Assignment Prompt & Instructions
– ## EssayDirections.docx
– ## TheorizingLivedExperiencesModule1.pdf
– TheU.S.WomensMovement_ABriefHistory-1.pdf
– Module1Spring2023FINAL.pptx
– ABlackFeministStatementCombaheeRiverCollective.pdf
– bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody.pdf
– PatriarchyTheSystem_Anitnotahethemorus.pdf
– DefendingLand_Birss.pdf
**## EssayDirections.docx**
**Essay Direction Introduction to Global Gender and Women’s Studies**
1. We have covered a lot of material in this class. Find the article, video, chapter, or another class resource I have provided to you that impacted you the most in this class. Describe in detail what information in that resource impacted you and why. Be specific and make it clear you have read the resource you are referring to (6 sentences/120 words minimum, 2.5
**points**).
2. Describe the most important thing you learned in this class (20 words minimum,
**1/2 point)**.
3. To me, the classes I teach are like people: they are ever-evolving and benefit greatly from growth. Soliciting student feedback helps me improve my classes for future semesters so I can keep improving my courses. Please provide any feedback you'd like on how I can improve this course for the next group of students (2 sentences/40 words minimum,
**1 point)**.
4. For this question, you will need to search
**outside the course** to answer this question: Identify and
**describe** an article, video, or podcast related to Global Gender & Women's Studies that you think students in this course would benefit from. Provide the link and describe why you believe this resource would be beneficial to students ***the article/video/podcast needs to be related to our course topic and should come from outside of the course. Do not use a resource already used in this class *** (2 sentences/40 words minimum,
**1 point)**
**## TheorizingLivedExperiencesModule1.pdf**
Theorizing Lived Experiences
You may have heard the phrase "the personal is political" at some point in your life. This phrase, popularized by feminists
in the 1960s, highlights the ways in which our personal experiences are shaped by political, economic, and cultural
forces within the context of history, institutions, and culture. Socially-lived theorizing means creating feminist theories
and knowledge from the actual day-to-day experiences of groups of people who have traditionally been excluded from
the production of academic knowledge. Akey element to feminist analysis is a commitment to the creation of knowledge
grounded in the experiences of people belonging to marginalized groups, including for example, women, people of color,
people in the Global South, immigrants, indigenous people, gay, lesbian, queer, and trans people, poor and working-class
people, and disabled people.
Feminist theorists and activists argue for theorizing beginning from the experiences of the marginalized because
people with less power and resources often experience the effects of oppressive social systems in ways that members
of dominant groups do not. From the "bottom" of a social system, participants have knowledge of the power holders of
that system as well as their own experiences, while the reverse is rarely true. Therefore, their experiences allow for a
more complete knowledge of the workings of systems of power. For example, a story of the development of industry
in the 19th century told from the perspective of the owners of factories would emphasize capital accumulation and
industrial progress. However, the development of industry in the 19th century for immigrant workers meant working
sixteen-hour days to feed themselves and their families and fighting for employer recognition of trade unions so that
they could secure decent wages and the eight-hour work day. Depending on which point-of-view you begin with, you
will have very different theories of how industrial capitalism developed, and how it works today.
Feminism is not a single school of thought but encompasses diverse theories and analytical perspectives-such as
socialist feminist theories, radical sex feminist theories, black feminist theories, queer feminist theories , transfeminist
theories, feminist disability theories, and intersectional feminist theories.
In the video below, "Barbie explains feminist theories;' Cristen, of "Ask Cristen;' defines feminisms
generally as a project that works for the "political, social, and economic equality of the sexes;' and suggests
that different types of feminist propose different sources of gender inequality and solutions. Cristen (with
Barbie's help) identifies and defines 11 different types of feminism and the solutions they propose:
• Liberal feminism . Marxist feminism
• Radical feminism
• Anti-porn feminism . Sex positive feminism
• Separatist feminism . Cultural feminism
• Womanism (intersectional feminism) . Postcolonial feminism . Ecofeminism
• Girlie feminism
What types of feminism do Cristen and Barbie leave out of this list? Do you agree with how they
Theorizing Lived Experiences I 3
characterize these types of feminism? Which issues across these feminisms do you think are most
important?
A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https:,,«openbooks,library.umass,edu/introwgss/7p=24
Stuff Mom Never Told You – HowStuffWorks. (2016, March 3). Barbie Explains Feminist Theories IRadical,
Liberal, Black, etc. Retrieved from htt_ps:tfwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3D C-Nes60.
The common thread in all these feminist theories is the belief that knowledge is shaped by the political and social
context in which it is made (Scott 1991). Acknowledging that all knowledge is constructed by individuals inhabiting
particular social locations, feminist theorists argue that reflexivity-understanding how one's social position influences
the ways that they understand the world-is of utmost necessity when creating theory and knowledge. As people occupy
particular social locations in terms of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, and ability, these multiple identities in
combination all at the same time shape their social experiences. At certain times, specific dimensions of their identities
may be more salient than at others, but at no time is anyone without multiple identities. Thus, categories of identity
are intersectional, influencing the experiences that individuals have and the ways they see and understand the world
around them.
In the United States, we often are taught to think that people are self-activating, self-actualizing individuals. We
repeatedly hear that everyone is unique and that everyone has an equal chance to make something of themselves. While
feminists also believe that people have agency-or the ability to influence the direction of their lives-they also argue that
an individual's agency is limited or enhanced by their social position. A powerful way to understand oneself and one's
4 I Theorizing Lived Experiences
multiple identities is to situate one's experiences within multiple levels of analysis-micro – (individual), meso- (group),
macro- (structural), and global. These levels of analysis offer different analytical approaches to understanding a social
phenomenon. Connecting personal experiences to larger, structural forces of race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality,
and ability allows for a more powerful understanding of how our own lives are shaped by forces greater than ourselves,
and how we might work to change these larger forces of inequality. Like a microscope that is initially set on a view of
the most minute parts of a cell, moving back to see the whole of the cell, and then pulling one's eye away from the
microscope to see the whole of the organism, these levels of analysis allow us to situate day-to-day experiences and
phenomena within broader, structural processes that shape whole populations. The micro level is that which we, as
individuals, live everyday-interacting with other people on the street, in the classroom, or while we are at a party or a
social gathering. Therefore, the micro-level is the level of analysis focused on individuals' experiences. The meso level
of analysis moves the microscope back, seeing how groups, communities and organizations structure social life. Ameso
level-analysis might look at how churches shape gender expectations for women, how schools teach students to become
girls and boys, or how workplace policies make gender transition and recognition either easier or harder for trans and
gender nonconforming workers. The macro level consists of government policies, programs, and institutions, as well as
ideologies and categories of identity. In this way, the macro level involves national power structures as well as cultural
ideas about different groups of people according to race, class, gender, and sexuality spread through various national
institutions, such as media, education and policy. Finally, the global level of analysis includes transnational production,
trade, and migration, global capitalism, and transnational trade and law bodies (such as the International Monetary Fund,
the United Nations, the World Trade Organization)-larger transnational forces that bear upon our personal lives but
that we often ignore or fail to see.
How Macro Structures Impact People: Maquiladoras
Applying multiple levels of analysis, let's look at the experiences of a Latina working in a maquiladora, a
factory on the border of the US and Mexico. These factories were built to take advantage of the difference
in the price of labor in these two countries. At the micro level, we can see the worker's daily struggles to
feed herself and her family. We can see how exhausted she is from working every day for more than eight
hours and then coming home to care for herself and her family. Perhaps we could examine how she has
developed a persistent cough or skin problems from working with the chemicals in the factory and using
water contaminated with run-off from the factory she lives near. On the meso-level, we can see how the
community that she lives within has been transformed by the maquiladora, and how other women in her
community face similar financial, health, and environmental problems. We may also see how these women
are organizing together to attempt to form a union that can press for higher wages and benefits. Moving to
the macro and global levels, we can situate these experiences within the Mexican government's
participation within global and regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Act
(NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Act (CAFTA) and their negative effects on environmental
regulations and labor laws, as well as the effects of global capitalist restructuring that has shifted
production from North America and Europe to Central and South America and Asia. For further discussion,
see the textbook section on globalization.
Recognizing how forces greater than ourselves operate in shaping the successes and failures we typically attribute
to individual decisions allows us see how inequalities are patterned by race, class, gender, and sexuality-not just by
individual decisions. Approaching these issues through multiple levels of analysis-at the micro, meso, and macro/global
levels-gives a more integrative and complete understanding of both personal experience and the ways in which macro
structures affect the people who live within them. Through looking at labor in a maquiladora through multiple levels
Theorizing Lived Experiences I 5
of analysis we are able to connect what are experienced at the micro level as personal problems to macro economic,
cultural, and social problems. This not only gives us the ability to develop socially-lived theory, but also allows us to
organize with other people who feel similar effects from the same economic, cultural, and social problems in order to
challenge and change these problems.
6 I Theorizing Lived Experiences
**TheU.S.WomensMovement_ABriefHistory-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/theu-s-womensmovement-abriefhistory-1-pdf-10460109)
**Module1Spring2023FINAL.pptx**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/module1spring2023final-pptx-10460107)
**ABlackFeministStatementCombaheeRiverCollective.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/ablackfeministstatementcombaheerivercollective-pdf-10460111)
**bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody-pdf-10460115)
**PatriarchyTheSystem_Anitnotahethemorus.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/patriarchythesystem-anitnotahethemorus-pdf-10460117)
**DefendingLand_Birss.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/defendingland-birss-pdf-10460119)
**DefendingLand_Birss.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/defendingland-birss-pdf-10460119)
**## EssayDirections.docx**
**Essay Direction Introduction to Global Gender and Women’s Studies**
1. We have covered a lot of material in this class. Find the article, video, chapter, or another class resource I have provided to you that impacted you the most in this class. Describe in detail what information in that resource impacted you and why. Be specific and make it clear you have read the resource you are referring to (6 sentences/120 words minimum, 2.5
**points**).
2. Describe the most important thing you learned in this class (20 words minimum,
**1/2 point)**.
3. To me, the classes I teach are like people: they are ever-evolving and benefit greatly from growth. Soliciting student feedback helps me improve my classes for future semesters so I can keep improving my courses. Please provide any feedback you'd like on how I can improve this course for the next group of students (2 sentences/40 words minimum,
**1 point)**.
4. For this question, you will need to search
**outside the course** to answer this question: Identify and
**describe** an article, video, or podcast related to Global Gender & Women's Studies that you think students in this course would benefit from. Provide the link and describe why you believe this resource would be beneficial to students ***the article/video/podcast needs to be related to our course topic and should come from outside of the course. Do not use a resource already used in this class *** (2 sentences/40 words minimum,
**1 point)**
**## TheorizingLivedExperiencesModule1.pdf**
Theorizing Lived Experiences
You may have heard the phrase "the personal is political" at some point in your life. This phrase, popularized by feminists
in the 1960s, highlights the ways in which our personal experiences are shaped by political, economic, and cultural
forces within the context of history, institutions, and culture. Socially-lived theorizing means creating feminist theories
and knowledge from the actual day-to-day experiences of groups of people who have traditionally been excluded from
the production of academic knowledge. Akey element to feminist analysis is a commitment to the creation of knowledge
grounded in the experiences of people belonging to marginalized groups, including for example, women, people of color,
people in the Global South, immigrants, indigenous people, gay, lesbian, queer, and trans people, poor and working-class
people, and disabled people.
Feminist theorists and activists argue for theorizing beginning from the experiences of the marginalized because
people with less power and resources often experience the effects of oppressive social systems in ways that members
of dominant groups do not. From the "bottom" of a social system, participants have knowledge of the power holders of
that system as well as their own experiences, while the reverse is rarely true. Therefore, their experiences allow for a
more complete knowledge of the workings of systems of power. For example, a story of the development of industry
in the 19th century told from the perspective of the owners of factories would emphasize capital accumulation and
industrial progress. However, the development of industry in the 19th century for immigrant workers meant working
sixteen-hour days to feed themselves and their families and fighting for employer recognition of trade unions so that
they could secure decent wages and the eight-hour work day. Depending on which point-of-view you begin with, you
will have very different theories of how industrial capitalism developed, and how it works today.
Feminism is not a single school of thought but encompasses diverse theories and analytical perspectives-such as
socialist feminist theories, radical sex feminist theories, black feminist theories, queer feminist theories , transfeminist
theories, feminist disability theories, and intersectional feminist theories.
In the video below, "Barbie explains feminist theories;' Cristen, of "Ask Cristen;' defines feminisms
generally as a project that works for the "political, social, and economic equality of the sexes;' and suggests
that different types of feminist propose different sources of gender inequality and solutions. Cristen (with
Barbie's help) identifies and defines 11 different types of feminism and the solutions they propose:
• Liberal feminism . Marxist feminism
• Radical feminism
• Anti-porn feminism . Sex positive feminism
• Separatist feminism . Cultural feminism
• Womanism (intersectional feminism) . Postcolonial feminism . Ecofeminism
• Girlie feminism
What types of feminism do Cristen and Barbie leave out of this list? Do you agree with how they
Theorizing Lived Experiences I 3
characterize these types of feminism? Which issues across these feminisms do you think are most
important?
A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https:,,«openbooks,library.umass,edu/introwgss/7p=24
Stuff Mom Never Told You – HowStuffWorks. (2016, March 3). Barbie Explains Feminist Theories IRadical,
Liberal, Black, etc. Retrieved from htt_ps:tfwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3D C-Nes60.
The common thread in all these feminist theories is the belief that knowledge is shaped by the political and social
context in which it is made (Scott 1991). Acknowledging that all knowledge is constructed by individuals inhabiting
particular social locations, feminist theorists argue that reflexivity-understanding how one's social position influences
the ways that they understand the world-is of utmost necessity when creating theory and knowledge. As people occupy
particular social locations in terms of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, and ability, these multiple identities in
combination all at the same time shape their social experiences. At certain times, specific dimensions of their identities
may be more salient than at others, but at no time is anyone without multiple identities. Thus, categories of identity
are intersectional, influencing the experiences that individuals have and the ways they see and understand the world
around them.
In the United States, we often are taught to think that people are self-activating, self-actualizing individuals. We
repeatedly hear that everyone is unique and that everyone has an equal chance to make something of themselves. While
feminists also believe that people have agency-or the ability to influence the direction of their lives-they also argue that
an individual's agency is limited or enhanced by their social position. A powerful way to understand oneself and one's
4 I Theorizing Lived Experiences
multiple identities is to situate one's experiences within multiple levels of analysis-micro – (individual), meso- (group),
macro- (structural), and global. These levels of analysis offer different analytical approaches to understanding a social
phenomenon. Connecting personal experiences to larger, structural forces of race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality,
and ability allows for a more powerful understanding of how our own lives are shaped by forces greater than ourselves,
and how we might work to change these larger forces of inequality. Like a microscope that is initially set on a view of
the most minute parts of a cell, moving back to see the whole of the cell, and then pulling one's eye away from the
microscope to see the whole of the organism, these levels of analysis allow us to situate day-to-day experiences and
phenomena within broader, structural processes that shape whole populations. The micro level is that which we, as
individuals, live everyday-interacting with other people on the street, in the classroom, or while we are at a party or a
social gathering. Therefore, the micro-level is the level of analysis focused on individuals' experiences. The meso level
of analysis moves the microscope back, seeing how groups, communities and organizations structure social life. Ameso
level-analysis might look at how churches shape gender expectations for women, how schools teach students to become
girls and boys, or how workplace policies make gender transition and recognition either easier or harder for trans and
gender nonconforming workers. The macro level consists of government policies, programs, and institutions, as well as
ideologies and categories of identity. In this way, the macro level involves national power structures as well as cultural
ideas about different groups of people according to race, class, gender, and sexuality spread through various national
institutions, such as media, education and policy. Finally, the global level of analysis includes transnational production,
trade, and migration, global capitalism, and transnational trade and law bodies (such as the International Monetary Fund,
the United Nations, the World Trade Organization)-larger transnational forces that bear upon our personal lives but
that we often ignore or fail to see.
How Macro Structures Impact People: Maquiladoras
Applying multiple levels of analysis, let's look at the experiences of a Latina working in a maquiladora, a
factory on the border of the US and Mexico. These factories were built to take advantage of the difference
in the price of labor in these two countries. At the micro level, we can see the worker's daily struggles to
feed herself and her family. We can see how exhausted she is from working every day for more than eight
hours and then coming home to care for herself and her family. Perhaps we could examine how she has
developed a persistent cough or skin problems from working with the chemicals in the factory and using
water contaminated with run-off from the factory she lives near. On the meso-level, we can see how the
community that she lives within has been transformed by the maquiladora, and how other women in her
community face similar financial, health, and environmental problems. We may also see how these women
are organizing together to attempt to form a union that can press for higher wages and benefits. Moving to
the macro and global levels, we can situate these experiences within the Mexican government's
participation within global and regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Act
(NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Act (CAFTA) and their negative effects on environmental
regulations and labor laws, as well as the effects of global capitalist restructuring that has shifted
production from North America and Europe to Central and South America and Asia. For further discussion,
see the textbook section on globalization.
Recognizing how forces greater than ourselves operate in shaping the successes and failures we typically attribute
to individual decisions allows us see how inequalities are patterned by race, class, gender, and sexuality-not just by
individual decisions. Approaching these issues through multiple levels of analysis-at the micro, meso, and macro/global
levels-gives a more integrative and complete understanding of both personal experience and the ways in which macro
structures affect the people who live within them. Through looking at labor in a maquiladora through multiple levels
Theorizing Lived Experiences I 5
of analysis we are able to connect what are experienced at the micro level as personal problems to macro economic,
cultural, and social problems. This not only gives us the ability to develop socially-lived theory, but also allows us to
organize with other people who feel similar effects from the same economic, cultural, and social problems in order to
challenge and change these problems.
6 I Theorizing Lived Experiences
**TheU.S.WomensMovement_ABriefHistory-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/theu-s-womensmovement-abriefhistory-1-pdf-10460109)
**Module1Spring2023FINAL.pptx**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/module1spring2023final-pptx-10460107)
**ABlackFeministStatementCombaheeRiverCollective.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/ablackfeministstatementcombaheerivercollective-pdf-10460111)
**bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody-pdf-10460115)
**PatriarchyTheSystem_Anitnotahethemorus.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/patriarchythesystem-anitnotahethemorus-pdf-10460117)
**DefendingLand_Birss.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/defendingland-birss-pdf-10460119)
**## EssayDirections.docx**
**Essay Direction Introduction to Global Gender and Women’s Studies**
1. We have covered a lot of material in this class. Find the article, video, chapter, or another class resource I have provided to you that impacted you the most in this class. Describe in detail what information in that resource impacted you and why. Be specific and make it clear you have read the resource you are referring to (6 sentences/120 words minimum, 2.5
**points**).
2. Describe the most important thing you learned in this class (20 words minimum,
**1/2 point)**.
3. To me, the classes I teach are like people: they are ever-evolving and benefit greatly from growth. Soliciting student feedback helps me improve my classes for future semesters so I can keep improving my courses. Please provide any feedback you'd like on how I can improve this course for the next group of students (2 sentences/40 words minimum,
**1 point)**.
4. For this question, you will need to search
**outside the course** to answer this question: Identify and
**describe** an article, video, or podcast related to Global Gender & Women's Studies that you think students in this course would benefit from. Provide the link and describe why you believe this resource would be beneficial to students ***the article/video/podcast needs to be related to our course topic and should come from outside of the course. Do not use a resource already used in this class *** (2 sentences/40 words minimum,
**1 point)**
**## TheorizingLivedExperiencesModule1.pdf**
Theorizing Lived Experiences
You may have heard the phrase "the personal is political" at some point in your life. This phrase, popularized by feminists
in the 1960s, highlights the ways in which our personal experiences are shaped by political, economic, and cultural
forces within the context of history, institutions, and culture. Socially-lived theorizing means creating feminist theories
and knowledge from the actual day-to-day experiences of groups of people who have traditionally been excluded from
the production of academic knowledge. Akey element to feminist analysis is a commitment to the creation of knowledge
grounded in the experiences of people belonging to marginalized groups, including for example, women, people of color,
people in the Global South, immigrants, indigenous people, gay, lesbian, queer, and trans people, poor and working-class
people, and disabled people.
Feminist theorists and activists argue for theorizing beginning from the experiences of the marginalized because
people with less power and resources often experience the effects of oppressive social systems in ways that members
of dominant groups do not. From the "bottom" of a social system, participants have knowledge of the power holders of
that system as well as their own experiences, while the reverse is rarely true. Therefore, their experiences allow for a
more complete knowledge of the workings of systems of power. For example, a story of the development of industry
in the 19th century told from the perspective of the owners of factories would emphasize capital accumulation and
industrial progress. However, the development of industry in the 19th century for immigrant workers meant working
sixteen-hour days to feed themselves and their families and fighting for employer recognition of trade unions so that
they could secure decent wages and the eight-hour work day. Depending on which point-of-view you begin with, you
will have very different theories of how industrial capitalism developed, and how it works today.
Feminism is not a single school of thought but encompasses diverse theories and analytical perspectives-such as
socialist feminist theories, radical sex feminist theories, black feminist theories, queer feminist theories , transfeminist
theories, feminist disability theories, and intersectional feminist theories.
In the video below, "Barbie explains feminist theories;' Cristen, of "Ask Cristen;' defines feminisms
generally as a project that works for the "political, social, and economic equality of the sexes;' and suggests
that different types of feminist propose different sources of gender inequality and solutions. Cristen (with
Barbie's help) identifies and defines 11 different types of feminism and the solutions they propose:
• Liberal feminism . Marxist feminism
• Radical feminism
• Anti-porn feminism . Sex positive feminism
• Separatist feminism . Cultural feminism
• Womanism (intersectional feminism) . Postcolonial feminism . Ecofeminism
• Girlie feminism
What types of feminism do Cristen and Barbie leave out of this list? Do you agree with how they
Theorizing Lived Experiences I 3
characterize these types of feminism? Which issues across these feminisms do you think are most
important?
A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https:,,«openbooks,library.umass,edu/introwgss/7p=24
Stuff Mom Never Told You – HowStuffWorks. (2016, March 3). Barbie Explains Feminist Theories IRadical,
Liberal, Black, etc. Retrieved from htt_ps:tfwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3D C-Nes60.
The common thread in all these feminist theories is the belief that knowledge is shaped by the political and social
context in which it is made (Scott 1991). Acknowledging that all knowledge is constructed by individuals inhabiting
particular social locations, feminist theorists argue that reflexivity-understanding how one's social position influences
the ways that they understand the world-is of utmost necessity when creating theory and knowledge. As people occupy
particular social locations in terms of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, and ability, these multiple identities in
combination all at the same time shape their social experiences. At certain times, specific dimensions of their identities
may be more salient than at others, but at no time is anyone without multiple identities. Thus, categories of identity
are intersectional, influencing the experiences that individuals have and the ways they see and understand the world
around them.
In the United States, we often are taught to think that people are self-activating, self-actualizing individuals. We
repeatedly hear that everyone is unique and that everyone has an equal chance to make something of themselves. While
feminists also believe that people have agency-or the ability to influence the direction of their lives-they also argue that
an individual's agency is limited or enhanced by their social position. A powerful way to understand oneself and one's
4 I Theorizing Lived Experiences
multiple identities is to situate one's experiences within multiple levels of analysis-micro – (individual), meso- (group),
macro- (structural), and global. These levels of analysis offer different analytical approaches to understanding a social
phenomenon. Connecting personal experiences to larger, structural forces of race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality,
and ability allows for a more powerful understanding of how our own lives are shaped by forces greater than ourselves,
and how we might work to change these larger forces of inequality. Like a microscope that is initially set on a view of
the most minute parts of a cell, moving back to see the whole of the cell, and then pulling one's eye away from the
microscope to see the whole of the organism, these levels of analysis allow us to situate day-to-day experiences and
phenomena within broader, structural processes that shape whole populations. The micro level is that which we, as
individuals, live everyday-interacting with other people on the street, in the classroom, or while we are at a party or a
social gathering. Therefore, the micro-level is the level of analysis focused on individuals' experiences. The meso level
of analysis moves the microscope back, seeing how groups, communities and organizations structure social life. Ameso
level-analysis might look at how churches shape gender expectations for women, how schools teach students to become
girls and boys, or how workplace policies make gender transition and recognition either easier or harder for trans and
gender nonconforming workers. The macro level consists of government policies, programs, and institutions, as well as
ideologies and categories of identity. In this way, the macro level involves national power structures as well as cultural
ideas about different groups of people according to race, class, gender, and sexuality spread through various national
institutions, such as media, education and policy. Finally, the global level of analysis includes transnational production,
trade, and migration, global capitalism, and transnational trade and law bodies (such as the International Monetary Fund,
the United Nations, the World Trade Organization)-larger transnational forces that bear upon our personal lives but
that we often ignore or fail to see.
How Macro Structures Impact People: Maquiladoras
Applying multiple levels of analysis, let's look at the experiences of a Latina working in a maquiladora, a
factory on the border of the US and Mexico. These factories were built to take advantage of the difference
in the price of labor in these two countries. At the micro level, we can see the worker's daily struggles to
feed herself and her family. We can see how exhausted she is from working every day for more than eight
hours and then coming home to care for herself and her family. Perhaps we could examine how she has
developed a persistent cough or skin problems from working with the chemicals in the factory and using
water contaminated with run-off from the factory she lives near. On the meso-level, we can see how the
community that she lives within has been transformed by the maquiladora, and how other women in her
community face similar financial, health, and environmental problems. We may also see how these women
are organizing together to attempt to form a union that can press for higher wages and benefits. Moving to
the macro and global levels, we can situate these experiences within the Mexican government's
participation within global and regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Act
(NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Act (CAFTA) and their negative effects on environmental
regulations and labor laws, as well as the effects of global capitalist restructuring that has shifted
production from North America and Europe to Central and South America and Asia. For further discussion,
see the textbook section on globalization.
Recognizing how forces greater than ourselves operate in shaping the successes and failures we typically attribute
to individual decisions allows us see how inequalities are patterned by race, class, gender, and sexuality-not just by
individual decisions. Approaching these issues through multiple levels of analysis-at the micro, meso, and macro/global
levels-gives a more integrative and complete understanding of both personal experience and the ways in which macro
structures affect the people who live within them. Through looking at labor in a maquiladora through multiple levels
Theorizing Lived Experiences I 5
of analysis we are able to connect what are experienced at the micro level as personal problems to macro economic,
cultural, and social problems. This not only gives us the ability to develop socially-lived theory, but also allows us to
organize with other people who feel similar effects from the same economic, cultural, and social problems in order to
challenge and change these problems.
6 I Theorizing Lived Experiences
**TheU.S.WomensMovement_ABriefHistory-1.pdf**
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**Module1Spring2023FINAL.pptx**
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**ABlackFeministStatementCombaheeRiverCollective.pdf**
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**bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody.pdf**
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**PatriarchyTheSystem_Anitnotahethemorus.pdf**
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**DefendingLand_Birss.pdf**
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