Do We Still Need Feminism?
12th Grade elective
Homework assignments are in bold.
III. “Who’s the Boss?”: Gender and Family
A. Doctrine of Separate Spheres
Assignment 1: (Due 2/22) Read “The ideology of True Womanhood” from the attached photocopies. ANSWER the following questions in your own words:
- What is the ideology of true womanhood?
- How did this ideology view the following?
- In what sense was true womanhood a bourgeois ideology?
- How did this ideology limit women and empower women?
IN CLASS: Catherine Beecher and the Good Wife's Guide
IN CLASS: Marriage. Working in groups, we will look at the ideology and practicalities of marriage.
- Marriage as union
- Marriage as power
- Marriage roles
- Marriage realities
Did separate spheres empower or limit women?
Assignment 2: (Due 2/25) The Problem That Has No Name. READ the attached excerpt from The Feminine Mystique. Write a paragraph or two on the following (to be collected, 15 pts):
What is "the problem that has no name"? What does Friedan suggest is the source of the problem, and what does she imply might be the solution?
IN CLASS: Discussing the Feminine Mystique. Is it the same as the ideology of True Womanhood?
Assignment 3: (Due 2/26) Read "The Myth, the Math, the Sex," in photocopy, pp. 94-5. ANSWER the following questions in your own words:
1. What is the myth that the article seeks to dispel?
2. How does it dispel that myth?
3. What does the persistance of the myth say about current assumptions about gender and sexual behavior?
IN CLASS: "Sex and the Teenage Girl." Read the attached articles and the responses to it. Is sex different for men and for women? Does this mean that the sexual double standard should persist?
B. The Breadwinner Ethic
Assignment 4: (Due 2/28) READ “Bread Winners and Losers” in the attached photocopy. ANSWER the following questions in your own words:
- What pressures were placed on men to marry following World War II?
- What were the scientific justifications for prescribed male gender roles?
- What did it mean to be a man in the 1950s and early 1960s?
- Was this view of manhood oppressive? Explain.
Response Paper 3: Due 3/3. Using the class readings and discussions so far, write 1-2 pages on the following question: Compare the true womanhood, feminine mystique, and breadwinner ideologies with current attitudes about gender roles. What has changed, and what hasn’t? Why?
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