Psy 214' Psychology of Women Dr' Muoz Wells College

1
Psy 214. Psychology of WomenDr. MuñozWells
College

• Discussion of Reading Toward a New Psychology of
  Women Colonize This!
• Inquiry Groups Gender Stories Within Cultural,
  Race, and Class Contexts
• Inquiry Groups What will your first
  collaborative project focus on? First
  presentation is on Sept. 30 (two weeks).
• Choose readings from Colonize This! and Without A
  Net for next weeks discussion.

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Toward a New Psychology of Women Jean Baker
Miller, M.D.1986, 1976Part IILooking in
Both DirectionsChapter 4 Strengths
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Baker-Miller Strengths

• Vulnerability
• Weakness
• Helplessness
• Emotions
• Participating in the development of others
• Cooperation
• Creativity

4
?
Vulnerability Weakness Helplessness Emotions
What do these give rise to in women? Examples What
do these give rise to in men? Examples
5
Participating in the development of
others Cooperation Creativity
?
Examples of how weakness is theorized as
strength.
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Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Todays
FeminismDaisy Hernandéz and Bushra Rehman,
Editors, 2002

• To Colonize
• To Decolonize
• What does being based on white superiority make
  me? Cristina Tzintzún, p. 28
• Early on, I learned that what is publicly
  communicated can be very different from what is
  privately experienced. Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, p. 29

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Next Week Chapter 5Doing Good and Feeling
Bad-- Choose readings fromColonize This!
Without A Net
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Baker-Miller Doing Good/Feeling Bad

• Giving enough? Not enough?
• Activity - Passivity Redefining womens work as
  active
• Change essence of life is growth, which means
  change. Change requires learning.
• If these qualities are strengths, why do women
  feel so bad?
• Does it have to do with women being made into
  sexual objects?

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Baker-Miller Serving Others Needs

• The needs of others come first men and children
  -- central to women's self-image
• Super-wife
• Equality in partnerships with men
• Capacity to change relationships

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Baker-Miller Outside the Real World

• Womens place is outside the real action
• How can womens work become part of the action?
  Child rearing, nurturing, etc.
• The dichotomy between male and female itself
  needs to be questioned