This class will provide a venue through which to explore what is
typically referred to as the “Women’s Movement.”  Spanning a century
and a half of women (and men) writing, singing, speaking, protesting,
and moving on behalf of womankind is no small task.  To do this in 6
weeks is even more challenging.  As such, the approach to this class
will be to think about the women’s movements through 5 particular
clusters of issues—Politics & Public Life, Intersections of Race and
Gender, Economic Challenges, Sexuality, Reproduction, & Women’s
Health, and Gendered Violence.  We will use these topoi to trace the
development of arguments offered to improve the lives of women.

As a course offered by Communication and Culture, we will
take seriously the intersections of rhetoric, performance, and media.
As such, we will discuss a wide array of communication forms—public
protests, speeches, acts of disobedience/resistance, movies, poetry,
television, websites, music, etc.  Additionally, although the
particular focus of this course will be on arguments germane to women,
the lessons learned about social movements more generally should be
applicable to a variety of marginalized groups agitating for inclusion
in the American socio-political-cultural landscape.