First
Paper Assignment
Revised
Reading Schedule
Jacobs
discussion sheet
Peiss
discussion sheet
Second
Paper Assignment
Final
Exam
This course meets for two and one-half hours, thrice a week, for
a total of fourteen class meetings. We are condensing the work of
a regular semester into a five and one-half week semester. I will
teach this class as a full three-credit, three-hundred-level college course,
which means that each week you are expected to do the work students in
the regular semester would cover in three weeks. The reading load
and assignments have not been reduced. It is intense and I
highly recommend that you not take any other courses during winter session
if you want to do well in this one. It will behoove you to plan carefully
and read ahead.
Additional Resources:
Movie of the week! Each week we will view a portion of a documentary
film related to women’s history.
Related Web Sites: The syllabus includes links to some excellent
web sites related to women’s history topics that provide sources of additional
information. Some links will be required reading.
Course Requirements:
1) Attendance: Students are expected to attend class
and to participate in class discussion. More than two unexcused absences
will be cause for reduction of a student’s grade. In accordance with
University policy, any student who misses the first three classes of the
semester may be dropped.
2) Two Analytical Essays: Each student will write two
5-7 page analytical essays based on the course readings. Guidelines
will be handed out in class. (Each essay counts toward 25% of final grade.)
3) Quizzes: There will be short quizzes given in class
based on the readings and films. (I will drop the lowest quiz score, and
the quizzes together will count for 25% of final grade.)
4) Exam: There will be a take-home final exam that will
consist of essays and short answer/identification questions intended to
test both students’ basic knowledge and ability to grapple with the course
themes synthetically. The exam will be distributed one week in advance.
(The final exam counts toward 25% of final grade.)
5) Class participation: Your active participation in class
discussion will be evaluated as part of your grade. Each student
is expected to come to class prepared to discuss assigned readings and
films. (20%)
Tuesday January 2
Course introduction; background to colonization; sources and historical
methodology
Movie of the Week! "A Midwife’s Tale"
Related Website: www.DoHistory.com
Thursday January 4
Women in Colonial America: Household Economy and Religion
Readings:
Woloch, 1-51
Ulrich, “Ways of Her Household” (Reader)
Monday January 8
Women of the Republic: Nation and Home
Readings:
Woloch, 52-102
Kerber, “The Republican Mother” (Reader)
Smith-Rosenberg “Female World of Love and Ritual” (Reader)
Tuesday January 9
Women’s Economy: Industrialization and Domesticity
Readings:
Woloch, 103-158
Stansell, “Women, Children, and Uses of the Streets: Class and Gender
Conflict in NYC, 1850-1860” (Reader)
Blewett, “Sexual Division of Labor and the Artisan Tradition” (Reader)
White, “Female Slaves: Sex Roles and Status in the Antebellum Plantation
South” (Reader)
Related website: Lowell National Historic Park http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/
Thursday January 11
Female Slavery
Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Click here for the discussion
sheet that accompanies this reading.
Related Website: Harriet Jacobs http://www.drizzle.com/~tmercer/Jacobs/index.html
Monday January 15
No Class – Martin Luther King Holiday
Tuesday January 16
Women’s 19th Century Political World: Suffrage and Anti-Slavery
First Analytical Paper Due Click
here for assignment
Readings:
Woloch, 159-208
Wellman, “Seneca Falls: A Study of Social Networks” (Reader)
Related website: Legacy 98 (Seneca Falls Convention) http://www.legacy98.org/
Movie of the Week! "Not For Ourselves Alone"
Thursday January 18
Women’s labor in the new industrial order – Class matters
Readings:
Woloch, 209-259
Related website: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire
Monday January 22
Reading: Peiss, Cheap Amusements
Click here for Peiss
Reading Guide
Tuesday January 23
Women’s Institutions and Organizations, 1860-1920: Progressive Women
and Radicals
Readings:
Woloch, 260-313
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Sklar, “Hull House in the 1890s: A Community of Women Reformers” (Reader)
Cook, “Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald,
Crystal Eastman, Emma Goldman” (Reader)
Related Websites:
Hull House site http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house.html
Emma Goldman Papers http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman
Thursday January 25
Feminism and Suffrage, 1860-1920
Readings:
Woloch, 314-369
Cott, “Equal Rights and Economic Roles” (Reader)
Brown, “Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent
Order of Saint Luke” (Reader)
Related Websites:
Votes for Women site: http:///memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html
Women Suffrage & 19th Amendment: www.nara.gov/education/teaching/woman/home.html
Suffragist Oral History Project: library.berkeley.edu/BANC/ROHO/ohonline/suffragists.html
Monday January 29
Women’s New Deal
Readings:
Woloch, 370-491
Rodrique, “The Black Community and the Birth-Control Movement” (Reader)
Tuesday January 30
Wartime and Postwar America: Households in Popular Culture
Readings:
Woloch, 507-549
Cowan, “Household Technology and Social Change” (Reader)
Friedan, “Problem That Has No Name” (Reader)
Susan Douglas, chapters 2 and 6 from Where the Girls Are: Growing Up
Female with Mass Media (Reader)
Movie of the Week! Bits from “Ask Any Girl” starring Shirley Maclaine
Thursday February 1
Civil Rights
Selections from Women and the Civil Rights Movement (Reader)
Recent Women’s History
Reading:
Kessler-Harris, “Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs. Sears,
Roebuck and Company: A Personal Account” (handout)
Related Websites:
Center for the American Woman and Politics www-rci.Rutgers.edu/~cawp
National Organization for Women www.now.org
National Committee on Pay Equity www.feminist.com/fairpay.htm
Gender Equity in Sports www.arcade.uiowa.edu/proj.ge/
Feminist Majority Foundation www.feminist.org
Women Watch (UN Activities on Women) www.un.org/womenwatch
Important Dates To Remember:
Tuesday January 16: First Analytical Paper Due
Monday January 29: Second Analytical Paper Due
Friday February 2: Final Exam Due