Catalog Description

Formerly known as ART 1E
Hours: 54 lecture
Description: Surveys women in the arts of western civilization both as art subjects and artists. Includes introduction of critical approaches to gender, class, race, sexuality, and identity as they influence art production and representation in various cultures and time periods. (CSU, UC)

Course Student Learning Outcomes

  • CSLO #1: Analyze an artwork for the presence of the male gaze.
  • CSLO #2: Recognize barriers created by institutions, intentionally and otherwise, and assess how they impact women’s ability to have professional art careers.
  • CSLO #3: Recognize gendered beliefs embedded in artworks, art criticism, and art history, and assess how they can limit women's access to art careers.
  • CSLO #4: Use intersectional feminism to think about and critically examine visual images in your daily life.

Effective Term

Fall 2025

Course Type

Credit - Degree-applicable

Contact Hours

54

Outside of Class Hours

108

Total Student Learning Hours

162

Course Objectives

Through class assignments, oral discussions, and presentations:

1. Understand how intersectional feminism is used in art history and how it can be applied to artworks as well as images in daily life.

2. Identify, examine, and analyze depictions of women for sexual objectification from various historical and cultural periods.

3. Identify institutional barriers and assess how they limit women’s ability to access training and professional careers in various historical and cultural periods.

4. Recognize gendered beliefs embedded in artworks, art historical resources, and art criticism and how they serve as barriers to women and reinforce patriarchal beliefs.

General Education Information

  • Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability
    • AA/AS - Fine Arts
    • AA/AS - Social Sciences
    • AA/AS - Multicultural Studies
  • CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval)
    • CSUGE - C1 Arts
    • CSUGE - D Social Sciences
  • Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval)
    • Cal-GETC 3A - Arts
    • Cal-GETC 4 - Social and Behavioral Sciences
  • IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval)
    • IGETC - 3A Arts
    • IGETC - 4 Soc./Behav Sciences

Articulation Information

  • CSU Transferable
  • UC Transferable

Methods of Evaluation

  • Classroom Discussions
    • Example: A discussion could consist of discussing the situation of women artists in traditional China. After reading a short excerpt from Marsha Weidner’s Views from Jade Terrace, they could discuss how the situation compared to women in Europe at the same time. (CLSO #2 and #3)
  • Essay Examinations
    • Example: In order to assess CSLO #4, the student will be asked to analyze a contemporary image using intersectional feminism. Prompt: Pretend you walked by this image in your daily life as a giant billboard on the side of a building. Use the feminist methodology to critically analyze it. What do you notice about it using this lens? What further information might you want to know about the image itself in order to do a feminist critique of it?
  • Objective Examinations
    • Example: An objective examination could consist of a multiple choice test where the student is asked to identify key symbolic meanings in art, fulfilling CSLO #1. Example Question: What did nudity symbolize in Ancient Egypt? A) It was reserved for foreigners to symbolize their alienness, B) It marked heroism and high status, C) Only the gods were ever shown nude, demonstrating their power, D) It denoted both class and sex, as only lower-class women and young children are shown nude.
  • Projects
    • Example: A project could consist of creating a poster about an assigned woman artist, having it include a sample artwork, a quote from the artist, an image of the artist, and a brief analysis of the barriers she faced. (CLSO #2).
  • Reports
    • Example: The students could be asked to visit a local museum or art gallery to view art of a woman artist. They would be asked to analyze the information provided about the artwork and artist through gallery labels, museum website, and/or docents. How does the material reflect an intersectional feminist approach? What is missing? What would you add to the material in order to reflect what you have learned in this class? CSLO #4

Repeatable

No

Methods of Instruction

  • Lecture/Discussion
  • Distance Learning

Lecture:

  1. Instructor presents A. Visually oriented lectures, such as PowerPoint presentations, about artworks and their historical contexts. For example, a lecture on the rise of the New Woman between the two world wars and artistic circles in Paris, and representation of these New Women in art. Students will build their ability to use Feminist and Queer Theory to analyze images (CLSO 4), analyze works of art in terms of how it communicates knowledge and who is communicating (CSLO 3), and identify the limits faced by women in the time period in comparison to earlier time periods (CSLO 2).

Distance Learning

  1. The instructor also creates B. Class and small group discussions (online and on ground) such as:
  2. Compare and contrast the gender ideologies represented in art in Ancient Greece to those of Ancient Egypt. What conventions of representation are similar and which are different and why?
  3. Analyze a primary document relating to social and cultural context of art making (artistic biography, historical art criticism) For example: Read Linda Nochlin's article 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?' In a response of no fewer than 400 words, address the following questions:
  4. How does she answer the question ‘Why Have There Been No Great Woman Artists?’ (Have there been? Why or why not?)
  5. Why is this a powerful question to ask?
  6. What is Nochlin’s major claim?
  7. What is the implication of the statement, "We tend to accept whatever is as natural," to our study of art history and feminism?
  8. Work together to analyze contemporary advertisements for conventions of representation and gender ideologies. In these types of activities, students will actively apply their knowledge and skills to new situations, engaging with visual literacy and analysis skills, including CSLO 3 (Demonstrate visual literacy by analyzing artworks using proper historical terminology and formal elements) as well as the before mentioned CSLOs 1, 2, 4, and 5

Typical Out of Class Assignments

Reading Assignments

1. Students will read Linda Nochlin's "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" and discuss in groups why that is a powerful question to ask and how it influences our study of women in art. 2. After reading a lecture about the male gaze and gender ideologies, the student will track down an advertisement that they feel represents contemporary gender ideologies. Posting the image to their student blog, they will analyze the advertisement for ideals and any sense of the male gaze.

Writing, Problem Solving or Performance

1. Students will do a library scavenger hunt to learn how to access, find and critically interpret information in print, from the library databases and from the internet. 2. Students will develop a presentation on a woman artist not covered in class. The presentation will present four artworks and provide brief analysis of their career and work using the intersectional feminism.

Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.)

1. Students will participate in bi-weekly discussion about the material covered in the course. 2. Students will critique group projects. 3. Students will create a self-reflective portfolio that offers samples of their work from throughout the semester that they think best reflects their mastery of the course outcomes. The student can also make the case for what grade they believe they earned over the semester.

Required Materials

  • Women, Art, and Society
    • Author: Whitney Chadwick
    • Publisher: Thames & Hudson
    • Publication Date: 2020
    • Text Edition: 6th
    • Classic Textbook?:
    • OER Link:
    • OER:
  • Women Artists in History: From Antiquity to the Present
    • Author: Wendy Slatkin
    • Publisher: Prentice-Hall
    • Publication Date: 2008
    • Text Edition: 5th
    • Classic Textbook?:
    • OER Link:
    • OER:
  • Art and Feminism
    • Author: Helena Reckitt
    • Publisher: Phaidon Press
    • Publication Date: 2012
    • Text Edition: Abr Rev Up edition
    • Classic Textbook?:
    • OER Link:
    • OER:
  • Women Artists
    • Author: Flavia Frigeri
    • Publisher: Thames & Hudson
    • Publication Date: 2019
    • Text Edition: 1st
    • Classic Textbook?: No
    • OER Link:
    • OER:
  • The Art of Feminism: Images That Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857-2017
    • Author: Lucinda Gosling, Hilary Robinson, and Amy Tobin
    • Publisher: Chronicle Books
    • Publication Date: 2018
    • Text Edition: 1st
    • Classic Textbook?: No
    • OER Link:
    • OER:

Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.

none