PART ONE:
SYLLABI FOR SOCIOLOGY OF
GENDER/MEN AND WOMEN
IN SOCIETY
,Silke Roth
SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER
In this course, gender will be studied in a comparative perspective using examples from Germany.
Current gender theory emphasizes the division of labor, power, social control, violence, and ideology
as structural and interactional bases of inequalities among men and women of different social classes
and racial ethnic groups instead as an individual trait or outcome of childhood socialization. Gender
is an organizing principle of society and its institutions like culture, economy, politics, and the
family. How gender is constructed varies across time and space. What is considered "natural" for a
woman (or a man) to do in one society is conceived inappropriate in another. But there are not only
differences between societies but also within societies -- race and class interact with gender resulting
in different norms.
GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS
This course is run as a seminar. This means that your participation in class is crucial.
1) Each week, submit one critical summary of the assigned readings (about one page). Send
this summary via e-mail to me no later than 8 PM the day before class. I will grade the
summaries (check plus, check, check minus). Please no attachments, copy text into body of
message and keep a copy for yourself. You have to submit at least 10 summaries, but may
submit more in order to improve your grade. Class participation and summaries will account
for 30% of your grade.
2) Research questions: Pick a topic for your term paper in which you will study gender in the
setting of your choice. Define gender and how you would study it. (3 pages, up to 1000
words) (10%) (due January 31)
3) Do a literature search for your research question and hand in an annotated bibliography.
What is the hypothesis? How were the results obtained? What are the findings? Is the
argument convincing? (10 pages, up to 3000 words) (10%) (due February 28)
4) Research design. Describe the methodology that you would employ to investigate your
research topic. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the method(s) you have
chosen? What is the population that you are studying? How would you obtain the sample? (5
pages, up to 1500 words) (10%) (due March 28)
5) Film analysis. Analyze three scenes of movie “Contact” (5 pages, up to 1500 words) (10%)
with respect to the construction of gender (due April 11)
6) Extra-Credit: You can get extra credit for critical summaries and short in-class presentations
of additional readings.
FINAL PAPER: Based on the course readings and revised assignments write a research
proposal of studying gender. What does your research contribute to the analysis of gender in
particular and to sociology in general? (15 pages, up to 4500 words) (30%) (due May 4)
READINGS:
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (eds.): Revisioning Gender. Sage 1999 (RG)
Connell, RW. Masculinities. University of California Press. 1995
Course-Pack (CP)
,Dana Vannoy (ed.): Gender Mosaics. Social Perspectives. Original Readings. Los Angeles, Roxbury,
2001. (GM)
1st Week (January 8, 10)
INTRODUCTION – WHAT IS GENDER ANYWAY?
Gender is grounded in sex, bodies cannot be represented as entirely social. This lack of a sharp
distinction results in a conflation of gender and sex. What is gender? In what respect do the concepts
gender and sex-roles differ? Are gender theory and feminist theory identical?
Ferree, Myra Marx, Judith Lorber, Beth B. Hess: Introduction. Revisioning Gender (RG)
Lopata, Helen, and Barrie Thorne: On the term sex-roles (CP)
2nd Week (January 15, 17)
DOING GENDER......AND RACE AND CLASS
Sociology of gender is based on the assumption that we are rather "doing" than having gender. As
West and Zimmerman argue in their classical text, gender is accomplished in interaction. Moreover,
race, class and gender cannot be separated -- or added like beads of a necklace -- they always
interact.
West, Candace and Don H. Zimmermann: Doing Gender (CP)
Glick, Peter, and Susan T. Fiske: Gender, Power Dynamics, and Social Interaction. (RG)
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano: The Social Construction and Institutionalization of Gender and Race: An
Integrative Framework (RG)
Acker, Joan: Rewriting Class, Race, and Gender: Problems in Feminist Rethinking (RG)
3rd Week (January 22, 24)
SEXUALITY, SEXUAL IDENTITY
Just like gender, sexuality is considered as something "natural". However, what is perceived as
natural (or unnatural) differs across cultures. Ideas and feelings about such a seemingly personal
matter as sexuality are socially constructed.
Connell, R.W.: Making Gendered People: Bodies, Identities, Sexualities (RG)
Lorber, Judith: Embattled Terrain: Gender and Sexuality (RG)
Rich, Adrienne: Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (CP)
Martin, Patricia Yancey and Robert A. Hammer: Fraternities and Rape on Campus (CP)
4th Week (January 29, 31)
MASCULINITIES I
Gender is relational, thus failing to learn more about men as men limits our understanding of women.
The social meanings attached to femaleness and maleness depend on the comparisons to the others
sex and gender. In the first part of his book, Connell surveys disciplines like psychology, history, and
ethnography regarding their contributions of understanding masculinities.
, Connell, Robert W.: Masculinities. Part I. Four Studies of the Dynamics of Masculinity.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
- (ch. 1) The Science of Masculinity
- (ch. 2) Men’s Bodies
- (ch. 3) The Social Organization of Masculinity
First Assignment due January 31
5thWeek (February 5, 7)
MASCULINITIES II
On the basis of life-histories, in the second part of his book, Connell explores the relations among
hegemonic, subordinate, and complicit masculinities.
Connell, Robert W.: Masculinities. Part II. Four Studies of the Dynamics of Masculinity.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
- (ch. 4) Live Fast and Die Young
- (ch. 5) A Whole New World
- (ch. 6) A Very Straight Gay
- (ch. 7) Men of Reason
6th Week (February 12, 14)
GENDER, SCIENCE, AND RESEARCH
Science usually is conceived as objective and neutral. However, one of the basic assumptions of
gender theory is that all institutions are gendered. How does gender affect science? Feminist scholars
challenge the invisibility of women in social science theory and specific subject areas exploring
biases in the concepts and methods that define various disciplines. Some argue that it is not possible
to understand gender without altering the prevailing social science concepts of race and class.
Ferree, Myra Marx, and Elaine Hall: Rethinking Stratification from a Feminist Perspective: Gender,
Race, and Class in Mainstream Textbooks. American Sociological Review 61, 1996, 929-50
(CP)
Collins, Patricia Hill: Moving Beyond Gender: Intersectionality and Scientific Knowledge (RG)
Cannon et al.: Race and Class Bias in Qualitative Research on Women (CP)
Riessmann: When Gender is Not Enough: Women Interviewing Women (CP)
7th Week (February 19, 21)
EXPLAINING GENDER INEQUALITY
What are the origins of gender inequality? Rubin argues that female subordination is based in kinship
patterns, Gailey argues that it is rooted in the state, Hausen explains the polarization of sexual
stereotypes in the 19th century, and Connell explores the creation of masculinity as a result of
modernization. Who has the best explanation for gender inequality?
Rubin, Gayle: The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy “ of Sex. (CP)
SYLLABI FOR SOCIOLOGY OF
GENDER/MEN AND WOMEN
IN SOCIETY
,Silke Roth
SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER
In this course, gender will be studied in a comparative perspective using examples from Germany.
Current gender theory emphasizes the division of labor, power, social control, violence, and ideology
as structural and interactional bases of inequalities among men and women of different social classes
and racial ethnic groups instead as an individual trait or outcome of childhood socialization. Gender
is an organizing principle of society and its institutions like culture, economy, politics, and the
family. How gender is constructed varies across time and space. What is considered "natural" for a
woman (or a man) to do in one society is conceived inappropriate in another. But there are not only
differences between societies but also within societies -- race and class interact with gender resulting
in different norms.
GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS
This course is run as a seminar. This means that your participation in class is crucial.
1) Each week, submit one critical summary of the assigned readings (about one page). Send
this summary via e-mail to me no later than 8 PM the day before class. I will grade the
summaries (check plus, check, check minus). Please no attachments, copy text into body of
message and keep a copy for yourself. You have to submit at least 10 summaries, but may
submit more in order to improve your grade. Class participation and summaries will account
for 30% of your grade.
2) Research questions: Pick a topic for your term paper in which you will study gender in the
setting of your choice. Define gender and how you would study it. (3 pages, up to 1000
words) (10%) (due January 31)
3) Do a literature search for your research question and hand in an annotated bibliography.
What is the hypothesis? How were the results obtained? What are the findings? Is the
argument convincing? (10 pages, up to 3000 words) (10%) (due February 28)
4) Research design. Describe the methodology that you would employ to investigate your
research topic. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the method(s) you have
chosen? What is the population that you are studying? How would you obtain the sample? (5
pages, up to 1500 words) (10%) (due March 28)
5) Film analysis. Analyze three scenes of movie “Contact” (5 pages, up to 1500 words) (10%)
with respect to the construction of gender (due April 11)
6) Extra-Credit: You can get extra credit for critical summaries and short in-class presentations
of additional readings.
FINAL PAPER: Based on the course readings and revised assignments write a research
proposal of studying gender. What does your research contribute to the analysis of gender in
particular and to sociology in general? (15 pages, up to 4500 words) (30%) (due May 4)
READINGS:
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (eds.): Revisioning Gender. Sage 1999 (RG)
Connell, RW. Masculinities. University of California Press. 1995
Course-Pack (CP)
,Dana Vannoy (ed.): Gender Mosaics. Social Perspectives. Original Readings. Los Angeles, Roxbury,
2001. (GM)
1st Week (January 8, 10)
INTRODUCTION – WHAT IS GENDER ANYWAY?
Gender is grounded in sex, bodies cannot be represented as entirely social. This lack of a sharp
distinction results in a conflation of gender and sex. What is gender? In what respect do the concepts
gender and sex-roles differ? Are gender theory and feminist theory identical?
Ferree, Myra Marx, Judith Lorber, Beth B. Hess: Introduction. Revisioning Gender (RG)
Lopata, Helen, and Barrie Thorne: On the term sex-roles (CP)
2nd Week (January 15, 17)
DOING GENDER......AND RACE AND CLASS
Sociology of gender is based on the assumption that we are rather "doing" than having gender. As
West and Zimmerman argue in their classical text, gender is accomplished in interaction. Moreover,
race, class and gender cannot be separated -- or added like beads of a necklace -- they always
interact.
West, Candace and Don H. Zimmermann: Doing Gender (CP)
Glick, Peter, and Susan T. Fiske: Gender, Power Dynamics, and Social Interaction. (RG)
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano: The Social Construction and Institutionalization of Gender and Race: An
Integrative Framework (RG)
Acker, Joan: Rewriting Class, Race, and Gender: Problems in Feminist Rethinking (RG)
3rd Week (January 22, 24)
SEXUALITY, SEXUAL IDENTITY
Just like gender, sexuality is considered as something "natural". However, what is perceived as
natural (or unnatural) differs across cultures. Ideas and feelings about such a seemingly personal
matter as sexuality are socially constructed.
Connell, R.W.: Making Gendered People: Bodies, Identities, Sexualities (RG)
Lorber, Judith: Embattled Terrain: Gender and Sexuality (RG)
Rich, Adrienne: Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (CP)
Martin, Patricia Yancey and Robert A. Hammer: Fraternities and Rape on Campus (CP)
4th Week (January 29, 31)
MASCULINITIES I
Gender is relational, thus failing to learn more about men as men limits our understanding of women.
The social meanings attached to femaleness and maleness depend on the comparisons to the others
sex and gender. In the first part of his book, Connell surveys disciplines like psychology, history, and
ethnography regarding their contributions of understanding masculinities.
, Connell, Robert W.: Masculinities. Part I. Four Studies of the Dynamics of Masculinity.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
- (ch. 1) The Science of Masculinity
- (ch. 2) Men’s Bodies
- (ch. 3) The Social Organization of Masculinity
First Assignment due January 31
5thWeek (February 5, 7)
MASCULINITIES II
On the basis of life-histories, in the second part of his book, Connell explores the relations among
hegemonic, subordinate, and complicit masculinities.
Connell, Robert W.: Masculinities. Part II. Four Studies of the Dynamics of Masculinity.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
- (ch. 4) Live Fast and Die Young
- (ch. 5) A Whole New World
- (ch. 6) A Very Straight Gay
- (ch. 7) Men of Reason
6th Week (February 12, 14)
GENDER, SCIENCE, AND RESEARCH
Science usually is conceived as objective and neutral. However, one of the basic assumptions of
gender theory is that all institutions are gendered. How does gender affect science? Feminist scholars
challenge the invisibility of women in social science theory and specific subject areas exploring
biases in the concepts and methods that define various disciplines. Some argue that it is not possible
to understand gender without altering the prevailing social science concepts of race and class.
Ferree, Myra Marx, and Elaine Hall: Rethinking Stratification from a Feminist Perspective: Gender,
Race, and Class in Mainstream Textbooks. American Sociological Review 61, 1996, 929-50
(CP)
Collins, Patricia Hill: Moving Beyond Gender: Intersectionality and Scientific Knowledge (RG)
Cannon et al.: Race and Class Bias in Qualitative Research on Women (CP)
Riessmann: When Gender is Not Enough: Women Interviewing Women (CP)
7th Week (February 19, 21)
EXPLAINING GENDER INEQUALITY
What are the origins of gender inequality? Rubin argues that female subordination is based in kinship
patterns, Gailey argues that it is rooted in the state, Hausen explains the polarization of sexual
stereotypes in the 19th century, and Connell explores the creation of masculinity as a result of
modernization. Who has the best explanation for gender inequality?
Rubin, Gayle: The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy “ of Sex. (CP)
