HST/WGS 349: Take-Home Final Exam
[Prof. Margaret S. Thompson—Spring 2017]
DIRECTIONS: Answer one question from each section. This test is open-book; when necessary or appropriate, you should consult and/or refer to readings, class notes, etc. [While references to titles and/or authors are required, quotes and precise page numbers are not necessary, though they may be used.] Make your answers as substantive and persuasive as they can be, within the available space. All exams must be grammatical and written in sentence form. Your entire exam is to be no more than 2000 words in length—the equivalent of about eight double-spaced, typed pages with normal font size and margins. This is an absolute limit; your exam can be shorter, but I will not read more than the length specified here. [Don’t count words; if it’s 8 pages in a 10 or 12-point font, double-spaced, with margins of about one inch, we will accept it.] As always, your answers will be evaluated on the basis of what we reasonably can expect within the specified limits. Note point values in allocating time and length.
This exam is due no later than 11 a.m. on Monday, May 8 (Eastern Daylight Time), and is to be submitted electronically (by email) to Michael Chaness at this address: . THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE DEADLINE! Do not attempt to submit a paper copy, as we will not receive it or be able to read it. Make sure you have followed all the following instructions before turning your paper in:
· Please number all answers.
· Exams should be prepared as a WORD or TEXT/RTF document, submitted as an attachment to your email. Do not cut and paste answers into the email itself.
· Make sure your name is on the exam—NOT just on the email in which you send it. Otherwise, you may not get credit for turning it in.
· Please do not expect us to acknowledge receipt of each exam. If you want an acknowledgement, set your email to provide you with indication that it was received. We will let you know if we cannot open the attachment, or if it is corrupted.
· Late exams will receive lowered grades. Very late exams will not be read at all. It is our intent to grade the exams within about 48 hours of their submission.
[It is our policy not to return take-home final exams. However, if you wish to discuss your exam once the semester is over, MST will be happy to go over it with you and to provide comments.]
PART I. [30 points]
1. In the “Introduction” to Where the Girls Are, Susan Douglas says: “The war that has been raging in the media is not a simplistic war against women but a complex struggle between feminism and antifeminism that has reflected, reinforced, and exaggerated our culture’s ambivalence about women’s roles for over thirty-five years.” (pp. 12-13)
How does Douglas develop this claim in her book and what does she identify as some of the causes of this ambivalence? Do you think she does a persuasive job of making her case? According to her, what dimensions of media coverage contribute most to this “struggle” (cite some examples to flesh out your discussion)? Finally, how does Rita Mae Brown provide specific examples of how this operates in the lives of the characters (not just Molly Bolt!) in Rubyfruit Jungle? In other words, you must include discussion of the novel in developing your answer here.
2. In the conclusion of an earlier edition of Women’s America, Kerber, and DeHart wrote:
The discrepancy between early feminists’ expectations and the actual accomplishments of women in the post-suffrage decades is a measure of how effectively internal and external barriers interacted to bind women to the traditional pattern of domesticity…. Although women themselves may have thought they chose “freely,” few were actually in a position to do so. Most had grown up in an atmosphere of profound conditioning that from infancy through adulthood assigned individuals of each sex social roles defined essentially by gender.
Analyze this statement, particularly in light of what Susan Douglas and Rita Mae Brown wrote—but, also, wherever you think it appropriate, in regard to other materials we have read in the final weeks of this course. Do you agree with Kerber, DeHart¸& Dayton’s assessment of the persistent power of gender roles in shaping women’s self-understanding? Do Douglas and Brown significantly challenge, or reinforce, this assessment of gender roles? How and why—or why not?
PART II. [30 points]
3. You are a political activist of the millennial generation, who is interested in inspiring others in your age group to get involved in promoting a “new agenda on behalf of 21st-century women.” What would you call this agenda? What would it contain? How would it both build upon and differ from feminist agendas of the past (first, second, and/or third & possibly fourth wave)? How would it balance legal/civil rights and matters of social/personal change? Important: While you can expend a little energy talking about how you would publicize or promote the agenda, your principal attention should be on its substance. It should be historically contextualized, and should be presented in a manner that indicates the significance of the agenda’s components, your priorities and the interrelationships (if appropriate) among the points you are making. As always, evidence for what you promote is essential! A good answer will draw upon a range of sources, but it must demonstrate familiarity with the insights in chapters 4 and 5 of Rory Dicker, and other materials assigned during April.
4. In A History of U.S. Feminisms, Rory Dicker argues: “the insight that ‘the personal is political’ has become such a part of our culture that people understand that the most private corners of their lives are shaped by power relations that are governed by society and culture.” Dicker goes on to say: “even if the phrase isn’t used today as frequently as it was during… second wave feminism,” the idea that women’s personal problems have “public causes and consequences” has persisted into the third and fourth waves (of feminism).
What “private corners” do you think Dicker means? Do you find her arguments compelling? Do you think that women today have made significant advances as a result of the previous waves of feminism? Reflecting on Dicker, Douglas and other authors we have read during the second half of this semester, discuss two or three issues women have faced—or, if you choose, continue to face—that are examples of the “personal is political.” A good essay will support its points with sources, and will not only place the issues in historical context and highlight women’s agency to deal with these challenges but will also grapple with the phrase “I am not a feminist, but.…”
PART III. [40 points]
5. One historian has written: “Women are the economy’s principal pawns. They are drawn into the workplace when needed, and rejected when they are not. This has occurred because, traditionally, it has been assumed that women have no need or desire for a permanent place in the paid workforce—that ‘normally’ their economic needs will be taken care of by men, and thus that ‘men come first’ when employment priorities are determined.” [Or, as MST has put it, “Women were jerked around.”]
Analyze this statement, focusing mostly on the years from 1920 to the present, but dealing at least some with the period from the Civil War to World War I. In your essay, make sure to include the impact of the wars, the Great Depression, and the immediate postwar years—as well as the modern, “feminist” and “postfeminist” periods. Have women been economic “pawns”—and, if so, has this remained consistently the case, or do you perceive change over time (and, if so, when)? Alternatively, did women really exercise agency? In other words, is this statement more reflective of social objectives than of actual employment patterns (that is, that women were expected to enter and leave the workforce at particular times and in particular ways, but in fact they did not)? Be sure that your answer includes women of various ethnicities, classes, and experiences, as well as explicit references to a range of readings and other types of evidence.
6. Throughout U.S. history, significant waves of activism by women on their own behalf often have paralleled or grown out of other movements on behalf of social change. Discuss and analyze the relationship between women’s activism and at least THREE other social change “movements” throughout American history, at least one of which must have occurred prior to 1900 (but after 1860). Be as specific as you can be in identifying the various other movements you discuss, and the primary concerns of women at each time; then move on to deal with the parallels and interrelationships (as well as conflicts or differences) between women’s activism and the other three (or more) movements or agendas you have selected. Be sure to draw upon relevant readings in developing and describing your ideas.