Geography 240: Geography and Gender
Fall, 2003

Note: You will want to have more extensive notes that those provided below. These notes are meant to highlight only the major points.

August 27:
Introduction to course. How are sex (biological) and gender (socially learned) different? UN Development Programme states that "no society treats its women as well as its men." August 26, 1920 = women's suffrage in the US (19th amendement), followed by 1923 Equal Rights Amendment proposal (to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender); never ratified. Half the class read article from Vital Signs entitled "Maternal Deaths Reflect Inequities" and half read a Lexington Herald Leader article entitled "No Safety or Justice for Mexican Women". Discussed the sex and gender components of the articles. Homework: Go to online newspapers. Find an article about dowry in an Indian newspaper. Read, summarize.

September 3:
Case study of India: world's largest democracy, 1.1 billion people, HDI lower tier, majority Hindu. Hinduism: world's oldest major religion, respect for life, reincarnation, dharma, karma, tolerance, caste system (Aryans - skin color originally). Class discrimination -> dalit (harijan, untouchables). More men than women in India; female illiteracy almost twice that of men. Watched a video entitled "Saheri's Choice" (available on Anthropology reserve in LCC Library). Some evidence of changing times in the film, but generally speaking sons prized and daughters considered liabilities (women cause "pollution" if unmarried). Some women get ultrasound to detect girl, then abort (2 million/year). Infanticide increasing; mortality rate for girl babies higher than for boys. Especially in northern India, the male:female birth ratio is way off. Dowry is practiced by Hindu and non-Hindu. What is dowry and what was its original purpose? Why has the use of dowry changed? Dowry is prohibited (1961) but still goes on. A 1994 law bans pre-natal test for sex of baby, but this goes on too. The "kitchen accidents" are increasing; apparently up 15-fold since mid-1980s. Dowry deaths most frequent at the intersection of class (low socioeconomic) and gender (females). But life for Indian women is slowly changing: (1) dalit delegation to 09-02 conference on racism in Johannesburg, South Africa; (2) Chipko; (3) Kerala: 29 million, 25% unemployment, per capital income below national average BUT near 100% literacy (free education), life indicators (lowest birthrate in India, low infant mortality, longest life span overall, highest age of marriage), diversity, and MORE females than males. For next time, please read Chapter 1 in Global Gender Issues.

September 8:
In Chapter 1 (Global Gender Issues), what is the importance of one's lens? Lens are shaped by history and politics. Gender is the basis for relations of inequality between men and women; gender is about power and power is gendered (see page 6). Masculine and feminine are defined in opposition to each other. What are some of the masculine and feminine characteristics as defined by American society? Many (both men and women) are recognizing that creating a just world order will entail bettering women's conditions. Some of the conditions to be addressed: economic development/justice, environmental justice/protection, human rights, self-determination, violence against women, international division of labor, religious fundamentalism, social services, reproductive/family planning issues. Some argue that the voices of ordinary citizens have been quieted in the wake of September 11. Women's World, a global free-speech network of women writers, had a writing contest open to any woman wanting to tell her political story. In groups of four, students discussed the ten winning stories and their political implications. The stories included: the little girl who revolted against religious fundamentalism by removing her veil (Iran), men and women made hopeless by endless killing in Uganda (Uganda), a woman blacklisted for being a women's rights activist (Iran), a woman whose political statement is to not have a child born into the insanity she experiences (Israel), a South Vietnam Army veteran for whom reality is slipping away (USA), a Muslim woman who read the Koran on a New York subway and is now fearful (USA), a woman who had a son in Iran during the Iraq-Iran war (Iran/Canada), a girl who is beaten by her dad and brother (United Kingdom), a woman battered by her controlling husband (USA), and a homeless woman who's considered a troublemaker for reporting abuse (USA). Review quiz = last ten minutes.
 
September 10:
Lens include idealism, Marxism, realism, behavioralism, neoliberalism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, feminism, socialism. Be able to explain orientations of positivism and postpositivism. Knowledge is inseparable from power. Explain productive labor versus reproductive labor. What is heterosexism? How do stereotypes filter what we see? What are Social Darwinism and Biological determinism? Students watched a film entitled "Kypseli." How does gender play out in this Greek village? Homework: Write how the concepts in Chapter 2 were illustrated in the film.

September 15:
Students discussed, in twos and threes, the homework assignment. Students took a review quiz. Politics is about differential access to resources (power, power over, competition). More than any other kind of human activity, politics has historically had a masculine identity. What are the implications (e.g., belief that maintenance of peace requires preparing for war, willingness to engage in violence, sacrifice of social welfare objectives to defense spending; indirect violence as well as direct violence)? The beliefs that bigger is better, growth and "progress" are good, and in short term profit/convenience over long-term security are tied to adoption of capitalism as not only an economic system, but a political one. Capitalism embodies the idea of power over resources. Power over resources extends to identification of the earth as female -- thus earth and women can rightly be exploited. Case study: Anna Lindh, the 46-year Swedish foreign minister who was stabbed to death in a department store. Sweden: population of 8.9 million; life expectancy = 79 years; primary school teacher: student ratio = 1:1. What are some of the laws passed in the last half of the 1800s that began to set Sweden apart in terms of equity? Late 1800s, social movements emerged (temperance league, free churches, women's advancement, workers' movement), industrialization, free enteprise, trade -> began to thrive economically (Swedish innovative products became main exports). In the early 1900s, universal male suffrage, government pension system, 8-hour day, female suffrage, neutrality, Social Democrats to power. During WWII, food shortage led to effort to become 80% food self-sufficieint today. Redistribution of wealth through direct taxation 1932-1976. Joined EU on January 1, 1995. Sexual equality pushed early on by feminists and the state (educational system tries to eliminate sexism by teaching boys and girls to keep house, care for babies, do metalwork, etc.). Still, women are paid less than their male counterparts, but have strong representation in government. Homework: For Wednesday, pick one of the women listed in Chapter 3. Find a fairly recent article about her (for example: what is she doing now? was she a good president or prime minister? what are her on views on world affairs?). Print it off and bring it to class.

September 17:
Students discussed the information found about one of the women mentioned in the text, Chapter 3. Case study: women in Para state. Brazil is the 5th most populous and 5th largest in size; 26 states, with federal district. Brazil is very inequitable: 1/2% control nearly 1/2 the wealth; richest 10% own 2/3 of land; poverty up 50% since 1980; 1/2 suffer from chronic malnutrition; poorest 20% live in deplorable conditions; 25 million peasants struggle to survive. At the same time, 60% of Brazil's farmland is idle. In response, the Landless Workers Movement, now Latin America's largest social movement, arose in 1984. About 700,000 have been involved over the years and 250,000 families have been resettled. Groups settle on unused land, build huts, and tend the fields. The Brazilian constitution has a provision to purchase land from the owners if squatters are able to remain on the land for a certain amount of time. Of course, the landowner doesn't want the land to be purchased by the government and redistributed to the poor, so usually paramilitary or security troops will be sent in. Over the past 10 years, about 1700 have been killed during these attempts to run squatters off the land. Some of these activities occur in Para, a state in northeast Brazil. The world's largest known iron ore deposits are here, bauxite, manganese, copper, cattle raising, and, of course, cutting down the tropical rainforest in the Amazon basin. We watched a 51 minute film entitled "Amazon Sisters" about how the brute power of industry can be countered by the power of the unions - the people working together. These women accomplished some pretty amazing things by standing their ground, striking, organizing, and demonstrating.

September 22:
Review quiz. [Key to quiz: (1) Sweden; Social Democracy. The progressive milestones in Sweden's evolution include: established universal education (1842), established sexuality equality in inheritance (1845), religious freedom (1860), state old-age pension system created (1913), women's suffrage (1918), neutral in war (since WWI), Social Democrats in power (1932), with redistribution of wealth through direct taxation between 1932 and 1976. (2) Landless Workers Movement. Millions of poor and malnourished people live in Brazil, while millions of fertile acres lie idle. The goal of this movement is for poor people to establish claims to idle land (through squatting over a period of time) and ultimately to gain titles to the land. 3. Para. The economic development in Para state involves  logging, mining (iron ore, bauxite, gold, etc), and manufacture. A huge dam has been built to generate power for all these industries. (4) The mosquitoes began to be a significant problem after land was inadequately cleared for a reservoir. The stagnant water and decaying vegetation are perfect incubators for mosquitoes. (5) The women formed  unions. As necessary, they strike, they protest/demonstrate, they take control -- but it is via the union.] Homework: Amnesty International Report 2003 (summary) for Africa, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, or Middle East and North Africa. Women warriors: Carib fighters reported by Spaniards in 1493, Inca women fought Spanish conquistadors, women in Amazon basin fought (1542), Simon Bolivar fought with women (early 1800s), black slave women fought for freedom in Colombia (1800s), army of women fought during Mexican War of Independence (early 1800s), women fought with Zapata in Mexican Revolution (1910), women fought in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas against the Somoza supporters (late 1970s), women fought in El Salvador (1980), and with Castro (1950s). The US has women warriors too. Does opportunity to serve in the military give women skills that will work to their advantage and does openness promote sexual equality? Or does the presence of women in the service legitimize an institution with values contrary to those of women? Good class discussion on this issue. What a film entitled "SOA: Guns and Greed." What is the SOA? What is its purpose? Why does it need to do this? Did we see women warriors in this film? Did we see gender-related issues in the film?

September 24:
Students were assigned to read the "Amnesty International Report 2003" summary of one of the five regions (Africa, Americas, Asia/Pacific, Europe/Central Asia, and Middle East/North Africa); worked in groups developing a short presentation of highlights to present to everyone. Watched a film entitled "Women and War." What were the issues in Soweto, South Africa; West Jerusalem, Israel; Sarajevo, Bosnia; and Uganda? What is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? One woman said that "capitalism is killing the social state." What did she mean and how is that harming women and their children? Both the Israelis and Palestinians are victims - and aggressors. What did we see Israeli and Palestinian women doing to change the dynamic? One woman noted, reference to men, that victims of war often become perpetrators. What was she talking about?

September 29:
Key to review quiz: (1) Simon Bolivar; Zapata (2) On the pro side, military service provides women with the skills of advantage and promotes sexual equality. On the con side, the presence of women serves to legitimize the institution by giving it a facade of egalitarianism. (3) The School of the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia, trains military and police from Latin American country. Targets of right-wing paramilitary and police are often women and children, who cannot defend themselves very well. The Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico include a number of women. Mexico has sent military to be trained at SOA, in direct response to the Zapatista uprising. [You may include others.] (4) answers vary (5) Bosnia; Truth and Reconciliation; Apartheid; Israel; Uganda; in the home. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, male/female labor roles were more elastic. In less developed countries, women still participate in agriculture (see page 133). Women produce 80% of the food in Sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean, 50% in Asia and Poland, and much of the food in Latin America as well (although not so much for the market). Feminization of agriculture = men forced to leave home to find work in urban area (pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa). Planners, policy-makers, and others in authority roles act as if women don't exist because of "gender-blind" development policies, discriminatory legislation (titles go to men), traditions and attitudes, lack of access of women to decision-making process. If women farmers have access to land, credit, and so on, they are more productive than men farmers. In today's capitalism economy, the division of labor is more rigid and is defined by sex, class, and country. We repeated the idea of reproductive vs productive labor. The feminization of poverty: globally from 1970 to 1990, rural women in poverty rose 50% to 565 million and rural men in poverty rose 30% (to 400 million). Many working women are stuck in low-paid, part-time work, or part of the "informal economy". Women can fight back, however, and work for better opportunities. The elements necessary for action are: clear agenda, other people in the same situation to act with them, nothing to lose. Need to bring men on board by showing them how the change is in their interest. Case study: coal mining. Women in Kentucky and elsewhere have long played a role in holding the coal companies to account: from protesting the broad form deed (that allowed coal companies to mine without permission) to setting up social services in coal camps to walking the picket line to helping maintain vibrant coal towns to working in the coal mines (first ones in 1973; by 1990, 4000 women coalminers in the US). Watched a 1982 Appalshop film entitled "Coalmining Women." It had lots of union/women rights music, which has a lot of heart and soul even if a person doesn't necessarily like the way it sounds. In 1978, discrimination complaints were filed against 153 coal companies that produced 50% of US coal; companies that contract with the U.S. government can't discriminate based upon sex. The companies agreed to hire one women for each four men until about 33% of the work force was female. From a woman's perspective, a job in the mines was a big improvement, as other jobs in Appalachia were low paying (waitress, teacher, babysitter, worker in textile mill or plastic plant). We saw women doing some pretty heavy-duty stuff, including one middle-aged women building a wall of 75 pound blocks. Women encountered male resentment, mind games, and physical harrassment at times, but some women have won the men over. In particular, when women start to work in the mines, safety begins to improve. Women worked in British mines 150 years ago. In 1832, the unsafe conditions were recognized and the practice banned. Early on in the US, females were legally excluded from mining. Some were suspicious that women would cause bad luck in the mines. Unions, especially when the union was led by John L. Lewis, help improve mine working conditions. We saw footage from the Scotia mine disaster in Harlan Co. (in the 1970s). A women whose arm was mangled and who was nearly decapitated by machinery said that US mine equipment is often out of date but that since the US is litigation responsive, nothing is usually done until someone gets hurt (or killed) and there's a suit. Black lung disease is another big problem; between 1970 and 1982, 1/2 million miners and widows were awarded compensation. We saw the Washington DC demonstration to raise awareness of black lung. The final note: when women speak out about needed improvements, the men will back them up; the changes will help men as well as women.

October 1:
The following notes are more detailed than usual because I think that some of you couldn't hear; you were too cold or my voice didn't carry far enough Development and globalization: European colonialism waxed and waned between the late 1400s and the mid 1900s. The first wave was led by Spain and Portugal; the second wave by Great Britain and France. Colonization was rationalized as necessary for civilizing the "noble savages." Today, many former colonies are politically unstable, with high rate of disease, low literacy, low life expectancy, and tremendous debt. The relationship between the European powers and the colonies led to, arguably, a dependency upon the European countries. Dependency theory is used to explain the current dynamic. "Development" began in the 1940s. The Bretton Woods Conference (1944), at which the allies planned the post-war economy, was critical as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) were created. The United Nations, created in 1947, has always had a mission of poverty alleviation. In his augural speech in January 1949, Truman launched the era of development. He proposed that the world adopt the features of "advanced" societies - high levels of industrialization and urbanization, commercial agriculture, rapid growth of production, speedy increases in living standards, widespread adoption of modern education and cultural values. At that point, 2 billion human beings suddenly became "underdeveloped". How to develop became a fundamental problem. The reasons for the push to develop the world hinged on US desire for Europe to maintain its colonies for raw materials (for reconstruction) and to influence oil policy in the Middle East, the fear of communism, the desire for expanded markets for US products, the US need for sources of cheap raw material to fuel its industries, the fear of overpopulation, and true faith in science and technology to solve problem. One development scheme was the "Green Revolution," the 1960s introduction of high yield/high response (high response in terms of needing irrigation water, pesticides, fertilizer, etc. to do well). India is noted for adoption of Green Revolution seed. Pesticide manufacturers came to India as part of the Green Revolution. The world's worst industrial accident, at Bhopal, was at a Union Carbide pesticide plant (methyl isocyanate reacted with water and exploded). As "underdeveloped" countries began to explore the possibilities for export, they borrowed money from the IMF and World Bank. Then the "debt crisis" hit in the 1980s. Petroleum and other commodity prices steeply declined. Countries couldn't pay their debts. The IMF and World Bank restructured the loans, imposing "Structural Adjustment Programs" (SAPs). Expenses for education, health care, environmental protection, etc. were reduced so that payments could be made. The result is increasing illness, illiteracy, and degraded environments. Today the rich countries are still working on "developing" the poor countries - the bring them out of poverty. Most recently, policymakers have put their faith in economic globalization. Economic globalization is characterized by: plethora of consumer goods and services, an international work force, global communication systems that link places instantly, global transport via air, sea, and land that is quick, transnational corporations (TNCs) that move to all part of the world - 200 TNC control the bulk of world trade, international financial institutions facilitate 24 hour trading, global/regional agreements that promote free trade (e.g., NAFTA, WTO), market economies (capitalist) replace state-controlled economies (communist); services formerly operated by the government are privated (hospitals, schools, prisons). Think of the topics we've discussed so far: India and dowry, the winning stories of women, the Greek village of Kypseli, politics and death in Sweden, Brazil and the "Amazon Sisters," Amnesty International's human rights reports, women warriors, SOA, "Woman and War" (South Africa, Uganda, Bosnia, Israel), agriculture, and coalmining. What are the ties between these topics and development/economic globalization?

Notes for test #1:

* Remember that the class notes above are just outline sketches. Make sure that you understand what we talked about, rather than trying to memorize facts and figures without the context.

* The questions will be based upon what we did about in class: lecture, student work, videos. Our discussion on Wednesday (October 1) will also be included.

* You should review the notes above and check the book for clarification. You should also study your in-class quizzes.

* You can expect fill-in-the-blank questions (with a word bank), some multiple choice questions, and an essay question. This essay question will be similar to the one at the end of the October 1st notes. This is a question for which there are many correct answers. The main thing is, think about this question before you come to class on Monday.

October 6:  Test #1
Key: (1) c (2) d (3) b (4) d (5) a (6) b (7) d (8) c (9) c (10) b (11) db (12) ce (13) bb (14) fb (15) fc (16) ib (17) pd (18) rb (19) sh (20) sd (21) la (22) pb (23) ub (24) ba (25) za (26) fe (27) aa (28) bc (29) ta (30) ac (31) ic (32) ua (33) si (34) se (35) sa (36) gb (27) hc (38) dc (39) da (40) dd (41) kb (42) gc (43) kc (44) hb (45) mb

October 8:
"The Politics of Resistance" ... Case study: Mexico. Mexico has a populationof 104 million, 60% mestizo, and 10-14% Amerindians, with ~ 56 distinct cultures. In 1900, 95% of the populous was landless. The Mexico Revolution, of 1910, was led by Zapata. The result of the revolution was a new constitution in 1917. Article 27 established the ejido system. In the 1970s, Mexico borrowed $ for resource development. Economic downturn led to crisis - debt crisis. In 1992, in preparation for NAFTA, the constitution was changed to allow corporate control of land. So, on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA went into effect, the Zapatistas began their rebellion. They are from Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state. Many of the 4.2 million people are Mayan. While Chiapas produces the lion's share of many resources (hydro, oil, meat, etc), few of the indigenous people have running water, elecricity, and so on. About 2/3 of the population suffer from malnutrition and the people's life span is 5 years shorter than that of other Mexicans. Overlay with this the issues of machismo and marianismo. The Zapatistas (as laid out in the May 1994 San Andreas Agreement) want: self-determination, autonomy, control of native land and resources, self-government. The women demand access to health care, education, enough food, and housing -- they want cooking stoves, refrigerators, and washing machines. Many women have joined the Zapatistas - 1/3 of the fighters are women. In the Zapatista organization, women have many rights including the right to work for a fair wage, health and nutrition, education, to choose their marriage partners, to participate in the revolutionary struggle without regard to ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation. We watched a film about the Zapatistas and one of their special places, the Lacandon forest. First came the cattle, then came the chainsaws. Pulsar, International Paper and others are destroying the native forest, replacing it with eucalyptus plantations. This is very destructive for biodiversity and for the poor people of Chiapas as well, as they lose resources and don't receive compensation. The Zapatistas continue to fight/sabotage the neoliberal machine. To them Mexico has "no freedom, no justice, no democracy."
Homework for Monday: go into the internet and find information about a women's peace movement in one of the following regions: International, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, or Europe. Read and bring it to class on Monday.

October 13:
Ebadi: first Iranian to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Women's movements: Code Pink, Chipko. Ideological perspectives: liberal feminists, radical feminists, socialist feminists, postcolonial feminists, postmodernist feminists. In groups, students discussed international, North American, Latin American, Asian, African, and European women's movements; each group reported back to class.

October 15:
Students watched "Women of Change." The film began with Josephine, a single mom with four children living in a low income area in Toronto, Canada. The other woman, Berta, lives in a high income area of Mexico City. Josephine gave testimony at the United Nations in Geneva (the People's Report) and to Canada's national government in Ottawa. Her organization is called LIFT (Low Income Families Together). Berta is involved in FAT, a union established in 1960, with 30,000 members. The objective is to give people hope - power for the people. We were reminded about the Mexican Revolution and the fact that the new constitution went into effect in 1920 and now NAFTA has shaken much of its foundation. Back in Toronto, we learn that Josephine's home has been broken into 14 times. We hear from a homeless woman who used her last money for rent to buy a tent and an old van for her family to live in. Globalization and NAFTA are mentioned again. Berta points out that globalization can be good, if we're talking about greater communications that bring people together in common causes. Next we are introduced to Marie, who lives outside Mexico City and has a hungry, barking dog. Mexico has more union members than does Canada (remember also that Canada's population is a third of Mexico's), but the official union is linked to corporations and the government. She said the working conditions at her work place (Morales) were really bad - solvents, fires, sexual harassment. She joined a real union and got fired for it. She signed up most of the workers anyway, but when they went to vote for their leadership, thugs blocked their way. It was bad. The Canadian unions filed a complaint, under a NAFTA side agreement, for Mexicans to have the right to join a union. Maria went to Ottawa, Canada to share her story - she is asking that workers be rehired. The Mexican and Canadian women workers are learning about their rights and how to fight productively for them. Berta's sister, Beatrice, is concerned about the conditions at the maquiladoras. The females are subjected to medical tests (basically to see if they are pregnant), hire in at young ages (~ 14 years old), get paid about $3.50 a day, are sometimes killed waiting for the bus. In Ciudad Juarez, the factories run around the clock, so young women are often walking in the middle of the night. We learned about how both the males and females accept the higher status of men (machismo and marianismo). Because wages are so bad, women sometimes do things that devalue them, some even becoming prostitutes. In 1997, Mexico City elected a fairly progressive leader; he put a female in a powerful position, fighting for women's rights. The rest of the film demonstrated the commonalities between the women's experiences, whether in Canada or Mexico and how they could work together to learn and to strengthen each other (this is definitely not postmodernist thinking). Similar alliances/situations in Chile and Costa Rica were mentioned, fleetingly. In-class quiz.

October 20:  In-class essay.

October 22:
We started our discussion of gender and the environment. In groups of four, students brainstormed how gender plays a role in the majority (south, third world, developing world) world, and its role in the minority world. How are issues of race and class tied to these gender issues? We watched part of a film entitled "Green" (as in the color of money). In the 1930s, tax incentives lured petrochemical industries to the banks of the Mississippi River. By the 1970s, over 100 of these facilities lined the river from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Depending upon one's perspective, this strip is called Chemical Corridor or Cancer Alley. Moving south from Baton Rouge is Plaquemine. The community is now gone, the land now part of Dow Chemical. People used to baptized in the Missisippi, eat fish from the river, etc., but today they can't. Of course, women still have to do the laundry and wash their children in the polluted water from the river. Gonzales, 58 miles north of New Orleans, is home to Shell, BASF, Texaco, Uniroyal, and so on. Clusters of rare cancers have been identified in this area. The Tumor Registry is supposed to pick up on such things, but rather than collecting data via parish, the data are collected by region. In this way, clusters may be missed. Of note: the Tumor Registry is funded by the Louisiana Chemical Association. One of the union men from the community noted that, while the corporations are supposed to sample their effluent everyday, they probably don't. If the sample showed a violation, they would be required to report it to EPA and the state. Like reporting yourself for speeding, corporations are not going to be keen to get themselves in trouble. Of course, reporting to the state environmental agency may not be that big of a deal. Representatives from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality sat together and dismissed the idea of cancer clusters caused by the factories. This film featured some poor people who are quite articulate. One women pointed out that the poor of the world are asked to sacrifice, not for the common good but for power and greed. These women and men plan to fight a Japanese plant, intended to cut through a large sugar cane plantation. Now, thanks to your goofy old professor, we ran out of time at this point. As it turned out, the cabinet wasn't really locked (we've been having trouble with stuff being stolen, so when it didn't open easily and had a key hole, I just figured it was now being locked -- oh well). Anyway, the film continued on down the Missisippi, ending up in New Orleans. Breast cancer, developmental disabilities, and other illnesses continued to be encountered. There was one part I really wish you could have seen. Remember the woman from the chemical association? Well, viewers got a tour of her garden. She talked about how she cared for nature - and it showed. The garden was absolutely beautiful, with all lots of pollinators, plants, and small creatures. It just illustrates how complicated these issues are. While she works for a nasty industry, she does not lead a nasty life. She considers herself ecologically-minded. On the other hand, she probably thinks the poor who we heard from are doing more environmental harm than she is: driving old, inefficient vehicles and providing the actual labor in the nasty industry. I guess the point is that people can't be reduced to stereotypes. Homework for October 27: Please read Chapters 1 and 2 in Gender and Environment.

October 27:
Key to quiz: ejido; Zapatistas; Mayan; Neoliberalism refers to liberalized trade, in other words, unrestricted trade with no tariffs or other barriers impending the flow of goods and services around the world; Many of the Zapatistas are women; they are fighting, alongside the men, for autonomy and respect as well as for practical improvements, such as health care, educational opportunities for their children, appliances for cooking and cleaning, and so on; Coming from a postcolonial perspective, you would focus on the impact today of Europe's rape of South America several hundred years ago; The Mexican government, like the U.S. government, attempts to discourage union activity because successful unions are equated with better working conditions, health care, retirement, and salaries. The government, working in alliance with the corporations, is interested in luring corporations with a cheap, docile work force. Women are often at the forefront of union organizing because they are more poorly paid than their male counterparts, they are subjected to health screenings not experienced by males, workplace toxins can cause reproductive and other problems, and so on; Cancer Alley; Louisiana Chemical Association; In the 1930s, Louisiana drew petrochemical corporations to this area with packages of incentives (tax and otherwise); Many environmental issues are experienced differently depending upon gender, including coal mining, agricultural chemicals, water safety and availability.
New material: water. Humans have access to .08% of earth's water, demand will increase 40% over next 20 years (17% more than we have available). Worldwide, 70% of water goes to agriculture: in China, it takes 1000 tons of water to produce one tone of wheat. The West Bank (Israel) is in a serious water deficit, as is Saudi Arabia, a country that is punching deep wells to bring up fossil water in the desert (in other words, this water will not be recharged any time soon). Mexico City is experiencing major land subsistence, as the result of groundwater pumping. Dams are one way of managing water supplies. The U.S. has 75,000 dams, many built between 1930 and 1980. While the US is no longer in the dam-building phase, China, India, and some other majority countries are. The Sardar Sarovar, on the Narmada River of central India, is very controversial. While men and women are affected differently, both have protested the dams loud and long. These dams are tied to the Green Revolution. In China, the Three Gorges dam is being built on the Yangtze. When completed in 2009, it will have cost $30 billion and rise 610 feet and stretch 1.3 miles across the "muddy brute" of a river. The reservoir behind the dam will be 360 miles (1/2 the length of California). The reaons? flood control, navigation, electricity, demonstrate technological prowess. The downsides? 1.5+ million displaced; 100s of cities, towns, and villages submerged; little good land for resettlement; little money for compensation; corruption; unemployment; loss of archaeological treasures; wildlife endangered; raw sewage; industries to be submerged; sediments; earthquake potential; and could break.

October 29:
We watched "The Dammed" about the impacts of big dams (primarily the Sardar Sarovar) on the Narmada River. David Suzuki tells us that the people are going hungry, the forests are in crisis, and the land is being taken away with little compensation. One man says that money won't solve any of their problems; the crisis is a question of life. India has or is building 2250 major dams (1/3 of the world's total). The government embarked on this development scheme shortly after independence. Routinely, dams cost much more than anticipated, sometimes over 500% more. Often, the completed dams don't live up to their promises. The Bargi was supposed to deliver water to 250,000 hectares, but only 12,000 hectares are actually irrigated (the Bargi cost 10 times the original estimate). The people say that they have been destroyed in the name of development. The World Bank loaned $450 million for the construction of the Sardar Sarovar. At that time, all 6000 of the loan proposals to the World Bank had been funded. Because of the Sardar Sarovar, 245 villages will be submerged and the lives of 1/4 million will be disturbed. Many of the tribal people receive little or no land in compensation and move to resettlement camps. Often, they are poorly received in the new village and return to their village with the intention of drowning with their ancestral homes. The police come out in force to evict these people from their villages. The dam is being built to provide electricity and irrigation water. The poor people of India have protested this dam for years. When the protests began, the Indian government evoked the Official Secrets Act to suppress dissent. It didn't work. Medha Patkar, an ex-social worker, is the best known leader of this movement. She leads groups of dissenters village to village to inform those affected of the project. Following in Gandhi's footsteps, this movement has become one of the most powerful in India. They officially declared their opposition to the project in August 1988. The protestors are often treated badly, beaten and arrested. The topsoil is sold and the forests are gone. In the resettlement camps, the government reneged on its promises of aid until the first harvest. The farm land is far away from the home and no materials are available for construction. The lives of these people have been degraded by the dam. The World Bank specifically says that life should be better, or at least no worse than before. Between 1986 and 1993, 2.5 million were displaced worldwide and almost all are worse off. Sustained protests led to the creation of the Morse Commission, an independent body charged with getting to the bottom of the situation. The Commissioners found extreme poverty, poor treatment, poor water quality, children with little to eat, sick children, unfulfilled promises. When asked where the water would go, a list of villages, many of which didn't even exist, was produced. The river would be stopped and redirected at a 90 degree angle. Ninety percent of the water would be set aside for agribusiness, namely cash crops such as sugarcane and bananas. Five of the world's largest sugar mills were coming on line to process the sugarcane. Big problems all the way around, but, when the memo came out, the World Bank presented the situation is a completely different light. Medha tried to talk to the World Bank President when he was in Bombay. No, said his assistant, he had a full agenda (we saw his "full" agenda: watching a fashion show). An Indian journalist notes that the people of the Narmada should be encouraged; they are the last vestiges of Gandhism. They aren't encouraged. The World Bank pulled out their funding, but India continued on alone. In 1994, the lower sluice gates closed. Medha says that the people must now accept that their lands are going to be lost forever. In fact, since 1947, 6000 dams have displaced 10 million people. While the US has quit building dams and recognizes that they are problematic, India continues on. Q&A. In-class essay.

November 3:
Follow-up on Sardar Sarovar: As a result of heavy monsoon rains, the water level at the Sardar Sarovar recently rose to 108 meters. The rising waters destroyed many houses, crops, schools, and community projects. In the film "The Dammed," gender hierarchy was implied, e.g., science/technology of industrial agriculture valorized over indigenous people's knowledge and their subsistence agriculture. Unequal power relations, due to class, are dominant in the film. Poor men and women are terribly disturbed by the situation. The Indian newspapers frequently report on male farmers, the breadwinners of the family, who commit suicide because of debt, lack of access to land, and/or in protest of dam construction. In the text, Gender and Environment, empiricism, objectivity, and control/utilization of nature as a resource are part and parcel of modern scientific thought (Francis Bacon is the "father" of modern scientific thought). Women were largely excluded from the sciences for many years and, even today, must show themselves to be exceptional to compete with males. The underrepresentation of females in the sciences is apparent in the Nobel prizes for science. Of all the science awards from 1901 to 1995, only 10 were awarded to women. In 2003, of the 9 prizes, one went to a woman (the Peace prize) and the others went to men.

Western Sahara (Sahrawi Republic): Read parts of two October, 2003 articles. Two Sahrawi women visited the United Kingdom, were interviewed, met with Tony Blair, etc., etc. The other one had to do with Sahrawi women tending to divorce and remarry a number of times (sometimes 8 or more), although they are Muslim. Divorce is not considered to be a bad thing.
 Students watched a 30 minute film entitled "Song of Umm Dalaila: The Story of the Sahrawis". The video
begins by panning over the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. For 13 centuries, the Sahrawis were nomadic. In 1885,
the Spanish came in to colonize. A 50-year resistance was crushed in 1934. In the 1950s, droughts forced the
Sahrawis to settle in Spanish-built cities where they provided cheap labor for the Spanish. In 1973, the Polisario Front
was established and within two years had gained massive popular support. At the end of 1975, the Moroccans
invaded. Many Sahrawis fled to the Polisario Front strongholds and then fled to refugee camps in Algeria. A berm was built by the Moroccans to keep the Sahrawis in/out. The berm is longer than the Great Wall of China. In 1991, the UN brokered a ceasefire, but resolution is not forthcoming. Today, there are 178,000 refugees (2/3 of the Sahrawi
population) in four large camps in Algeria. Women make up 80% of the camp population. The women have focused on preparing themselves (and their children) to be participants in an independent country. Their focus has included. (1)
public health: teaching healthy habts to the children, preventing flies and other disease vectors, and creating a medical
system. (2) education: under Spanish rule, less than 1% of the women could read, today over 90% are literate; the
women are very dedicated to educating themselves and their children (the Koran says that those who know and who
don't know are not truly equal); daycare is provided; a universal education system is often augmented by study abroad. The goal is to obtain the skills and knowledge necessary to run a modern state after independence. (3) mutual aid: the
women help each other, in a tradition of interdependence and mutual obligation. (4) food: until recently, the Algerian
government provided food, but this has become increasingly difficult. Today, the people carefully plan the distribution of the food aid, have invested in small agricultural projects, and grow vegetables. The Sahrawis are culturally distinct
from the Moroccans (this underlies the claim to independence). The Moroccans have invaded the privacy of Sahrawi
homes on the west side of the berm. Tent villages of Moroccans has been created in the Western Saharan capital of
El Aaiun. People have been imprisoned, tortured and killed. Many have disappeared. In 1989, many of the Moroccan
prisoners were released by the Polisario Front, but they are unable to go home. The king of Morocco (note: the king
mentioned in the video is now dead; his son, King Mohammed VI, may be a bit less repressive) is afraid that their
stories will differ from the official line. One of the Sahrawi women talked to some of the prisoners and felt that they had
been forced to do the horrible things they did. One hundred miles west of the refugee camps, the UN Peacekeepers
keep watch. A referendum was supposed to take place in January 1992, but it has never occurred. The problem is that Morocco has moved in many Moroccans, who are claiming that they should get to vote. A Polisario spokesman,
Mouloud Said, asks the United Nations (but especially the US) to be more active in the peace process. The people
want freedom, independence, peace, rest. Says one, "We have the right to self-determination."

November 5:
Review questions: Sahrawi Republic; Polisari Front; Morocco; Algeria; public health measures (e.g., to eradicate flies), health clinics (dental and medical), universal education, training/education for women, small-scale agriculture; they are preparing for participation in a modern, independent Sahrawi Republic; Sahrawi Republic has petroleum, a good fishery, and the world's largest deposits of phosphate.
New material: Wangari Maathai (Kenya) and Vandana Shiva (India) - two outstanding women environmentalists. From the class discussions: What is the difference between cultural ecofeminism and social ecofeminism? How is the gendered effect of exposure to DDT? Why do China and India have missing girls? According to the UN FAO, do men or women produce most of the world's food? What is Grameen? What is the international division of labor? What is Agenda 21?

November 10: Test #2
Remember to review Test #1, as some questions from that test will appear on Test #2.
The test will have multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank (with word bank) questions, and an essay question. The essay question will relate to the in-class essay you wrote.
Please don't try to memorize this material. If you understand it, you will do better on this test - and you will actually remember some of it later on, in future classes and even after you have graduated from college.
Homework: Read the article "Family Matters" by Betsy Hartmann. Write five test questions.

Key to Test #2:
Test that begins, "Subcommandante ...": (1) c (2) a (3) c (4) c (5) b (6) a (7) e (8) c (9) b (10) a (11) d (12) c (13) c
(14) d (15) eb (16) zb (17) za (18) md (19) la (20) ca (21) ld (22) sa (23) pb (24) mg (25) ab (26) ka (27) me (28) mb
(29) ea (30) ib (31) na (32) pa (33) ya (34) ma (35) sc (36) gb (37) da (38) cc or ia (39) cc or ia (40) aa

Test that begins, "In spite ...": (1) e (2) c (3) b (4) a (5) d (6) c (7) c (8) d (9) c (10) a (11) c (12) c (13) b (14) a
(15) ma (16) sc (17) gb (18) da (19) cc or ia (20) cc or ia (21) aa (22) eb (23) zb (24) za (25) md (26) la (27) ca (28) ld (29) sa (30) pb (31) mg (32) ab (33) ka (34) me (35) mb (36) ea (37) ib (38) na (39) pa (40) ya

November 12:
Students gathered in groups and decided upon their best questions. Each group had an opportunity to ask their questions of the class. Some points to note in the article "Family Matters": today's population is 6.3 billion (not 5.7); usually we talk about the annual rate of natural increase (the world's rate is 1.4%; this is the increase based on births and deaths, NOT immigration); replacement rate is 2.1. Understand the demographic transition. Understand the major points of the article. After this discussion, the class watched part of a film entitled "Population: Six Billion and Beyond." During the 1900s, the earth's population increased from 2 billion to 6 billion. A major point of the video dealt with the importance of improving women's life, that the focus of population efforts needs to be on increasing women's choices rather than just on contraception. Another underlying theme had to do with balancing the rights of the individual with what the earth can sustain. To illustrate and discuss these points/themes, viewers were presented six case studies. Mexico City is a megacity of 18 million. By 2015, there will be 26 such megacities. Mexico is strongly Catholic and often, questions about birth control cause a conflict between "faith and life". Even so, the total fertility rate in Mexico has dropped from seven to 2.5 children in the past 30 years. At least some of the young people are concerned about lack of opportunities in the future. In Mexico, 40% of the population is under 15 years old. Half are sexually active, and 1/3 use birth control. Public education about condom use, sexually transmitted disease, and other sexuality issues is provided. We saw a bit of the February 1999 conference in The Hague, Netherlands where Hillary Clinton spoke of lifting up lives, rather than just worrying about numbers. Kenya's population has increased five-fold since 1948. Over half of Kenya's women have their first child prior to their 20th birthdays. Only 20% of young adults finish high school and the unemployment rate hovers around 70%. Many women in Kenya are the breadwinners for the family (e.g., many must spend 3 hours per day just gathering firewood and water). Many women want smaller families, but only half of the women who want smaller families have acess to contraception. In fact, many times men make the decision about contraception and as one young bride put it, they can be very stubborn. The birthrate would go down if women had their first baby later and if the babies were spaced more widely. Today, 1/6 of young adults in Kenya are HIV positive. Public education, including youth centers to help, is ongoing in Kenya. As one educated African woman noted, however, there are so many problems in Africa that the spectre of HIV is just another problem. How do you prioritize all the problems? In India about 63% of the women are illiterate and, even today, 2/3 of the girls don't go to high school. Half are married by 18 and have their first baby by 20. Girls are valued less than boys from day one. We saw three young women who are counseling pregnant women and working for social improvement. They believe in the importance of education for women and are working for progress in their comunity (Delhi). In the rural areas, conditions are worse for women. About 70% of Indian women live in rural areas; the TFR is over 4. They are trying to cope with an increasingly degraded environment. In 40 years, India will become the world's most populous country. Homework: Read the three articles distributed and be prepared to discuss them.

November 17:
Readings: "Malthusianism" by Linda Gordon; "Excerpts from Reading National Geographic" by Catherine A. Lutz and Jane L. Collins, and "Our Policies, Their Consequences: Zambian Women's Lives under Structural Adjustment" by Amber Ault and Eve Sandberg. Don't forget to review the key terms and the information about the IMF. Malthus, writing in 1798, is usually associated with his prediction that population (increasing exponentially) would outstrip food supply (increasing arithmetically) and the neo-Malthusians with population (affluence and numbers) outstripping the earth's ability to provide. This article focuses on Malthus as apologist for capitalism. He argued that the female's dominant role was that of motherhood, and thus no contraceptives allowed. In terms of the Industrial Revolution, England's enclosure laws provided the excess labor that could be hired for next to nothing to run the machines. He didn't think that the poor should be helped. If you helped them, others would want to be helped too. He wrote that overpopulation is the major cause of poverty and the individual failings cause overpopulation. If men would just put their energy into their work, not into sex, they'd not overpopulate and they'd not be living in poverty. The neo-Malthusians also support the notion that overpopulation causes poverty, but they (believers in science and technological fixes) approve of contraceptive use (Paul Ehrlich is a neo-Malthusian). In the "National Geographic" article, we had a great discussion about depictions of the "exotic." In the article about Zambia, early humans were in 1-2 million years ago; the ancestors of modern Tonga tribe into Zambia after 1000 AD; the British colonized; independence i 1964; 1984 - drought, world copper prices down and worsening economic crisis; 1985 - IMF loan. Under the terms of the IMF's Structural Adjustment Program, Zambia's food subsidies gone, subsidized health care and education gone (often the boys could still go, but the girls couldn't); devalued currency, so the cost of things went up (inflation); massive unemployment; physical violence. The population is 9 million, with 73 ethnic groups; the GNP/capital is $330 and the external debt is $782/capital (2.4 times the annual income!). By comparison, Norway's external debt is $0/person, India's is $96, and the U.S.'s is $3,072 (but our income is much higher than Zambia's).

November 19: Re-writes of in-class critical thinking essays were due today.
Make-up tests/critical thinking essays were this afternoon at 5:00 pm in Moloney Building 209B.
Many of you were disturbed by this topic, and I apologize for that. When talking about gender issues, however, this is a powerful social issue with a particular geography. What is the geography of female genital mutilation or genital cutting? In groups, students formulated questions. Use these questions to help you review: Article 1: (1) Name one of the three problems that clitordectomies were supposed to cure. (2) What were the two ways to best control a woman's "dangerous sexuality"? (3) Were these surgeries seen as sexual to the doctors? (4) Were the majority of these women poor/lower class? (5) Who invented clitoridectomy?  Article 2: (1) What is the most drastic form of FGM? (2) Is FGM culturally relative? (3) How is FGM done differently among the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania? (4) What are the three types of female genital mutilation? (5) What are some negative side effects of genital mutilation? (6) Although female circumcision is practiced by Africans of all religions, with what religion is it particularly associated? (7) How does genital mutilation relate to globalization? (8) In Arabic, the colloquial word for circumcision is "tahara." What does this mean? (9) What happened when colonial powers tried to abolish female circumcision? (10) Why is circumcision not a fitting word for these surgeries?
Film on genital mutilation: Unless this issue is addressed, women's liberation can't be accomplished. One hundred million in Middle Eastern and African countries have had this surgery. First, we went to Togo where a 15 year old had the operation. While it was painful for her, the young girl supported having the operation. She would be an outcast if she didn't; circumcision makes her pure; she is now ready for marriage; she might become a nymphomaniac without the surgery. She said that she felt proud. After the operation, a purification ceremony and festival occur. The operations can cause problems later on, during sexual relations and childbirth. Girls sometimes hemorrhage, get infections, and even die, but the operation is seen as necessary to protect the honor of the family. In Burkino Faso and Sudan, the operation is now illegal but it is still widely practiced (in Egypt, even with prosecution, the practice continues). Some midwives are questioning the operation, noting that many babies are born dead. A mother also reassessed the value of the operation after one of her daughters became sterile as a result. In a public meeting about the issue, a woman leader asked if the men were willing to give up their power over women, but it was difficult to get them to take the issue seriously. The practice relies on ignorance and superstition. Many believe that the Koran advocates the practice, but in fact it does not. We heard from wives who said they would not accept a third wife, if she was not circumcised - the ancestors said it should be like this. The uncircumcised are stunned as "unclean." For a women, no circumcision can mean no husband, no land, no respect. In Burkino Faso, we heard from a couple who had just viewed a film about the practice. The man was reconsidering the practice, as was his wife. While this might have been a good time to end the video, there were two additional segments: midwives showing off their techniques by circumcising a baby and the young circumcised woman participating with her peers in a ritual of bathing in the river.

November 24: class cancelled because of illness

November 26:  
Points from "Duties and Obediences in China": (1) patrilocal (2) Confucius lived 551-479 BC, 13 Confucian Classics, secular leader who has influenced Chinese culture for centuries (3) footbinding: a practice going back at least to the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD); the feet of elite girls were broken and bound so that girls would have sexually alluring, tiny feet; peasant girls also bound their feet, but by turning their toes under, not breaking bones (4) traditionally, the lowest point in a woman's life was her wedding day. The class watched a 57 minute documentary entitled "Small Happiness"; it is classic documentary from the late 1980s. The title comes from a baby boy being a great happiness, but a little girl (in China) being but a small happiness. The video focused on three generations of women and how their lives have changed. In China, to marry traditionally meant "finding someone to fill my home", a wife was "the person inside my home" and a woman was often considered childless if she didn't have a son. The video was filmed in Longbow, which is 400 miles southwest of Beijing. Contact between males and females was more tolerated in high school than in any other rural setting. Although they were teased, a boy and girl fell in love in high school. The boy's father said he would die if his son didn't get married when he finished high school. He begged his girl to marry him. She eventually agreed. This level of involvement in choosing one's own marriage partner is, even today, unusual in rural China. The young husband and wife moved in with the husband's family. The house had shared rooms built around a courtyard. Usually, the parents and go-betweens make the preliminary decisions about marriage and then the couple makes the final decision (but based on limited information). In the past, a matchmaker would work with the parents and the couple involved had no say whatsoever in the matter. Incompatible couples would fight but "there was no divorce in those days" although the husband could get rid of the woman, sending her back to her parents. Weddings usually take place after harvest or at New Years. The groom's family hires a band and prepares a feast. The groom rides on horseback to the girl's village and, when he brings her back, the band plays to attract a crowd. Part of the ritual involves the groom lifting the bride up to catch a dangling paper butterfly. This is the only time they will touch during the ceremony. After the feast, the names of the man's family are read aloud. The couple must bow at each name. Part of the festivities is drinking, with the men playing games to push each other to get drunk. On the wedding night, a rowdy crowd gathers in the bedroom, ostensibly to keep the couple from being so shy with each other. For nine days, the wedding couple cannot lock their door and people can come in whenever they want. In China, the man gets a wife to "open the door" - without future generations, the door will close. In the past, women had as many children as their fate allowed, but today there is strict birth control. The birth control policies were imposed after China's population increased from 400 million to over 1 billion in 35 years. Food shortages will still likely occur. Boys are preferred, especially in the countryside, because they stay and keep the family's name, while girls leave to become part of someone else's family. We heard from the village birth control officer who said that women are sterilized after the second child, if the woman has had at least one boy. Her own daughter-in-law just had a baby girl and they are sprinkling millet and paper money to protect the baby from demons. Women are concerned about sterilization, feeling that is ruins their health. We then hear from three old women, who had their feet bound. Foot binding was officially banned early in the 20th century, but it continued to be practiced for several decades in the rural areas. Girls were ashamed of large feet and they were ridiculed for them. Feet were bound by bending all the toes except the big toe underneath. The feet were then bound to keep the toes in place. Newly bound feet often got infected and pus would soak the cloth, making it almost unbearable for young girls to walk. In the old days, an unmarried girl over the age of 16 was rare. By the age of 11 or 12, girls were kept in the house. A married girl would have to come up with a good excuse (e.g., needing a needle and thread from the vendor) to get permission to go outdoors. In 1949, the Chinese Revolution or "Liberation" as the villagers call it, brought changes such as the right to divorce, a say in choosing a husband, improved health care, words to name one's oppression, and elimination of the worst poverty. The word "feudal" began to be used to mean an authoritarian family relationship. In the past, one of the few secure relationships a woman could establish was with her son, so daughter-in-laws were (and still sometimes are) viewed as a threat. As a result, young wives have often been abused by their mother-in-laws. In Longbow, women used to go outside their compounds infrequently and, when they did, it was usually to go to the village millstone. Beginning in the 1950s, women started working in the collective fields growing and harvesting corn, wheat, and sorghum. Initially, their wages were much lower but, when piecework was tried, the women made more money than the men. The men were resentful. Today, most farm work is left to the women. Women go to the fields when have a few minutes, while men like regular paying jobs. But, now that women have added responsibilities outside the home, are men helping in the house? Basically, no way. We see a shop in the village where girls polish saw blades. It is dangerous and exhausting work. Once, when bonuses were long overdue and safety equipment not provided, the girls went on strike. If the shop had been owned by the Chinese government, they would have gotten into very serious trouble. It was a local cooperative, however, and while the supervisor was angry, the village leader finally got him to agree to the girl's demands. The girls giggled as they proudly told their story. Back in the family courtyard, the grandmother tells how her husband (17 years her senior) bought her for $200. He felt that he had paid good money for her and that she should be at his beck and call. She felt exploited by him for many years, but is much happiner now that she has a supportive daughter-in-law and a beautiful little grandbaby. She rides on the back of a bicycle to hear an opera at the village fair. Back at home again, she talks about how much she likes the radio that her children bought her (she listened to opera "all the time"). She returned to her bitterness and tells of having a baby and then a second little baby boy. The first was crying and the second one was too. She hardly had enough to eat, to provide for one. She smothered the baby. The interview for the day ended. The next day, she is very upset because her son and husband have berated her for talking too much. She says that she's "mad as hell" and says again how much it upsets her that she has lived only for her sons and now they are treating her in an unkind manner. The film ends with scenes of the harvest. Women's conditions have greatly improved in China over the past 50 years, but until deeper cultural changes occur, a little girl will still be a small happiness.

December 1:
After reviewing the film "Small Happiness," students took a review quiz. The key: (1) patrilocal (2) Confucius (3) It is a great happiness when a boy is born, but only a small happiness when the new baby is a girl. (4) The groom must pick up the bride so that she can grab a paper butterfly. (5) If no children are born, the doors to a family's home close. The wife keeps the door open by bringing babies into the world. (6) footbinding (7) After Liberation, people got the right to divorce, to have a say in choosing a spouse, improved health care, words to name their oppression, elimination of the worst poverty. (8) feudal (9) The changes are many: footbinding is a thing of the past; girls can go outside, work in the fields, work industry jobs, have some say in their marriage partner, can get an education, can speak up more freely and have more autonomy.
Nationalism: devotion to the interest or culture of a particular nation (culture group).
Patriotism: love, support, and defense of one's country (of one's father land).
Gender and nationalism are often tied together, especially in recently colonized countries, as woman are expected to be pure, etc. and carry on the nation's traditions/culture through child-bearing and child-raising. One example where religion, nationalism, and gender intersect is Ireland.
Ireland: population 3.7 million, 100% literacy, 1.9 total fertiliy rate.
In the 5th century, Celtic peoples converted to Roman Catholicism. In the 1600s, Brits and Scots were encouraged by Britain to move to northern Ireland. They dominated and subjugated the Irish. In 1800, Ireland became part of the United Kingdom. In the mid-1800s, the potato famine caused widespread death in Ireland, even as England demanded that exports continue. In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin was crushed by the British, but the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was founded. An IRA-led guerrilla war ensued. In 1920, the British granted independence to 26 counties with Catholic majorities. In 1922, southern Ireland became the Irish Free State (Northern Ireland stayed with the United Kingdom). In 1949, Ireland broke the final ties with the United Kingdom, becoming the Irish Republic. Ireland has been a pretty conservative Catholic country. In 1923, divorce was outlawed. In 1972, the Irish Council of Women's Affairs was formed to work for women's liberation in the face of oppressive Catholic tradition. We talked about the film "The Magdalene Sisters" that showed last week at the Kentucky Theater. Until 1996, for-profit homes imprisoned girls who had "sinned" - they were mentally handicapped, raped, had a baby outside of marriage, were flirty. Unless someone came for the woman, she would live her entire life as a slave doing laundry: no wages, no opportunity to leave, no freedom of thought or action. Even as this repression was occurring, in 1990, the Church of Ireland approved the ordination of female priests in Ireland! That same year, Mary Robinson was elected the President of the Irish Republic, the first woman president. She spoke out in defense of gay and women's rights and the legal recognition of illegitimate children. She later went on to become the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights. She charges the Bush administration with pushing her out of that post (her replacement, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in Baghdad on August 20, 2003). In 1992, Ireland's high court forbade a 14 year old rape victim from going to Britain for an abortion. She was finally allowed to go. It is estimated that 4000 Irish women go to Britain each year for abortion. Even though Irish want information about "interrupting" pregnancies, a referendum held in 1993 kept the prohibition against abortion in place (except for cases where the mother's life is in danger). In 1995, couples separated for four years got the right to divorce.
Homework: Find an article about Vietnam and gender in (1) a gender journal (2) InfoTrac or (3) UN. Write a paragraph summarizing the major points.

December 3:
A little background on Vietnam: The French entered Vietnam in the mid-1800s and consolidated the area as the Union of French Indo-China in 1887. Rubber, rice, and timber were controlled by the French. In the 1920s, an organized resistance to European rule began. During WWII, the Japanese occupied Vietnam. In 1945, France reentered Vietnam. By this time, a Vietnamese communist resistance organization was well developed in northern Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh became president of the separatist government in the north. The French went ahead and ceded the north to the communists but stayed in the south. A war between French soldiers and the Vietminh continued until 1954, when the French suffered a serious defeat and withdrew. At an international peace council, Vietnam was divided into two countries: North Vietnam (communist) and South Vietnam (democratic). Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam then fought to overthrow the new government and unite once again with the north. By 1962, the US was sending large numbers of military advisors. When JFK was killed in November of 1963, 23,000 Americans were in Vietnam. In 1964, US bombing of North Vietnam began. By 1965, thousands of US troops were involved in a ferocious ground war. In 1968 and 1969, half a million US troops were in Vietnam. By December 1968, a heavier tonnage of bombs had been dropped on North Vietnam than on Germany and Japan during WWII. By this time, many were protesting our involvement in Vietnam. We began pulling out. By 1972, there were only 42,000 Americans in Vietnam. A ceasefire was signed in 1973. In 1975, Saigon (in South Vietnam) fell to the Viet Cong. The name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam became a unified, communist country after all. During this war, the US spent $150 billion and destroyed 70% of the villages in the north. Over 58,000 Americans died and between one million and 4.5 million Vietnamese died. This war scarred the baby boom generation very deeply and permanently. We watched the documentary "Regret to Inform," which premiered about two years ago at the Kentucky Theatre. It looks at the very beautiful (although deforested) Vietnam countryside of today juxtaposed with the horrors of the war, told from the perspective of the women who suffered (both American and Vietnamese). The film begins with American women telling stories of their husbands. Michael received his draft notice the same day his younger brother did; Michael decided he should go to Vietnam as he didn't think his brother would survive. A Navajo women tells of following the rodeo circuit with her sweetheart. Then we heard from some Vietnamese women. One said that Vietnamese women are not supposed to cry. For Barbara, the woman who came back (after 20 years) to find the place where her husband Jeff was killed, Vietnam is a land of imagination. For her interpreter, a Vietnamese woman who emigrated to the U.S., it is the land of memory. As a 14 year old girl, her house was bombed. She was very confused. In the bomb shelter, there were too many people. Her little 5 year old cousin said he had to get water. He left the shelter, with her behind. An American soldier killed him, but she saw the horrified look in his eyes after he did. Barbara says that while she and Jeff talked about the possibility that he would be killed, they never discussed the fact that he would have to kill others. Looking at the Vietnamese people along the roadside, she notes that these people would have looked with distrust at Jeff and he at them. An American widow, whose husband was a pilot, says when she saw him in Hawaii (for R&R), he told her that he'd be killed. He was. We go back to the story of the interpreter. She says that, as a 14 year old, she had to make decisions about who would live and who would die. An old man begged for help as she fled, but she pretended she didn't hear him. She took food from her girlfriend because her friend was wounded and would die anyway. We then see Vietnamese working in a rice paddy. An American widow says that her husband (a Latino) was really disturbed when he realized that the "enemy" looked about like him. We then heard a tape from Jeff (Barbara's husband) who died soon after recording it. He said he saw four men walking with what could have been a weapon or could have been a hoe or a rake. He couldn't see killing a man for carrying a hoe or a rake. Young women ran and hid from the American soldiers, because they feared being raped. As one Vietnamese woman said, "if you weren't dead, you weren't safe." Pigs, cows, anything that moved was killed. Many prostitutes solicited soldiers in Vietnam. One ex-prostitute said that the men sometimes had sex with her, but sometimes they just yelled or cried or hit her. She used drugs to be able to sleep with these men. She said that if she had had another choice, she wouldn't have done what she did. We see the letters from Vietnamese soldiers to their wives, as well as letters from American soldiers. One American widow says she dreamed that she begged her husband to get away from the dangerous bushes. The next evening a telegram arrived telling her that her husband had been gravely wounded. She called her physician and, after hearing about the injuries, told her to pray that he dies. A Vietnamese widow tells of her 3 year old daughter being arrested with the rest of the family. The widow was ordered to testify against her husband, but she wouldn't. We heard from another Vietnamese woman who worked against the Americans at night. The young Vietnamese women disguised themselves as maids to learn where supplies were kept and what operations were upcoming. She was captured and tortured by the South Vietnamese. A Native American widow tells of her husband dying in Vietnam. He was blown up, so that he had to be identified by his dental plates. She still holds onto the hope that he may be alive somewhere in Vietnam. One Vietnamese widow says that she hopes that no one will ever against experience this pain. Barbara, the narrator of the film, says that the news on TV was not the war - and that she couldn't conceive of the reality. We see Vietnamese children's pictures of the war, and then a wedding party. From there, we see some of the results of the chemical war (the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants). Barrels of Agent Orange were rolled out the back of the plane. Other planes sprayed the defoliant. Soldiers also sprayed the defoliant from the backs of trucks. A Vietnamese pediatrician who lost her husband in the war talked a little about the children who have been born with birth defects; the defects are likely the result of exposure to Agent Orange. One widow told of her husband coming home from Vietnam. To begin with, his joints bothered him, then he just didn't feel well. The pain crept all over him, he broke out in rashes all over his body, and he itched all the time. She said that sometimes the effects of war don't happen right away. Michael, her husband, died of multiple cancers in 1989. We hear again from the ex-prostitute. She says that after coming to the U.S., her second husband didn't want much to do with her. She thought about suicide, but she made it out without losing an arm or leg. Wouldn't it denigrate the deaths of others for her to take her own life? One Vietnamese widow asks if the sons and daughters of American soldiers ask why their daddies didn't come home? An American widow, whose husband was a pilot, asked if her husband was a hero or a murderer. She asks if the Vietnamese people were a threat to his country. "No," she says. While she doesn't consider her husband a murderer, she believes that what he did was murder. One Vietnamese woman says that, as she comes to the end of her own life, she realizes that the people of the world are all the same. Barbara, the narrator, now comes to the place where her husband Jeff was killed. She meets a woman who was a Viet Cong leader at the time, and may even have had a role in Jeff's death. While the area used to be heavily forested, now there's scant vegetation and a metallic scent of Agent Orange. The ex-Viet Cong leader says that of 107 villages in the area, 106 were burned to the ground. Barbara and the Vietnamese woman make an offering to everyone who died. We go back to the ex-prostitute who says that sometimes she's ashamed to cry because the loses of others have been so great. Barbara ends the video by going to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. It is drizzling and solemn. A woman nearby is crying and says that her husband's name should be on the wall. She says that he left his soul in Vietnam, but it took seven years for his body to catch up. He committed suicide, leaving a note saying that he couldn't take the Vietnam flashbacks anymore.
Homework: Reading assignment on migration and refugees.
December 8:
Migrants/refugees: Early in the colonial period, indigenous peoples were appropriated for their labor. Because of extremely harsh working conditions, introduction of disease, and other factors, most of the indigenous peoples in the Americas were soon dead. As one example, the Caribs of the Caribbean were virtually eradicated. The 1838 movement of the Cherokee from Georgia to Oklahoma was another type of eradication. Cherokees were stripped of their land and property and moved - the Trail of Tears is one of many European-American travesties. When there were too few indigenous people to perform the needed labor, about 12 million Africans (especially from the Congo) were shipped to the Americas as slaves. The period of slavery is mostly over, but today people continue to be exploited for their labor. I told the story of the coal miner who was told to protect the mule, not himself. If something happened to him, the boss could just hire someone else. The mule was like a slave - the mule was bought. The boss had even less invested in the man - he could just be replaced. One of the articles told of the migration of American Indians from the reservations to "better" lives in urban areas; this occurred in the 1950s. The idea was to assimilate the Indians. At the same time, Jim Crow (separate but equal) laws enforced separation of African Americans from the majority society. The idea of a "melting pot" is synonymous with assimilation. Today, of refugees and internally displaced persons, 80-90% are women, and the majority are Muslim. Migrating Muslim women are disadvantaged on several fronts. They may be fleeing because of something a male relative did. The women are considered dangerous. The Europeans want to keep them out. Some are raped, and there is often no assistance. These women are further endangered because of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Not wearing the veil in Morocco can result in death. The difference between migrant and refugee is fuzzy. In the 1950s, the UN said there were 2 million refugees. By 1995, the official estimate was 27 million. There may actually be as many as 70 million refugees. If a person is fleeing because of economic or ecological push factors, is this person a migrant or a refugee? What about political, ethnic, racial, or religious push factors? What about people who are internally displaced? What needs to be done to assist them?
Overheads you didn't see: (1) Jewish refugees and immigrants from Europe and elsewhere (1948-1990): Jews came from many countries, including 1 million from the former Soviet Union, 125,000 from Iraq, and 230,000 from Romania. (2) Chinese in Southeast Asia: significant numbers of Chinese migrants have settled in Malaysia, the island of Java (Indonesia), southern Vietnam, and the Philippines. (3) Legal immigration from Middle and South America to the United States, 1981-1990: 267,000 Puerto Ricans migrated to New York, while over 1/2 million people from Central America and the Caribbean migrated to Florida and 1 million migrated from Mexico to the Southeastern US. (4) Location of Refugees in 1997: Countries such as Mexico, Congo, Algeria, India, and Iran are host to international refugees. The countries of Colombia, Angola, Sudan, Afghanistan, and others have large numbers of internal refugees.

December 10: Human Right Day (UN) ... guarantee respect for human life and dignity, grounded in notions of justice, liberty, and equality.
What do American women REALLY have power over? We are basically in the driver's seat when it comes to making decisions about which retailers will thrive and which will fall by the wayside. We watched about 8 minutes of an hour film called "Affluenza." Its point is that Americans are consuming more and more, but are not happy. As a society, we were much happier in the late 1950s. Meanwhile, houses have gotten much bigger, vehicles come with standard features that used to be luxury items, people (I think mostly women) fly to shopping destinations, and so on.
Women aged 18-35 are the biggest US consumer group. They make the largest share of purchases in # of categories, including: small/large appliances, women/men’s wear, tools/hardware. Eighty % of purchases are made by women and 80% of all checks written in the US are signed by women.From the retail industry, factors to keep in mind when selling to women: a woman buys w/ both her head and her heart, women respond to convenience, women can see right through any std sales pitch, women often buy from the periphery (like CDs on the counter at Starbucks).Unfortunately, it is women who have made Wal-Mart the US #1 corporation in terms of sales ($245 billion last year). Wal-Mart is the world’s largest grocer, toy seller, furniture retailer. It has 3000 stores in the US and is now the largest private employer in Mexico. Why do women (or men) shop at Wal-Mart? Convenience – everything imaginable there and low prices. Robert Reich, former labor sec & prof of social & economic policy at Brandeis University says “Wal-Mart is the logical end point and the future of the economy in a society whose pre-eminent value is getting the best deal.”
Wal-Mart is a rapacious (as in greedy) company: it drives out small businesses, destroyed landscape, pushes down wages; to keep cutting costs, it is tough on suppliers …. Manufacturers have been forced to lay off workers after Wal-Mart cancelled order when another vendor cut its price a few cents and other suppliers have shifted to low-cost operations in China, etc. to cut costs; it is ferociously anti-union ….. the strike of 70,000 non-Wal-Mart grocery workers is really about Wal-Mart driving down wages; it pays women less than men; it has unaffordable health care; it is notorious for requiring unpaid overtime – class action suit; federal investigation into use of poorly paid illegal immigrants as janitors; and sweatshop goods. The Waltons are tied for 4th place as richest Americans in 2003: Alice, Helen, Jim, John S. Robson, each worth about $21 billion each. In addition to litigation, there's an upcoming National Day of Action against Wal-Mart and in some places, signatures are being gathered to put anti-Wal-Mart measures on ballots. In the retail marketing literature, the 5th principle to sell to women is: women care about whom they buy from (they will pay up to 20% more for a product or visit a store if they feel that the business owner is trying to make the world or community a better place). There is an opportunity for us to use our collective purchase power to effect change. We can focus on seasonal, local food and on fair trade products. The fair trade market is still small: US $86 M (2001) rose to $131 M (2002). The principles of fair trade are: creating opportunities for economically disadvantage producers, gender equity – properly valuing women’s work, transparency and accountability, capacity building, payment of a fair price, decent working conditions, and environmental sustainability.

December 19:  test 3 for GEO 240:001, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m., OB 311

Note for test: There will 20 multiple choice questions and 64 fill-in-the-blanks. These will each be worth one point. There will also be two essay questions, one about Wal-Mart and the other asking for your thoughts about women's issues in the north and the south. These two questions will be worth 8 points each.