Colloquium on Women and Third World Politics
POS BC 3414y
Spring 1998
Leslie Calman

This colloquium explores the interactions among women, political structures, and political action in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Questions that will be raised include: How do women participate in politics? What are the influences on their level and mode of participation?  What benefits do or do not accrue to them through their participation?  How do different political systems and political cultures influence women's status and power?  How do different forms of political mobilization affect political change?  What are the politics of women in development, and what is the influence of the west on third world women?  We will be exploring both women's own political actions, and actions by political structures (interest groups, movements, bureaucracies, parties, legislatures, the international community, the World Bank, etc.) that affect women.

The colloquium readings will focus on a few areas of interest that we will explore together.  But this is a large topic!  During the latter part of the class, time will be reserved for presentations of individual research.  In the papers, students may explore conceptual issues or countries not discussed in class, so long as the topic fits under the broad rubric of women and third world politics.

Course Requirements:

1) Class Participation.  This is not a lecture course.  The class will function weekly as a discussion group.  There is a lot of reading for each class, and you are expected to do it: Class participation is central to the success of the course.

Participation has three components:

a) You must turn in 3 discussion questions, to be used in class, no later than 10 am on the day of class.  Your questions should be turned in to 101 Barnard Hall, or sent via e-mail to lcalman@barnard.columbia.edu.

b) Regular participation in class discussions.

c) One oral presentation of your research findings.

Together, class participation constitutes 50% of your final grade.

2) A 20-page (5000 word) analytical research paper.  The topic must be arrived at in consultation with Leslie Calman.  The paper is worth 50% of the final grade.

There are some deadlines along the way to completing your research paper, which is due in final form on April 28.  The completion of these steps in a timely fashion will be factored into your final grade (and so will failure to complete them):

1)You must clear the topic with Prof. Calman no later than February 27.

 2) You must turn in a one-to-two page research design and an annotated bibliography no later than March 13.  See the end of this syllabus for details.

Readings Available for Purchase at Posman Books at Barnard: (prices as listed in Books in Print are in parentheses)

Note: Everything is also available at both the Barnard Library reserve room and
at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, 101 Barnard Hall.

Sonia Alvarez, Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women's Movements in
Transition Politics. (Princeton, 1990). ($18.95)

Annie G. Dandavati, The Women's Movement and the Transition to Democracy in
Chile (Peter Lang, Inc. 1996). ($24.95)

Dixon-Mueller, Ruth.  Population Policy and Women's Rights (Praeger, 1993).
($18.95)

Jo Fisher, Out of the Shadows: Women, Resistance and Politics in South America.
($19)

Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu. (Verso, 1985). ($17)

Valentine M. Moghadam, ed. Identity Politics and Women: Cultural Reassertions
and Feminisms in International Perspective (Westview, 1994) ($30)

Julia Cleves Mosse, Half the World, Half a Chance: An Introduction to
Gender and Development (Humanities Press International, 1993). ($15.95)

Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance
Movement. (Columbia Univ.  Press, 1991). ($15)

Georgina Waylen, Gender in Third World Politics (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996)
($18.95)

COURSE OUTLINE:

1/20 Introduction to the course:

United Nations, The World's Women, 1970-1990: Trends and Statistics. (UN, 1991) Handout in class.  Also on reserve in the Women's Center, if you feel like browsing.

Recommended for future background readings about specific countries: Robin Morgan, ed., Sisterhood is Global (Anchor/Doubleday, 1984 or revised edition, 1995).

Barbara Nelson and Najma Chowdhury, eds., Women and Politics Worldwide (Yale, 1994)

Introduction to Women and Development:

1/27

Georgina Waylen, Gender in Third World Politics (Lynn Reiner, 1996), Introduction, and chapters 1 and 2.

Julia Cleves Mosse, Half the World, Half a Chance: An Introduction to Gender and Development (Oxfam Publications, 1993).

Women, Nationalism, and National Identities 

2/3

Waylen, chapter 3

Kumari Jayawardene, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (Zed Press, 1986).  These chapters: l(Introduction), 2(Turkey) 3(Egypt), 4(Iran), 6(India), 9(Philippines), 10(China), 12(Korea), Conclusion.

2/10

Deniz Kandiyoti, ed., Women, Islam and the State (1991), Introduction.

Identity Politics and Women: Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective, (1994) edited by Valentine M. Moghadam.  These chapters: 1, 2, 8, 9,10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21.

2/17

Cora Ann Presley, Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau Rebellion, and Social Change in Kenya (Westview, 1992).

Arati Rao, "The Politics of Gender and Culture in International Human Rights Discourse" pp. 167 - 175 in Women's Rights, Human Rights, edited by Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper (Routledge, 1995).

Nahid Toubia, "Female Genital Mutilation" pp.224-237 in Women's Rights, Human Rights, edited by Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper.

Women in Revolutions, Wars of Independence and National Resistance

2/24

Waylen, chapter 4

Julie M. Peteet.  Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement. (Columbia, 1991).

Samira Haj, "Palestinian Women and Patriarchal Relations" in Signs, 1992 vol. 17, no. 4 or in Rethinking the Political, ed.  Barbara Laslett, Jahanna Brenner and Yesim Arat, pp. 167-184.

3/3 In communist revolutions:

Rigoberta Menchu. I, Rigoberta Menchu. (Verso, 1985)

Maxine Molyneux, "Mobilization Without Emancipation?  Women's Interests, State and Revolution in Nicaragua," in Richard Fagan, ed., Transition and Development. (on reserve in Barnard library).  Same article appeared first in Feminist Studies volume 11, Summer, 1985. (On Reserve in Women's Center.)

Muriel Zazzari, "The woman Question in Cuba" in Rethinking the Political, pp. 414-431; or in Signs 1983, vol. 9, no. 2.

Women's Movements

3/10

Leslie Calman, Toward Empowerment: Women and Movement Politics in India. (Westview, 1992)

Radha Kumar, "Identity Politics and the Contemporary Indian Feminist Movement, chap. 13 in Identity Politics and Women, ed. Valentine Moghadam

3/17 Spring Break

3/24 Women's Movements in Authoritarian and then Democratizing Regimes:

Waylen, chs. 5 and 6

Sonia Alvarez, Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women's Movements in Transition Politics. (Princeton, 1990) Introduction and chs. 1-6, 10, 11.

3/31

Annie G. Dandavati, The Women's Movement and the Transition to Democracy in Chile

Jo Fisher, Out of the Shadows: Women, Resistance and Politics in South America, introduction, chapter 1, chapter 6.

The Development of the State and State Policies Toward Women

4/7

Charlton, Everett and Staudt, eds., Women, the State, and Development. These chapters: 1, 2 (on Western Europe), 3 (Eastern Europe and USSR), 4 (Colonial Africa), 5 (Islamic West Africa), 6 (Latin America), 9 (conclusion).

Gay Seidman, " 'No Freedom without the Women': Mobilization and Gender in South Africa, 1970 -1992 in Signs 1993, vol. 18, no.2 or Rethinking the Political, ed.  Barbara Laslett et al, pp. 210 - 239.

Delia Davin, "Gender and Population in the People's Republic of China," pp. 111- 129 in Women, State and Ideology, ed. Haleh Afshar

4/14 Issues: Women's rights as Human Rights

In Peters and Wolper, eds., Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives, ch. 1, 2, 3, 13, 15, 21, 22.

In The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights, Introduction, ch. 4, (trafficking of women), ch.6 (domestic violence).

4/21 Issues: Population Politics

Ruth Dixon-Mueller, Population Policy and Women's Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice (Praeger, 1993)

4/28 Student Reports.  ALL PAPERS DUE!!

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Research Design, Annotated Bibliography and Oral Report

A Guide by Leslie Calman

The Research Design should explain:

a) The analytical question you hope to answer, or the hypothesis you intend to prove.

b) Why you (and the reader) care about this question -- what will it help us to understand?  What are its broader meanings or implications?

c) How do you intend to answer your question, or prove your hypothesis: What lines of reasoning will you pursue?  How will you break down your "big" questions into smaller ones? (These smaller ones may well help you organize your paper into sections).  Identify the types of evidence you will need to research and analyze your questions.

Annotated Bibliography

The annotated bibliography should list and describe at least ten probably usable sources drawn from a combination of primary and secondary sources.  Explain why the source is probably useful for your essay.  You need not necessarily have read all your listings, but don't include material that really doesn't seem useful.

Ideally, research for the paper should include some primary sources (that is, material undigested by other scholars).  Such material may include newspaper accounts, particularly from the relevant country; interviews (performed by you or recorded by another); speeches or writings by government officials, opposition leaders, or participants in a movement; government reports or legislation; court decisions; an organization's reports or documents, etc.

The Oral Report 

The oral report should begin with the same material that's in your research design.  Tell the class what you set out to prove or discover, and why you thought your question was important.  Tell us how you went about your research.  What did you examine?  Then, tell us what you discovered.  Was it what you expected?  What do you make of it?

Just as a written report depends partly on the quality of your research and thinking, and partly on your skill in telling the story clearly, so too does an oral report depend substantially on the clarity of your presentation.  The best way to achieve this is by practicing.  Talk to your friend, talk to your mirror, talk on a city bus, while walking the dog, or in the shower, but by all means practice your report out loud before giving it. (OK, now you know how I practice.)