Primary documents on Feminism:
María Abella de Ramírez, “Basic Plan for a Vindication of the Rights of Women” (1906) in Murray, Women and Gender in Modern Latin America
Ernestina A. López, “What Feminists Stand For” (1910) in Murray, Women and Gender in Modern Latin America
Paulina Luisi, “A Call for Solidarity of the Sexes and Social Classes” (1936) in Murray, Women and Gender in Modern Latin America
Elena Caffarena, “The Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women”
Elena Caffarena, “States of Exception” in The Chile Reader
Ofelia Domínguez Navarro, “The First Wave of Cuban Feminism” in The Cuba Reader
Primary documents on gendered divisions of labor:
Instituto Alejandro E. Bunge, “The Problem of Working Women” in Murray, Women and Gender in Modern Latin America
Adelinda Díaz Uriarte, “Recollections of a Household Servant” in Murray, Women and Gender in Modern Latin America
In order to do this, you must first address the purpose, context and perspective of the source.
What kind of source is it (a letter? treaty? diary entry?)?
Who produced it, why, and for what intended audience?
How would you characterize the author’s perspective?
And, of course, when was this source produced, and what is the context of this source’s production?
You must then consider what is significant about this source and what it reveals about the past. Hence you ought to think about what the source suggests about the person who produced it and about its intended audience. And you must consider what it reveals about the context in which it was produced. For this, you should use what you have learned in discussions, and assigned readings. For citations, use the page numbers in parenthesis and avoid an over-reliance on direct quotes, especially block quotes! Most of the information you need can be paraphrased. You should not use any other materials from outside of class. Please provide the full citation for your document’s published location at the end of the paper: e.g. Elena Caffarena, “States of Exception” in The Chile Reader: History, Culture, Politics, eds. Elizabeth Hutchinson, et. al. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.
Remember that the purpose of this assignment is not to simply answer these questions (and your paper should not be a series of answers); it is to prove an argument. You are advocating for a particular interpretation of your source. Thus, you must state your argument early on, ideally in the first paragraph, and then use the following paragraphs to support your argument with evidence. Each paragraph should lead logically from the one that preceded it. Simply summarizing or paraphrasing the source, without analyzing its context and meaning, will result in a low grade.
I don’t want a criticism of the author, but rather an analysis of her thinking. You may disagree with what the author is saying, which is fine. But I want you to get beyond agreement or disagreement and begin to ask how the author shapes her argument and what the implications of her argument are. Almost all your evidence in a paper of this kind (a close reading of a single text or texts) must be drawn from the text itself.
Don’t forget: You are not trying to prove or disprove what the document’s author argues; you are developing an analysis about what the author thinks and why. The evidence for that is in the text. When you make a claim (e.g., Elena Caffarena argues this or that), you’ll need to back it up with a citation from the text. You can do this by directly quoting from the text (if it’s a particularly snappy or appropriate quote), or by simply providing the page number where your claim is supported in the text. Your task is to interpret that document by amplifying some of the issues it raises and illustrating your argument with direct quotations and references from the primary source itself. What does the source reveal about the strategies for women’s organizing? What understanding of feminism does the author advance? On what grounds should women be granted political rights? What kinds of rights are being advocated for? Does your document offer insights into social and class relations in a particular country? These are just some of the questions that your document might shed light on.
Please see the grading rubric for more details about how your paper will be graded.
Form: The paper should be 4-6 pages long, double-spaced, with 12-point font and one-inch margins. (4-6 pages means that, at minimum, your paper should begin on the top of page 1 and end on the bottom of page 4.
