Purpose: This course is designed to 1) explore how gender affects
life experiences, social roles, and goals and 2) empower each of you to
appreciate, accept, self-define, and/or modify the social roles you play to
best fit your own personality, wishes, and goals in life. We will accomplish these goals by first
studying
theories of gender development and difference and then applying these theories to everyday challenges
that women encounter. The materials
presented will be entirely descriptive. We will look at what is, not at
what ought to be.
What ought to be radically differs between
individuals. What ought to be true for
you will likely differ from what ought to be true for your classmates. Some of you might appreciate traditional
notions of gender because they work for you; others of you might want to
radically deconstruct traditional notions of gender and replace them with
alternative schemes that would work better for you. To
explore what ought to be, there will be many writting opportunities and
class discussions designed to relate the facts about gender that we are
learning about in class to your own personal experiences,
wishes, and life goals. Throughout this
process, I will expect each of you to have nothing but respect for the opinions
of your classmates.
Texts: