WGST 2233 - Women in American Culture

1. Demonstrate an understanding of different conceptions of what it is to be a “woman” - distinguishing between identity, biology and expression.
2. Recognize the impact of stereotypes about gender through an interdisciplinary lens.
3. Recognize important intersections between gender, race, and class in United States history and culture.
4. Identify diverse and changing social forces and the resulting differences in language, customs, religions, cultural artistic expressions, and/or social structures affecting women in the United States.
5. Explain the impact of ethnocentrism on women in the United States.
6. Examine social, historical, cultural, and economic contributions made by women of different racial and class identities.
7. Analyze the lived experiences of American women using the theoretical perspectives and basic concepts of interdisciplinary study.
8. Analyze a range of creative work generated by American women, such as artistic work, intellectual thought, and scholarship within the arts and humanities.
9. Articulate how an interdisciplinary interpretation of creative works in the United States, specifically in terms of gender, reveals insights into both human values and diversity of experience.
10. Demonstrate the use of informed and constructive language with respect to gender, corresponding to life and work skills required in a diverse social environment.
11. Examine how items 1-10 influence one’s personal response to artistic portrayals of American women and work by American women in the arts and humanities.

1. Distinction between concepts of gender/identity, sex assigned at birth, biology, expression, and sexual attraction.
2. Impact of gendered language and stereotypes on inclusion.
3. Introduction to concepts of gender, race, and class.
4. Illustration of the intersectionality of race, gender, and class (with a particular focus on these intersections with American women) in works and movements found within the arts and humanities.
5. Introduction to historical and cultural representations of changing roles for various groups in the United States - particularly with respect to distinct changes within groups of women.
6. Illustration of the history of women’s rights in the United States (with respect to things such as expected social roles, employment, financial freedom, voting, marriage, education, and sexual expression) through works found in the arts and humanities.
7. Contributions from women to the development of this nation’s political, economic, social, and/or cultural structures, examined through an interdisciplinary lens.
8. Introduction to the scope and variety of contributions to the creative arts and humanities made by women, with a focus on diverse depictions of American women and works created by American women.
9. Contributions from and representations of systematically oppressed women in U.S. history within the arts and humanities, and work of and by women in those groups who have lacked recognized power in the United States.