This course examines social psychology and sociological theories and research addressing why women do more housework and child care than men. It pays special attention to the situation of dual-earner families and considers class and ethnic differences on the nature of this inequality and the barriers to full equality at home.

'This course will examine the historical and cultural creation of the Shaker society.Shakers were convinced that celibacy was the primary teaching of the Christian message. In the process, they reconfigured traditional understanding of God and Christ to include major female components, and they constructed a series of communities, built worlds, to reflect a new social and political order.Their music, art, and extensive visionary material also carries their understanding of gender relations and sexual activity (or lack thereof) into all areas of life in America.

'A seminar on the eighteenth-century Chinese masterpiece The Story of the Stone and selected literary criticism in response to this work. Discussions will focus on love, gender-crossing, and women's supremacy and the paradoxical treatments of these themes in the novel. We will explore multiple aspects of these themes, including the sociopolitical, philosophical, and literary milieus of eighteenth-century China.

'This course will examine the writing of Emily Dickinson, both her poetry and her letters. We will consider the cultural, historical, political, religious, and familial environment in which she lived. Special attention will be paid to Dickinson's place as a woman artist in the nineteenth century. The class will meet at the Dickinson Museum (280 Main Street in Amherst and accessible by Five College bus). Enrollment is limited to ten students.'

'This course presents an opportunity for students to apply gender theory to practice and synthesize their work in gender studies. Connections between the academy and the community, scholarship and social action will be emphasized. Students are required to work with the instructor over the summer to secure an internship placement at a non-profit organization, business, or institution that incorporates a gender focus. Internships must be in place by the first week of the semester.

'The Americas have been characterized by the strictness of their laws in the criminalization of abortion. In some countries abortion is criminalized even when the woman's life is at risk. What role have women's movements played in advancing abortion rights? What has mattered most for a movement's success, its internal characteristics or external forces? Has the way the movement framed its demands mattered? How has the political influence of the Catholic and Evangelical churches influenced policies in this area?

'This course will address the predicaments of women who must negotiate local contexts shaped by transnational markets, changing patterns of agriculture and agro-forestry, and struggles over indigenous land rights. How have arguments about democracy shaped the struggles women take up locally, nationally, and transnationally in opposition to corporate power, national policies, and supranational agencies such as the World Trade Organization?'

'This course explores the overlapping dualities of the feminine and the masculine, the private and the public, the home and the world. We examine different forms of power over the body; the ways gender and sexual identities reinforce or challenge the established order; and the cultural determinants of 'women's emancipation.' We emphasize the politics of feminism, dealing with themes that include culture, democracy, and the particularly political role of theory and on theoretical attempts to grasp the complex ties and tensions between sex, gender, and power.'

'This course will examine a range of ways in which Islam has constructed women--and women have constructed Islam. We will study concepts of gender as they are reflected in classical Islamic texts, as well as different aspects of the social, economic, political, and ritual lives of women in various Islamic societies.'

'This course introduces students to the major themes of U.S. women's history from the 1880s to the present. We will look both at the experiences of a diverse group of women in the U.S. as well as the ideological meaning of gender as it evolved and changed over the twentieth century. We will chart the various meanings of womanhood (for example, motherhood, work, the domestic sphere, and sexuality) along racial, ethnic, and class lines and in different regions, and will trace the impact multiple identities have had on women's social and cultural activism.'