POLS 501, Topics in
American Government, Women and Politics
Thursday,
3:340-
Dusable
464 753-7050
Office
Hours, Tuesday, 2-4, Wednesdays 1-4 bburrell@niu.edu
(First
Weds of each month I have a meeting from
1-3,
so will have office hours from 3-5)
115
Zulauf Hall
A
rich array of research on women’s participation in politics has developed over
the past few decades all across the various subfields of political science. We
will read and discuss some of the research on women and political life in the
Required Books
Kristi
Andersen. After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics
before the New Deal.
Cindy
Simon Rosenthal, editor. 2002. Women
Transforming Congress.
Brenda O’Neill and Elisabeth Gidengil,
editors. 2006. Gender and Social Capital. Routledge
Anne
Phillips, editor. 1999. Feminism and
Politics.
Lee
Ann Banaszak. The U.S. Women’s Movement in Global Perspective. Rowman
and Littlefield.
Journal
articles are available either through Jstor on Blackboard under our
course. If you are on campus, you just
need to type in www.jstor.org to get to
that website and download the article. If you are using a computer off campus,
logon to the NIU website and go the library, go to articles, tell it that you
are off campus, click on General under databases and scroll down to Jstor.
Schedule
August 31, One Woman, One
Vote – PBS Frontline production
September 7, Introduction and
Women’s Political Participation in the Suffrage Era
After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and
Electoral Politics
Paula
Baker. 1990. “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political
Society, 1780-1920,” In Women, the State,
and Welfare, ed. Linda Gordon, 55-91. Blackboard
Some
questions for class discussion: What was
the suffrage movement all about and what happened to women’s political
participation once they got the vote?
September 14. Women as
Candidates for Public Office
Richard Fox and Jennifer Lawless. 2004. “Entering the Arena? Gender and the Decision to Run for Office.” American Journal of Political Science 48
(2): 264-280 Jstor
Women Transforming Congress, Chapters 5, 6, 7
Irwin
Gertzog. 2002. “Women’s Changing Pathways to the U. S. House of Representatives:
Widows, Elites, and Strategic Politicians.”
95-118
Richard Matland and David C. King, 2002. “Women as Candidates
in Congressional Elections.” 119-145
Dianne Bystrom and Lynda Lee Kaid. 2002. “Are Women Candidates Transforming
Campaign Communication? A Comparison of Advertising
Videostyles in the 1990s, 146-169.
Barbara
Burrell 1994. Chapter 6, “Sex and Money.” In A Woman’s Place
Is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era.
Major
questions for discussion: Why are so few
women in public office and what are the ways in which men’s and women’s
campaigns differ and how are they similar?
September 21, Sex, Public
Opinion and Voting Behavior
Kathleen
Frankovic. 1982. “Sex and Politics: New Alignments, Old Issues.” PS, 15, 3: 439-448. Jstor
Susan
J. Carroll. 1999. “The Disempowerment of the Gender Gap: Moms and the 1996
Election.” PS: Political Science and Politics 32, 1 (March): 7-11. Jstor
Karen Kauffman and John R. Petrocik. 1991. “The Changing Politics of American
Men: Understanding the Sources of the Gender Gap.” American Journal of Political Science 43: 864-887. Jstor
Virginia
Sapiro. 2002. “It’s the Context, Situation, and Question, Stupid: the Gender
Basis of Public Opinion.” In Understanding Public Opinion, 2nd edition, eds. Barbara
Norrander and Clyde Wilcox.
Cal Clark and Janet M. Clark. 2006.
“The Gender Gap in the Early 21st Century: Volatility from
Security Concerns” in Women in Politics:
Outsiders or Insiders?,
4th edition, ed. Lois Duke Whitaker. Blackboard
Introductory
questions for discussion: What do we
mean by gender? What is the gender gap?
September 28, The Women’s Movement
Prior
to reading the chapters, ask yourself “What does the Women’s Movement Mean to Me? What do I know about it?”
The U. S. Women’s Movement in Global
Perspective, ed. Lee Ann
Banaszak, Chapters 1-5, 7
Denise
L. Baer. 2006. “What Kind of Women’s Movement? Community,
Representation and Resurgence.” In Women
in Politics: Outsiders or Insiders?, 4th edition, ed. Lois Duke Whitaker.
96-114. Blackboard
October 5, Feminism and
Representation
Feminism and Politics, chapters 5, 6. 7, 8
Jane
Mansbridge. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes.’” Journal of Politics 61(August):
628-659. Jstor
October 12, Women as
Political Leaders
The
following readings are all in Women
Transforming Congress, Chapters 8, 10, 12, 14
Christina
Wolbrecht. “Female Legislators and the Women’s Rights Agenda”
170-197.
Michele
Swers. “Transforming
the Agenda: Analyzing Gender Differences in Women’s Issue Bill Sponsorship.”
260-284
Noelle
H. Norton. “Transforming Policy from the Inside: Participation in Committee”,
316-340
Katherine Cramer Walsh. “Enlarging Representation: Women
Bringing Marginalized Perspectives to Floor Debate in the House of
Representatives” 370-396
Lyn
Kathlene. 1995.
Alternative Views of Crime: Legislative Policymaking in Gendered
Terms” Journal of Politics 57, 3
(August): 696-723 Jstor
Discussion
question: What does it matter whether we elect more women to political
leadership positions?
October 19, Intersectionality:
Race, Ethnicity and Gender
Mary
Hawkesworth. 2003. “Congressional Enactments of Race-Gender: Toward a Theory of
Raced-Gendered Institutions,” American
Political Science Review 97 (November): 529-550. Jstor
Carol
Hardy-Fanta. 1997. “
Wini
Breines. 2002. “What’s Love Got to Do with It? White Women, Black Women, and Feminism in the Movement Years.”
Signs 27, 4: 1095-1133 Jstor
Jane
Junn. “Assimilating or Coloring Participation? Gender, Race, and Democratic Political Participation.” In Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader, eds. Cathy
J. Cohen, Kathleen B. Jones and Joan C. Tronto.
EvelynM. Simien. 2004.
“Gender Differences in Attitudes toward Black Feminism among African
Americans.” Political Science Quarterly 119, 2 Summer,
315-338. Jstor
October 26, Electoral
Structures, Quotas and the Numerical Representation of Women in National
Parliaments
You
may want to peruse http://idea.int for more
information on the different types of electoral systems.
Eileen
McDonagh. 2002. “Political Citizenship and Democratization: The Gender
Paradox.” American Political Science Review 96, 3 (September) 553-564. Jstor
Wilma
Rule. 1987. “Electoral Systems, Contextual Factors and Women’s
Richard
Matland. 1998. “Women’s Representation in National Legislatures: Developed and
Developing Countries.” Legislative
Studies Quarterly, 23, 1 (February): 109-125. Jstor
Aili Tripp, Dior Konate and Colleen
Lowe-Morna. 2006.
“Sub-Saharan
Joyce
Gelb. “Representing Women in
November 2 – The 2006
Election and a Woman as President
We
will discuss the campaigns you have been studying, analyze the various
hypotheses about men’s and women’s campaigns, look at some TV ads and predict
the election results. If we have time we will also discuss the question of a
woman for president.
Carole
Kennedy, “Is the
Jennifer Lawless. 2004. “Women, War and Winning Elections:
Gender Stereotyping I the Post September 11th Era.” Political Research Quarterly, 57, 3
(September): 479-490. Jstor
November 9 – Women and
Social Capital
Gender and Social Capital, chapters 2, 3, 4, 5
Amy
Caiazza. 2005. “Don’t Bowl at Night: Gender, Safety, and Civic Participation.” Signs, 30, 2 :1608-1631.
Discussion
question: What is social capital and what does it mean to look at it from a
gendered perspective?
November 16. Graduate
Colloquium: Retrospective on the 2006 Elections
November 30, Student
Presentations of APSA papers
December 7, Women in
Political Science and Studying Women and Politics
Student Presentations of APSA papers
“Women’s
Advancement in Political Science,” American Political Science Association, 2004
http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/womeninpoliticalscience.pdf
Susan
Bourque and Jean Grossholtz, “Politics an Unnatural Practice: Political Science
Looks at Female Participation” in Feminism
and Politics, chapter 1, 23-44.
Virginia
Sapiro. “Feminist Studies and Political Science and Vice Versa.” In Feminism and Politics, Chapter 3,
67-92
Susan
Carroll and Linda M.G.
Zerilli. 1993. “Feminist Challenges to Political Science.” In Political
Science: the State of the Discipline II. Ed. Ada W. Finiter.
55-76. Blackboard
Research paper: Indepth
Case Study of a Competitive 2006 Congressional Campaign involving a Woman
Candidate
In
1994, the
I
am now writing a sequel that addresses some of the same questions and explores
women’s movement into leadership positions in Congress. It examines elections
from 1994 through 2006. I am seeking
your help in this effort through your research papers. I am asking each of you
to conduct an indepth case study of a competitive race for the House or Senate
in 2006. You will apply many of the
concepts that been important in the study of women’s campaigns to the
particular race on which you are focusing, describe the campaigns of both the
female candidate and that of her male opponent, and explain the outcome. We will then look across the campaigns and
results to address more generally various hypotheses regarding gender and elections.
How
we will proceed:
In class you will present information on the
major issues of the campaigns
How
much money the candidates have raised and spent?
We
will watch some of the candidates’ TV ads from the Internet and compare the
candidates’ videostyles. On that date you will turn in a 2-3 page paper
predicting the outcome of the race and explaining your prediction. This paper
can then become part of your larger research paper.
The
research paper should address at a
minimum:
The
economic, social and political context of the district or state race you are
covering.
Trace
the activities and events of the campaigns through the fall campaign season.
Describe
the campaign organizations of both candidates,
Examine
the fundraising efforts of the candidates.
Explore
media coverage of the race.
What
issues are the candidates stressing?
What
role are the party organizations at different levels playing? What about the
involvement of various interest groups?
Who
does the local media endorse and why?
Watch
any debates that you can on CSPAN.
Develop
an electronic relationship with a member of the campaign and a political
reporter who is following the campaign to provide you with information about
the campaign.
Most
broadly, what are the ways, if any, that gender entered into the campaigns?
Through
discussions with your colleagues in the class and following the national
election process, you should be able to note distinctions in your campaign make
some comparisons across campaigns. You
should conclude your paper with a reflection on the campaign process and women
as political candidates.
I
am also giving you a supplemental reading list to use as background material
for placing your study in the larger research context on women as candidates
for public office in the
I
hope that you will find this a challenging and engaging research project. Any
material used from it in my book will be credited to the author.
40% of Course Grade
Assignment #2
Each
student should find a paper on women and politics that has been presented at
the 2005 or 2006 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.
The student will present a synopsis of the paper to the class and lead
discussion on the paper. The student
will take on the role of the author of the paper and present the paper as one
might at a conference. At a conference
one usually has between 10 and 15 minutes to tell the audience about the
research project. The author 1) briefly
tells of the incentive for this research, i.e., what is the theoretical
importance of the subject and what is the unanswered question the author is
addressing, 2) how does the author propose that the political problem should be
studied and what research methods has he or she undertaken to answer the
research question, 3) what are the author’s findings and 4) what are the
author’s conclusions. Then the student should
take on the role of discussant and lead the class in a discussion of the
paper. All members of the class should have also read the paper and contribute
to the discussion. To find a paper
to present, go to the American Political Science Association website, (www.apsanet.org). For 2005 papers go to www.apsanet.org/section_610.cfm.
Click on view papers, click browse papers, and go to Women and Politics. For
2006 papers go to www.apsanet.org/content_2665.cfm,
click on review online program.
You
should email me the paper that you have chosen. You should also go to the
discussion board in Blackboard for this course and post the paper there.
10%
of Course Grade:
Assignment #3
Take-home
final. The final exam will be written
during finals week. You will be required to write an essay that synthesizes the
major questions of the semester and reviews the research that has been
conducted to answer these major questions and look to the future. I will provide more details during the
semester.
25%
of Course Grade
Class Participation
Finally,
this course is a seminar and as participants in it you will be expected to
contribute as much as I do. Everyone is
expected to come to class each week having read all of that week’s readings and
be ready to engage in a thoughtful discussion of them. We will want to think about various authors’
theoretical focus. What are the big picture questions they are addressing and
seeking to answer? How are they going about answering them, what have they
found and what do they conclude? Where might their research go next? We will
also want to think about how might scholarly research inform political
activism? No matter how grand your
research paper might be and how insightful your final exam might be if you do
not actively make positive contributions to each week’s class discussion, you
will not receive an A in the course.
I
will attempt to give you feedback at the midpoint of the term as to how I
believe you are doing regarding class participation.
25%
of Course Grade
Under Section 504
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, NIU is committed to making reasonable
accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Those students with
disabilities that may have some impact on their coursework and for which they
may require accommodations should notify the Center for Access-Ability
Resources (CAAR) on the fourth floor of the