Teaching about Class

What follows are some suggested resources for teaching about class in Women's
Studies.  The suggestions in Part 1 were made during a WMST-L discussion in
May/June 1994.  Part 2 offers suggestions from a discussion in August 2010.
For additional WMST-L files now available on the Web, see the
WMST-L File Collection.

PART 1 OF 2  (Click Page arrow to get to Part 2)

 
        Two colleagues and I are running workshops on diversity, and while we
find that there is a bountiful spring of material which is designed to explore
gender and racial realities, we don't find such a wealth of touchstone articles
when it comes to the role of CLASS.  While we take it as axiomatic that gender
race and class are combinatory factors in circumscribing individual
possibilities, class seems seldom explored on its own ("Grandma Went to Smith"
may be an interesting exception).
        Are we missing some good bets?  Even mainstream articles in women's
studies which center on or lead to class issues would be useful.  Are there
excellent articles which we might discuss (and remember this would be with our
colleagues, not our students) that peeople could recommend?
        We are sensitive that this list is meant to center on women's studies,
but there are, as we all keep saying, important class issues resident in the
women's issues we raise, so I'm hoping no-one takes offense at the request...
and we really do need some help.
        Thanks in advance.
 
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/  Department of Philosophy     INTERNET:Ashleyl  AT  SNYCORVA.CORTLAND.EDU
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>        Two colleagues and I are running workshops on diversity, and while we
>find that there is a bountiful spring of material which is designed to explore
>gender and racial realities, we don't find such a wealth of touchstone articles
>when it comes to the role of CLASS.
 
        There are several anthologies that address race, class, and gender
and may contain material you'll find useful.  Two that I have at hand are
_Race, Class, & Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study_ (2nd ed),
edited by Paula S. Rothenberg (St. Martin's Press, 1992) and _Race, Class,
and Gender: An Anthology_, edited by Margaret L. Andersen and Patricia Hill
Collins (Wadsworth, 1992).
 
        Joan Korenman        Internet: korenman  AT  umbc2.umbc.edu
                             Bitnet:   korenman  AT  umbc

 
I would like to propose that you also look at disability as an issue of
diversity - i find the concept of pre-disability to be useful in breaking
some of the either/or thinking that we get stuck in.  plus the way that
disability braids with issues of class, gender, and race/ethnicity is
compelling, as are issues of representations (in film, lit., etc).  most of
disability is not addressed in any significant way in most of feminist
literature (check any anthology of fem. theory)
(an exception would be Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch who have done some
great work in the area of feminist thought and disability).
 
don't mean to muddy the waters for you - but if you are going to look at
issues of diversity - i think it is time to recognise this issue.  would
be glad to send a bib. if you are interested.
 
beth ferri
university of georgia
 
bferri  AT  moe.coe.uga.edu

 
I have used Dorothy Allison's piece, "A Question of Class" with great success.
 It is in the collection "Sisters, Sexperts, Queers: Beyond the Lesbian
Nation", ed. by Arlene Stein   as well as in Allison's just-published
collection "Skin."
 
Kim Gunning
Women's Studies/History
Rutgers University
kgunning  AT  eden.rutgers.edu

 
Alison Jaggar's _Feminist Politics and Human Nature_  (Sussex, Harvester
Press, 1983) is an excellent study of the relationship between gender
and class;  she looks at the interrelationship of political philosophy,
feminist theory, and theories of human nature, as well as offering,
among other things, particularly useful descriptions of Marxist,
materialist, and socialist feminism.
 
Andrea Austin    3aja1  AT  qucdn.queensu.ca

 
  My favorite book on class and feminism is Christine Delphy's 1970 book
_Close to Home_
 Other possibilities are anything by Marxist or Socialist feminists -
but here are specific suggestions:
 Hansen and Philipson, _Women, Class and the Feminist Imagination_
 Carol Kay Steedman, _Landscape for a Good Woman_
 Kim Chernin, _In My Mother's House_
 Angela Davis, _Women, Race, and Class_
 Paula Rabinowitz, _Labor and Desire_
 lots of things by Heidi Hartmann
 Dubois & Ruiz, _Unequal Sisters_
 

 
  I was surprised that the issue of class was difficult for you to locate
in feminism.  The class system and capitalism are the very roots of female
oppression according to Socialist and Marxist feminism.  Sociologists have
done much research specifically about class.  Lise Vogel has written some
wonderful articles and books on the issue.
                    Von
_____________________________________________________________________
 
Von Bakanic                                  
Dept. of Sociology                           
College of Charleston                        
Charleston, S.C. 29424
bakanicv  AT  cofc.edu

 
I think Irena Klepfisz's "The distances between us: Feminism, consciousness
and the girls at the office--An essay in fragments" is one of the best on
class. Originally published in _Sinister Wisdom_ 1985, 28, 48-72, it is also
in several anthologies.
 
Linda Bernhard
BernhardL  AT  nursing.con.ohio-state.edu

 
The Cyrus reader on Gender Race and Class has several very effective articles
on CLASS and I also recommend Janet Zandy's  Calling Home : Writings by Working
Class Women.  I would also be interested in any concrete suggestions you
receive on how to effectively facilitate a discussion or an experiential
exercise on class since I have found this very difficult to do.  

Maureen C. McHugh, 
IUP, Indiana , PA   
MCMCHUGH  AT  grove.iup.edu