Rosalind Rosenberg                                                                     

BLI BC 3450

420 Lehman Hall

Seminar - 4 points                                                                  

Fall 2009                                                                                                                                                            

 

Women and Leadership

Women are now half the labor force in the U.S., and they are graduating from professional schools in numbers equal to men, but they still lead only a handful of Fortune 500 companies.  Women vote, and they now do so in greater numbers than men, but the U.S. ranks only 16^th in the world in terms of female political representation.  Even in civic affairs, where women have long been most creative, they rarely lead.  For women of color the situation remains particularly bleak.  With but a few exceptions, they are invisible at the top.

This seminar will examine the social conditions and linguistic practices that have shaped the gendering of power in the United States and around the world over the past century.  Through examples drawn from social reform, education, labor, civil rights, business, and politics, we will explore leadership in varying racial, class, and regional contexts. 

Prerequisite: Selection by the instructor. Class not to exceed 15 students.

 

Requirements and Grading: 

 

• Weekly critical reactions (no more than 250 words) to the readings, posted electronically by midnight the evening before class (20% of grade)

 

• Active participation in class discussions (20% of grade)

 

• A critical essay (no more than 1200 words) on the assigned readings for one week, due the day before the readings are discussed (20% of grade)

 

• A 10-15 page research paper, on a topic to be chosen in consultation with the instructor -- presented orally to the class in Week 12 or 13, and in final draft on the last day of classes (40% of grade). 

 

 

 

Readings:  The following books will be available for purchase at Columbia Bookstore.  Most articles are available on-line; all readings are on reserve in the Barnard Library.

 

Vivian Gornick, The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2005).

Lynn Olsen, Freedom’s Daughters (New York: Scribners, 2001).

Dorothy Sue Cobble, The Other Women’s Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).

Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to do About It (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Marie C. Wilson, Closing the Leadership Gap: Add Women, Change Everything (New York: Penguin, 2004).

Joan Scott, Parité: Sexual Equality and the Crisis of French Universalism (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2005).

Erin Solaro, Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military.  Emeryville CA,: Seal Press, 2006.

Pat Heim and Susan K. Golant, Hardball for Women (New York: Penguin, 2005).

Jennifer Baumgarden and Amy Richards, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000).

 

 

 

 

 

Schedule of Readings and Discussion

 

 

Week 1 - (9/9) – Introductions

 

 

Week 2  - (9/16) – How have gender and sexuality shaped power?

 

Vivian Gornick, The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2005). 

Joan W. Scott, “Gender:  A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” American Historical Review, vol. 91, no. 5 (December, 1986):  1053-1075.

Estelle Freedman, "Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and American Feminism, 1870-1930," Feminist Studies 5 (3) (1979): 512-529.

Sara M. Evans, “Chapter One: The Way We Were; The Way We Are,” Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century’s End (New York: First Free Press, 2004), 1-18.

 

 

Week 3 - (9/23) – What difference has race made?

 

Lynn Olsen, Freedom’s Daughters (New York: Scribners, 2001), 13-199.

Belinda Robnett, “African-American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965: Gender, Leadership, and Micromobilization,” The American Journal of Sociology, 101, 6 (May, 1996): 1661-1693

Fadela Amara and Sylvia Zappi, Breaking the Silence: French Women’s Voices from the Ghetto, trasn. Helen Chesnut (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), “Prologue,” “Appendix I,” “Appendix II. 

 

 

Week 4 – (9/30) - What about class?

 

Dorothy Sue Cobble, The Other Women’s Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).

Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005), ch. 5.

 

 

Week 5 – (10/7) - The Family Claim

 

Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to do About It (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Barbara Hobson, “Feminist Strategies and Gendered Discourses in Welfare States; Married Women’s Right to Work in the United States and Sweden,” in Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States, eds. Seth Koven and Sonya Michel, pp. 396-429.

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, “Chapter 4: Childcare Support,” Babies and Bosses: Reconciling Work and Family, Volume 4- Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom (OECD, 2005), electronic book.

 

 

Week 6 – (10/14) – How do leaders get heard?

 

Marie C. Wilson, Closing the Leadership Gap: Add Women, Change Everything (2007).

Deborah Tannen, “The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why,” Harvard Business Review, vol. 73, no. 5b (Oct., 1995): 138-148. 

 

 

Week 7 – (10/21) - Last bastions: Politics

 

Joan Scott, Parité : Sexual Equality and the Crisis of French Universalism (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2005).

Andrew Reynolds, "Women in the Legislatures and Executives of the World: Knocking at the Highest Glass Ceiling," World Politics, 51, 4 (July 1999):  547-572.

Robin Morgan, Sisterhood Is Forever (New York: Washington Square Press, 2000)-“Running Our Lives: Electoral Politics,” 28-41.

 

 

Week 8 – (10/28) - Last bastions: the Military 

 

Erin Solaro, Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military (Emeryville CA,: Seal Press, 2006). 

Laura L. Miller, "Not Just Weapons of the Weak: Gender Harassment as a Form of Protest for Army Men,” Social Psychology Quarterly, 60, 1 (Mar., 1997): 32-51.

Francine D’Amico, “The Women of Abu Ghraib,” and Lucinda Marshall,“The Misogynist Implications of Abu Ghraib,” in One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers, ed. Tara McKelvey (Emeryville, CA : Seal Press, 2007), 45-56.

 

 

Week 9 – (11/4) - Last bastions: Business

 

Pat Heim and Susan K. Golant, Hardball for Women (New York: Penguin, 2005).

Robin Morgan, “Up and Down Labyrinth: Ins and Outs of Women’s Corporate and Campus Leadership,” in Sisterhood Is Forever (New York: Washington Square Press. 2003), 387-392.

Erkut, Konrad & Kramer, “Executive Summary: Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance” Wellesley Centers for Women. http://www.wcwonline.org/pdf/CriticalMassExecSummary.pdf

Carly Fiorina, “Prologue,” “Not Till the Lady Leaves,” “The Consequences of Strength” Tough Choices: A Memoir (New York: Penguin, 2006), xi-xii, 27-34, 101-109.

 

 

Week 10 – (11/11) - Future Prospects

 

Jennifer Baumgarden and Amy Richards, Manifesta: Young Women,Feminism and the Future (New York: Farrar, Straus,and Giroux, 2000).

Manisha Desai, “Transnationalism: The Face of Feminist Politics post-Beijing.” UNESCO Report 2005: 319-30.

Special Reports on Presidents Michele Bachelet of Chile, Andrea Merkel of Germany and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.

 

 

Week 11 – (11/18) – Individual Conferences

 

  

(11/25) - Thanksgiving Eve – no class (individual conferences)

 

 

Week 12 – (12/2) - Class presentations of research, Group I

 

 

Week 13 – (12/9) - Class presentations of research, Group II

 

 

Last Day of Classes – December 8 - Final draft of research paper due

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possible Subjects for Final Research Paper

 

 

Part I:  Structural Problems:  Write a paper on the ways in which certain racial, cultural, or economic problems have impeded women’s success.  For example:

 

Why do women have trouble being heard?  Under what political systems have women been able to exercise leadership most effectively and why? 

 

 

 

Part II:  Individual Problems:  Write a paper on a woman leader in which you assess the extent of and reasons behind her successes and failures.  Here are some examples:

 

 

Women in Not for Profits

 

Noleen Heyzer(UNIFEM), Eleanor Smeal (Feminist Majority); Susan Berresford (Ford Foundation); Carol Bellamy (UNICEF); Judith Shapiro (Barnard); Amy Gutmann, (University of Pennsylvania); Ruth J. Simmons (Brown University); and Shirley M. Tilghman (Princeton University); Kim Gandy (NOW); Marian Wright Edelman Children’s Defense Fund.  

 

 

Women in Business

 

Oprah Winfrey (Harpo Productions and O Magazine); Carol Bartz (Yahoo); Carly Fiorina,(Hewlett Packard); Anne Mulcahy (Xerox); Patricia Russo (Lucent); Mary Sammons (Rite Aid); Zoe Cruz (Morgan Stanley); Patricia Dunn (Hewlett-Packard); Brenda Barnes (Sara Lee); Abigail Johnson (Fidelity Management and Research); Martha Stewart; Katharine Graham (Washington Post); Janet Robinson (New York Times); Marjorie Scardino (Financial Times); Karen Elliott House (Wall Street Journal), Ann Moore (Time, Inc.)

 

Women in Government

 

Bella Abzug;  Shirley Chisholm; Geraldine Ferraro; Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State)Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Homeland Security), Nancy Pelosi (Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives); Eleanor Holmes Norton (first female head of EEOC, representative from District of Columbia);  Governors: Jennifer Granholm (Mich.) Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer; Olympia Snow (US senators); Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor (associate justices of the Supreme Court); Dr. Julie Gerberding, (Centers for Disease Control).

 

Women in Social Movements

 

The Civil Rights Movement, Peace and Anti- War Movement, Second-Wave Feminists, Third Wave/Young Feminists, Reproductive Rights, Labor and Environmental  Movements: Coretta Scott King, Jeanette Rankin, Emma Goldman; Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1962); Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva,  Ecofeminism Reconnecting a Divided World (United Kingdom: Zed Press 1993)

 

 

Women in the Military and in Defense Department

 

Claudia Kennedy, Retired Three-Star General in the United States Army; Ann E. Dunwoody, first Four-Star General in the United States Army.