AP Feminism: Course & Exam Description
(Draft – Modeled after CollegeBoard style)
Course Overview
AP Feminism is an interdisciplinary course that explores the history, theory, and practice of feminist movements from the 19th century to the present. Students will examine how gender, sexuality, race, and class intersect in struggles for equality, and will develop skills in critical analysis, argument evaluation, and media literacy.
The course emphasizes both historical knowledge (key figures, movements, laws, and turning points) and contemporary issues (digital feminism, TERFs, anti-feminist rhetoric, reproductive rights). Students will learn to analyze primary and secondary sources, construct evidence-based arguments, and recognize how power operates in public debates over feminism.
Early feminist texts (Mary Wollstonecraft, Sojourner Truth, John Stuart Mill).
First-wave feminism: suffrage and citizenship.
Key skill: analyzing arguments for women’s political participation.
The Feminine Mystique, NOW, Roe v. Wade (1973).
Workplace rights, reproductive justice, education access.
Key skill: connecting legal decisions to social activism.
Kimberlé Crenshaw and the rise of intersectionality.
Black feminism (bell hooks, Audre Lorde), Chicana feminism, queer feminism.