Course Description
Women's experiences in the United States from the arrival of Europeans on the North American continent to the Civil War. Women's life experiences within the context of larger historical changes in the United States. Women's history as an integral part of American social history and as a unique subject of historical investigation.
Athena Title
U.S. WOMEN TO 1865
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Learning history: the acquisition of knowledge of the basic facts, events, and significant questions and major recurring themes of American history. 2. Retrieving/Recovering History: exposure to a variety of historian sources and practice in the skills and tools which historians use in finding out how people lived, felt, and thought in the past. 3. Doing History/Thinking Historically: an understanding of historical change, of how historians think and interpret the past through the present. Encourage students to recognize how women have been active in creating change over time; how differences in women are structured and contested; how relations between women and men have changed; how sexuality and reproductive rights have changed; how family life has changed; how women's work has changed; how women's legal status has changed; how women's political activism has changed. 4. Connecting to History: an appreciation that one's self, family, town, ethnicity, religion, and culture are a legitimate part of American history, and an understanding of how our histories reflect the interplay between a "Mater National Narrative" and individual cultural differences. 5. Ethical concepts: acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
Utilizing lecture, class discussions, and assigned readings, students will explore the public and private lives of American women of different class, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. The course will be organized chronologically and seeks to understand women's role in American life and the ways they have shaped U.S. society, culture, and politics. I. Traditional America, 1600-1820: Pre-industrial Patterns Week 1: Why Women's History? Week 2: New World Natives and Old World Legacies Servants, Goodwives, and Disorderly Women Week 3: Witches Liberty's Daughters and Republican Mothers II. Industrializing America, 1820-1880: The Female Sphere in the Era of Domesticity Week 4: Victorians in the Making: A Look Ahead Week 5: Ladies and Millgirls Slaves, Mistresses, and Masters Week 6: Ladies Militant: Reform, Abolition, and Women's Rights Victorian Women and the Female Body III. Industrializing America, 1880-1920: Redefining Womanhood Week 7: Women in Transition: Crossing Frontiers Educated Daughters, Public Housekeepers, and Cross-Class Alliances Week 8: Suffragists Feminists IV. Women in Modern America, 1920-1990s: Constructing and Reconstructing "the Modern Woman" Week 9: Suffragists, Reformers, and Feminists in Conflict The New Woman, the New Morality, and the "Sexual Sell" Week 10: The New Woman and Hollywood The New Woman in Depression and War: Breadlines, Picket Lines, and Assembly Lines Week 11: The New Woman Domesticated: The Many Varieties of Cold War Containment- -and those who Resisted Week 12: Feminists in the Making: The Personal Becomes Political Feminists on the Move: The Strengths and Limitations of Sisterhood Week 13: Anti-feminists Politicized: Equality and the Politics of Gender Abortion Activists: Reproductive Freedom and the Politics of Motherhood Week 14: Feminists and the Future Linking Past and Future
Syllabus