The Women’s Movements:
1) On pg 185- The Women’s Local Government Society was “supporting the claims of all women to be elected to local office, whatever their policies and their views on suffrage, while refusing to support men, however sympathetic to anything at all.” Does this advance their cause? Should women in politics simply be supported because they are women, no matter what their politics?
2) Connecting this reading to the past reading “The Different Voice of Service,” would the elite women’s activism in working-class districts (like the club and settlement movements) be considered “mature” activism? Was it mostly self interested? Would you consider their activism "charity" or "social justice"? Were these women helpful or condescending to the working-class? (mostly found on pages 216-217)
3) Was militant suffragism effective or alienating? Were the suffragists in England and the United States too militant or not militant enough?
4) How do suffragists use both equal rights and moral mission arguments to their advantage?
5) Was partial suffrage better than no suffrage, or did it emphasize than women are not equal to men and are only concerned with “women’s issues”?
6) Do you think single-sex women’s groups are better than groups that include males? In what ways? Is it more effective for groups to be multi-issue or focus on a single-issue?
7) What would be needed to form a truly cross-class, multiracial movement? Do women need a unifying experience in order to work together?
8) Why do you think the suffragist cause attracted some men? What do you think their motivations were?
9) Would it have taken much longer for women to earn the vote if it had not been for WWI? Why?
10) Why was the American West the first to give women the vote? Why were there less anti-suffragists in the West than in the East? What conditions made the West especially favorable?
11) How is racism and nativism used in the American suffragist movement?
Feminisms and Internationalism:
1) On page 225 the author of Feminisms and Internationalism says that she
used Rupp as a starting point. From the work we have read so far of Rupp and
this book, what similarities and differences do you see to their work?
2) On the bottom of 228 the authors talk about how women's influence on
foreign policy is never mentioned in text books or legal documents. How do
you think people would view certain events in history differently if they knew
that women were involved?
3) In the chapter about Australian women's movements she talks about the war
changing the face of feminism. Do you think wars around the world have
changed feminism in various countries? Why?
4) Amanda Labraca was a big influence in Chili's feminist movements. Do you
think her work was positive or negative to the start of their feminist
movements? Why?
KFAI's Womanist Power Authority is devoting the month of February to examining the "Prism/Prison of Privilege."
This Sunday, February 27, host Pat Nelson will convene a spectacular panel of community activists to delve deep into the oppressive contours of white privilege - what it means, how it originated and how it exploits and oppresses both peoples of color and people of European descent.
Tune in from 9:00 - 10:30 pm February 27 at 90.3 fm in Mpls and 106.7 fm in St. Paul to hear:
Vidhya Shanker
Roxanne Peyton
Kathy Mouacheupao
Chris Spotted Eagle
and Pat Nelson
1. Kwon states, "the relationship between Japan and Korea was not one of domination and subordination, but rather of competition between two countries with similar cultural backgrounds." (p. 40) could this explain the lack of nationalism within the New Korean Women's movement?
2. Kwon explains that some Korean women used the Christian based notion that man and woman were equal under God as an attack Confucianism's unequal creation of men and women. Early feminist's used this argument as well, but were confronted with other Bible passages that contradicted their claim. What differences between Korean feminists and US feminists may have caused these different reactions.
3. Rupp quotes Lavrin who states "a balance of national and international interests is absolutely essential for the survival of feminism as an expression of diversity ."(p. 192) Rupp uses this quote in reference to " colonized and dependent" countries," can the same statement be applied to the US with the same sense of urgency that Lavrin expresses? In other words, is Rupp saying national and international concerns are more important to post colonial countries than the imperialist countries?
4. Is there a possibility of a true global feminism, or will this notion ultimately result in the universalizing of women's experiences?
(Questions relating to Feminisms and Internationalism coming soon)
Questions Relating to Bolt:
(p.126) - Bolt describes the ‘club movement’ in the 1870’s and 1880’s as “sometimes prudently reformist, sometimes fully feminist.” What does Bolt seem to define as “fully feminist”? How did the women of the time seem to define their actions? Did they even draw a clear line between feminist and reformist?
(p.165) - [Related to the first question] In the first paragraph of the 4th section Bolt argues that even though many of the women who were involved in clubs did not have “feminist intent,” some of them “were none-the-less feminists.” What is the relationship between the label a person gives herself and the label a historian gives her later? Since this renaming is in light of the later feminist movements, how does Bolt’s label of these women reflect the particulars of those movements?
(p. 130) - The women in the repeal movement were fighting against a law that infringed upon prostitutes’ civil liberties while ignoring their higher-class male clients; thus they could be seen as helping the prostitutes. However, some female ‘repealers’ objectified prostitutes by holding them up as “helpless victim[s] of male lust,” in order to emphasize the immorality of the entire profession. Is fighting for a cause for problematic reasons and with questionable tactics helpful or hurtful in the end?
(p.174-177) - What problems did working-class and middle-class women face in working together? How did sexism and classism weave together within both women’s and men’s activism?
The Women’s Student Activist Collective Presents:
“Pain, Passion and Profit” film screening
Thursday, February 24
7pm
Coffman 202
Everybody welcome
Discussion to follow
Pain, Passion and Profit is an inspirational look at women entrepreneurs
through the eyes of Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop who has
always maintained a strong commitment to the idea of “profits with
principles”. Several women in Africa who have successfully developed
small-scale business enterprises in their own communities provide a focus
for Roddick to pose questions about how the role and status of women
affects their enterprises and how those enterprises provide a means of
community and economic development for women. Pain, Passion and Profit
gives an in-depth look at global feminism and economic development as well
as a personal and spirited view of the connections between the experiences
of women entrepreneurs in the First and Third Worlds. 49 Minutes
This film is part of WSAC’s “Learning to be an Ally” series, and is
co-sponsored by the Office for University Women
The Women's Student Activist Collective
Coffman Union, Suite 202
300 Washington Ave. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612.625.1611, wsac@umn.edu, www.tc.umn.edu/~wsac
10th Annual International Women¹s Day Celebration
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Coffman Memorial Union
University of Minnesota
Join us as we celebrate Beijing & ten years of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the strength and diversity of Minnesota women.
Presented by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights and the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota
Keynote speakers:
Plenary sessions, workshops, music, dance, film, and display tables from over 50 co-sponsoring organizations
Free and open to the public
Special thanks to the Women¹s Foundation of Minnesota and the following University of Minnesota groups for their generous support:
For more information and updates on IWD 2005, see www.mnadvocates.org.
1) As British and American women were challenging their place in the private sphere, in the way of campaining for marriage reforms and suffrage, how was gender either played up or played down?
2) Consider this statement: "Through 'the press, tracts, books, and the living agent', they were to 'guide public opinion upward and onward in the grand social reform of establishing woman's co-sovereignty with man'".
Here, who is the intended subject? Who is guiding the reform? Who will be co-sovereign with man?
3) In what ways were the Cult of Domesticity reflected in women's campaigns?
4) In what ways were comtemporary racial and class prejudices alienating: Who was alientated? Did complicity in assimilationist tactics shape these alienations?
Feminisms and Internationalism
• Lavrin states “Nationalism and all the centrifugal forces that may cause a cacophony of noises rather than a chorus of states purposes are serious obstacles if not threats to creating an intercontinental feminist spirit.” (179) What does Lavrin mean by this? How is nationalism a threat to an intercontinental feminist spirit? Is an intercontinental feminist spirit even possible?
• The Argentine Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and the model created by them was criticized by some feminists. Can motherhood be used as a political tool for international feminism? Or does it exacerbate the women-femininity-mother, men-masculinity-state polarity?
• How do the different political realities, as experienced by many women of different Latin American countries, affect international feminism?
• Does too much specificity in feminism weaken the view of feminism as based on gender solidarity?
• What kind of intervention is Asuncion Lavrin trying to make in her article?
Feminisms and Internationalism 214-224
Bolt
You can now pick up your Bolt text from Amazon. They'll also be bringing copies of it to class on Monday, to help those of you who don't have time/transportation to get over there this week.