HIST300/WOMS300  Women in American History

Summer 2001

Katina Manko
Office Hours: 5:00 - 6:30 Tu/Th AT BREW HAHA
Office: Munroe Hall
Phone: 831-2371
Email: kmanko@udel.edu

                                                                                            First Paper Assignment
             Yellow Wallpaper extra credit                                  Jacobs discussion sheet
                                                                                            Peiss discussion sheet
                                                                                            Second Paper Assignment
                                                                                            Final Exam

Course Description:

   This course surveys the history of American women since the seventeenth century.  The course moves chronologically and emphasizes social, political, and economic history.  Through a reading of both primary and secondary sources, students will explore: women’s economic roles; the function of race, class, and ethnicity in women’s lives; women and the family; women and social reform; and feminism.
   This course meets twice a week for seven weeks in three hour sessions, for a total of fourteen class meetings.  Although it takes place in half the time of a regular semester, this is a full three-credit, three-hundred-level college course, which means that each week you are expected to do the work students in regular classes would cover in two.  The reading load and assignments have NOT been reduced.  Please plan carefully and read ahead.
 

Class Meetings:  Tuesday and Thursday, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m., 115 Gore Hall                      June 5 – July 27, 2001

Text and Resources

Required Texts:
Woloch, Women in the American Experience (core text)
Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Peiss, Cheap Amusements
Individual articles are available on reserve.

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%)

Class Schedule

 Below is a week-by-week listing of lecture topics and assignments; it is subject to change, however, and may be modified if either interest or necessity dictates.

 
Tuesday June 5
Course introduction; background to colonization; sources and historical methodology

Movie of the Week! "A Midwife’s Tale"
    Related Website: www.DoHistory.com
 
 
Thursday June 7
Women in Colonial America: Household Economy and Religion
Readings:
Woloch, 1-51
Ulrich, “Ways of Her Household” (Reserve)
 
 
Tuesday June 12
Women of the Republic: Nation and Home
Readings:
Woloch, 52-102
Kerber, “The Republican Mother” (Reserve)
Smith-Rosenberg “Female World of Love and Ritual” (Reserve)

 
Thursday June 14
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” (Reserve)
Blewett, “Sexual Division of Labor and the Artisan Tradition” (Reserve)
White, “Female Slaves: Sex Roles and Status in the Antebellum Plantation South” (Reserve)
 
Related website: Lowell National Historic Park http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/
 

Tuesday June 19
Female Slavery
Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
                        Click here for the discussion sheet that accompanies this reading.

Related Websites:  Harriet Jacobs  http://www.drizzle.com/~tmercer/Jacobs/index.html
  Abolition  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart3.html
  http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html
 

Thursday June 21
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/
    Woman’s rights movement  http://womhist.binghamton.edu/links/projlink.htm
    Stanton/Anthony Papers  http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/
    Biographies of Suffragists  http://www.rochester.edu/SBA/biographies.html

Movie of the Week! "Not For Ourselves Alone"
 

Tuesday June 26
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

 
Thursday June 28
Reading: Peiss, Cheap Amusements
            Click here for Peiss Reading Guide

 
Thursday July 5
Women’s Institutions and Organizations, 1860-1920: Progressive Women and Radicals
Readings:
Woloch, 260-288; 292-296; 302-306
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Sklar, “Hull House in the 1890s: A Community of Women Reformers” (Reserve)
Cook, “Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald, Crystal Eastman, Emma Goldman”  (Reserve)
 
Related Websites:
Hull House site   http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house.html
Emma Goldman Papers http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman
Lilian Wald and the Henry Street Settlement  http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny31.htm

Movie of the Week!  The Women of Hull House
 

Tuesday July 10
Feminism and Suffrage, 1860-1920
Readings:
Woloch, 314-369  (skip 355-360)
Cott, “Equal Rights and Economic Roles” (Reserve)
Brown, “Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke” (Reserve)
 
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
 
 
Thursday July 12
Women’s New Deal and World War Two
Readings:
Woloch, 370-401; 406-413; 418-426; 450-457; 471-491
Rodrique, “The Black Community and the Birth-Control Movement” (Reserve)

 
Tuesday July 17
Wartime and Postwar America: Households in Popular Culture
Readings:
Woloch, 507-549
Susan Douglas, chapters 2 and 6 from Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with Mass Media (Reserve)

Movie of the Week! Bits from “Ask Any Girl” starring Shirley Maclaine

 
Thursday July 19
Civil Rights and Identity Politics 
Readings:
Wolloch 492-549
Selections from Women and the Civil Rights Movement (Reserve)

Related Websites:
Anne Moody  http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/moody_anne/
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/AnneMoody.html
 

Tuesday July 24
The Failure of the New ERA
Readings:
Kessler-Harris, “Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs. Sears, Roebuck and Company: A Personal Account” (reserve)
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Doing it For Ourselves: Can Feminism Survive Class Polarization?” (reserve)

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
 

 CLICK HERE FOR FINAL EXAM
Your take-home final exam is due by 9:00 a.m. Friday July 27
 

Important Dates To Remember:
Tuesday June 26:  First Analytical Paper Due
Tuesday July 17:  Second Analytical Paper Due
Friday July 27, 9:00 a.m.:  Final Exam Due