WS/SOC/ES 418 Women and Work
 Fall 2008
W: 1:30-4pm
Moore 423
 
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES        RESEARCH  TOPICS        RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES

MEDIA PAPER        THESIS STATEMENT AND LIST OF REFERENCES          PAPER ON THE MILITARY


Prof. Monisha Das Gupta
Office: George Hall 306           
Phone: 956-2914 (w)
e-mail: dasgupta@hawaii.edu
Office Hours: W: 9am-10am, F: 9am-11 am; or by appointment
 
For all updates on the syllabus see: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~dasgupta/ (The page can also be accessed through the Ethnic Studies Home Page)
                                            

Course Description:

Women engage in a wide range of activities — some paid and others unpaid — in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, and at home.  This seminar examines the social organization of women’s work in historical context and women’s efforts to improve and transform the conditions under which they work.  The course highlights the experiences of Asian American women and women in Hawai’i.  The material you will read challenges us to think about what counts as “work” when women do it.  Why are women paid less than men for the same work?  Why do we find women, women of color, and immigrant women over-represented in certain types of occupations?  How does the formal workplace accommodate women’s realities of homemaking, childrearing, and eldercare?  We pay close attention to how differences in race and class shape women’s work and family lives.  This semester, domestic work, tourism, sex work, and the military serve as case studies to examine women’s work in these sectors and the gendering of these types of work.  The course ends with a hard look at current U.S. welfare policies that construct women on public assistance as people who do not work.

 Required Readings:

  • WS/SOC/ES 418 Reader is available at Professional Image, 2633 S. King Street, 973-6599.
  • The following books are available at Revolution Books, 2626 King Street, 944-3106
    1. Shirley Hune and Gail Nomura.  Asian/Pacific Islander American Women: A historical anthology.  New York University Press.  2003.
    2. Black Women and Work Collective and Sharon Harley. Sister Circle: Black Women and Work.  Rutgers 2002.
    3. Sharon Hays. Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform.  OUP 2004.

Student Learning Objectives:

Critical thinking:  Beyond description, you will be asked to analyze the readings as well as your day-to-day experiences.  Critical thinking requires that you raise and answer “w, h” questions: the “why,” “how,” “what” questions. It is often uncomfortable because we have to examine some of our deeply-held beliefs and assumptions.  But once we get used to it, a new window through which we view the world opens up.

 Application of core WS concepts:

  • Women and work: The course redefines the common understanding of work as paid work and accounts for the many types of work that women do.  Students are encouraged to see paid work (productive labor) and housework (reproductive labor) as intrinsically linked. 
  • Gender: The formal workplace and the home are understood in this course as deeply gendered sites.  We learn to identify which occupations are feminized (eg. carework, certain kinds of service work) and which are masculinized (eg. military).
  • Intersectionality: Gender is not the only force shaping women’s work. Differences among women arise because of their race, class and nationality.  In this course, we will treat gender, race, class and nationality as intersecting systems.
  • Gender, ethnicity and colonialism in an Asia-Pacific context:  Our sections on domestic work, tourism, sex work, and the military help us understand how gender and ethnicity are shaped in colonial contexts.

Interdisciplinarity:  We approach the question of gender and work through different disciplines: history, sociology, economics, public policy, and literature.

Writing skills:  I emphasize the value of good writing as part of the skills you gain in college.  The course gets you into the habit of writing something every week and teaches you the skills of writing critical papers and research papers.

Oral skills: Through small group discussions, an interactive classroom format, and presentations, the course helps you get comfortable with public speaking.

Linking theory with experience:  Students will be asked to apply the concepts and theories to their family histories and their own work experiences.  The family project and class discussions aim at helping students make these links. 

Course Requirements:
Attendance: An attendance sheet will be passed around at the beginning of class.  You cannot sign the sheet if you come in late.  Early departures or coming late to class — unless by permission — will be considered as absences.

Reading: You must come to class having done the assigned reading.  You cannot write your weekly assignment and cannot participate in weekly discussions without doing the readings.  This is an upper level class.  In taking it, you are making a commitment to come to class prepared.  Please bring the readings we are covering on particular day (book or reader or both) to class.
 
Weekly Assignment: For ten weeks, you will submit a 1.5-2 pages double-spaced typed assignment on the readings in response to the questions set in the course outline.  The assignment guidelines can be found linked from the top of the online syllabus. I indicate the weeks on which they are due in the “Course outline” below. The assignment must show that you have covered all the readings assigned.  There are no late submissions for this assignment and e-mail submissions will not be accepted.  You can get extra credit if you turn in weekly assignments for Weeks 14 and 16.
 
Presentations:   All of you will be invited to present your ongoing research for the final project in class.  Students will be expected to give useful feedback to presenters in class.
 
Writing:  You will write three short papers and a final research paper.  All of these papers will ask you to apply the analytical skills you will develop in this course.  The papers need to be word-processed and written following the writing guidelines in the course reader (R#1). 
 
Participation: Speaking and active listening in class counts for participation.  The success of this class depends on honest and respectful discussion that engages with the ideas presented in the readings, lectures, videos, and by your classmates.  Group-based discussions should always provide you with an opportunity to speak.  Students who do not participate but have excellent attendance cannot expect to get an “A” simply on the basis of attendance.
 
Office Hours:  Please use my office hours.  If you cannot make those, make an appointment to see me.  One-to-one meetings enable us to discuss your ideas, help you with any difficulty you face with the course material, and help me to get to know you better.  Students who have special needs should make an appointment to see me within the first week of class so that we can ensure your full participation.
 
Policies:
Late papers: All assignments are due in class. There are no late submissions for your weekly assignments but you can make up for them by doing the extra credit assignments for Weeks 14 and 16.  The deadlines for the 3 short papers and final research paper are firm.  If you submit the paper late, you will lose 1/3 of a grade for every day that an assignment is late.  For eg., if you submit a A- paper a day late, the grade will be scaled down to a B+.  If you foresee difficulties in meeting the deadline, please speak to me to make arrangements.

Absences: Attendance is mandatory.  An attendance sheet will be passed around at the beginning of class.  Please make sure that you’re in class on time so that you can sign it.  You are allowed one unpenalized absence (i.e. one week of class).  You will lose 1/3 of a grade for every absence after that. I need you to inform me by e-mail if you cannot attend class.  Your absences will also be reflected in the grade you receive for participation.
 
Academic honesty:  Any infraction of codes of academic honesty will lead to sanctions from the instructor. All ideas and quotations that are taken from external sources such as sources from the library, articles in the reader, or material from the worldwide web need to be correctly cited following a style manual. You will receive a failing grade if you do not properly attribute ideas that are not original to you, and/or copy or submit other people’s work.
Please read Section H of Impermissible Behavior of the Student Conduct Code for familiarizing yourself with what constitutes academic dishonesty http://www.hawaii.edu/student/conduct/imper.html section H.  See also http://studentaffairs.manoa.hawaii.edu/policies/ to understand the working of the Academic Grievance Procedure.
 
Grade Distribution:
Weekly Assignment                                                      20%
Attendance and participation                                         10%
3 short critical papers    (see outline for deadlines)          30%
Project thesis and references                                         10%
Final research project   (see outline)                              30%
 
Course Outline:
* Readings from the books are referred to by authors: eg, Hune and Nomura, Sister Circle, Hays.
*R #:  Articles from the 418 Reader

Week 1: What is “work”?

8/27:  Dickinson and Schaeffer, “The meaning of work” from Fast Forward (R#2); Amott and Matthaei, “Race, class, gender, and women’s work” from Race, Gender and Work (R #3) (To be done by 9/3)

Week 2:  Gendering work: Some key concepts

  • Weekly assignment (8/27 and 9/3 readings) = 2 points
Identify the main concepts in the two weeks of readings and define them in your own words in a couple of sentences.  How is femininity and masculinity constructed at work? Why is it important to consider race and class in considering how work is gendered? 
9/3: Mantios, “Class in America” from Race, class and gender in the United States (R#4); Guerrier and Adib, “Gendered identities in the overseas work of tour reps,” Gender, Work, and Organization, 11(3) (R#5); Sister Circle, “The Black side of the mirror” (Banks, 13-26) 

Week 3: Free and Enslaved Labor

  • Weekly Assignment= 2pts
What is the difference between “wage work” and slavery?  Choose two points to compare middle-class and working-class White women with enslaved and free Black women.
9/10:  Amott and Matthaei, “The growth of wage work” and “Whatever your fight, don’t be ladylike” from Race, Gender and Work (R#6& 7); Sister Circle, “Introduction: Historical overview of Black women and work” (Harley et al. 1-9) and “’Don’t let nobody bother yo’ principle’” (Davis 103-121)
Student-led Workshop:  How to start working on a research project: Outline steps and generate checklist

Week 4:  The Cult of Domesticity (1820s-WWII)

  • 1 para proposed research topic and attached list of sources
  • Weekly Assignment = 2pts
What is the cult of domesticity?  Comment on how the cult affected Asian and Native Hawaiian women.  End with an example from your own life about transgressing or subscribing to the cult.
9/17: Hune and Nomura, Ch 1 (McGregor); and Nomura, “Issei working women in Hawaii” from Making Waves (R #8); Hune and Nomura, Ch 6 (Kim); Causey, “It was hard work” 
Video, Picture Brides
 

Week 5:  The Cult of Domesticity (1820s-WWII)

  • Weekly Assignment due = 2pts
What is the major theme in the readings?  Compare the articles to comment on how the women discussed negotiate gender norms about work and domesticity. 
9/24: Hune and Nomura, Ch 5 (Gee), and Ch 9 (Wu); Sister Circle, “’What are we worth’” (Logan, 146-161) and Sister Circle, “A sister in the brotherhood” (Chateauvert, 184-194).

Week 6:  Work-Family Tightrope (WWII - Contemporary Era)

  • Paper 1 due (Media Exercise) = 10pts
  • Weekly Assignment = 2pts
List the major transformations in women’s work staring with WWII. How did these changes impact work and family life?  According to the readings, how do women and their families cope with work and family commitments?  How do you and your family members balance work and family?
10/1: Amott and Matthaei, “The transformation of women’s work” pp. 131-140 and 343-354  from Race, Gender and Work (R#9: Skim); Caplan, “Trying to make a decent living” Time, June 26, 2006 (R# 10); Tyre and McGinn, “She works, he doesn’t” Newsweek, May 12 2003 (R # 11); Hune and Nomura, Ch 17 (Bao); Hochschild, “Introduction” and “Overtime Hounds” from Time Bind (R# 12 &13)
Video: Waging a Living

Week 7:  Work-Family Tightrope (WWII - Contemporary Era)

  • Weekly questions due =2pts
List the policies (corporate and government) that have been and can be adopted to address the conflict between work and family.  What is your definition of sexual harassment?  Does it line up with how it’s defined in the readings?  What types of gender norms lead to sexual harassment in the workplace and how is that harassment racialized?
10/8:  Amott and Matthaei, “Rosie the Riveter” pp. 131-140 and “The Persistence of Racial-Ethnic, Gender, and Class Hierarchies” from Race, Gender and Work (R#9); Wisensak, “The changing workplace” from Family Leave Policy (R # 14); Parry, “Family leave policies” NWSA Journal 13 (3) (R# 15), Kingsbury, “Time off, with pay?” Time, June 26, 2006 (R# 16); Galang, “Filming Sausage” from Her Wild American Self (R #17); Deborah Lee, “He didn’t harass me as in harassed for sex” Women’s Studies International Forum 24 (1) (R# 18)

Student Presentations on Research Project

Week 8:  Service Work: Maid to Order

  • Weekly questions due =2pts
What is reproductive labor?  Drawing on all the readings, list the characteristics of commodified reproductive labor.  What factors have led to a global trade in reproductive labor and how do overseas contract workers take care of their families? 
10/15:  Hara, “Buddhaheads” from Bananaheart and Other Stories (R # 19); Ehrenreich, “Maid to order” from Global Woman (R # 20); Glenn, “From servitude to service work” (R # 21) from Signs 18(1); Chang, “The global trade in Filipina women” from Dragon Ladies (R # 22); Hune and Nomura, Ch 18 (Tung)
Guest Speaker on Sexual Harassment
Video: Modern Heroes/Modern Slaves

Week 9:  Service Work: Tourism

  • Weekly question due =2pts
How do gender, race and class shape the work that people do in Hawai’i’s tourist industry?  What are your views on the labor that goes into making Hawai’i a paradise for tourists?
10/22:  Desmond, “Let’s Lu’au” and “Tourism and the commodification of culture” from Staging Tourism (R# 23& 24); Hune and Nomura, Ch 12 (Stillman); Kaomea, “A curriculum of Aloha? Colonialism and Tourism in Hawai’i’s elementary textbooks” from Curriculum Inquiry 30(3) 
Student Presentations on Research Project 

Week 10: Service Work: Tourism

  • Weekly Assignment =2pts
Reflect on the ways in which the readings make visible the labor that goes into a) making a tourist spot, and b) into ensuring good labor conditions at tourist sites.
10/29:  Sister Circle, “Flying the love bird and other tourist jobs in Jamaica” (Bolles, 29-46); Jordan, “Report from the Bahamas” (R#25); Chandler and Jones, “Because a better world is possible” from Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 30(4) 
Student Presentations on Research Project

Week 11: Service work: Sex Industry

  • Weekly Assignment = 2pts
How do the readings redefine commercial sex as work?  How has this work taken on a global dimension and what risks does it pose for migrant women?  How do the readings change or validate your view of commercial sex?
  • Bring draft of thesis statement for research paper to class for workshop
11/5: Miller, “Trick identities: The nexus of work and sex” from Journal of Women’s History 15(4); Brennan, “Women work, men sponge, everyone gossips” from Anthropological Quarterly, Fall 2004, 77 (4); Kapur, “The ‘Other’ side of globalization: The legal regulation of cross border movements” from Canadian Woman Studies 22(3/4) (R# 26); Pehar, “e-brides: The mail order bride industry” Canadian Woman Studies 22(3/4) (R# 27)
Video: Live Nude Girls Unite!

Week 12:  The Military as a Gendered Workplace

  • Thesis statement and References =10pts
What, according to the readings, makes the military a gendered workplace?  By allowing women to serve in the military what gender norms are transgressed and which ones are strengthened?
11/12: “Women in the Military” chart from Shaw and Lee, Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions (R# 28); Grossholtz, “Search for peace and justice” from Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives (R# 29); Enloe, “Filling the Ranks”pp. 261-287 (In reader); Burke, Ch 3, “Transformation” (R#31)

Week 13: The Military as a Gendered Workplace

11/19: Enloe, “If a woman is married to the military…” pp. 158-197 (In reader); Takazato, “Report from Okinawa” from Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives (R# 31); Fiona Lee, “Militarism and sexual violence” from Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions (R# 32)
Guest Speaker on military wives

 Week 14:  Women and Welfare

  • Paper on the military due =10pts
  • Extra credit weekly assignment in the readings
11/26: Gordon, “How welfare became a dirty word” (R # 33); Hays, Chs1-3
Guest Speaker on welfare reform in Hawai’i

 Week 15: Women and Welfare

  • Research Project Due =30pts
12/3: Hays, Chs 4-6

Week 16: Women and Welfare; Last Thoughts
  • Extra credit weekly assignment on the readings
12/10: Hays, Ch 7-8
 

Paper on Welfare (10 pts) due 12/15 (Monday), 3pm at George 301