Learning objectives
Respect to knowledge and understanding (Descriptor 1 = knowledge and understanding), at the end of the course the student must have acquired the fundamental historical knowledge on the cultural and political origins of gender discrimination and on some of the ideas that have connoted the figure of women within the history of Western political thought. The student must have achieved full knowledge stereotypes on the female figure that are at the origins of gender discrimination and political ideas through which the female figure has been characterized in the history of Western political thought. The student must have gained knowledge of some of the texts of those authors and the texts of those women who were among the first to develop a political thought on women's emancipation.
With respect to knowledge and ability to applied understanding (Descriptor 2 = applying knowledge and understanding), the student through an educational path marked on Lesson method / Socratic heuristic must have acquired the ability to understand and analyze the topics of the lessons. With this ability the student will have to demonstrate that he is able to elaborate his own critical thinking on the topics exposed in class.
With respect to independent judgment (Descriptor 3 = making judgments) the students must have acquired at the end of the course the ability to analyze the subjects learned in class in order to know how to relate to them critically.
With respect to communication skills (Descriptor 4 = communication skills) through the methods of method of the heuristic / Socratic lesson the student must acquire a satisfactory property expressive both at the terminological and conceptual level. The student will have to learn to expose the topics of the lesson with autonomy.
Respect to the ability to learn (Descriptor 5 = learning skills) students will have acquired those bibliographic and linguistic-lexical tools as well
conceptual that will allow them to independently develop a critical reflection on the problems dealt with in teaching. The student must also have acquired the ability to develop an autonomous thinking based on teaching topics and to express it to the teacher and colleagues.
Course unit content
In different historical epochs there are women who have elaborated a political thought and transmitted it in their writings; yet many of these women with their writings are not studied in schools, they are not part of school training programs, and above all they do not find space in school books; the result is that many of these women are little known or even ignored. The teaching course aims to help reduce this cultural gender gap.
The course intends to go to the cultural origins of the political conceptions that have discriminated against women in the West and to deal with some of the ideas that have allowed their emancipation.
The biographies of women who in the West have elaborated their original political thought will be studied and the main themes of their writings will be studied and commented through the reading of some passages of their works.
Full programme
FIRST PART: "Sociocultural and political models at the origin of gender discriminations and inequalities"
- Forms of exclusion of women in the Greek polis;
- The woman in the Homeric poems;
- Socrates; Plato; Aristotle;
- Medical theories on the female body;
SECOND PART: "Women in the history of political thought":
The pioneers of women's emancipation:
Christine de Pizan; Marie de Gournay; Mary Astell; Olympe de Gouges; Harriet Taylor; Mary Wollstonecraft; Sarah M. Grimké and other examples of women who developed political thought.
Bibliography
▪︎F. Taricone, Manuale di storia del pensiero politico e questione femminile, Collana Donne e Politca 7, Aracne, Roma, 2022. (PARTS TO STUDY*: CAP. I: 1.5 Hobbes, particularly 1.5.7 Il dominio paterno; 1.6 Locke, particularly 1.6.5 La critica delle contemporanee: Mary Astell; 1.8 Rousseau; 1.9 Montesquieu, particularly 1.9.3 Lo status di donna. CAP. III: 3.4 Olympe de Gouges; 3.5 La cittadinanza delle donne. CAP. IV: 4.1 Burke; 4.2 Mary Wollstonecraft. CAP V: 5.3 Il XX secolo; 5.4: Le europeiste. CAP. VI: 6.1 Constant; 6.2 Bentham, particularly 6.2.3 La questione femminile; 6.3 Mill, particularly 6.3.3 L'impegno per i diritti civili e politici femminili; 6.4 Tocqueville, particularly 6.4.6 La condizione femminile; 6.5 Harriet Martineau; 6.6 Seneca Falls; 6.7 Mazzini, particularly 6.7.3 Mazziniane liberali e repubblicane; 6.8 Salvatore Morelli e Anna Maria Mozzoni. CAP. VII: 7.2 Saint-Simon, particularly 7.2.2 la questione femminile; 7.3 Fourier, particularly 7.3.1 Interpreti del fourierismo; 7.4 Proudhon, particularly 7.4.2 L'asimmetrico parallelo fra l'uomo e la donna; 7.5 Contro Proudhon: Jeanne Déroin, Daniel Stern, Jenny d’Héricourt e Juliette Lambert; 7.6 Marx ed Engels, particularly 7.6.2. Marianna Bacinetti Florenzi Waddington e Flora Tristan; 7.7. Ottocento e Novecento: cittadinanza e diritto di voto. [*The indicated paragraphs (e.g. 1.5) must be studied in full and in particular the reported subparagraphs must be studied (e.g. 1.5.7)]).
▪︎P. Rudan, Donna. Storia e critica di un concetto polemico, il Mulino, Bologna, 2020 (PRIMI DUE CAPITOLI).
▪︎E. Cantarella, Gli inganni di Pandora. L'origine delle discriminazioni di genere nella Grecia antica, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2019.
▪︎A. Rossi-Doria, Le donne nella modernità, Pazzini, Villa Verucchio, 2007.
Selected parts, without being examined, to be indicated on Elly, of the book will be read and commented upon:
▪︎ Fondazione Nilde Iotti (ed.), Le leggi delle donne che hanno cambiato l'Italia, Third Edition, Futura, Rome, 2024.
Teaching methods
The teaching activities will be conducted through the method of the frontal lesson /presentation and the method of the lesson Heuristic/ Socratic; a sequential type of expositive teaching (with steps of knowledge) will be alternated with a hypothetical or heuristic teaching based on questions/ stimulus. This mode of teaching aims to promote in the students the autonomous research of meaning on the topics of the frontal lessons. With the use of the Simulation/Role playing and Cooperative Learning methods, we will try to involve the students actively in the construction of the lesson.
Assessment methods and criteria
The exam aims to verify:
1) The knowledge acquired on the themes/contents of the reference texts indicated in the Bibliography and the materials uploaded to the Elly platform;
2) understanding the main concepts concerning the History of women in political thought contained in the reference texts indicated in the Bibliography;
3) the ability to apply the knowledge acquired through the development of a complete reasoning on the contents of the reference texts indicated in the Bibliography and the materials uploaded to the Elly platform;
4) the ability to formulate autonomous judgments on the contents of the reference texts indicated in the Bibliography and the materials uploaded to the Elly platform;
5) the ability to express oneself with appropriate language with respect to the contents of the teaching and materials indicated in the Bibliography and uploaded to the Elly platform.
Verification method:
Written exam with 5 open questions on the themes/contents of the lessons, the bibliography and the materials uploaded to the Elly platform. Estimated time to carry out the exam is 2 hours.
Other information
GET THE BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO HAVE THEM IN THE CLASSROOM DURING THE LESSONS.
2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
This teaching contributes to the realization of the UN objectives 3 5 and 10 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
