Psychology of Gender

Psychology 264/American Studies 264/Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies 294

Spring 2008

Professor: Joan Ostrove Olin-Rice 325 696-6464 ostrove@macalester.edu http://www.macalester.edu/~ostrove/

Office hours: Wednesdays, 1 – 3 p.m., and by appointment

Welcome to the Psychology of Gender! Although the existence of the psychology of gender as a specific way of thinking about and doing work in the field of psychology has only existed officially since around the time of the second wave of the U.S. women’s movement (that is, the early 1970s), its conceptual and empirical reach is both deep and wide and its history is (relatively) long. Because gender operates and exists in virtually every dimension of our lives, pretty much every way of thinking about and doing psychology can also involve or be informed by an analysis of gender. This class will introduce you to only some of the myriad ways in which psychologists and people in related disciplines have begun to understand the biological, psychological, social, and cultural meanings and implications of gender and its intersections with class, race, physical ability, sexuality, etc. It is my expectation that you will be excited, challenged, frustrated, annoyed, and maybe occasionally bored by and with the material in the class. I hope you will be inspired to learn more about and delve more deeply into the psychology of gender.

Requirements

It is your primary responsibility to come to class prepared, having read and thought about the readings for the day. Participation may mean a lot of different things – sharing your ideas and thoughts; listening well to others’ ideas; asking questions; connecting the course material to issues in your life or the lives of other people you know, and/or to issues on campus and in the world, etc.

In addition, the course has the following requirements:

• Exams: There will be three, non-cumulative in-class exams.
• Gender socialization assignment: This assignment will allow you the opportunity to examine an aspect of how people are socialized with respect to gender in more depth. A handout describing this assignment in fuller detail will be distributed in class at least two weeks before the assignment is due (March 13) and will also be posted on the course Moodle site.
• Final project: Details about the final project, in which you will examine an aspect of the psychology of gender, or a prominent researcher in the field, in more depth. A handout describing the final assignment (due May 9^th) in fuller detail will be distributed in class and will also be posted on the course Moodle site.

Assignment	Percentage of final grade
Participation	5%
Exams	15% each (total = 45%)
Gender socialization assignment	15%
Final project proposal outline	5%
Final project	30%

The following required books are available at the campus bookstore:

• Crawford, Mary (2006). Transformations: Women, gender, and psychology. Boston: McGraw Hill.
• Jensen, Robert (2007). Getting off: Pornography and the end of masculinity. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
• Yoshino, Kenji (2006). Covering: The hidden assault on our civil rights. NY: Random House.

Details about how to access the following additional required readings will be provided in class.

• Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621-628.
• Hare-Mustin, R. T., & Marecek J. (1988). The meaning of difference: Gender theory, postmodernism, and psychology. American Psychologist, 43, 455-464.
• Hurtado, A., & Sinha, M. (2005). Restriction and freedom in the construction of sexuality: Young Chicanas and Chicanos speak out. Feminism & Sexuality, 15, 33-38.
• Jackson, S. (2005). ‘I’m 15 and desperate for sex’: ‘Doing’ and ‘undoing’ desire in letters to a teenage magazine. Feminism & Psychology, 15, 295-313.
• Kafer, A. (2004). Inseparable: Gender and disability in the amputee-devotee community. In B. G. Smith and B. Hutchison (Eds.). Gendering disability (pp. 107-118). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Landrine, H., Klonoff, E. A., & Brown-Collins, A. (1992). Cultural diversity and methodology in feminist psychology: Critique, proposal, empirical example. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 145-163.
• Martin, K. A. (1998). Becoming a gendered body: Practices of preschools. American Sociological Review, 63, 494-511.
• Phoenix, A., Frosh, S., & Pattman, R. (2003). Producing contradictory masculine subject positions: Narratives of threat, homophobia and bullying in 11-14 year old boys. Journal of Social Issues, 59, 179-195.
• Reid, P. T., Haritos, C., Kelly, E., & Holland, N. (1995). Socialization of girls: Issues of ethnicity in gender development. In H. Landrine (Ed.). Bringing cultural diversity to feminist psychology: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 93-111). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
• Thompson, B. W. (1992/2003). “A way outa no way”: Eating problems among African-American, Latina, and White women. In E. Disch (Ed.). Reconstructing gender: A multicultural anthology (pp. 178-192). Boston: McGraw Hill.
• Tolman, D. L., Impett, E. A., Tracy, A. J., & Michael, A. (2006). Looking good, sounding good: Femininity ideology and adolescent girls’ mental health. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 85-95.
• Wilson, D. J. (2004). Fighting polio like a man: Intersections of masculinity, disability, and aging. In B. G. Smith and B. Hutchison (Eds.). Gendering disability (pp. 119-133). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Zia, H. (2003). Where race and gender meet: Racism, hate crimes, and pornography. In E. Disch (Ed.). Reconstructing gender: A multicultural anthology (pp. 503-506). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Class schedule (subject to change!)

DATE	TOPIC	ASSIGNMENT
Tues, 1/29	Introduction to course and each other
Th, 1/31	What is the psychology of gender?	Crawford, Ch 1
Tues, 2/5	Meanings of difference	Crawford, Ch 4
Th, 2/7		Hare-Mustin & Marecek Landrine et al.
Tues, 2/12	Gender, status, and power	Crawford, Ch 2
Th, 2/14	“Man in a box”	Guest: Keith Edwards
Tues, 2/19	Meanings and implications of sex and gender	Crawford, Ch 5
Th, 2/21	Exam #1
Tues, 2/26	Growing up gendered	Crawford, Ch 6
Th, 2/28	Childhood	Martin Reid et al.
Tues, 3/4	Adolescence	Phoenix et al. Tolman et al.
Th, 3/6	Constructing sexuality	Crawford, Ch 8
Tues, 3/11	Constructing sexuality, continued	Hurtado & Sinha* Jackson Kafer
Th, 3/13	Gendered bodies	Crawford, Ch 7 Observation assignment due
3/15-3/23	SPRING BREAK!
Tues, 3/25	Gendered bodies, continued	Wilson Thompson
Th, 3/27	Bodies and body image	Guest: Jaine Strauss
Tues, 4/1	Work	Crawford, Ch 11
Th, 4/3	Exam #2
Tues, 4/8	Covering (a form of “doing” gender, sexuality, race, etc.?)	Yoshino (to p. 141)
Th, 4/10	Covering, continued	Yoshino (p. 142 to end) Fiske
Tues, 4/15	Images, power, and violence	Crawford, Ch 3 Zia
Th, 4/17	Images, power, and violence, cont.
Tues, 4/22	Pornography and masculinity	Jensen (entire book)
Th, 4/24	Ending rape	Guest: Keith Edwards
Tues, 4/29	Gender and well-being	Crawford, Ch 13
Th, 5/1	Exam #3
Tues, 5/6	Making a difference	Crawford, Ch 14

* Hurtado and Sinha (2005)’s article is a commentary on a now-classic article by Michelle Fine (1988). Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire, Harvard Educational Review, 58, 29-53. Please see Fine’s original article if you’re interested in learning more. Here is the abstract of her article:

Argues that the anti-sex rhetoric surrounding sex education and school-based health clinics does not enhance the development of sexual responsibility and subjectivity in adolescents. Despite evidence on the success of both school-based health clinics and access to sexuality information, the majority of public schools do not sanction or provide information on sexual desire or victimization. As a result, female students, particularly low-income ones, suffer most from the inadequacies of present sex education policies. Thus current practices and language lead to increased victimization, teenage pregnancy, dropout rates and increase the vulnerability of the students that schools, and the critics of sex education and school-based health clinics, claim to protect. The importance of including social and economic development in sex education is emphasized.

Course policies:

• Academic integrity: I expect all of you to follow the college’s guidelines regarding academic integrity, outlined in the Student Handbook. Please talk to me if you are not clear how these guidelines apply to the course. I will report any suspicion of academic dishonesty to the Dean of Academic Programs. Academic dishonesty usually results in at least a failing grade on the assignment, and a second instance of dishonesty may result in a failing grade in the course.
• Late work: You may not receive extensions on work in the class, except in the most extraordinary circumstances (in which case you will need documentation from the Dean of Students Office or Health Services). Work that is turned in late for any other reason will have a third of a grade taken off for each day that it is late (e.g., a B+ would become a B if you hand in an essay or your final paper any time after the exact time that it is due – the “day late” begins immediately after the time the assignment is due).
• Incompletes: I will only grant incompletes under extraordinary circumstances that occur in the second part of the semester. This will not include being really busy at the end of the semester.
• Written assignments: Please type, double-spaced with 12-point font, all of your written assignments for this course. Please do not use margins that are larger than 1 inch – all around. Don’t use smaller margins, or smaller font, either – length is not necessarily strength!

· Accommodations for students with disabilities: I will provide any reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities that will assist in making this course accessible and will provide an optimal educational experience for everyone. Please speak to me at the beginning of the semester so that we can make an effective plan. Assistant Dean of Students Irene Kao is responsible for Disability Services and is an excellent resource.

Grading:

Below are the guidelines I follow when assigning grades to essays and final papers. I use plusses and minuses when the work falls in between the qualities associated with each letter grade. Grades are based both on content and on writing style. I encourage you to ask for help from me, the MAX Center, or any other reasonable source if you’d like assistance with writing. Please acknowledge resources you use in a footnote to your paper.

• “A” grades are assigned to outstanding papers. These papers reflect a deep engagement with ideas, insightful analysis, and excellent mastery of the material from the course. Argumentation is logical and coherent, as well as well-documented. The paper addresses all aspects of the assignment fully and clearly. Finally, these “A” papers are well-written with respect to style and grammar.
• “B” grades are assigned to papers that demonstrate good understanding of the material, are coherently written, and that contain some insightful ideas. Sometimes “B” papers contain some really good ideas, but do not put things together as elegantly as they could. Other times all of the aspects of the assignment are there, but the ideas are not particularly innovative.
• “C” grades are given to papers that do not adequately cover the assignment, demonstrate that the material was not fully understood, and/or have problems with writing style. Sometimes “C” papers have some really good parts, mixed in with some parts that seem like they were not well-thought out. Papers with consistent grammatical or stylistic problems may receive a “C.”
• “D” grades are assigned to papers/essays that have serious problems – parts of the assignment are totally missing or are really incomplete, the writing is full of errors, the material was seriously misunderstood.

o “NC” grades are hardly ever given if a student has put even some work into the paper/essay. However, if the content is totally irrelevant, or the writing is such that it is simply impossible for me to follow the arguments, then I would assign a failing grade.