Table Of Content“Launius and Hassel scaff old feminist analysis in a way that makes
its underlying components highly accessible to novice students. Th is
textbook provides students with a critical framework, while giving
the instructor the fl exibility to select companion texts for each of the
threshold concepts.”
— Ann Mattis , Assistant Professor of English and Gender, Women’s,
and Sexuality Studies, University of Wisconsin—Sheboygan
“Launius and Hassel are the mediums of metacognitive awareness in
the fi eld of Women’s and Gender Studies, distilling threshold concepts
so that students can become active agents in critiquing and shaping our
gendered world. Th is book should be foundational in any Women’s and
Gender Studies program.”
— Tara Wood , Assistant Professor of English and instructor
in Gender Studies, Rockford University
“Th reshold Concepts is my go-to foundational text for both teaching
Women’s and Gender Studies classes and facilitating Safe Zone training.
Th e extensive end of chapter questions and learning roadblocks
sections help students process and apply the information. I appreciate
that the authors succinctly frame and contextualize complex gender
studies topics.”
—Christopher Henry Hinesley, Associate Director,
Women’s and Gender Studies, Rochester
Institute of Technology
Th reshold Concepts in Women’s and
Gender Studies
Th reshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Th inking,
and Knowing is a textbook designed primarily for introduction to Women’s and
Gender Studies courses with the intent of providing both skills- and concept-
based foundation in the fi eld. Th e text is driven by a single key question: “What
are the ways of thinking, seeing, and knowing that characterize Women’s and
Gender Studies and are valued by its practitioners?” Rather than taking a topical
approach, Th reshold Concepts develops the key concepts and ways of thinking
that students need in order to develop a deep understanding and to approach
material like feminist scholars do, across disciplines. Th is book illustrates four
of the most critical concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies—the social
construction of gender, privilege and oppression, intersectionality, and feminist
praxis—and grounds these concepts in multiple illustrations.
Th e second edition includes a signifi cant number of updates, revisions, and
expansions: the case studies in all fi ve chapters have been revised and expanded,
as have the end of chapter elements, statistics have been updated, and
numerous references to signifi cant news stories and cultural developments of
the past three years have been added. Finally, many more “callbacks” to previous
chapters have been incorporated throughout the textbook in order to remind
students to carry forward and build upon what they have learned about each
threshold concept even as they move on to a new one.
Christie Launius d irects and teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies program
at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. She has taught the introductory
course for over 20 years at six diff erent institutions. She is also active in the
fi eld of working-class studies; she is the book review editor for the Journal
of Working-Class Studies and served as president of the association from 2014
to 2015.
Holly Hassel has taught in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
program and the English department at the University of Wisconsin Colleges
since 2004. Her work on teaching and learning in women’s studies has been
published in multiple books and journals. She is editor of the journal T eaching
English in the Two-Year College.
Titles of Related Interest
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Carole McCann and Seung-kyung Kim
Women Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies,
Th ird Edition
Edited by Mary Wyer, Mary Barbercheck, Donna Cookmeyer,
Hatice Ozturk, and Marta Wayne
Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students
Are Changing Th emselves and the World, Second Edition
Michele Tracy Berger and Cheryl Radeloff
Reproduction and Society: Interdisciplinary Readings
Edited by Carole Joff e and Jennifer Reich
Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age,
Second Edition
Eve Shapiro
Pursuing Intersectionality, Unsettling Dominant Imaginaries
Vivian M. May
Th reshold Concepts in
Women’s and Gender
Studies
Ways of Seeing, Th inking,
and Knowing
Second Edition
Christie Launius and Holly Hassel
Second edition published 2018
by Routledge
711 Th ird Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
Th e right of Christie Launius and Holly Hassel to be identifi ed as authors of
this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent
to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2015
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Launius, Christie, author. | Hassel, Holly, author.
Title: Th reshold concepts in women’s and gender studies : ways of seeing,
thinking, and knowing / Christie Launius, Holly Hassel.
Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017043817 | ISBN 9781138304321 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138304352 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780203730218 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women’s studies. | Feminism. | Sex role.
Classifi cation: LCC HQ1180 .L38 2018 | DDC 305.42—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043817
ISBN: 978-1-138-30432-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-30435-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-73021-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Adobe Caslon and Copperplate
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Visit the eResources: www.routledge.com/9781138304352
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 The Social Construction of Gender 29
Th is chapter focuses on distinctions between sex
and gender, exploring how gender is socially
constructed, and to what ends, as well as how
social constructions of gender are shaped by issues
of race, class, age, ability, and sexual identity.
Chapter 3 Privilege and Oppression 89
Systems of privilege and oppression profoundly
shape individual lives. Th is chapter explains how
these systems play out via ideology and societal
institutions, and are internalized by individuals.
Chapter 4 Intersectionality 141
Intersectionality is at the heart of feminist analysis.
Th is chapter explores how diff erent groups benefi t
from or are disadvantaged by institutional structures,
as well as how overlapping categories of identity
profoundly shape our experiences within institutions.
VII
VIII CONTENTS
Chapter 5 Feminist Praxis 191
Th is chapter unpacks how Women’s and Gender
Studies prioritizes social change and discusses
strategies for bringing about that change.
Glossary 233
Index 241
Preface
Th reshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies: Ways of Seeing, Th inking,
and Knowing is a textbook designed primarily for use in the introduc-
tory course in the fi eld of Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) with
the intent of providing both skills- and concept-based foundation in the
fi eld. Th e text is driven by a single key question: “What are the ways of
thinking, seeing, and knowing that characterize our fi eld and are valued
by its practitioners?” Th rough extensive review of the published litera-
ture, conversations with Women’s and Gender Studies faculty across the
University of Wisconsin System, and our own systematic research and
assessment of student learning needs, we identifi ed four of the most
critical threshold concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies:
• the social construction of gender
• privilege and oppression
• intersectionality
• feminist praxis
Th is textbook aims to introduce students to how these four concepts
provide a feminist lens across the disciplines and outside the classroom.
Th e term “threshold concept” is defi ned by Meyer and Land as a core
disciplinary concept that is both troublesome and transformative. As
they go on to explain, “A threshold concept can be considered as akin to
a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking
about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or
IX
