then She Said: Quotations from Women Around the World. The And Then She Said series, unlike other collections, is strongly multicultural and contains additional reference materials. All the titles mentioned above are available(at least by order) from any independent bookstore. The Caillech Press web site is under construction at http://www1.minn.net/~zahniser Be aware that copying sections of quotations collections is considered copyright infringement. Picking and choosing individual quotations is OK. Jill Zahniser zahniser@minn.net ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 16:44:59 MDT Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Sue Frantz Organization: Alamogordo Branch Community College Subject: Las Cruces, NM conference I haven't heard much about it, but I did receive a copy of this announcement a couple weeks ago. There is a contact e-mail address and phone number listed at the bottom of this announcement. Sue ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Subject: New Mexico Women's Studies Conference NEW MEXICO WOMEN'S STUDIES CONFERENCE WOMEN MATTER: LIVES, CONDITIONS, CULTURES March 19 -21 NMSU Campus Las Cruces, NM Workshops Panels Paper Sessions Poetry Readings Barbies for the 21st Century (art exhibition) Film: The Desert Is No Lady Play: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc The conference will take many approaches to understanding women's lives, women's issues, and how women can bring about social and cultural changes. Keynote Speakers include Ana Castillo, Jennifer Wicke, and Wendy Shannon. Many sessions on Saturday will focus on issues related to education. Workshops will include diverse topics such as: sexual harassment; women, art and culture, cross-cultural women's friendships; facing violence against woen; women's health issues; cultural diversity in education AND MORE! For more information about the conference, call the New Mexico State University Women's Studies Program at 505-646-3448, or e-mail Shirley Franich at sfranich@nmsu.edu ********************************************** Sue Frantz frantz@nmsua.nmsu.edu ICQ/UIN 6449407 Instructor of Psychology Office: (505) 439-3752 New Mexico State Univ - Alamogordo Fax: (505) 439-3657 Alamogordo, NM 88310 http://web.nmsu.edu/~sfrantz ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 21:00:53 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Lauraine Leblanc Subject: Re: Multicultural Definitions of Beauty Hey there! I just picked up this fabulous edited volume: _Beauty Queens: On the Global Stage_ edited by Colleen Ballerino Cogen, Richard Wilk, and Beverly Stoeltje. (1996, Routledge). Haven't had time to thoroughly peruse it yet, but it does seem to fit the bill. Good luck! Lauraine Leblanc, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Emory University The Doctor is Out There _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:42:30 +1100 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Steven Angelides Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" "critical inQueeries" Australia's only interdisciplinary journal of queer theory invites submissions for its forthcoming issues for 1998. Areas covered: * queer feminisms * gay/lesbian/bisex/transgender/queer * cultural studies * postcolonialism * poststructuralism * film and television All manuscripts will be refereed by two or more members of the editorial board or qualified external reviewers. Three copies of the manuscript should be submitted to: critical inQueeries PO Box 4472 The University of Melbourne Parkville AUSTRALIA 3052 For more information about the journal please consult our website: http://www.arts.unimelb.edu.au/projects/inQueeries/queeries.htm Dr Steven Angelides Department of History The University of Melbourne Parkville 3052 AUSTRALIA ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:12:09 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: Nike and Motherhood In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Jacquiline, How does one get a list of products in the 'girlcott' list? beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net At 07:11 AM 2/24/98 -0600, you wrote: >In __Feminist Perspectives on Peace Research and Peace Education__, >(1989) Birgit Brock-Utne refers to a practice called "Girlcott" which was >initiated by women in a number of countries, including Canada, to support >companies and products which support policies and practices friendly to >women, children, and the fragile eco-system. It is a much more positive, ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:13:38 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: beatricekachuck Subject: Re: Journal Rankings--Women's Studies In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Probably the most dramatic illustration of in recent history of the error in relying on ranking of journals is the case of Cyril Burt in the British Journal of Psychology (may not be the exact name), THE prestigious psych journal in that country. His twin studies, purported to demonstrate that intelligence is inherited, were shown to be faked. Further analysis showed that the journal editors had neglected signals of questionable data in the articles it published, overly willing to accept the work of a 'great man' and, apparently fond of Burt's conclusion. Time for a campaign against journal rankings? Initiative to be discussed at NWSA this June? beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net At 08:44 PM 2/24/98 -0500, you wrote: >I have always found the ranking of journals a rather silly game. The best ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 02:28:03 -0700 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Janice Amsler Subject: Re: Misogyny In-Reply-To: <4aebb51e.34f491e2@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Judith Robinson Chanin wrote: > I am searching for a word or an expression that describes the opposite of > misogyny. > > Please respond privately. > > Judith Robinson Chanin > JRChanin@aol.com > How about: 'misophallos', 'misophallic', and so on. Or perhaps: 'phallodium', 'anthrodium', or 'androdium'. The problem with the andro- construction is of course that andro- is the universal prefix and when joined with [male]volent implication thus implies hatred of humans in general; at least within the framework of intelligibility imposed by traditional logos. I think that there has never been an exact opposite for obvious misogynistic reasons. If there has been one it would not have found a permanent home within the phallocentric epistemology anyway. A problem is that even today we remain Greeks in our forms of think/speak. Janice Amsler jhamsler@ouray.cudenver.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 06:49:46 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kerstin Roger Subject: Re: women's bodies MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII There is an excellent book on race, culture and bodies called UNBEARABLE WEIGHT:FEMINISM, WESTERN CULTURE AND THE BODY by Susan Bordo. Kerstin Roger, PhD Candidate OISE/UT #3- 59 Clinton Street Toronto, Ont. (416) 516-9885 kroger@oise.utoronto.ca ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 08:09:52 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "William W. Pendleton" Subject: Re: Misogyny In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I replied to the original poster with the suggestion of philogyny as the opposite word. That word existed at least as early as 1872 (OED). It did not occur to me that an opposite for disliking women would be disliking men. That seems to be the tact for Amsler. There is room for an interesting essay in that. On Thu, 26 Feb 1998, Janice Amsler wrote: > On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Judith Robinson Chanin wrote: > > > I am searching for a word or an expression that describes the opposite of > > misogyny. > > > > Please respond privately. > > > > Judith Robinson Chanin > > JRChanin@aol.com > > > > How about: 'misophallos', 'misophallic', and so on. Or perhaps: > 'phallodium', 'anthrodium', or 'androdium'. The problem with the andro- > construction is of course that andro- is the universal prefix and when > joined with [male]volent implication thus implies hatred of humans in > general; at least within the framework of intelligibility imposed by > traditional logos. I think that there has never been an exact opposite > for obvious misogynistic reasons. If there has been one it would not have > found a permanent home within the phallocentric epistemology anyway. A > problem is that even today we remain Greeks in our forms of think/speak. > > Janice Amsler > jhamsler@ouray.cudenver.edu > Wm W. Pendleton Department of Sociology Emory University Atlanta, Ga. 30322 socwwp@emory.edu 404 727-7524 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 06:52:17 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kerstin Roger Subject: SOC: MLA special session CFP: Martha Stewart (fwd) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Someone was looking for Martha Stewart recently -- looks like she'll be at this conference! Kerstin Roger, PhD Candidate OISE/UT #3- 59 Clinton Street Toronto, Ont. (416) 516-9885 kroger@oise.utoronto.ca ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 11:49:58 -0500 (EST) From: Zoe Newman To: soc-list@oise.utoronto.ca Subject: SOC: MLA special session CFP: Martha Stewart (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 11:47:57 -0500 (EST) From: Zoe Newman To: cfp@english.upenn.edu Subject: MLA special session CFP: Martha Stewart Call for papers 1998 MLA Conference, San Francisco Proposed Special Session "Martha Stewart's Living" Martha Stewart is one of North America's pre-eminent arbiters of middle-class style and taste. Her influence extends across visual and print media, and has spawned numerous parodies. In her multiple and synthesized roles as author and trademark, financial icon and cultural magnate, uber-Wasp and Chief Executive Housewife, archetype of white femininity and immigrant dream, it is clear that within the discourses of Stewart's industry are contradictions that bear investigation. Our panel seeks to consider the following questions: How does Stewart's work serve to construct notions of whiteness and middle class heterosexual identity? How is Stewart produced by the culture of late capitalism? What would Judith Butler make of Stewart's aggressively heterosexual performance? Do camp parodies of Stewart represent queer subversions of dominant discourses? What can we make of the connection between Stewart's actual life and the virtual life that is apparently the subject of _Martha Stewart Living_? What is the function of nostalgia in Martha Stewart? Is it an "imperialist nostalgia" in Renato Rosaldo's sense of the term? What is the significance of Stewart's aesthetic of cleanliness and perfection? Bearing in mind McLintock's work in _Imperial Leather_, what is the connection between nineteenth century discourses of dirt and purity and Stewart's postmodern urban aesthetic? We are soliciting proposals for papers that read Martha Stewart as a cultural phenomenon. Papers should not run more than 10 to 15 minutes and proposals should be 1 to 2 pages. If you are sending hard copies of the abstract, please provide 3 copies. Please send proposals, as well as a brief CV, to Zoe Newman Sociology and Equity Studies OISE/University of Toronto 252 Bloor St. W. Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6 CANADA znewman@oise.utoronto.ca or to Kyla Wazana 85 Bleecker St. Unit 925 Toronto, Ontario M4X 1X1 CANADA ktompkin@chass.utoronto.ca Proposals must be received by March 22. Please indicate whether you are a member of the MLA. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 07:40:01 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Women's Presses Library Project, Mev Miller" Subject: Re: French lesbian poets??? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >From the Women's Presses library Project: Have a look at "The Defiant Muse: French Feminist Poems from the Middle Ages to the Present" published by Feminist Press CUNY. Mev >Alright - I realise this is a somewhat odd request... but does anyone >know of any contemporary french lesbian (or feminist) poets, who deal with >with either one or both of those topics explicitly in their work? (I'm >taking an undergraduate level french lit analysis class - and if we read >one more misogynist piece about some dead man's wife, I'm going to >scream.) >Info is much appreciated - feel free to respond privately. >Stacey > >********************************************************************** >Stacey Meadow Barnard College >sm445@columbia.edu Women'sStudies/Psychology > >VIEW MY BRAND NEW WEBSITE AT: http://www.columbia.edu/~sm445 > >I'm the sanest person in my world. >********************************************************************** WOMEN'S PRESSES LIBRARY PROJECT "...keeping women's words in circulation" Mev Miller Project Coodinator 1483 Laurel Ave. St. Paul, MN 55104-6737 612-646-0097 612-646-1153 (fax) wplp@winternet.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 08:37:54 +0000 Reply-To: dr70@umail.umd.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna L. Rowe" Organization: American Studies/Women's Studies University of Maryland College Park Subject: Transsexual/Transgendered MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Last week in my Intro to Women's Studies class (all returning students), we began a lively discussion about transsexuals and transgendered peoples. As extra credit, I asked my students to investigate the definitions of these terms and think about the notions of gender and sex as they relate to the words. Subsequently, we continued this discussion on email all this week. I have struck a nerve! We will meet on Thursday p.m. as usual. Does anyone have a concise "herstory" of the debate/position of the Michigan Women's Music Festival with regard to admitting either transsexuals or transgendered folks? Can any one suggest any appropriate essays or articles on the topics? I have recommended _Stone Butch Blues_ and would like to suggest other less lengthy readings. I related a story about meeting Leslie F. and wrestling my own issues around gender stereotypes...this got them thinking about their own communities and those within it. Several revealed they knew men who were living lives as women, most w/o sex changes and discussed their feelings/thoughts on what it means to live as a woman today. Very interesting! Most students seem to be having trouble coming up with a definition of transgendered, particularly because it isn't in their edition of Webster's Dictionary! Am I surprised?! ;-) Anyone who teaches this subject or has additionaly readings to suggest, please email me privately. Thanks very much. \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Donna L. Rowe American Studies/Women's Studies Departments University of Maryland College Park Email:dr70@umail.umd.edu \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:02:51 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jacqueline Haessly Subject: Re: Nike and Motherhood Comments: To: beatricekachuck In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980226001209.00686d9c@cuny.campus.mci.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Here is the only citation I have for the "girlcott" reference. Brock-Utne, Birgit, "The Feminist Experience and Social Change in Europe and Africa", in Boulding, Elise, Ed. New Agendas for Peace Research: Conflict and Security Reexamined, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992. three principles: a) nonviolence -- girlcott (positive actions for support of what is needed, rather than boycotts against what is wrong); it is "ethically conscious, caring market behavior" (p. 39); b) life as ultimate value -- and c) transnationalism -- beyond any one country toward respect for all; -- In this essay, Brock-Utne references women's groups in Canada and elsewhere regarding their efforts to support products which promote ethical business practices and care for the eco-system. I apologize to readers of this list for the incorrect listing of the citation, as given below. After a careful checking of the __Feminist Perspectives book, without success, I went back to my notes and found the above citation, which is correct. Peace, Jacqueline Haessly jacpeace@acs.stritch.edu Image Peace! On Thu, 26 Feb 1998, beatricekachuck wrote: > Jacquiline, How does one get a list of products in the 'girlcott' list? > beatrice bkachuck@cuny.campus.mci.net > > > At 07:11 AM 2/24/98 -0600, you wrote: > >In __Feminist Perspectives on Peace Research and Peace Education__, > >(1989) Birgit Brock-Utne refers to a practice called "Girlcott" which was > >initiated by women in a number of countries, including Canada, to support > >companies and products which support policies and practices friendly to > >women, children, and the fragile eco-system. It is a much more positive, > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 10:16:22 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Edrie J Sobstyl Subject: websites for feminist girls & young women MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Hello list members, I've searched the WMST-L archives and index and have found some resources, but I'd like to ask for your help. I'm searching for websites (and, to a lesser extent, other lists) devoted to feminism for girls and young women, ages about 12+. Feminist parenting of girls/young women in this age group would be appropriate as well. (I've already got a fairly thorough bibliography of hard text.) I'll be happy to compile whatever responses I get and forward them, either to individuals or to the list. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer. cheers, edrie ***************************** Edrie Sobstyl School of Arts and Humanities University of Texas at Dallas P.O. Box 830688 Richardson Tx 75083-0688 (972) 883-2365 (972) 883-2989 (fax) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 08:28:35 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathy Miriam Subject: Re: Transsexual/Transgendered Comments: To: "Donna L. Rowe" In-Reply-To: <34F529E2.3A@umail.umd.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Janice Raymond's book The Transsexual Empire (recently re-printed) is animportant feminist *critique* of the "making of the she-male" as she subtitles the book. In other words it would provide your students with a powerful feminist position in the debate that few people are even aware of today. She writes about Feinberg in the introduction to the recent publication. good luck, Kathy Miriam kmiriam@cats.ucsc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 09:24:28 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Marilyn MacDonald Subject: women, science and nationalism Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I'd also be interested in the references which people might have about the connections amongst women, science and nationalism (re request by tromblnm@email.uc.edu). ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:48:14 -0500 Reply-To: "jgrant@tui.edu" Sender: Women's Studies List From: Jaime Grant Organization: The Union Institute Subject: Re: Transsexual/Transgendered For a pro-trans feminist perspective see Minnie Bruce Pratt's S/he. Kate Bornstein's work, recently her "Gender Workbook," and her plays including "Hidden: A Gender" are fabulous. (Kate is a bi, feminist ftm). I like Loren Cameron's Body Alchemy, which is a photoessay on mtf's. Recently, I saw a film on mtf's entitled "You don't know dick" that included some feminist perspectives on the part of the mtf's interviewed (I don't know how to track it down - through the queer filmfests, I guess). For theoretical work that offers feminist perspectives on gender as performance, see Judy Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick. Radical sex activist Pat Califia just came out with a book on Transfolks, but I haven't read it and don't know whether or not to recommend it. Jaime Jgrant@tui.edu -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Miriam [SMTP:kmiriam@CATS.UCSC.EDU] Sent: Thursday, February 26, 1998 11:29 AM To: WMST-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: Transsexual/Transgendered Janice Raymond's book The Transsexual Empire (recently re-printed) is animportant feminist *critique* of the "making of the she-male" as she subtitles the book. In other words it would provide your students with a powerful feminist position in the debate that few people are even aware of today. She writes about Feinberg in the introduction to the recent publication. good luck, Kathy Miriam kmiriam@cats.ucsc.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:26:17 -0600 Reply-To: mharris@utdallas.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Miriam K Harris Subject: Southern Lit: Gender Perspectives MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I will be teaching a Southern American Literature course this summer and plan to focus on gender stereotypes, perspectives and images. I'm going to use Ellen Glasgow's Virginia or Barren Ground, Faulkner's Sound and Fury & Sanctuary, for sure and am looking at several other choices -- especially Alice Walker, either her collection of essays In search of Our Mothers' Gardens or her novel The Color Purple. My question is as follows: I would like to find a short story collection of Southern Lit with both male and female writers since I want to look at imagees of both men and women as portrayed by one another and look at reflections of pedestal values and themes of southern honor etc. Any suggestions of such collections? After all it's a summer course and there are only so many novels a class can read. And I still want some variety. I will post a list of results so you can send your suggestions privately. Thanks in advance. Miriam K. Harris, Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas mharris@utdallas.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:38:41 -0500 Reply-To: lianec@earthlink.net Sender: Women's Studies List From: Liane Curtis Subject: Clarke/Woolf Lecture on 3/2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Stanford University, Department of Music Ron Alexander Memorial Musicology Lecture Series 2 March 1998 (Monday): Liane Curtis (Women's Studies Program, Brandeis University), "Rebecca Clarke and Virginia Woolf: 'Moments of Being'" Room 103, Braun Music Center at 4:15 pm -- open to the public and free of charge For further information contact Tom Grey, 219 Braun Music Center, (408) 723-3479, tsgrey@leland.stanford.edu Rebecca Clarke and Virginia Woolf: "Moments of Being" Composer Rebecca Clarke's life is aptly compared with that of Woolf, both in the consideration of abstract societal forces and in tangible circumstances: for instance, Woolf (b. 1883) and Clarke (b. 1886) grew up in the environs of London, and experienced the trauma of abuse within patriarchally structured homes. Their recent reception can also be paralleled: Woolf was considered only a minor figure, not worthy of canonical status, into the 1970s. While some of Clarke's important works remains accessible only through her estate, the growing recognition of her music is apparent through numerous recordings. Woolf was heroic in her creative life, but her uneasiness with her cultural unorthodoxy played itself out in her suicide. Clarke, in contrast, ultimately closeted her creative self, and lived to the age of 93. This paper draws on Clarke's unpublished writings, including her diaries, letters, and memoir of her youth. Her life, with its periods of both productivity and silence, is the story of a remarkable composer. Liane Curtis lianec@earthlink.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:03:17 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Lisa Gerrard Subject: Re: websites for feminist girls & young women Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Edrie, A feminist parenting site is Expect the Best from a Girl: http://www.academic.org/ Lisa Lisa Gerrard gerrard@humnet.ucla.edu ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 14:07:16 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Edrie J Sobstyl Subject: Re: websites for feminist girls & young women In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII thanks Lisa!! edrie On Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:03:17 -0800 Lisa Gerrard wrote: > Edrie, > > A feminist parenting site is Expect the Best from a Girl: > > http://www.academic.org/ > > Lisa > > Lisa Gerrard > gerrard@humnet.ucla.edu Edrie Sobstyl School of Arts and Humanities University of Texas at Dallas P.O. Box 830688 Richardson Tx 75083-0688 (972) 883-2365 (972) 883-2989 (fax) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 04:06:44 EST Reply-To: mpryse@cnsvax.albany.edu Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Marjorie Pryse Organization: Ualbany English Dept. Subject: Faculty Roles & Rewards project As part of a grant-funded project with the NWSA Governing Council, I am looking for Program Administrators at tenure-granting institutions who might be interested in participating in a project on Faculty Roles and Rewards. This would involve working with a group of Women's Studies scholars and P.A.s to describe what constitutes scholarship, teaching, and service in Women's Studies so that colleagues from other departments/programs in the academy can evaluate candidates for tenure and promotion in the terms that make sense to faculty in Women's Studies rather than in the often erroneous terms colleagues from other departments apply to the work we do. The effort will involve some research to locate publications on the topic, if any, and will also involve campus histories concerning tenure & promotion cases. We will meet for the first time at the NWSA Conference at Oswego this June--and will have an open meeting at that time so that anyone who wants to join the discussion will be able to--and we may also need to meet again next January in Albuquerque in conjunction with the winter meeting of the Governing Council. The grant would facilitate some of this travel. Please respond privately if you are interested; I will then contact those who respond and try to put together a panel that will be able to work together. Marjorie Pryse, University at Albany, SUNY; mpryse@cnsvax.albany.edu tel: 518-442-4070 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:38:39 +0000 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Katsue Akiba Reynolds Organization: Josai International University Subject: Re: gender in Chinese language MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-2022-jp Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit in regard to the question if the gender distinction in chinese characters is relatively new, i got the following information, which i have already posted. however, i continued to inquire and received the following, which gives us a somewhat different picture about the development of the gendered characters from professor Y-C Li, a senior professor at the university of hawaii. being a historical linguist (and a feminist), i intuitively think that this second description is closer to what actually happened. The answer to my inquiry from Dr. Li: I'm not entirely clear about the point of debate. The female radical has existed as a character or a radical for a long time, but its use as a gender distinction in the third person pronoun arose out of the necessity to distinguish "she' from "he" in translation probably during the late Qing Dynasty. The women's characters were adapted and simplified from the regular characters (with some from earlier form of Chinese characters). They were changed and adapted in such a way as to make them difficult (for male presumably) to decipher unless you learned from your mother or sister. Gender differences in Chinese language, though not as prominent as in Japnese, have been observed for a long time, but only recently been studied more systematically. Women's writings in poetry and other genres have also been around for a long time. Katsue Akiba Reynolds wrote: > > i also wanted to know "exactly when" and i asked John DeFrancis, a > chinese language specialist who has been working on a chinese-english > dictionary, a professor emeritus of the university of hawaii, who kindly > faxed me three pages of Yuen Ren Chao's A GRAMMAR OF SPOKEN CHINESE > (University of California Press, 1968, pp641-3). YRC writes: > > The borrowing of distinctions of gender in personal pronouns from > Western languages into Chinese is one of those conscious attempts to > change linguistic usage on which much effort has been spent and only > slight changes of a marginal nature have resulted. It was about the time > of the 1917 Literary Revolution that writers began to differenciate the > third-person pronoun 'he' [character with the 'person' radical] , 'she' > [with the 'woman' radical, and 'it' . Little attention was paid to the > question of how these were to be pronounced, and most readers read all > three as 'ta' when reading aloud. During the succeeding years i myself > tried to give some linguistic status to these differentiated graphs by > proposing the forms ....... > > so, Naomi Stunden is right about the innovation. i guess the distinction > perhaps looked traditional to my chinese colleague since she is a > relatively young person (in her late 30s?). being a feminist linguist, > who have been interested in the development of the distinction between > women's language and men's language in japanese, i am very much > interested in chinese women and their language. the fact that there are > several hundreds characters with the woman radical, almost all of which > have negative meanings, the food-binding, and the exclusion of women > from the use of characters seem to me very strong indications of sexism > in the chinese society in the past to say the least. also, distinction > created by the writers during the cultural revolution is not a simple > borowing from the west. the chinese writers adopted the third person > pronoun with the radical indicating 'person' as the masculine form, > shich is an exact parallet to the 'male-as-norm' semantic rule that is > typically seen in the generic use of 'man' and 'he/his/him' in English. > it is interesting that Y.R. Chao, the author of the chinese grammar > writes,"IDuring the subsequent years I myself tried to give some > linguistic status to these differentiated graphs by proposing...." He > tried to introduce the gender distinction in spoken chinese. > this gives rise to several interesting questions concerning how sexism > is coded in languages. > > Naomi Standen wrote: > > > > [Note: the quotes are edited to the extent that I took them out of all caps.] > > > > >According to a Chinese teacher, one of my colleagues, the gender > > >distinction in the third person pronouns in the writing is not a recent > > >invention, but it has existed for a long time in the history of the > > >chinese language. > > > > I'd love to know exactly when the 'female' character came into being. My > > understanding (which may be wrong) was that it was one result of the > > linguistic changes happening from the late Qing (C19) onwards, which, being > > a medieval historian, I count as relatively recent! Can your teacher give > > you a date/period to share with us? > > > > >Incidentally, several researchers have recently > > >presented the women's characters--Chinese characters invented by women > > >for the use of women when women were not allowed to write the regular > > >(for-male use) Chinese characters--a somewhat different but basically > > >similar situation was observed in Japan, too, in the beginning of the > > >development of the Japanese writing: women did not have access to the > > >standard writing system. > > > > The interesting thing here is that in China the women's language was > > unheard-of until recently (there's a good article in _Engendering China_, > > four eds including Hershatter - don't have the book to hand), whereas in > > Japan women's writing is and has been widely celebrated as, for instance, > > providing the first novel anywhere in the world (_The Tale of Genji_). > > Drawing from the same Confucian base, and with similar patterns of > > production (at least in the post-C11 Chinese ideal), the cultures have done > > entirely different things with women's writing. > > > > Now there's a research project! > > > > -- > > Naomi Standen > > Department of History, Politics and Society > > University of Wisconsin-Superior > > nstanden@staff.uwsuper.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 08:18:17 +1100 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Bronwyn Winter Subject: Re: French lesbian poets??? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; Name="Message Body" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable 27/2/98 8:07 AM Stacey Meadow asked: Alright - I realise this is a somewhat odd = request... but does anyone know of any contemporary french lesbian (or = feminist) poets, who deal with with either one or both of those topics = explicitly in their work? ---------- I am replying to the list as others may be interested. First, why is is seeking info on French lesbian poets an odd request? I = see nothing odd about it. Jocelyne Fran=E7ois is a (relativley) contemporary French lesbian poet. = One of her anthologies is called "Signes d'air" I think. She has also = written some novels, one of which won the Prix F=E9mina in the 1980s = (1981 I think, but I forget which novel). There are no doubt others: = the gay & lesbian literary review "Masques" that came out in the 1980s = would possibly be a good place to look. You could also try the lesbian = review "Vlasta", same vintage. I don't think any such reviews still = exist, unfortunately. Bronwyn Winter Dept of French Studies University of Sydney ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 23:03:00 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: FLORENCH Subject: Re: websites for feminist girls & young women Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Dear Folks: We at Feminist Press (alas) still don't have our website up, but when we do, there will be a place on it for feminist girls and young women, since we are starting to publish especially for them. The first three books in a series meant for 12 year olds will be biographies of four Nobel Peace Prize winners: Aung San Su Kyi; Rigoberta Menchu; and Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams. We are also looking for proposals for a different group of three for 1999 and again for 2000. And we are looking for other kinds of books as well. I'd love to hear from people who are thinking about such things, and also about whether there are websites especially devoted to young girls. Cheers, Florence Howe (florench@aol.com) ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:55:05 +1100 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: michael flood Subject: Re: Transsexual/Transgendered Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" For further references on transsexualism/transgender, also see the section on this in the "Sexualities" section of my bibliography, at: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/mensbiblio/MensBiblioMenu.html Cheers, michael flood. E-mail: Michael Flood Phone: [02] 6279 8468 (w). PO Box 26, Ainslie ACT, 2602, AUSTRALIA. -- XY magazine: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~gorkin/XY/xy.htm -- The men's bibliography: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/mensbiblio/MensBiblioMenu.html -- Pro-feminist men's FAQ: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/pffaq.html -- Women's Studies Web Page: http://www.anu.edu.au/womens_studies/ -- Homophobia and masculinities among young men (Lessons in becoming a straight man): http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/homophobia.html ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 08:56:18 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Women's Presses Library Project, Mev Miller" Subject: Re: women, science and nationalism Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >I'd also be interested in the references which people might have about the >connections amongst women, science and nationalism (re request by >tromblnm@email.uc.edu). >From the Women's Presses Library Project: Daughters of the Pacific Zohl de Ishtar Spinifex Press 1995 1-875559-32-9 P $19.95 256pp. Radical testimonies from indigenous Pacific women on issues of nuclear experimentation, the impact of tourism, oceanic pollution, and more. Light in the Crevice Never Seen Haunani-Kay Trask CALYX Books 1994 0-934971-38-2 C $21.95 128pp. Poetry by an indigenous Hawaiian reflecting on a woman's love for her land and the rage that comes from its destruction. These titles should be available at your local feminist or independent bookstore. Please let me know if you need assistance in locating them. Mev WOMEN'S PRESSES LIBRARY PROJECT "...keeping women's words in circulation" Mev Miller Project Coodinator 1483 Laurel Ave. St. Paul, MN 55104-6737 612-646-0097 612-646-1153 (fax) wplp@winternet.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 09:02:00 CST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Phyllis Holman Weisbard Subject: websites for/by/about girls I have some links to such sites from our website. The direct URL to this part of our site is http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/girldev.htm Included are Girls, Inc. organization, Girls Interwire magazine from Girl Games software co., Just for Girls, also a computer software company, Girl Power (excerpts from a book by teens, ed. by Hilary Carlip), Science is for Girls Program, WEEA, and various bibliographies and articles. I'd like to add links to this section, so send more -- either to the list or to me personally. Phyllis ************************************************************************ Phyllis Holman Weisbard University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian Room 430 Memorial Library, 728 State Street, Madison, WI 53706 http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/ pweis@doit.wisc.edu ************************************************************************ ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 09:27:40 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Carol Cyganowski Subject: teaching lesbian & gay material in "mainstream" courses Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Looking for references to articles on, or your own syllabi, anecdotes, experiences in incorporating lesbian and gay material of any kind into mainstream curricula and gen ed courses, especially first year composition classes. So far, I've found 2 ERIC articles by Sara-Hope Parmeter, and would appreciate any information on where she is, how to contact her. Victoria Shannon DePaul University/Columbia University, Chicago VOShann@aol.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 08:04:34 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Betty Glass Subject: websites for feminist girls & young women In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The new 9th edition of _Magazines for Libraries_, published by Bowker, includes evaluations of Internet/WWW journals in a variety of subject areas. There are two sections dealing with women's studies & feminist resources. A lot of academic libraries have this resource. Ask at the Ref. Desk. Betty On Thu, 26 Feb 1998, Edrie J Sobstyl wrote: > I've searched the WMST-L archives and index and have found some > resources, but I'd like to ask for your help. I'm searching for > websites (and, to a lesser extent, other lists) devoted to feminism for > girls and young women, ages about 12+. Feminist parenting of > girls/young women in this age group would be appropriate as well. (I've > already got a fairly thorough bibliography of hard text.) I'll be > happy to compile whatever responses I get and forward them, either to > individuals or to the list. > > Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer. > cheers, edrie ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 13:36:50 -0500 Reply-To: mgolden@emory.edu Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Michelle B. Golden" Organization: Emory University Subject: Re: Multicultural Definitions of Beauty In-Reply-To: <19980224.220409.10239.0.spikeyrat@juno.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi Lauraine, Been meaning to email you and say hi and ask how things are going with you. Is your new apartment (not so new now, I imagine) working out? How's the Visiting Prof gig? I'm collecting data by the buttload and am officially sick and tired of doing this research. Blea. Am also personally supporting the tape cassette industry. Best, MIchelle > Hey there! > > I just picked up this fabulous edited volume: _Beauty Queens: On the > Global Stage_ edited by Colleen Ballerino Cogen, Richard Wilk, and > Beverly Stoeltje. (1996, Routledge). Haven't had time to thoroughly > peruse it yet, but it does seem to fit the bill. Good luck! > > Lauraine Leblanc, Ph.D. > Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology > Emory University > > The Doctor is Out There > > _____________________________________________________________________ > You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. > Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com > Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] > > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 14:10:03 -0500 Reply-To: mgolden@emory.edu Sender: Women's Studies List Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Michelle B. Golden" Organization: Emory University Subject: OOPS!! In-Reply-To: <199802271835.NAA19714@camel14.mindspring.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi WMST-ers, OOOPS!! Meant to send something to an individual and sent to the list. A million apologies!!! Michelle ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 14:55:50 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Dolores Fidishun Subject: feminist views of instructional design Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am working on a project with an instructional design masters student and we are trying to identify anyone doing research on gender in instructional design. Please reply privately and I can post to the list if others are interested. df Dolores Fidishun, Ed. D. Head Librarian Penn State Great Valley Graduate Center 30 E. Swedesford Road Malvern, PA 19355 email: dxf19@psu.edu phone: 610-648-3227 fax: 610-725-5223 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:42:26 -0500 Reply-To: SEETCHM@lafvax.lafayette.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Mary Elizabeth Seetch Subject: Re: websites for feminist girls & young women Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Edrie-- I'd like to see your compilation posted to the list. Beth Seetch seetchm@lafayette.edu > ***************************** > Edrie Sobstyl > School of Arts and Humanities > University of Texas at Dallas > P.O. Box 830688 Richardson Tx 75083-0688 > (972) 883-2365 > (972) 883-2989 (fax) > ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:42:21 +0000 Reply-To: dr70@umail.umd.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna L. Rowe" Organization: American Studies/Women's Studies University of Maryland College Park Subject: summary Transsexual/Transgendered Part I MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit PART ONE Dear WMST-L members: The following clips will summarize the responses I received on my query about teaching Intro. students about Transsexuality and Transgender. We have decided to continue reading and searching for a clearer understanding of these issues throughout the semester. Last night I left the class with a larger question that has grown out of these discussions: "What does it mean to live life as a woman today?" I'm sure that we will come back time and again to the socially constructed categories of gender and sex, but I wanted everyone who responded to know that the class was very impressed with your breadth of knowledge and willingness to share resources on such short notice (as was I)! Many thanks for your support ********** Beth Rogers wrote: There was an article recently in Rolling Stone that dealt with a case of = an infant boy being injured at circumcision and raised as a girl while = his twin brother was raised as a boy. While not a "traditional" = transgendered person the article is quite interesting and interviews = several adults who were assigned a gender based on the aesthetics of the = genitals they were born with. There was even an article on this in a = recent issue of Mademoiselle. I can't remember the month of the RS = article but it is the issue with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on the = cover. The man who was raised as a girl is known only as John/Jane and = the article focuses on Dr. Money and his somewhat arbitrary sex = assigning. A new book out is called "The Last Time I Wore a Dress" I = haven't had a chance to read it yet but it is a memoir of a girl who = always felt she was a boy and her parents sent her to a mental hospital = in her teens where she was rewarded for being "feminine." *** Liora Moriel wrote: Here's what I do, which might be helpful: I suggest that sex is hardware (the I/O, either/or, binary stuff: man or woman) while gender is software (allowing for a wide range of plays/performances). Just as race is not black/white. That's often a useful metaphor. E. Viola of Southhampton College, Long Island U, presented a paper on transgender as a concept (s/he is one) and had these definitions: TRANSGENDERISTS are male/female who spend extended periods of time in their preferred gender roles. Their sexual orientation is usually heterosexual but their preference is often bisexual. Their significant others are aware, and they may display some physical manifestations of their gender preferences (hormone therapy, electrolysis etc.) TRANSSEXUALS are 50% biological males/50% biological females. Often live and work in preferred role. May tell close friends/family or quitely disappear into society [passing]. Their defining characteristic is a desire to correct what they see as nature's mistake. May choose sexual reassignment surgery, or they may not. *** Stacey Meadow wrote A few suggestions. Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Warriors is a wonderful history of trans people (albeit a longer one than i think you want). The writings of Kate Bornstein would also be helpful and a bit lighter ("Gender Outlaw" and "My Gender Workbook") *** Kay Dodder wrote: The policy of WWTMC, the producers of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, has always been that the festival is for "mothers and daughters", that is, women-born women. They have maintained this policy against all challenges. The only "debate" is among the transsexuals themselves who seek admission in spite of knowing this policy. *** Janice Raymond's book The Transsexual Empire (recently re-printed) is animportant feminist *critique* of the "making of the she-male" as she subtitles the book. In other words it would provide your students with a powerful feminist position in the debate that few people are even aware of today. She writes about Feinberg in the introduction to the recent publication. *** Jaime Grant wrote: For a pro-trans feminist perspective see Minnie Bruce Pratt's S/he. Kate Bornstein's work, recently her "Gender Workbook," and her plays including "Hidden: A Gender" are fabulous. (Kate is a bi, feminist ftm). I like Loren Cameron's Body Alchemy, which is a photoessay on mtf's. Recently, I saw a film on mtf's entitled "You don't know dick" that included some feminist perspectives on the part of the mtf's interviewed (I don't know how to track it down - through the queer filmfests, I guess). For theoretical work that offers feminist perspectives on gender as performance, see Judy Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick. Radical sex activist Pat Califia just came out with a book on Transfolks, but I haven't read it and don't know whether or not to recommend it. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:45:31 +0000 Reply-To: dr70@umail.umd.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: "Donna L. Rowe" Organization: American Studies/Women's Studies University of Maryland College Park Subject: Transsexual/Transgendered Part II MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit PART TWO Martha Charlene Ball wrote: I suggest Kate Bornstein's books (one is Men, Women, and the Rest of Us); Bornstein is a transgendered person who used to be male. Margo Eisler, in her book The Double Standard, has a feminist critique of transgender; Anne Fausto-Sterling in her book Myths of Gender critiques the notion of only two sexes. And there was a thread on gender on this list a few months ago. **** Julie Cox wrote: Another very useful article is Anne Fausto-Sterling's "Why Five Sexes are not enough?" (or something like that--I sometimes change the article title by mistake). It appears in an issue of _Sciences_ (NOT _Science_) and is about the biological sex continuum. Written for the layperson, she proposes at least five total categories: female, male, merm, herm and ferm Female = female male = male Herm = "hermaphrodite" (most "herms" prefer "intersexual") ferm = "herms" w/ more female characteristics merms = "herms" w/ more male characteristics in current medical parlance, "herms" are "true hermaphrodites" whereas both ferms and merms are "pseudohermaphrodites". intersexuals show us that there is, and has always been, a "sex" continuum, transfolks now show us that there is a "gender" continuum and have encouraged us to question placing all "berdache" under the label "homosexual" You'll find that most GG ("genetic gals") who write on these areas from a feminist perspective a re anti-transsexual but may or may not be anti-transgendered. (Janice Raymond is extremely anti-trans, BTW. I haven't read the intro to the recently re-released _Transsexual Empire_ but I doubt she'd want it re-published if she's changed her opinion 180 degrees.) My favorite writer on the subject is Kate Bornstein. She's an MTF TS performance artist, playwright and author of _Gender Outlaw_ and the very new _My Gender Workbook_. In both she questions her own "transformation" and asks us about why we don't do the same.... The latter work is meant to be very participatory. She's terribly funny and non-threatening. ***** John Kellermeier wrote: I include some readings on transexuality and transgenderism in my Intro to Women studies Class and a short course on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and transexual issues. In particular I have some short readings given to me by Nancy Burkholder (She is the MTF transsexual who was kicked out of Michigan thus setting off the confrontation between the trans world and the MWMF) Another good source of infromation about transsexuality, transgender and interrsexed folk is the Internet. A good set of definitions can be foundat http://www.gendertalk.com/TGism/tgism.htm THis website does a good job of distinguishing between sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual identity. **** Michael Flood wrote: For further references on transsexualism/transgender, also see the section on this in the "Sexualities" section of my bibliography, at: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/mensbiblio/MensBiblioMenu.html Cheers, michael flood. E-mail: Michael Flood Phone: [02] 6279 8468 (w). PO Box 26, Ainslie ACT, 2602, AUSTRALIA. -- XY magazine: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~gorkin/XY/xy.htm -- The men's bibliography: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/mensbiblio/MensBiblioMenu.html -- Pro-feminist men's FAQ: http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/pffaq.html -- Women's Studies Web Page: http://www.anu.edu.au/womens_studies/ -- Homophobia and masculinities among young men (Lessons in becoming a straight man): http://online.anu.edu.au/~e900392/homophobia.html ***** >From the Women's Presses Library Project: Orlando's Sleep: An Autobiography of Gender Jennifer Spry New Victoria Publishers 1997 0-934678-80-4 P $12.95 200pp. A personal yet political discussion of courage, gender, sexuality, and transformation. Also, Lesbian Connection has had some lively letters related to the incidents at Michigan festival -- if you can find the older issues that go back several years. ***** Erika Stafford-Hill wrote: A book which gives a pretty good synopsis (with first-person narrative) of the history of the Michigan Women's Music Fesitval's position on transgenders is _Sex Changes_ on the "politics of transsexuality" (or something) by Pat Califia, 1997. She also gives histories and analysis of the lives of transgendered people; Feinberg is alluded to, but she spends more time on Chrinstine Jourgensen, and two or three other well-known and not so well known transsexuals/transgenders - both mtf and ftm. So far, that's the sum of what I have recieved. Some folks sent info that has already been submitted, so please don't be offended if you don't see your name listed...I REALLY appreciate all of your efforts. Thanks again. Hope this is helpful to you all. Donna Rowe University of Maryland University College Women's Studies/American Studies dr70@umail.umd.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:29:50 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: John Kellermeier Organization: SUNY at Plattsburgh, New York, USA Subject: Re: teaching lesbian & gay material in "mainstream" courses MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Date sent: 27-FEB-1998 17:24:50 >Looking for references to articles on, or your own syllabi, anecdotes, >experiences in incorporating lesbian and gay material of any kind into >mainstream curricula and gen ed courses, especially first year composition >classes. > >So far, I've found 2 ERIC articles by Sara-Hope Parmeter, and would >appreciate any information on where she is, how to contact her. > >Victoria Shannon >DePaul University/Columbia University, Chicago >VOShann@aol.com Victoria, I teach a gen ed intro statistics course titled Statistics in Social Context. This is a four hour course consisting of the equivalent of our usual three hour statistics course coupled with a one hour course on a social issue. During the spring semester of the past three years I have taught this course using gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues as the basis for the one hour discussion session. This coming June I will be presenting a paper on this course at the NWSA annual conference. However, the paper isn't written yet. On the other hand I do have some curriculum materials that explain how I run the course and how I integrate the LGBT materials into the teaching of statistics. These materials give a complete set of statistics word problems based on the readings for the discussion session along with a set of reading/ discussion questions for the readings. I can send this to you if you are intereseted along with a copy of my syllabus. I do have an article on this same course where the topic used is Women in Third World Development. You can find this article at http://www.ihaglobal.org/iha/teachnet/9601/05.html I would also be interested in hearing what responses wyou get from other folks, especially concerning intergrating LGBT materials into gen ed courses. John Kellermeier SUNY Plattsburgh splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 17:28:00 CST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Phyllis Holman Weisbard Subject: correction of URL for girls' sites links page Earlier today I sent a message about our website section with links to sites by, for, and about girls. I made a mistake in the last element of the URL. The correct URL to this part of the site is: www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/girlsdev.htm Thanks to list members who contacted me about this. Phyllis ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 16:48:29 -0800 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Kathryn Feltey Organization: The University of Akron Subject: (no subject) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The University of Akron is reconsidering where Women's Studies (and Pan-African Studies) should be located. Currently we are in the College of Arts & Sciences. The movement seems to be toward locating us under the Assoc. Provost for Minority Affairs with other programs such as minority student services. Is there someplace I can find information on the structural location of Women's Studies within the university? Does anyone have experience, advice about this issue? Please respond privately to kfeltey@uakron.edu. Thanks! -- Kathryn M. Feltey kfeltey@uakron.edu Director of Women's Studies 330-972-7008 phone University of Akron 330-972-5264 fax Akron, OH 44325-6218 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 22:18:41 -0600 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Coleen Maheu Subject: info needed on Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii hello, I'm teaching a course on The Dinner Party during spring quarter. Does anyone have information on Judy Chicago's response to criticisms on the underrepresentation of women of color? Specifically, I would like to know whether Chicago responded to Alice Walker's claim that the plate honoring Sojourner Truth was not depicted using the pervasive vulvar image because black women's sexuality was incomprehensible to Chicago. I have read a great deal of information on this subject (including Chicago's most recent autobiography, Beyond the Flower, The Dinner Party and Sexual Politics: Radical Feminist Art), however I have not discovered any response to these allegations. Addititionally, I am interested in similar criticisms regarding the marginilization of women of color's experiences in The Dinner Party? Please respond to the list if you have information regarding this subject. Also, I strongly encourage a list discussion on this topic. What do you make of the desexualization of the plates celebrating Sojourner Truth and Sacajawea (the only two women of color represented)? Was this a conscious decision? What are the implications of the desexualization of these plates? Was Chicago incapable of imagining women of color's sexuality? Or did the different contexts framing the lives of white women and women of color influence Chicago? For example, women of color were hypersexualized historically (i.e. Hottentot Venus), while white women were desexualized? Did Chicago attempt to reverse this? Was Chicago attempting to be sensitive to different experiences? How might Chicago have incorporated the vulva form in these plates, without resignifyiing the hypersexualization of women of color? your help is greatly appreciated thanks Coleen UCSC ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 09:42:20 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: a story about teaching about, in response to, male/female writers Comments: To: Susan Koppelman In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear Susan: As usual, it's a pleasure to rdead your messages. This is one, in particular, indicated you were among my generation of "radical feminists" in academia. Regarding the main su bject, "male and female writers," thought I'd mention Joanna Russ's little book HOW TO SUPPRESS WOMEN'S WRITING, published by the University of Texas Press way back in 1983. Best regards. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 10:03:37 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: more questions about feminism and motherhood Comments: To: Mary Schweitzer In-Reply-To: <34EC867C.73AA@ix.netcom.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Motherhood is totally compatible with modern feminism, Mary Schweitzer. Otherwise, mothers (feminists) in the professions wouldn't be knocking themselves out doing two full jobs, when they could be doing one or the other comfortably. Hope your health is on the mend. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 10:17:59 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: Anti-motherhood Comments: To: Sandra Donaldson In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII This was true especially after World War II ended, when men returned from the war and were looking for jobs that women were doing and had almost been drafted to do in the absence of the men. Women were ousted from these jobs, so that men could have them, and then the great pressure began, for women to have babies. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu On Thu, 19 Feb 1998, Sandra Donaldson wrote: > There's also the term anti-natalism, which referred to the > tremendous social pressures on women to become mothers. The > glorification of motherhood and vilification of the childless were > concerns. > > Sandy Donaldson > ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 15:00:43 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Ruby Rohrlich Subject: Re: Gayle Rubin Comments: To: Sandra Lorean In-Reply-To: <34EF5145.111F@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The dull rirlw of Gayle Rubins's article is "The Traffic in Women: Notes on tdhe 'Political Economy' of Sex. It is published in Rayna R. Reiter's TOWARD AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF WOMEN, published by the Monthly Review Press, 1975. This collection is chock full of articles that are basic to feminist anthropology and the other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Ruby Rohrlich rohrlich@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu On Sat, 21 Feb 1998, Sandra Lorean wrote: > Does anyone have the full citation for Gayle Rubin's classic article > "Traffic in Women: Notes on the "Political Economy" of Sex."? Thank you > in advance, > Sandy > ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 15:25:56 -0500 Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: Joan Korenman Subject: graduate programs in WS: online info MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi. Thanks to the efforts of a UMBC undergraduate Women's Studies major and the Women's Studies secretary, the listing of Women's Studies Programs, Departments, and Research Centers at http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/programs.html now includes annotation about graduate degrees, certificates, emphases, etc. Please be aware that the listing covers only those programs that have web sites, and in fact only those websites that include information about graduate offerings. If the information listed is incorrect, please first check the program's website to see what information is provided there. Don't write to me unless the info provided on the program's website is different from that provided in the annotation. However, if the info IS different, or if it's there and we missed it, or if it gets added later, I'd be most grateful if you'd let me know. Also, please do not write to tell me about other graduate programs at institutions whose women's studies programs do not have a web presence. The listing I maintain is limited to those WS programs that one can reach on the web. The URL, once again: http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/programs.html I hope this proves useful. Joan Korenman ************************************************************************* * Joan Korenman, Director, Women's Studies korenman@umbc2.umbc.edu * * University of Maryland Baltimore County * * http://www.umbc.edu/wmst/ * * * * The only person to have everything done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe * ************************************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 16:08:11 +0000 Reply-To: louis@umbc.edu Sender: Women's Studies List From: Deborah Louis Subject: Where's Carole? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit If anyone on the List has a current e-mail address for Dr. Carole Garrison, please respond privately or let her know I am trying to get in touch and forward mine to her: She returned from a 2-year stint in Cambodia probably a good year ago, is no longer in Akron, may be in Atlanta, and my contact numbers have changed several times since we last communicated... Many thanks! ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 17:12:20 EST Reply-To: Women's Studies List Sender: Women's Studies List From: JudithK493 Subject: searching for Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Does anyone know email for Janice Raymond and Jean Baker Miller? Thanks for your help. Judithk493@ao.com