WGS 240 Exam 1 Questions with Correct Answers Latest Update 2025 Graded A+
women and gender studies - Answers - "An interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning
women, gender, and feminism."
• Focus on how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, social class, age, ability, religion, and sexuality
• Gender as "central aspect of human existence."
Kimberle Crenshaw - Answers Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School
- coined intersectionality in 1989 article, "demarlginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black
feminist critique of anti-discrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics
Intersectionality - Answers - "a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality
or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves"
- and they create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking about
anti-racism or feminism or whatever social justice advocacy structures we have. "
Patricia Hill Collins - Answers A distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland
- Charles Phelps Taft Emeritus Professor of Sociology within the Department of African American Studies
at the University of Cincinnati.
- Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990)
- "Matrix of domination": Interlocking systems of domination that "reinforce, compound, and
compensate for each other just as easily as they conflict" (Clark 1994:27).
combated river collective statement - Answers "We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as
pervasive in Black women's lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to
separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced
simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely
racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political
repression."
androcentrism - Answers - Confusing "maleness with humanity;" women as "others"
• Centering men
• Marginalizing women as "outsiders" (p. 1)
,Patriarchy - Answers a system where men and masculine bodies dominate because power and authority
are in the hands of adult men
WGS Origin Story - Answers • WGS created in 1970s; in response to almost 150 years of feminist
activism
• 1970: first women's studies department at San Diego State University
• 1977: National Women's Studies Association
• Questioning women's exclusion from and oppression in society led to questioning women's exclusion
from academic areas of study
Why? Who benefits?
What new knowledge is created when we shift the frame?
the person is political - Answers - Commitment to personal change
- Commitment to societal transformation
- The two are linked: not only about individual
feelings and choices but people working together to end oppression
WGS Disciplinary Evolution - Answers • Intersectionality
• "Critiques of the women's movement and women's studies centered on their lack of inclusivity around
issues of race, class, sexual identity or orientation, and other differences" (5).
• From "Women's Studies" to "Women's and Gender Studies"
• Shift from a "stable and fixed idea of 'woman'" to "more inclusive focus on gender" (5)
key legal changes - Answers - Equal Pay Act of 1963
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("forbade workplace discrimination")
-Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965 ("to enforce antidiscrimination laws")
- 1978 and 1979 rulings that "prohibited discrimination against pregnant women and provided women
workers the right to damages for sex discrimination."
- Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 "provided 12 weeks of unpaid leave for workers to care for children
or ill relatives."
- More examples on p. 7-8
, a transnational black feminist framework Kia M Q Hall - Answers Four Principles of Transnational Black
Feminism in Context of Black Lives Matter
1) Intersectionality
2) Scholar-Activism
3) Solidarity Building
4) Attention to Borders/Boundaries
what is feminism - Answers - " A personal perspective as well as a political theory and social movement
that has worked as a central force in advocating women's rights and making room for other liberatory
possibilities"(12)
1) "Concerns equality and justice"
2) "Inclusive and affirming of
women across their differences"
"Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." (bell hooks)
feminisms waves - Answers 1st Wave: 1848-1920
Major mainstream issues: suffrage, legal status of women, property ownership
Other issues: racial slavery, lynching, legal disenfranchisement
Key figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells-Barnett
2nd Wave: 1960s-70s
Major mainstream issues: equal opportunity in employment & education, reproductive rights
Other issues: civil rights for all people of color, intersectionality
Key Figures: Betty Friedan, NOW, Audre Lorde, Combahee River Collective
3rd Wave: 1990s-?
Major issues: deconstructing social identities (gender and sexuality), social justice more broadly, global
feminism, sexual violence
Increasing visibility of women of color
women and gender studies - Answers - "An interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning
women, gender, and feminism."
• Focus on how gender intersects with race, ethnicity, social class, age, ability, religion, and sexuality
• Gender as "central aspect of human existence."
Kimberle Crenshaw - Answers Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School
- coined intersectionality in 1989 article, "demarlginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black
feminist critique of anti-discrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics
Intersectionality - Answers - "a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality
or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves"
- and they create obstacles that often are not understood within conventional ways of thinking about
anti-racism or feminism or whatever social justice advocacy structures we have. "
Patricia Hill Collins - Answers A distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland
- Charles Phelps Taft Emeritus Professor of Sociology within the Department of African American Studies
at the University of Cincinnati.
- Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990)
- "Matrix of domination": Interlocking systems of domination that "reinforce, compound, and
compensate for each other just as easily as they conflict" (Clark 1994:27).
combated river collective statement - Answers "We believe that sexual politics under patriarchy is as
pervasive in Black women's lives as are the politics of class and race. We also often find it difficult to
separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced
simultaneously. We know that there is such a thing as racial-sexual oppression which is neither solely
racial nor solely sexual, e.g., the history of rape of Black women by white men as a weapon of political
repression."
androcentrism - Answers - Confusing "maleness with humanity;" women as "others"
• Centering men
• Marginalizing women as "outsiders" (p. 1)
,Patriarchy - Answers a system where men and masculine bodies dominate because power and authority
are in the hands of adult men
WGS Origin Story - Answers • WGS created in 1970s; in response to almost 150 years of feminist
activism
• 1970: first women's studies department at San Diego State University
• 1977: National Women's Studies Association
• Questioning women's exclusion from and oppression in society led to questioning women's exclusion
from academic areas of study
Why? Who benefits?
What new knowledge is created when we shift the frame?
the person is political - Answers - Commitment to personal change
- Commitment to societal transformation
- The two are linked: not only about individual
feelings and choices but people working together to end oppression
WGS Disciplinary Evolution - Answers • Intersectionality
• "Critiques of the women's movement and women's studies centered on their lack of inclusivity around
issues of race, class, sexual identity or orientation, and other differences" (5).
• From "Women's Studies" to "Women's and Gender Studies"
• Shift from a "stable and fixed idea of 'woman'" to "more inclusive focus on gender" (5)
key legal changes - Answers - Equal Pay Act of 1963
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("forbade workplace discrimination")
-Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965 ("to enforce antidiscrimination laws")
- 1978 and 1979 rulings that "prohibited discrimination against pregnant women and provided women
workers the right to damages for sex discrimination."
- Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 "provided 12 weeks of unpaid leave for workers to care for children
or ill relatives."
- More examples on p. 7-8
, a transnational black feminist framework Kia M Q Hall - Answers Four Principles of Transnational Black
Feminism in Context of Black Lives Matter
1) Intersectionality
2) Scholar-Activism
3) Solidarity Building
4) Attention to Borders/Boundaries
what is feminism - Answers - " A personal perspective as well as a political theory and social movement
that has worked as a central force in advocating women's rights and making room for other liberatory
possibilities"(12)
1) "Concerns equality and justice"
2) "Inclusive and affirming of
women across their differences"
"Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." (bell hooks)
feminisms waves - Answers 1st Wave: 1848-1920
Major mainstream issues: suffrage, legal status of women, property ownership
Other issues: racial slavery, lynching, legal disenfranchisement
Key figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells-Barnett
2nd Wave: 1960s-70s
Major mainstream issues: equal opportunity in employment & education, reproductive rights
Other issues: civil rights for all people of color, intersectionality
Key Figures: Betty Friedan, NOW, Audre Lorde, Combahee River Collective
3rd Wave: 1990s-?
Major issues: deconstructing social identities (gender and sexuality), social justice more broadly, global
feminism, sexual violence
Increasing visibility of women of color
