Study Guide for Joan Scott, “Gender…”

Women and Christianity
Study Guide for Joan Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis”

This article is dense.  You will understand much of it, but there are some sections that may be difficult for you.  Persevere!  [You may have to read the article more than once.]  I will give a lecture next time covering some of the issues Scott raises in the article and how they relate to our course.

Questions to think about as you read:

Scott’s basic question is a follow-up to the previous article:  How is the study of gender and the category of “woman” as an ideological and analytical category different from the “Her-story” approaches?

 

 

Focus in pp. 25-33 on what studying “gender” from a historical perspective is?

YOU MAY WISH TO SKIP PP. 34-40 AND GO DIRECTLY TO P. 41.  Pages 34-40 are important to her argument but refer to a lot of material you probably have not read before.  Pp. 41-50:

Scott writes on p. 42 that her definition of gender has “two parts and several subsets.”  Try to identify the parts and subsets.  In class, we’ll review them and discuss them.

 

 

 

What other questions and issues did this article raise for you?