Threshold concepts in women's and gender studies chapter 1

“Launius and Hassel scaffold feminist analysis in a way that makes its underlying components highly accessible to novice students. This textbook provides students with a critical framework, while giving the instructor the flexibility to select companion texts for each of the threshold concepts.”

— Ann Mattis, Assistant Professor of English and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, University of Wisconsin—Sheboygan

“Launius and Hassel are the mediums of metacognitive awareness in the field of Women’s and Gender Studies, distilling threshold concepts so that students can become active agents in critiquing and shaping our gendered world. This book should be foundational in any Women’s and Gender Studies program.”

— Tara Wood, Assistant Professor of English and instructor in Gender Studies, Rockford University

“Threshold Concepts is my go-to foundational text for both teaching Women’s and Gender Studies classes and facilitating Safe Zone training. The extensive end of chapter questions and learning roadblocks sections help students process and apply the information. I appreciate that the authors succinctly frame and contextualize complex gender studies topics.”

—Christopher Henry Hinesley, Associate Director, Women’s and Gender Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology

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Threshold Concepts in Women's and Gender Studies Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing is a textbook designed primarily for introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies courses with the intent of providing both skills- and concept-based foundation in the field. The text is driven by a single key question: “What are the ways of thinking, seeing, and knowing that characterize Women’s and Gender Studies and are valued by its practitioners?” Rather than taking a topical approach, Threshold Concepts develops the key concepts and ways of thinking that students need in order to develop a deep understanding and to approach material like feminist scholars do, across disciplines. This book illustrates four of the most critical concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies—the social construction of gender, privilege and oppression, intersectionality, and feminist praxis—and grounds these concepts in multiple illustrations.

The second edition includes a significant number of updates, revisions, and expansions: the case studies in all five chapters have been revised and expanded, as have the end of chapter elements, statistics have been updated, and numerous references to significant news stories and cultural developments of the past three years have been added. Finally, many more “callbacks” to previous chapters have been incorporated throughout the textbook in order to remind students to carry forward and build upon what they have learned about each threshold concept even as they move on to a new one.

Christie Launius directs and teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. She has taught the introductory course for over 20 years at six different institutions. She is also active in the field of working-class studies; she is the book review editor for the Journal of Working-Class Studies and served as president of the association from 2014 to 2015.

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Holly Hassel has taught in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program and the English department at the University of Wisconsin Colleges since 2004. Her work on teaching and learning in women’s studies has been published in multiple books and journals. She is editor of the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College.

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Titles of Related Interest Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives Carole McCann and Seung-kyung Kim

Women Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies, Third Edition Edited by Mary Wyer, Mary Barbercheck, Donna Cookmeyer, Hatice Ozturk, and Marta Wayne

Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World, Second Edition Michele Tracy Berger and Cheryl Radeloff

Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings Edited by Carole Joffe and Jennifer Reich

Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age, Second Edition Eve Shapiro

Pursuing Intersectionality, Unsettling Dominant Imaginaries Vivian M. May

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Threshold Concepts in Women's and Gender Studies

Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing

Second Edition

Christie Launius and Holly Hassel

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Second edition published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2018 Taylor & Francis

The right of Christie Launius and Holly Hassel to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by Routledge 2015

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Launius, Christie, author. | Hassel, Holly, author. Title: Threshold concepts in women's and gender studies : ways of seeing, thinking, and knowing / Christie Launius, Holly Hassel. Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017043817 | ISBN 9781138304321 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138304352 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780203730218 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Women's studies. | Feminism. | Sex role. Classification: LCC HQ1180 .L38 2018 | DDC 305.42—dc23

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LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043817

ISBN: 978-1-138-30432-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-30435-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-73021-8 (ebk)

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https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043817

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Contents PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER

This chapter focuses on distinctions between sex and gender, exploring how gender is socially constructed, and to what ends, as well as how social constructions of gender are shaped by issues of race, class, age, ability, and sexual identity.

CHAPTER 3 PRIVILEGE AND OPPRESSION

Systems of privilege and oppression profoundly shape individual lives. This chapter explains how these systems play out via ideology and societal institutions, and are internalized by individuals.

CHAPTER 4 INTERSECTIONALITY

Intersectionality is at the heart of feminist analysis. This chapter explores how different groups benefit from or are disadvantaged by institutional structures, as well as how overlapping categories of identity profoundly shape our experiences within institutions.

CHAPTER 5 FEMINIST PRAXIS

This chapter unpacks how Women’s and Gender Studies prioritizes social change and discusses strategies for bringing about that change.

GLOSSARY

INDEX

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Preface Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing is a textbook designed primarily for use in the introductory course in the field of Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) with the intent of providing both skills- and concept-based foundation in the field. The text is driven by a single key question: “What are the ways of thinking, seeing, and knowing that characterize our field and are valued by its practitioners?” Through extensive review of the published literature, conversations with Women’s and Gender Studies faculty across the University of Wisconsin System, and our own systematic research and assessment of student learning needs, we identified four of the most critical threshold concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies:

the social construction of gender privilege and oppression intersectionality feminist praxis

This textbook aims to introduce students to how these four concepts provide a feminist lens across the disciplines and outside the classroom. The term “threshold concept” is defined by Meyer and Land as a core disciplinary concept that is both troublesome and transformative. As they go on to explain, “A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress.” A threshold concept is integrative, and when students cross the threshold and grasp a concept, “the hidden interrelatedness” of other concepts within that discipline becomes apparent (Cousin 4).

What Makes This Book Unique

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The majority of WGS textbooks tend to be organized around the institutions that foster and reinforce gender hierarchies while also acknowledging the intersections of gender with race, class, and sexuality. Typical examples of these institutions include women and work, the family, media and culture, religion and spirituality, health and medicine, etc. Some focus exclusively on the U.S., while others integrate, to greater or lesser degrees, a global focus. Most also conclude with a chapter on activism. This approach privileges coverage of content over the disciplinary ways of seeing, thinking, and knowing. These textbooks certainly introduce and employ these four threshold concepts, but often as a one-shot definition, with the assumption that students will come to understand the concepts’ centrality through encountering them repeatedly in the context of topical units, without their centrality being made explicit. What Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Thinking, and Knowing does is not “cover” material but rather “uncover” the key threshold concepts and ways of thinking that students need in order to develop a deep understanding and to approach the material like feminist scholars do, across the disciplines. The advantage of this approach is that rather than the “one-shot definition” that characterizes most texts, students continually learn and relearn how the threshold concept is illustrated across multiple contexts, thus reinforcing their understanding in more substantive ways. Further, foregrounding the “learning roadblocks” that many students encounter as part of the learning process helps circumvent and move more quickly past those misconceptions that keep students from progressing in their understanding of Women’s and Gender Studies.

In Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies, we make the assumption that ways of seeing, thinking, and knowing in Women’s and Gender Studies must be made transparent to students, and that learning will be done most effectively if students understand the course goals, the pedagogical approach, and the potential roadblocks to understanding. We contend that the work happening on the part of the instructor and the work happening by students should not be “parallel tracks” that each negotiates independently, but part of the teaching and learning conversation itself, happening in and about the content, as part of the work of the classroom.

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Features

Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies is organized strategically and conceptually in a reverse pyramid structure. That is, each threshold concept is introduced at a broad level as the key idea of the chapter, while subsequent chapter components add layers of depth and specificity. Each chapter contains the following elements:

Opening Illustration: The opening illustration engages readers in the topic—typically these are drawn from historical, cultural, biological, or current events topics. A Feminist Stance: We use the framing concept of a “feminist stance” (Crawley, et al.) to help students continue to understand the nature and strategies of a feminist approach with each chapter they read. Our intent is not to suggest that there is a singular, monolithic feminist stance, or what that stance is; instead, we draw attention to what a feminist stance does —employ a critical lens using the threshold concepts. Definition of the Threshold Concept: Each chapter focuses on one of four threshold concepts. The chapter opens with a definition of the threshold concept, drawing from established and relevant research across interdisciplinary fields of study. Framing Definitions and Related Concepts: More specificity is offered by related concepts, or other explanatory terminology by scholars in the field that help students see how the threshold concept is supported and illustrated by related terms. Learning Roadblocks: Once students have an initial grasp of the concept and its related terms, the chapter introduces common “learning roadblocks” or misconceptions that many students encounter which prevent a full grasp of the idea. These misconceptions are directly addressed along with tools that can serve as a “check for understanding” so students are able to understand not only why these learning roadblocks crop up but also where their own learning is in relation to the roadblocks. The goal of this feature is to help students identify common

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misunderstandings that prevent them from “crossing the threshold.” Anchoring Topics: To further develop students’ understanding of the threshold concept, each chapter includes a discussion of it in relation to three anchoring topics: work and family, language, images, and symbols, and bodies. These three anchoring topics were chosen because of their centrality to feminist scholarship and activism. Selected issues within the anchoring topics are discussed through the prism of the particular threshold concept in an effort to help students develop a scaffolded, nuanced, and complex understanding of the cluster of related issues within the anchoring topics. Case Study: The case study offers an in-depth and analytical perspective on one key issue that should crystallize students’ understanding of the concept. Case studies have been selected based on relevance to the threshold concept, and to represent a broad range of interdisciplinary issues. Evaluating Prior Knowledge Activities: As Ambrose and colleagues have observed, students’ prior knowledge (particularly commonsense understandings or everyday use of discipline-specific terms) has a strong impact on how students absorb new knowledge. Activities that ask students to evaluate prior knowledge, to monitor their progress, and to develop a metacognitive understanding of their knowledge building stem from this learning principle. Application Exercises and Skills Assessments: Gender and women’s studies classrooms typically emphasize several key related values focused on participatory learning: validation of personal experience, activism, reflexivity, action orientation, and local–global connections (see Crawley et al., 2008; Stake and Hoffman, 2000; Markowitz, 2005; Maher, 1987; Shrewsbury, 1993). This praxis orientation (see Blake and Ooten, 2008) is reflected in application exercises and skills assessments for each chapter in which students are invited to connect disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge with lived experience. Discussion Questions: Consistent with the signature feminist pedagogies of Women’s and Gender Studies classrooms that focus

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on collaboration, interconnectedness, and creating a community of learners (see Hassel and Nelson, 2012; Chick and Hassel, 2009), this book adheres to the convention of providing discussion questions for each chapter. Writing Prompts: The text includes writing activities that encourage students to process, reflect on, and integrate the course material. Works Cited and Suggested Readings: In this edition, we have separated the Works Cited section from the Suggested Readings. Because the text is intended to serve as a critical introduction to key concepts and not as a reader, we provide suggested, relevant readings that instructors can use to support and develop students’ learning. In this way, we imagine the book to be part of a customized course in which the instructor can structure the curriculum around key ideas, then provide a deeper learning experience for students by adding primary documents, classic essays, or online texts to the course that reflect the instructor’s specific learning goals and area of expertise.

Goals of the Book

As coauthors, our goals for this book have been to provide a text that reflects what we have learned about student learning needs in Women’s and Gender Studies throughout our collective years of teaching in the field as well as current thinking in the field and in higher education more broadly about what it means to learn within a discipline or interdisciplinary area. The organization of the text around threshold concepts is intended to reflect what Lendol Calder calls an “uncoverage” model, one in which students learn to think, see, and know like feminist scholars rather than absorb a body of knowledge to be “covered.”

As a result, our intent is to help students learn those ways of knowing and then be able to apply them to new subjects, in the way that feminist scholars do. We have tried to reflect in the text some of our shared values as teachers and writers. We have aimed to reflect an up-to-date sensibility

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in including recent data and research studies as well as current phenomena. Our tone emphasizes that arguments about sex and gender (and any number of other issues within feminist scholarship and activism) are unresolved, ongoing, and controversial, and the text contextualizes a feminist perspective by explaining what that perspective stands in contrast to.

While we treat each of the four threshold concepts in a separate chapter, which in one sense implies their separability and separateness, they are of course interconnected, and we strive to make those connections explicit within each chapter. In some instances this means returning to the same topic across chapters and highlighting different elements of it. For example, though feminist praxis has its own separate chapter, we have identified the ways that discussions of “problems” within Women’s and Gender Studies can be responded to with action or different ways of thinking. Similarly, though intersectionality has its own chapter, we have attempted to incorporate an intersectional perspective and intersectional analysis throughout the book, addressing the interrelatedness of systems of privilege and oppression as part of an intersectional examination both across and within topics and themes.