WGS FINAL EXAM 2026/2027 | WOMEN'S & GENDER STUDIES STUDY GUIDE,
PRACTICE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & EXAM REVIEW
Dorothy Allison - ANS ✔✔A Question of Class: her experiences of poverty growing up in rural SC,
discusses the myths about poverty that are used to prop up narratives of the American Dream, and
reflects on how her identity as a lesbian is informed by her class background
-there is no such thing as the "good poor" ; conflicting images and identities exist
-belief in that some jobs were only meant for poor ppl of color not poor whites
-Lesbian Feminism
Christine L. Williams - ANS ✔✔The Glass Escalator, Revisited: Gender Inequality in Neoliberal times:
advantages men receive in "women professions"
-glass escalator builds on the concept of the class "glass ceiling" as a useful concept for tracing the
impact of these gendered advantages
Paid more than w bc assumed highly skilled and reward for their not being enough males in those fields
-glass ceilings prevent women from ascending into top jobs
-glass escalator depends on gender inequality, exclusion, and marginalization of those oppressed on the
basis of race, sexuality, and class
Amy M Denissen and Abigail C. Saguy - ANS ✔✔Gendered Homophobia and the Contradictions of
Workplace Discrimination for Women in the Building Trades: lesbian and straight women experiences
while working in construction, how workers strategize to avoid harassment, race, gender presentation,
and sexuality restruct those harmed by gendered homophobia
Miliann Kang - ANS ✔✔"I Just Put Koreans and Nails Together": Nail Spas and the Model Minority: Asian
immigrant women who work in nail salons must accommodate various demands for body labor, rewrite
their own identities to conform to a pampering service demeanor an the model minority stereotype
-race and class privileges of customers are upheld as manicurists are forced to subservience
-ppl assume they are in these jobs bc they like it not because there are no other avenues of employment
-undergo emotional and physical labor to create a good atmosphere and experience for customers
Ann Arnett Ferguson - ANS ✔✔Naughty by Nature: shows how white and black boys are treated
differently after committing minor transgressions, white privilege protects white boys misbehaving while
A.A. boys suffer from harsh punishments and are adultified
-hidden curriculum
-the behavior of A.A. boys in school are looked at in 3 categories of "differences" age, gender, and race
Elizabeth A. Armstrong, et al. - ANS ✔✔Good Girls: Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on Campus:
women's participation in slut shaming is often viewed as internalized oppressions; they apply
disadvantageous sexual double standards established by men
, -gives women little agency and neglects their locations in other social structures
-w use slut stigma to draw boundaries around status groups linked to social class linking sexual behavior
and gender performance
-slut stigma is more about regulating public gender performance than regulating private sexual practices
-slut discourse, classism, sexual privilege
Dolores Delgado Bernal - ANS ✔✔Learning and Living Pedagogies of the Home: The Mestiza
Consciousness of Chicana Students: ethic culture can work as a strategy for overcoming obstacles within
educational settings, culture is a source of positivity and identity affirmation, Mestiza consciousness,
biculturalism, Chicana feminism, pedagogies of the home
-Mestiza Consciousness = a type of discrimination that implicity, and through a a myread of words and
examples, decides the physicalities and identities of marginalized persons
-pedagogies of the home = provide strategies of resistance that challenge the educational norms of
higher educ and dominant perceptions held about Chicana students
Heather Hlavka - ANS ✔✔Normalizing Sexual Violence: Young Women Account for Harassment and
Abuse: sexual violence is normalized, coerecive tactics used by boys and men to convince girls and young
women to have otherwise unwanted sexual interactions with them, heternormative gender roles enable
the normalization of sexual violence
-traditional gender arrangements, beliefs, and behaviors reinforce women's sexual subordination to men
-Heternormative allows men to not be held accountable for aggression, harassment, etc
-when w are made gatekeepers it puts the blame and responsibility on them for the acts of men
Roe Bubar and Pamela Jumper Thurman - ANS ✔✔Violence against Native Women: how communities
can work to intervene in systemic violence
-lack of law enforcement in tribal communities has led to high rates of inerracial crime among N.A.
women
-lack of trust in federal gov. Leds many to not coming forth about the violence they've endured
Forward Together - ANS ✔✔Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Tools for Sexuality Education: workbook
for parents specifically Asian Pacific Islanders to help them teach sex education in their communities
Kirsty Liddiard - ANS ✔✔The Work of Disabled Identities in Intimate Relationships: intimate relationships
are sites of emotional other forms of (gendered) work that reinforce the oppression od disabled ppl
-psycho-emotional disablism = socially engendered undermining of emotional well-being
-due to fear of not finding partner again will stick with ppl they are unsatisfied with
-sex work and emotional labor
Audre Lorde - ANS ✔✔Use of the Erotic:The Erotic as Power: erotic as a site of liberation for women
-erotic can be love, creativite, knowledge, and personal empowerment
-w are taught that only m can enjoy and pursue erotic things
-pronographic is the opostie of the erotic bc it strips away the power and feeling
PRACTICE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & EXAM REVIEW
Dorothy Allison - ANS ✔✔A Question of Class: her experiences of poverty growing up in rural SC,
discusses the myths about poverty that are used to prop up narratives of the American Dream, and
reflects on how her identity as a lesbian is informed by her class background
-there is no such thing as the "good poor" ; conflicting images and identities exist
-belief in that some jobs were only meant for poor ppl of color not poor whites
-Lesbian Feminism
Christine L. Williams - ANS ✔✔The Glass Escalator, Revisited: Gender Inequality in Neoliberal times:
advantages men receive in "women professions"
-glass escalator builds on the concept of the class "glass ceiling" as a useful concept for tracing the
impact of these gendered advantages
Paid more than w bc assumed highly skilled and reward for their not being enough males in those fields
-glass ceilings prevent women from ascending into top jobs
-glass escalator depends on gender inequality, exclusion, and marginalization of those oppressed on the
basis of race, sexuality, and class
Amy M Denissen and Abigail C. Saguy - ANS ✔✔Gendered Homophobia and the Contradictions of
Workplace Discrimination for Women in the Building Trades: lesbian and straight women experiences
while working in construction, how workers strategize to avoid harassment, race, gender presentation,
and sexuality restruct those harmed by gendered homophobia
Miliann Kang - ANS ✔✔"I Just Put Koreans and Nails Together": Nail Spas and the Model Minority: Asian
immigrant women who work in nail salons must accommodate various demands for body labor, rewrite
their own identities to conform to a pampering service demeanor an the model minority stereotype
-race and class privileges of customers are upheld as manicurists are forced to subservience
-ppl assume they are in these jobs bc they like it not because there are no other avenues of employment
-undergo emotional and physical labor to create a good atmosphere and experience for customers
Ann Arnett Ferguson - ANS ✔✔Naughty by Nature: shows how white and black boys are treated
differently after committing minor transgressions, white privilege protects white boys misbehaving while
A.A. boys suffer from harsh punishments and are adultified
-hidden curriculum
-the behavior of A.A. boys in school are looked at in 3 categories of "differences" age, gender, and race
Elizabeth A. Armstrong, et al. - ANS ✔✔Good Girls: Gender, Social Class, and Slut Discourse on Campus:
women's participation in slut shaming is often viewed as internalized oppressions; they apply
disadvantageous sexual double standards established by men
, -gives women little agency and neglects their locations in other social structures
-w use slut stigma to draw boundaries around status groups linked to social class linking sexual behavior
and gender performance
-slut stigma is more about regulating public gender performance than regulating private sexual practices
-slut discourse, classism, sexual privilege
Dolores Delgado Bernal - ANS ✔✔Learning and Living Pedagogies of the Home: The Mestiza
Consciousness of Chicana Students: ethic culture can work as a strategy for overcoming obstacles within
educational settings, culture is a source of positivity and identity affirmation, Mestiza consciousness,
biculturalism, Chicana feminism, pedagogies of the home
-Mestiza Consciousness = a type of discrimination that implicity, and through a a myread of words and
examples, decides the physicalities and identities of marginalized persons
-pedagogies of the home = provide strategies of resistance that challenge the educational norms of
higher educ and dominant perceptions held about Chicana students
Heather Hlavka - ANS ✔✔Normalizing Sexual Violence: Young Women Account for Harassment and
Abuse: sexual violence is normalized, coerecive tactics used by boys and men to convince girls and young
women to have otherwise unwanted sexual interactions with them, heternormative gender roles enable
the normalization of sexual violence
-traditional gender arrangements, beliefs, and behaviors reinforce women's sexual subordination to men
-Heternormative allows men to not be held accountable for aggression, harassment, etc
-when w are made gatekeepers it puts the blame and responsibility on them for the acts of men
Roe Bubar and Pamela Jumper Thurman - ANS ✔✔Violence against Native Women: how communities
can work to intervene in systemic violence
-lack of law enforcement in tribal communities has led to high rates of inerracial crime among N.A.
women
-lack of trust in federal gov. Leds many to not coming forth about the violence they've endured
Forward Together - ANS ✔✔Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Tools for Sexuality Education: workbook
for parents specifically Asian Pacific Islanders to help them teach sex education in their communities
Kirsty Liddiard - ANS ✔✔The Work of Disabled Identities in Intimate Relationships: intimate relationships
are sites of emotional other forms of (gendered) work that reinforce the oppression od disabled ppl
-psycho-emotional disablism = socially engendered undermining of emotional well-being
-due to fear of not finding partner again will stick with ppl they are unsatisfied with
-sex work and emotional labor
Audre Lorde - ANS ✔✔Use of the Erotic:The Erotic as Power: erotic as a site of liberation for women
-erotic can be love, creativite, knowledge, and personal empowerment
-w are taught that only m can enjoy and pursue erotic things
-pronographic is the opostie of the erotic bc it strips away the power and feeling
