Институт Философии РАН, ст. н. с., зав. лабораторией гендерных исследований ИСЭПН РАН
к. ф. н.

Адрес:
Москва 103064, Фурманный пер., д. 3, кв. 6
тел.\факс (095) 125 64 19
E-mail: olan@orc.ru

Feminist theory is at once social, political, psychological, literary, and economic theory. It is in part a history of ideas on women and their status over time and across cultures. But it is more than that: it is the attempt to analyze, interpret and understand the differential position on women and men in society. This course uses the work of both thinkers and activists, beginning with the 18th century as the basis for defining the problem and outlining various solutions.. This course will introduce students to various forms of feminist analysis. The focus will be on interrogating methodology and exploring assumptions and approaches that connect feminist research across disciplinary boundaries. Readings and students project will focus on self-reflective work on the strategies of feminist analysis.

Course objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will have acquired practice in critical thinking and oral presentation on feminist analyses. Students will achieve competence in evaluating the methodology and assumptions of specific feminist research project as well as thinking their own feminist analysis project and applying feminist analyses to current issues.

Class Schedule:

Class 1.   Liberal  Feminism:  Sexism as Legal Inequality  (from Mary Wollstonecraft  to Betty Friedan.
Class 2.   Marxist Feminism: Sexism as a Result of the Class System.
Class 3.   Socialist Feminism: The Interdependence of Class and Gender.
Class 4.   Radical Feminism : Sexism as the Fundamental Inequality.
               Part I: Sex and Reproduction
Class 5.   Seminar/Discussion
Class 6.   Radical Feminism II: Gender and Power
Class 7.   Seminar/Discussion
Class 8.   Psychoanalytical Feminism
Class 9.   Existentialist Feminism (philosophical analysis)
Class 10. Postmodern Feminism (structuralism, deconstructionism and the essence of  language)
Class 11. Essencialism and Constructionism: Key Controversies
Class 12. Seminar/Discussion
Class 13. Thinking on Nature/Culture Dichotomy: the Sex/Gender System
Class 14. Seminar/Discussion
Class 15. Gender Theories I: Social Constructing of Gender (Institutions of Socialization,   Division of  Labor, Gender  Roles)
Class 16. Seminar/Discussion
Class 17. Gender Categorizing Theories I:  Social Constructing of Gender (Gender Roles, Stereotypes,  Mass-Media)
Class 18. Seminar/Discussion
Class 19. Gender Categorizing Theories II: Gender as a Process/Network
Class 20. Seminar/Discussion
Class 21. Gender Categorizing Theories III : Gender as Cultural Methaphor in Postmodernist Concepts
Class 22. Seminar/Discussion
Class 23. Feminist Perspective in Epistemology
Class 24. Seminar/Discussion
Class 25. Objectivity and the Knowing Subject.
Class 26. Seminar/Discussion
Class 27. Knowledge as Construct: Theorizing the Role of Gender in Knowledge
Class 28. Seminar/Discussion
Class 29. Gender Studies in Russia
Class 30. Seminar/Discussion