PSCI 260
Power, Feminist-Style Spring 2019
Division II Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed WGSS 260
This is not the current course catalog

This course examines one of the most important concepts in the analysis of sex and gender and efforts to envision sexual and gender justice–the concept of power–from multiple feminist perspectives. At the core of feminism lies the critique of inequitable power relations. Some feminists claim that power itself is the root of all evil and that a feminist world is one without power. Others portray the feminist agenda as one of taking power, or of reconstructing society by exercising a specifically feminist mode of power. In this course, we will look at feminist critiques of power, how feminists have employed notions of power developed outside of the arena of feminist thought, and efforts to develop specifically feminist ideas of power. Along the way, we will ask: Are some concepts of power more useful to feminism? Can certain forms of power be considered more feminist than others? How can feminist power be realized? Thinkers we will engage include Judith Butler, bell hooks, Catherine MacKinnon, Hannah Arendt, and Gloria E. Anzaldúa.