Women's and Gender Studies: Essential Concepts and Figures

Women's and Gender Studies Exam Preparation

You will likely face two parts on your exam:

1. Matching/definitions (all those terms and people listed).
2. Essay questions (the bolded items + fairy tale analysis).

This study sheet breaks down the material into matching-style definitions and practice essay answers for the key topics from the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2.

Part I: Matching – Key Terms & Figures

(Definitions are brief for quick matching.)

Introduction & Lectures

• Women’s & Gender Studies (WGS) – An interdisciplinary field examining how gender shapes society, power, identity, and inequality.
• Feminist/Feminism – A movement and ideology seeking gender equality, challenging patriarchy, and valuing women’s rights/experiences.
• Women’s domestic labor – Unpaid household/caretaking work traditionally assigned to women, undervalued in economics.
• Career breaks – Interruptions in paid employment (often due to childcare or family duties), affecting women disproportionately.
• Transgender – A person whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth.
• Edward Said – Scholar who developed postcolonialism, analyzing power, race, and imperialism.
• Postcolonialism – The study of effects of colonialism on cultures, identities, and power structures.
• Queer Theory – Challenges norms about sexuality and gender; critiques heteronormativity.
• Mary Wollstonecraft – Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), an early feminist thinker.
• Abigail Adams – Urged husband John Adams to “remember the ladies” in new U.S. laws.
• Sojourner Truth – Former enslaved woman; activist; famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman?”.
• Angelina & Sarah Grimké – Southern sisters; early abolitionists and women’s rights advocates.
• First wave feminism – 19th–early 20th century; focus on suffrage and legal rights.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Organizer of Seneca Falls; co-wrote the Declaration of Sentiments.
• Lucretia Mott – Quaker abolitionist and co-organizer of Seneca Falls.
• Declaration of Sentiments – 1848 Seneca Falls document; modeled on the Declaration of Independence; demanded women’s rights.
• Seneca Falls, New York – Site of the first women’s rights convention, 1848.
• Frederick Douglass – Abolitionist; supported women’s suffrage.
• Susan B. Anthony – Suffrage leader; co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association.
• Suffragists – Activists fighting for women’s right to vote.
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett – Anti-lynching activist; suffragist.
• Alice Paul – Radical suffragist; led 1910s protests; co-founded the National Woman’s Party.
• Lucy Burns – Suffragist; partner of Alice Paul.
• Margaret Sanger – Birth control advocate; founder of Planned Parenthood.
• Planned Parenthood – Reproductive health organization founded by Sanger.
• Birth control pill – Approved in 1960; expanded women’s reproductive freedom.
• Second wave feminism – 1960s–80s; focused on the workplace, sexuality, and reproductive rights.
• Gloria Steinem – Feminist journalist; co-founder of Ms. Magazine.
• Ms. Magazine – Feminist magazine launched 1971.
• Dorothy Pitman Hughes – Black activist, co-founded Ms. Magazine with Steinem.
• Florynce Kennedy – Radical Black feminist lawyer.
• Margaret Sloan – Black feminist activist, writer, and editor.
• Shirley Chisholm – First Black woman elected to U.S. Congress; ran for president (1972).
• Betty Friedan – Author of The Feminine Mystique; co-founded NOW.
• The Feminine Mystique – 1963 book exposing women’s dissatisfaction with domestic roles.
• Third wave feminism – 1990s–2000s; focus on diversity, intersectionality, and sexuality.
• Rebecca Walker – Coined the term “third wave feminism.”
• Postfeminist – Belief that feminism has achieved its goals, sometimes dismissing continued struggles.
• Global North, Global South – Terms highlighting inequalities between wealthy industrialized nations and poorer developing nations.

Chapter 1: Culture, Language, and Representation

• Culture – Shared beliefs, values, and practices of a group.
• Norm – Social rule or expectation.
• Language and male bias – Language privileging men (e.g., “mankind,” using male pronouns as default).
• Phallologocentrism – Male-centered thinking embedded in language.
• Racial bias in language – Words/phrases that normalize whiteness or stigmatize others.
• Class bias in language – Language reinforcing socioeconomic stereotypes.
• Heteronormative bias in language – Assuming heterosexuality as the default or normal state.
• Gendered insults – Words like “bitch,” “slut” that devalue women.
• Sexualization of women and girls – Treating them primarily as sexual objects.
• Sexual objectification – Reducing a person to body parts or desirability.
• Feminists on pornography – Debate: harmful exploitation versus possible empowerment.
• MTV & sexualization – Media reinforcing the objectification of women.
• Madonna, Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga – Artists both critiqued and celebrated for challenging or reinforcing sexual stereotypes.
• Video hoes – Term for women in hip-hop videos; criticized as degrading.
• Queen Latifah – Rapper/actress challenging misogyny in music.
• Infantilization of women – Treating adult women as childlike or helpless.
• Crafts vs. high art – Women’s art often devalued as “craft” versus men’s as “fine art.”
• Artemisia Gentileschi – Baroque painter; depicted strong women.
• Maria Montoya Martinez – Pueblo artist, pottery innovator.
• Maya Lin – Architect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
• Guerrilla Girls – Feminist art collective; critiqued sexism in the art world.
• Sappho – Ancient Greek poet; wrote about women’s love.
• Alice Walker and heroism – Defined “womanist”; honored overlooked women.
• Suzanne Pharr’s article – Weapons of sexism:
  • Economics – Wage gaps, unpaid labor.
  • Violence – Domestic abuse, sexual assault.
  • Homophobia – Used to police gender roles.
  • Internalized sexism – Women believing negative stereotypes.
  • Puberty – Social pressure increases.
  • Threatening insults – “Whore,” “lesbian” silence women.
  • Gay men – Seen as threats to male dominance.

Chapter 2: Feminist Theories and Philosophies

• Confucius – Believed women were inferior; must obey men.
• Plato – Suggested women could be educated and serve in state roles.
• Aristotle – Saw women as “misbegotten males,” naturally subordinate.
• Classical liberal political thought – Stressed freedom but historically excluded women.
• James Mill – Believed women should be ruled by men.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Advocated education for women only to please men.
• John Stuart Mill – Argued for women’s equality; co-authored feminist works.
• Harriet Taylor Mill – Early feminist; influenced J.S. Mill’s ideas.
• Liberal feminists – Seek reform within the existing system (laws, education, workplace).
• Affirmative action – Policies to increase equity in jobs and education.
• Socialist feminists – Link women’s oppression to capitalism.
• Friedrich Engels – Critiqued the family as an economic structure of oppression for women.
• Bourgeois wives – Middle-class wives confined to domesticity.
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper; critiqued domestic roles.
• Emma Goldman – Radical anarchist, feminist.
• Simone de Beauvoir – Author of The Second Sex.
• The Second Sex – Argued women are defined as “Other” in relation to men.
• Object-like status – Women treated as things, not subjects.
• Woman as “other” – Women defined in contrast to the male “norm.”
• Misogyny – Hatred or disdain toward women.
• “The personal is political” – Feminist slogan: private issues reflect political structures.
• Womanism – Alice Walker’s Black feminist perspective; more inclusive.
• Poststructuralist analysis – Power and identity shaped through discourse.
• Foucault’s discourses – Systems of knowledge/power that shape reality.
• Psychoanalytic feminists – Use Freud/Lacan to analyze gender identity formation.
• Ecofeminism – Links the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature.
• Transnational feminism – Addresses global inequalities, avoids Western dominance.
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty – Critiqued Western feminism’s view of “Third World women.”
• Uma Narayan – Focused on colonialism, culture, and feminism.
• Radical feminism – Focuses on patriarchy as the root cause of all oppression.
• Ethics of care – Emphasizes relational, empathetic ethics.
• Essentialism – Belief that gender traits are innate, not socially constructed.

Part II: Essay Practice

1. Defining Women’s & Gender Studies (WGS)

WGS is an interdisciplinary field examining gender’s role in shaping culture, politics, and society. It critiques power structures, explores intersectionality (how race, class, and gender overlap), and values voices traditionally excluded (women, LGBTQ+, racial minorities).

2. The Waves of Feminism

Feminism is the belief in equality for all genders. It challenges patriarchy and seeks systemic change.

• First wave: Focused on suffrage and legal rights (19th–early 20th century).
• Second wave: Focused on the workplace, sexuality, and reproductive rights (1960s–80s).
• Third wave: Focused on intersectionality, diversity, and global perspectives (1990s–2000s).

3. Language, Bias, and Oppression

Language reflects and reinforces power structures. Examples of bias include:

• Male bias: Using terms like “mankind,” assuming the male norm.
• Racial/class bias: Words reflecting stereotypes or normalizing whiteness.
• Heteronormative bias: Assuming heterosexuality as the default.

Insults often sexualize or belittle women (“slut,” “bitch”), shaping self-perception and enforcing inequality by limiting women’s public expression.

4. Suzanne Pharr – Weapons of Sexism

Pharr identifies tools used to maintain patriarchy and discourage resistance:

• Economics: The pay gap and unpaid domestic work keep women financially dependent.
• Violence: The threat of abuse enforces control and silence.
• Homophobia: Used to police gender roles; the label “lesbian” is used to silence women who defy expectations.

5. Simone de Beauvoir – Object-like Status & “Other”

In The Second Sex (1949), de Beauvoir argued:

• Women are defined in relation to men (“woman as Other”), who represent the universal subject.
• Patriarchy denies women subjectivity, treating them as objects rather than autonomous beings.
• This structural inequality must be challenged to achieve true freedom.

6. Sexualization, Objectification, and Empowerment

• Sexualization: Reducing women to bodies in media and advertisements.
• Objectification: Women are valued primarily as objects of desire, not as subjects with agency.
• Empowerment: This is a complex debate. Sexual expression can reinforce oppression (if dictated by the male gaze) or be reclaimed as agency (e.g., artists like Madonna or Lady Gaga challenging norms). Analysis must consider context and power dynamics.

7. Classical Thinkers on Women

Many classical thinkers justified female subordination, views that feminism later resisted:

• Confucius: Women are subordinate; they must obey father, husband, and son.
• Aristotle: Women are “incomplete men”; naturally inferior and lacking full rationality.
• James Mill: Women should be ruled by men in politics, as men represent their interests.
• Rousseau: Women’s education should serve men, focusing on pleasing them rather than fostering independence.

8. Fairy Tale Analysis (Gender, Race, Class, Sexuality)

Fairy tales often reinforce dominant ideologies. Using Cinderella as an example:

• Gender: Virtue is equated with beauty and patience; the male figure is the necessary rescuer.
• Race: Whiteness is usually centered; racial diversity is often erased or marginalized.
• Class: Marriage to a prince is the only path to salvation; poor women lack inherent power.
• Sexuality: Heterosexual marriage is presented as the ultimate goal; other possibilities are excluded.

This analysis reveals how popular narratives reinforce patriarchy, classism, and heteronormativity.

This document covers both your matching definitions and essay preparation.