WGS.S10 | Spring 2014 | Undergraduate

Gender, Power, Leadership, and the Workplace

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Seminars: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour and 15 minutes / session

Prerequisites

MIT students need permission of the instructor.

Description

“Until women are as ambitious as men, they’re not going to achieve as much as men.”
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Executive and author of Lean In.

“Young men keep telling me they don’t ‘have it all’ either. And they may have a point. But if you define ‘having it all’ as the opportunity to have a successful career and a family, I’d say this. When a man tells his coworkers he’s going to have a child, no one asks him how he’ll manage or if he’ll be coming back to work.”
Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO of the New America Foundation and author of Why Women Can’t Have it All.

“Seek out and learn from people with a different perspective on history. To create our multicultural future, all people’s voices and perspectives must be welcome.”
Juana Bordas, author of Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age.

Course Requirements

Students are expected to complete the weekly readings prior to class, to attend all classes and to participate in discussion. The course grades are based on:

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Class participation 20%
Response papers / presentations 20%
An 8-page research/policy paper that involves library / field research 30%
Final 8-page paper and presentation in which students explore strategies and / or leadership for change 30%

See Assignments section for more information.

Required Readings

Bordas, Juana. Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age. Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012. ISBN: 9781609941178. [Preview with Google Books]

Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Knopf Doubleday Publishers, 2013. ISBN: 9780385349949. [Preview with Google Books]

Fried, Mindy. Taking Time: Parental Leave Policy and Corporate Culture. Temple University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9781566396462. [Preview with Google Books]

Neely, Barbara. Blanche on the Lam. Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN: 9780140174397.

Note: On the weeks where there is a lot of reading, students will divide the reading, selecting articles / chapters from among those that are assigned.

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Spring 2014
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments with Examples
Instructor Insights