Topics in Feminist Philosophy - PHI00148H

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Module summary

This course is designed for students who want to think more clearly about what it means to be a woman in the world, find out and engage with what feminist philosophers have written about topics such as oppression, patriarchy, sexual harassment, gender, international justice (and more), and learn to formulate their own arguments for beliefs that matter to them in a convincing and respectful manner.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

This course will introduce key issues in feminist philosophy including oppression, sexual harassment, consent, and the politics of work and family. We will also investigate the impact of feminism on language, science, morality, and the way we interact with other cultures. Part of the course will be devoted to studying the place of women in the history of ideas. Students will be encouraged to develop their own arguments with respect to the readings.

Module learning outcomes

Identify, interpret and critically analyse arguments in a philosophical text, present their results in a clearly structured oral or written form. Engage with feminist arguments in a clear, well-informed and respectful fashion.

Module content

Topics: inclusiveness, patriarchy, work and domesticity, justice, consent, history, gender, neurosexism, art.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

All formative and summative feedback will be returned in accordance with University and Departmental policy.

Indicative reading

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Introduction.

Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique, chapter 1. Norton. 2001.

Marilyn Frye Oppression

Kate Manne Down Girl. Ch.1. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Serene Khader Why is Oppression Wrong?

Rebecca Solnit “Men Explain Things to Me” in Men Explain Things to Me. Haymarket Books. 2014.

Manon Garcia “It’s time to talk about women’s submission” Anca Gheaus ‘Basic income, gender justice and the costs of gender symmetrical lifestyles’, Basic Income Studies 3,3 (2008): 1–8.

Anca Gheaus 'Three Cheers for the Token Woman'

K.Hawley "What is Impostor Syndrome"

Iris Marion Young “Equality of Whom? Social Groups and Judgments of Injustice” Journal of Political Philosophy 9(1) 2001: 1-1

Susan Okin Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Princeton University Press.

Serene Khader Transnational Feminism.

Cordelia Fine 'Explaining, or Sustaining, the Status Quo? The Potentially Self-Fulfilling Effects of ‘Hardwired’ Accounts of Sex Differences'. Neuroethics (2012) 5:285–294

Simon Baron-Cohen, 'Empathizing, systemizing, and the extreme male brain theory of autism' in I. Savic (ed) Progress in Brain Research, 2010, Vol. 186, 167-175

Conkey and Spector, “Archeology and the Study of Gender”. Advances in Archeological Methods and Theory, vol.7. 1984: 1-38.

Eileen O’Neill “Disappearing Ink” in Philosophy in Feminist Voice: Critiques and Reconstructions, ed. Janet A. Kourany (Princeton, 1998), pp. 17-62

Amia Srinisavan “Does Anyone Have the Right to Sex?”

Quill Kukla “A non-ideal theory of sexual consent”

Manon Garcia “A conversation between the sexes” Introduction.

Talia Mae Bettcher "Trans Women and the Meaning of 'Woman' " in The Philosophy of Sex, Contemporary Readings, 2013, Rowan &Littlefield, 233-250.

Rachel McKinnon “Trans*formative Experiences” Res Philosophica. 2015.

Florence Ashley. What is it like to have a gender identity?” Mind. 132(528) 2023.

Nochlin “Why have there been no great women artists?

Johanna Russ How to Suppress Women’s Writings. University of Texas Press, 1983.