Sociology of Gender, Fall 2006 (Erbaugh)

Exam 3 - Short Answer & Essay Questions

This exam is worth 15% of your grade. You will take the exam on Monday, December 11 at 5:30pm. You will have the whole exam period to write the exam. There will be some multiple-choice questions in addition to the following short answer and essay questions. The study guide (available on the website) will help you prepare for those. You may bring with you one 3x5" or 5x7" card with notes for yourself. You do not need to bring a blue book. If you have any questions, please ask via email or in class on Wednesday. Have a good week!

 

Short answer. Read each question carefully and ANSWER ALL PARTS of it.

  1. According to Cynthia Enloe's article "The Globetrotting Sneaker," how do international trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT affect women's labor and living conditions?  How have women workers responded?

 

  1. Based on Irene Ortiz' guest lecture, identify a structural or cultural form of violence she described and explain how it is connected to physical violence against women.

 

  1. Drawing on Sabo's article and Renzetti & Curran, identify two health risks associated with masculinity and explain how they arise.

 

  1. Why did seeing La Virgen de Guadalupe make Sandra Cisneros angry for so many years?

 

5.     Drawing on the articles on transgender and Jordon Johnson's presentation, what are two of the institutional barriers faced by trans people, and what sorts of difficulties do these barriers cause?

 

  1. Based on Zinn and Dill's article on multiracial feminism, identify a major limitation of recent "diversity" and "pluralist" trends in feminist studies.

 

  1. Jaimes and Halsey argue that Native women have not aligned themselves with European (white) feminists for what reason(s)?

 

  1. Robert Allen (author of "Stopping Sexual Harassment") calls upon WHOM to do WHAT in order to quell sexual harassment, abuse and violence?

 

Essay Questions: Choose one of the following.

  1. Based on course material on personal, cultural and/or structural forms of violence (including talks by Lisa, Betsy and Irene Ortiz, as well as readings), identify one specific form of violence related to gender/sexuality and outline a strategy for preventing or intervening in it. What are the main sources of this form of violence, and what specific social change strategies would you recommend for making social change toward lessening it? In your essay, make two references to readings and/or in-class presentations.

 

  1. Write an essay reflecting on how your ideas about your own gender identity have evolved since the beginning of this semester.  How would you now describe your own gender, and what do the elements of that description mean to you?  How does your self-description relate (or not) to the binary (two options) sex/gender system?  State whether you think the gender binary (the polarized meanings of "masculinity" and "femininity") should be preserved or scrapped, and why.  In your discussion, make reference to two readings, presentations or in-class discussions.