Gender, Law & Politics    Midterm Exam

Note: You can access hyperlinks by retrieving this document from the course web site.

Answer three of the following questions.  Each of your answers should be approximately two pages long (one-inch margins, twelve-point font size, double spaced).  All of your answers should be thoughtfully argued, well organized, and free of grammatical and spelling errors. 

If the links provided below are dead, you might have to track down sources on your own. No matter which sources you use, you must supply me with a valid link for each one.  All you have to do is paste the address of your source(s) at the bottom of each of your essays.

If you copy any part of your midterm from any source, you will receive an "F."

Before you turn in your midterm, use the Term Paper Check List to fix common mistakes.  Any essays that contain the mistakes identified in the term-paper checklist will be marked down one full grade.

Exams are due on 10/22.

1.        Summarize the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions adopted at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Specify which of these demands have been fulfilled and which remain unmet.

2.        Explain the break between the Suffragettes and the Abolitionists in the aftermath of the Civil War.

3.        Summarize the decision reached in Bradwell v. Illinois (1872).

4.        Describe some of the arguments made against women's suffrage before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

5.        Place the Nineteenth Amendment within the historical context of American society in the early twentieth century.

6.        Summarize the arguments made by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis in "The Right to Privacy (1890)."

7.        Summarize the Supreme Court's ruling in Muller v. Oregon (1908).  Explain how this ruling helped to promote gender inequality in the United States.

8.        Contrast the Supreme Court's ruling in Lochner v. New York (1905) with the opinion issued in Muller v. Oregon (1908).

9.        Summarize the leading features of the government’s efforts to recruit women workers during World War Two.  

10.    Use the information provided by Juliet H. Mofford in "Women in the Workforce" to explain why women tend to earn less than men earn in similar jobs.

11.    Describe the role of gender in Twelve Angry Men.

12.    Explain the difference between First-Wave Feminism and Second-Wave Feminism.

13.    Summarize Betty Friedan’ s main points in Chapter Five of The Feminine Mystique (1963).  Specify ways in which Friedan’ s arguments conform to the general characteristics of second-wave feminism

14.    Describe the goals of Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Specify ways in which this legislation transformed gender relations in American society.

15.    Summarize the Statement of Purpose of the National Organization for Women (1966).  Specify ways in which this statement reflects the socio-economic status of the women who wrote it.  

16.    Summarize the leading features of Affirmative Action.

17.    Summarize Gloria Steinem’ s arguments in “Women’s Liberation Aims to Free Men Too.” Suggest ways in which Steinem’ s arguments would be different if she wrote this article today.

18.     Summarize the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade.  Specify ways in which this decision made the right to obtain an abortion vulnerable to attack.

19.     Summarize the Supreme Court’s ruling in Frontiero v. Richardson (1973).