GENDER STUDIES MINOR
Course Descriptions

www.eou.edu/gender/

(This minor is also available via the Division of Distance Education)

Program Faculty

Tonia St. Germain                        tstgerma@eou.edu

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

In recent years, feminist scholars have asked searching questions about the construction of the institutions and disciplines that drive our culture.  They have also investigated the ways in which conceptions of femininity and masculinity are involved in structures of institutional power.  Gender studies explores some of the complex questions and problems surrounding relationships between women and men, while invest-igating academic and activist approaches for pursuing gender equality.

The Gender Studies minor will provide opportunities:

. To identify various academic approaches to the study of gender and learn skills in critical and feminist analysis of these approaches.

. To integrate knowledge within the minor through understanding the intersections of gender, class, age, ability, race, culture, and sexual preference.

. To understand the activist origins of gender studies and examine initiatives for promoting gender equality.

. To relate academic knowledge to practice through service, internships, and practica.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will have the ability to:

. Identify major social, economic, political, psychological issues facing contemporary women and men.

. Describe gender research with respect to cultural shifts and policy transformations in Western society.

. Discern the parallels and intersections of gender discrimination with other prejudices against class, age, ability, race, culture, and sexual preference.

. Discuss major topics and approaches in the history of feminist thought.

. Comprehend the development, inter-disciplinary nature, and methodological approaches of gender studies.

. Compose an informed and focused research paper communicating scholarly approaches to gender analysis.

. Connect scholarly inquiry to gender justice through service, internships, and practica.

MEANS OF ASSESSMENT

Students in Gender Studies are assessed in a variety of ways to determine their proficiencies. The faculty will use assign-ments such as essay exams, primary and secondary research papers, oral histories, documentaries, symposium presentations, collaborative reports, multi-media projects, art exhibits, practicum, and capstone experiences, all geared toward qualitative assessment of specified learning outcomes by means of stated criteria.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GENDER STUDIES MINOR

The interdisciplinary minor in Gender Studies not only requires students to research and read, answer test questions and write papers; it requires students to challenge the status quo-including their own assumptions. While this extra level of analysis is also part of other programs, it is possible in traditional programs to graduate without substantially challenging cultural beliefs and practices around issues such as race, gender, class, or ability. Such questioning is at the heart of Gender Studies.  A minor will consist of the following:

1. A minimum of 33 credit hours in Gender Studies and support courses, 30 of which must be graded and 3 must be practicum credits.

2. At least eighteen upper-division credits in Gender Studies and approved interdisciplinary elective courses are required. A list of these courses is available each quarter on the Gender Studies web site

http://www3.eou.edu/gender/.

3. A minimum of ten credits applied toward the minor must be completed at EOU.

4. A grade of "C-" or better for all courses counting toward the minor.

5. A minimum G.P.A. of 2.00 for all courses counting toward the minor.

6. Completion of the following required courses:

GEND 301, Perspectives on Gender (5)

GEND 401, Research (1-3)

GEND 409, Practicum (1-6, S/U only)

The Program Faculty and each student's major advisor will offer advising assistance for the Gender Studies minor.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

GEND 110 - Special Topics
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00

GEND 201 - Gend Basics: American Women
Credits: 5.00
New Gen Ed-Human Behavior
Through readings in social research, literature and law this course examines historical and contemporary gender relations in the United States and emphasizes the ways in which gender intersects with issues of race, class, gender and sexuality.

GEND 210 - Special Topics
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00

GEND 220 - Gender, Work & Society
Credits: 5.00
New Gen Ed-Human Behavior
This course will explore the gender implications of women's participation in American business. Women's participation in the major economic transformations effecting American life is powerful. Women have played a large role in the emergence of Amercian capitalism, the creation of laboring and professional classes, and the institutionalization of property ownership and law. This course explores substative issues that impact women in business using gender as a category of analysis to determine the meaning of business inclusive of both the feminine and masculine.

GEND 301 - Perspects On Gender
Credits: 5.00
Gen Ed-Social Science
New Gen Ed-Human Behavior
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 310 - Special Topics
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00
New Gen Ed-Aesthetics & Hum

GEND 323 - Forbidden Goddess
Credits: 4.00
Selective study of Greek literature, myths, and rituals focused on dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that parallel modern definitions of gender.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 330 - US Minority Women Writers
Credits: 5.00
This course will introduce you to literature, mainly fiction by US women writers of American Indian, African, Mexican, Chinese, Jewish and Arab descent. The writers explore such subjects as their relation to the history of their people, conflict between their cultural values and the dominant White Anglo Saxon Protestant culture, and creating and affirming an ethnic minority female identity in the US. Essays providing historical and cultural background, the visual arts and music will be used to help us to read the literary texts.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 340 - HOW/Family in Pre-Indust Era
Credits: 5.00
A historical overview of the history of women from Antiquity through the Protestant Reformation.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 341 - HOW-Women's Movement Mod Era
Credits: 5.00
An examination of the changing concepts of women's roles and women's rights in the domestic and public spheres from the Protestant Reformation through the second half of the twentieth century.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 350 - Pornography/Gender & the State
Credits: 5.00
Examination of the production, text, and consumption of pornography in a social and political context.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 360 - Gender & Power
Credits: 5.00
Gen Ed-Social Science
New Gen Ed-Human Behavior
(Writing Intensive) analysis of privilege, power, and difference in relationships between women and men in the United States and in global context. Perspectives on historical movements for gender equality, and consideration of issues of domestic and paid labor, reproduction, and violence. Assessment of gender relationships within social institutions such as family, education, religion, and economy.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 395 - Gender in Lit and Film
Credits: 4.00
Intensive study of gender theories in relation to the production and interpretation of literary texts and/or film.
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman

GEND 401 - Research
Credits: 1.00 to 3.00
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman
Sophomore

GEND 405 - Reading and Conference
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00
Topics designed to meet current needs of students. Specific titles to be selected by the gender studies faculty.

GEND 409 - Practicum
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman
Sophomore

GEND 410 - Special Topics
Credits: 1.00 to 6.00
Restrictions:
May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es):
Freshman
Sophomore