*    Daily Outline
    *    Feminist Majority Foundation
    *    Quiz
    *    2nd Wave Feminisms
    *    Thursday

*    Feminist Majority Foundation: “Think you’ve got what it takes to Build a Movement?”  A representative from the Feminist Majority Foundation from Washington DC informed the class of a strategy meeting taking place in the CESL Building in room 103 on Tuesday, the 6th of March at 6:00 pm.  Contact stacy@feminist.org or call toll-free (866) 444-3653 for more information.

*    Quiz: (3 questions re. Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own)

*    The class brainstormed whether or not A Room of One’s Own was a fiction or non-fiction piece.
    *    Most of the students felt that it was an integration of both.
        *    The information Woolf provided regarding William Shakespeare’s hypothetic sister, Judith and the references to fictitious novels
                written by popular authors during that time period indicate that there was indeed fiction within her work.
        *    However, Woolf also wrote the text from her own personal perspective and spoke of her own personal experiences that she
                endured, such as being forbidden to enter the library without being accompanied by a person of the male persuasion.
        *    Woolf’s book pertained to both fiction and factual topics and occurrences.

*    Next, we discussed the difference between the dinners that took place at Oxbridge compared to that of Fernham.
    *    At Oxbridge (the men's school), your body and mind were left satisfied.  There was high-quality food and intriguing conversational
            stimulation.
    *    However, at Furhman (the women's school), one received a hideous meal, which was “compared to that of slaves, being their staple
            of food as opposed to fine dining” (Ally).
    *    Professor Mc Bride pointed out that material possessions directly affected how they could think and write.

*    The third question dealt with the obstacles that would have held a Judith Shakespeare back from success.
    *    First, she would have received very limited education (if any at all).
    *    It would not have been likely that she would have attended school but had she been able to receive an education whatsoever, it
            probably would have pertained to religion so as to prepare her for motherhood.
    *    The general consensus of women during that time period when it came to writing might have been: Why contemplate working if I
            could never have control over my earnings?

*    Aphra Behn—the first woman to earn a living by selling her writing, which included mostly plays and love poetry.
    *    She wrote after the Restoration and is remembered as a sexual joke because of her “loose morals.”
    *    Her material has since been recovered and is continually being reproduced.
 
*    Second Wave Feminisms:
    *    Background Information:  First Wave Feminism dealt with the Suffragist Movement, which was connected to the abolition movement
            and broke form regarding racial prejudice.
    *    Back to Second Wave Feminisms
    *    Liberal Feminism
        *    Wanted to leave the basic structure in tact but change the policies and let women join that belonged to all different cultures and
                backgrounds and also, allow men in, in an attempt to expand suffrage.
        *    The ERA fits here.
        *    It dealt with capitalism (economic structure, democracy) and social policies (i.e. allowing daycares to be run where they originally
                not allowed).
        *    It also pertained to individualistic values such as, you have sex—you take full responsibility and care for the child.
    *    Socialist Feminism
        *    Based on Marxist political theory, desired to maintain the same power figures and sees gender as a class.
        *    Issues like medical care, allowing a stipend for every child born.
    *    Radical Feminism
        *    The word 'radical' relates to the word radish or root—such as going to the “root” of the problem.
        *    Patriarchy was the problem with this form and the only solution may have been separatism (separating the women from the men
                entirely).
        *    The literature produced out of this movement pertained to feminist utopias.

*    Factors contributing to gender conservation in the 1950s:
    *    G.I. Bill (men were funded to go to college; less spaces for women as students)
    *    Suburbs (white, middle class)
    *    Cold War (pertains to McCarthyism)
        *    McCarthyism (senator Joe McCarthy was a radical conservative who led a crusade to find secret communists and took extensive
                and dangerous measures to search them out)

*    Adrienne Rich: concept of Compulsive Heterosexuality as in: If you don’t want to be heterosexual—we’ll make you heterosexual.
 

*    Announcement from a representative from the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF).
    *    The FMF will be holding a workshop at 6:00 PM on Tuesday 6 March 2001 in Room 103 of the CESL building. All those
            interested in getting involved with the feminist movement at the local and national level. They will be holding numerous events in
            Washington D.C. over the course of the year related to pro-choice legislation in terms of Supreme Court appointments and many
            other feminist issues.

*    Quiz on Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own (Group quiz)
    1.  Is A Room of One's Own a work of fiction or non-fiction?
        *    The book is an intricate mixture of both fiction and non-fiction. Woolf uses fictitious anecdotes mixed with historical references and
                facts to tell an essentially non-fictional story. This mix serves to give her work the quality of a (fictional) story in terms of how it
                reads as well as break the traditional style of (male) academic writing.
        *    Other possible reasons why Woolf may have chosen this style of writing include the fact that it was more acceptable at the time for
                women to write fiction.
        *    Also, there were most likely no historical documents of women's lives in the past for her to use in order to create non-fictional
                anecdotes to prove her points. We would not know if Shakespeare had had a sister or not because it would not have been
                recorded or preserved, so Woolf had to make her up.
         *    Other qualities of Woolf's writing include her playing with the meaning of the word "I" and the boundary between what is the truth
                and what is a lie (fiction and non-fiction). She is very up-front about her use of this technique in her writing, that is, she puts her
                mechanics on the outside.
             *    This is a very postmodern style and shows that Woolf was very ahead of her time.

    2. Describe the different meals at Oxbridge and Fenham. How are these differences significant? How did these meals effect the mind?
        *    The meal at the men's university, Oxbridge, was very luxurious consisting of partridge, rich desserts, and excellent wine.
        *    At the women's university, Fenham, however, the meal consists of boiled beef, prunes, and water.
        *    The differences between the meals indicate the different funding supplied to the men's versus women's universities. Oxbridge was
                given enough money to afford lavish meals where Fenham had to use every penny they had for other things like books.
        *    The meal at Fenham gave the women the nourishment that they needed to survive but it did not feed their minds in the way that
        *    This anecdote of the contrasting meals between Oxbridge and Fenham also  relates to Woolf's point of her not being allowed into
                the library at a male university without a letter from a man. This further shows a woman's dependence on men. The women's
                university is not given enough money to have their own sufficient library and cannot even use the ones at male universities without
                written permission.
        *    These are all other ways of Woolf  illustrating that a woman needs true independence or, "500 pounds and a room of one's own"
                in order to be able to write. A woman would not have the time to write if she must be working.

    3. What were the things in society that prevented "Judith Shakespeare" from writing?
        *    Judith Shakespeare is the imaginary sister of Shakespeare who possessed the same genius as her brother but because she was a
                female was not able to write and enjoy the same success that he did.
        *    Essentially the only reason why she did not succeed is because of her sex. There are many reasons in the society of Shakespeare's
                time for why this would have happened.
        *    Women were not allowed to receive and education. If a woman could read, she would have been limited to religious documents
                that presumably would help her to be a better mother.
        *    Women were not allowed into the theater business. William Shakespeare got his start as an actor, however, a woman would not
                have been allowed to act.
        *    Women could not own property at the time. So, even if Judith was able to write something sell it, she could not have kept the
                money to improve her situation, and by extension her writing.
        *    Women, as Woolf points out, also fell victim to domestic abuse that was acceptable at the time. This would have further hindered
                her ability to write.
        *    Woolf also discusses the significance of Aphra Behn. She was a woman, living in the late 17th century, after the Restoration (so
                women could now act in the theater), who was apparently the first woman to make a living from writing. She wrote plays but was
                never remembered in history (which was recorded by men) save as a lude sexual joke.
            *    Woolf suggests that all women writers are indebted to her and should "lay flowers on her grave."
            *    Finally, now, some of her plays, such as "The Rover" are being produced again and receiving the credit they deserve.

*    A Brief Introduction to the Second Wave Feminist Movement
    *    First Wave Feminism refers to the Suffragists, a movement that came out of the Abolition movement
    *    Second Wave Feminism refers to the movement beginning in the 1970's and coming out of the Civil Rights movement
 
*    Second Wave Feminism involves three different groups
    *    Liberal Feminism- believes in leaving the structure (capitalism and democracy) intact and just changing policies to allow women (or
                minorities, working class, etc.) into the system.
        *        They are concerned with social policies such as allowing day care in schools, however not for changing the system to provide
                    federal (tax) funding for these policies.
        *    It is a very individualistic ideology, that is, they see child rearing as the responsibility of the individual rather than of the society as
                    a whole.
    *    Socialist Feminism- believes that the structure (capitalism and democracy) is part of the problem. They look to reform the system
                itself by following Marxist political theory (seeing gender as a class). They see that the real problem is within the structure itself
                and how it keeps the people already in power where they are.
        *    They believe in instituting socialist policies, tax funded daycare for example, such as those practiced by many countries in Europe.
                *    In Denmark, for example, women are paid for the work they do within the homes, thus making child rearing a concern of the
                        society as a whole rather than of the individual.
    *    Radical Feminism- believes in going to the root of the problem, the problem being patriarchy. This is associated with the idea of
            separationsim, that is, women can never be free when men are around and therefore should live without them.
        *    Out of this theory comes the idea of Feminine Utopias, or societies made up entirely of women.

*    Other comments on Second Wave Feminism
    *    This includes the idea of Feminine Utopias in relation to the condition in this country during war, specifically World War I and II.
           When the men leave to go fight, the women are left to run things. They take over jobs that were reserved for men before the war,
            etc. However, as soon as the men return, women are forces to give up their jobs (whether they want to or not) and go back into the
            home. Then after World War II for example a period of conservatism followed which encouraged women to stay home to raise the
            children.
    *    This brings up ideas from that period in America's history (1950s)
        *    GI Bills, which allowed more men to go to college (but not women)
        *    Suburbs, which kept women segregated and out of cultural city life
        *    McCarthyism, which greatly censored the American film and art industries.

*    More women earned graduate degrees in this country during the 1930s than they did in any of the decades following until the 1970s.
    *    This fact is an indication of the feminist movement not always taking a forward direction as demonstrated by the trends in
            conservatism following wars mentioned above.

*    Next class (Thursday, 8 March 2001) we will be watching the video "Rosie the Riveter"
    *    Extra Credit for coming to class! =)