RATIONALE:
The purpose of this essay is to enhance your understanding of two disparate
feminist movements by looking at them in comparative perspective. Even with
similar strategies, some organizations succeed, while others fail. Understanding
the historical reasons for these differences will help you to evaluate more
contemporary movements as well. For this assignment, you’ll need to
at two feminist movements and analyze their successes and failures. As a
student in this course, you are part of the academic dialogue about feminism’s
history, and this type of writing is a vital part of that conversation.
This essay provides you with the opportunity to hone your analytical and
communication skills, building on the work you’ve done in your informal
writing.
LOGISTICS:
Your paper will look at two different feminist movements from the readings
between January 31 and March 7. You’ll need to identify what problems
these women identified, their strategies for correcting these perceived
problems, the outcomes they hoped to achieve, what actually happened, and
why. Also, it’s important to consider what criteria for “success”
and “failure” you’re using, and to reflect on how these
criteria would have been perceived by the women you’re writing about.
Make sure that your paper adequately addresses the assignment and that it has a clear organization and thesis. Content is much more important than length. Your paper should be three to five pages long, typed, and double-spaced. [HINT: Your thesis will likely address why these movements were (or weren’t) successful.]