Friday, November 18, 2011

Women's Studies Essential Question

Choose one of the questions we developed in our brainstorming activity today to pursue over the course of this unit.  Choose wisely, for it will become your final assessment.  Feel free to borrow a question from the work of previous American Studies students (see below).

HERE IS SOME OF OUR CONVERSATION:

Woman are at a disadvantage politically
Marriage rates are declining
The role of the media
Women having no economic rights once married
Women accept their roles
de Jure (by law) v. de Facto (as a matter of fact) discrimination
The legal acceptance of domestic violence

How does the historical era in which a woman lives affect her rights?
Who has historically had the power to make the rules?
Has real progress been made looking at the present day state of women?
What is the changing role of marriage?
Why are laws not keeping up with the cultural advantages of women?
What role does the media play?
Why does sex sell?
What role do/have women played in perpetuating the problem?


OTHER ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

  1. How does one accomplish change in society?
  2. How can a disadvantaged group advocate for change?
  3. What motivates groups to advocate for social change?
  4. What methods can activists use to create social change?
  5. What are the obstacles that groups face in their struggle to achieve social change?
  6. What has been the changing role of women throughout American history?
  7. Must groups achieve social, political, and economic rights in order to achieve equality? 
  8. Should groups work within the system to create change or work from outside in order to force a desired change?
  9. What effect does the law have on the way people act?
  10. What has changed the way we perceive gender roles? What has not changed?
  11. Why have we historically restricted reproductive rights?
  12. How has our society’s power structure affected gender relations?
  13. What role do the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?
  14. What’s the relationship between body image and violence against women?
  15. Why is it important to study women’s history?
  16. How has the role of women in politics changed over time? Or, not changed?
  17. How is women’s involvement in politics limited by gender/societal expectations?
  18. In what ways have women been affected by the law?
  19. How have social activists created change?
  20. What’s the connection between expected societal roles for women and the level of respect/power they’re issued?
  21. How have American women impacted social and political issues globally?
  22. In what way were/are expected gender roles for women different from expected gender roles worldwide?
  23. How has clothing and appearance of women changed over time? Is there a relationship between the change and their political roles?
  24. How have women’s professional roles developed over time?
  25. What role has marriage played in the lives of women over time?
  26. Has marriage become more or less of a societal norm for women, and why?
  27. How do gender roles impact a woman’s professional life?

39 comments:

  1. I wanted to do something related to both body image and violence against women and this question seemed to be perfect...

    "What’s the relationship between body image and violence against women?"

    ReplyDelete
  2. The article discovery activity we did on both Thursday and Friday helped me decide an essential question that I would like to pursue over the course of the Women's Studies unit. I am very interested in the topic of body image so I think an essential question for this topic could be...

    Why do women feel pressured by the way the media perceives an ideal body image?

    ReplyDelete
  3. After reading the post and learning over the past week about women's rights and their treatment, I have decided on a question which would be...

    What role does the media have when impacting women and how come women women listen to what the media says?

    ReplyDelete
  4. After learning more about this topic, my esssential question would be...

    What role does the media have on women and how they decide to look and wear? Also, does the media do this on purpose or are they blind to what they are doing to the community?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm very curious to learn more about how women have become what they are today, so I've decided that my essential question should be (stolen from the list above)...

    What has changed the way we perceive gender roles? What has not changed?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am very interesting in looking into violence against women. My question is, What’s the relationship between body image and violence against women?

    ReplyDelete
  7. After the artifact discovery that we did in class I have decided to look into violence against women.

    What’s the relationship between body image and violence against women?

    ReplyDelete
  8. i would really like to look into the question, How do gender roles impact a woman’s professional life? this i feel would be the best question to learn about.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The essential question I am most interested in learning about would be:
    "how much progress has actually been made in present state of today's women." This is because after reading some of the packets and watching clips I realized that even though it is a bit subtle, the discrimination of women continues to perpetuate.

    ReplyDelete
  10. After beginning our study on Women's Rights I think I am interested in the essential question of:

    Why are women at a political disadvantage?

    ReplyDelete
  11. After the artifact discovery and our discussion on Friday, I think I am looking at this essential question:

    What role do the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?

    ReplyDelete
  12. After the artifact discovery and the discussion we had in class, the essntial question I want to explore is:

    What role do the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?

    ReplyDelete
  13. The question I am interested in answering is:
    How has the way women are portrayed in media affected their personal life?

    ReplyDelete
  14. When I was out sick, Tim went over stuff with me that we went over in class. he asked me questions that had to do with great leaders and all the answers I gave him were men. There were some outstanding women, so the question I choose is

    "Why is it important to study women’s history?"

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am interested on how the media is able to manipulate a society, and shape our personal lives. So the question I am interested in is:

    What role do the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I found the political section in class very interesting and would like to know more about it. I chose this question:

    How is women’s involvement in politics limited by gender/societal expectations?

    ReplyDelete
  17. The question I'm choosing to do is... What influence does the media have in how women are perceived and how they feel they are expected to act?

    ReplyDelete
  18. After considering all of these questions and researching this topic I choose mine to be:
    How has the role of women in politics changed over time? Or, not changed?

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The question i am choosing is, How has clothing and appearance of women changed over time? Is there a relationship between the change and their political roles?

    ReplyDelete
  21. What role do/have women played in perpetuating the problem?

    Im choosing this because I feel that although womens rights is a problem in America, women play a huge roll in this problem. Women choose to dress like they do snd act how they act, but then women rights activists complain about women being looked at only for their bodies. I think it is hipacriticle for someone to say that women shouldnt be looked at only for their bodies but then get breast implants.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The question i chose to research is :

    What role do the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?

    ReplyDelete
  24. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I am interested to see how much has changed in society's placement of women, therefore, I'm choosing , What has changed in the way women are seen in society? What has not changed?

    ReplyDelete
  26. After the artifact discovery, my essential question will be:
    What’s the relationship between body image and violence against women?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Why do men have such high expectations/standards of women? Does media play a role or is it due to nature?

    I wanted to do something along the lines of how men view women and why they think they can treat and label them the way they do. So my question might be changing throughout, but that is basically the route I want to take.

    ReplyDelete
  28. What role do the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?

    This is most likely the question I will choose.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  30. After learning about history with the artifacts, the essential question I'll use will be:

    What affect does the media have on women today?

    ReplyDelete
  31. I would like to find out why social roles initially develop the way that they did, when they began to change, and why

    ReplyDelete
  32. After looking through all the questions my essential question is: who has historically had the power to make the rules.

    ReplyDelete
  33. After the artifact discovery I became very interested in the role of media in womens lives. So I have decided to do the question "What role does the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?"

    ReplyDelete
  34. After the artifact discovery and viewing all the questions I have became interested in the media portraying woman's lives. So for my essential question I have chosen:

    what role does the media play in perpetuating gender roles and stereotypes?

    ReplyDelete
  35. A women's role in marriage is currently changing, and I was interested in if this change was good or bad, and what where the pros and cons of it so my essential question is-

    How have women's marriage roles changed over time? Is the change for the better or for the worse?

    ReplyDelete
  36. The question that I want to choose is: "What role does the media play?"

    ReplyDelete
  37. I changed my question to: what actions are being taken to stop the violence against women

    ReplyDelete
  38. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  39. how has the role of women changed over time.

    ReplyDelete