Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 1973

Abstract

One of the most important functions of women's studies is to establish an understanding of the crippling effects on our egos and self-esteem of our second-class status. I have developed a technique that I use in my women's studies classes that offers one approach to this task. My course, called "The Problems and Potential of Women," meets once a week for a three hour session and is limited to fifteen people. The first night we go around the room and each woman talks a little about herself and about why she's taking the course. We try to begin knowing each other. I talk about how we women don't really think very much of ourselves, how we settle for less because we don't think we deserve more; how it is that we measure ourselves against Them instead of Them against us. I describe the traits that Gordon Allport discusses in The Nature of Prejudice in the chapter "Traits Due to Victimization."

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