Women and Community Organizing

SW658, Section 001

Contemporary feminist thought challenges us to identify and analyze the connections between our day-to-day experiences and social patterns of gender inequality. In this course, we will explore the theory and practice of community organizations using a feminist lens. This lens brings into focus persistent patterns of inequality; it also reveals the persistence of community-based women organizers efforts to create positive change.

This course will examine concepts and techniques for organizing women at the community level. Students will learn about major models and methods of practice, intersectional and analytical skills, and roles of women as organizers and constituents of community organizations. Students will identify forces that facilitate and limit organizing of women in the community and will develop action principles for work with women in the community. Critical value and ethical issues for women and men concerned with women's issues and organizing will be explored, in addition to ways to develop alternative approaches to address these issues.