U.S. Women's History
| HST 286-4720/WMS 286-4721 |
Professor Catherine Lavender | TA Brenda Valentin | Writing Fellow Orlando Hernandez |
| Fall 2006 |
Office: 2N 203, 718-982-2869 |
| Monday 440-620, 2N 107; Wednesday 440-620, 2N 006 |
Office hours: Thursdays 1:00-3:00,
and by appointment |
Purpose of the Course:
This course explores the history of women's experience in American society. The course will emphasize student development of analytical skills through textual analysis. The course will also aim to familiarize the student with historical method and historiography, emphasizing the construction of historical arguments (thesis, methodology, historiography, evidence, sources, research, and narrative), as well as identifying areas for further research. In addition, this course will introduce students to the field of American women's history. Women's history is the study of women in past times and across cultures. Its goals are to find the women missing from the pages of our history books; to analyze and understand their experience as lived, felt, and understood; to integrate that knowledge into the history of particular times, places, and societies; and to develop from that knowledge conceptual frameworks with which to understand the role and significance of gender in culture and society.
Course Requirements:
All students are required to attend lectures and take part in discussions. Exams will require students to synthesize lecture materials as well as readings. Students must also read and assimilate required readings, and be prepared to discuss readings on the schedule given below. Students will submit all assignments on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor. Further, no student with more than four unexcused absences will receive a passing grade for the course.
A Note About Academic Integrity: Integrity is fundamental to the academic enterprise. It is violated by acts such as borrowing or purchasing term papers, essays, reports, and other written assignments; using concealed notes or crib sheets during examinations; copying others' work and submitting it as one's own; and misappropriating the knowledge of others. The sources from which one derives one's ideas, statements, terms, and data must be fully and specifically acknowledged in the appropriate form; failure to do so, intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes plagiarism. Violations of academic integrity may result in failure in the course and in disciplinary actions with penalties such as suspension or dismissal from the College.
Contacting the Professor:
My office is in 2N 203, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours Thursdays from 1:00-3:00 and by appointment. You may also reach me via email at lavender@mail.csi.cuny.edu; put HST/WMS 286 in the subject line. To contact the TA, Brenda Valentin, send email to blv15@aol.com; to contact the Writing Fellow, Orlando Hernandez, send email to ptyprogress@yahoo.com.
Assignments:
Midterm Exam (Wednesday, October 18): 40% of Final Course Grade
Final Exam (Monday, December 18): 40% of Final Course Grade
Participation (attendance, quiz grades, discussion contribution): 20% of Final Course Grade
Required Texts (books with ISBNs should be purchased and have been ordered at the on-campus bookstore):
Darlene Clark Hine, A Shining Thread of Hope: A History of Black Women in America (Broadway, 1999, ISBN 0767901118)
Sara Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America (Free Press, 1997, ISBN 0684834987)
Laurie Kahn-Leavitt, A Midwife's Tale (1998)
Linda Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Signet Classics, 2000, ISBN 0451527526)
Catherine Lavender, "Liberty Rhetoric" and Nineteenth-Century Women (1998, http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/liberty.html)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (Bantam Classics, 1989, ISBN 055321375X) and "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper" (available online)
Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers (Persea Books, 2003, 0892552905)
Connie Field, The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980)
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (Laurel, 1992, ISBN 0440314887)
Online Lectures:
Powerpoint lectures are stored online for student review. Click here for the list of lectures available online.
Course Schedule:
| Week One: Introduction |
|
Wednesday, August 30 |
Introduction to the Course |
|
Monday, September 4 |
CSI Closed--No Classes |
|
Wednesday, September 6 |
CSI Monday (2N107); What is Women’s History? |
|
Reading: Evans Introduction and 1; Hine Prologue. |
| Week Six: Women and Work in the Nineteenth Century |
|
Monday, October 9 |
CSI Closed--No Classes |
|
Wednesday, October 11 |
Industrial Revolution II; Discuss Liberty Rhetoric Part II (Uses of Liberty Rhetoric Among Lowell Mill Girls) |
|
Reading: Evans 4; Hine 3; Brent. |
| Week Seven: First Midterm |
|
Monday, October 16 |
Slavery |
|
Wednesday, October 18 |
First Midterm Exam |
|
Reading: Evans 4; Hine 4; Brent. |
| Week Eight: True Womanhood |
|
Monday, October 23 |
True Womanhood I |
|
Wednesday, October 25 |
True Womanhood II; Discuss Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
|
Reading: Evans 5; Hine 3-4, Brent. |
| Week Nine: Slave Resistance and Abolitionism |
|
Monday, October 30 |
No Class Meeting due to dedication of CSI Women's Center
|
|
Wednesday, November 1 |
Abolitionism; Discuss Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
|
Reading: Evans 5; Hine 5; Liberty Rhetoric Part III. |
| Week Ten: The Woman Movement and Suffrage |
|
Monday, November 6 |
The Woman Movement and Suffrage I |
|
Wednesday, November 8 |
Woman Movement and Suffrage II; Discuss Liberty Rhetoric Part III (The 1848 Declaration of Sentiments as an Expression of the Tradition of Liberty Rhetoric) |
|
Reading: Evans 6; Hine 6- 7; Gilman. |
| Week Eleven: The First Wave |
|
Monday, November 13 |
First Wave Feminism I |
|
Wednesday, November 15 |
First Wave Feminism II |
|
Reading: Evans 6-7; Hine 7-8; Gilman; Yezierska.
|
| Week Twelve: New Women I |
|
Monday, November 20 |
Social Housekeeping; Discuss The Yellow Wallpaper |
|
Wednesday, November 22 |
CSI Friday; No Class Meeting |
|
Reading: Evans 7-8; Hine 9; Yezierska. |
| Week Thirteen: New Women II |
|
Monday, November 27 |
New Woman and Other Revolutionaries; Discuss The Bread Givers |
|
Wednesday, November 29 |
Women in the Great Depression |
|
Reading: Evans 9-10; Hine 10. |
| Week Fourteen: Between the Waves |
|
Monday, December 4 |
View The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter in class |
|
Wednesday, December 6 |
Women in World War II |
|
Reading: Evans 11-12; Hine 11; Moody. |
| Week Fifteen: The Second and Third Waves |
|
Monday, December 11 |
The Second Wave |
|
Wednesday, December 13 |
The Third Wave; Discuss Coming of Age in Mississippi |
|
Reading: Evans 13-14; Hine 12-13; Moody. |
| Finals Week: Final Exam |
|
Monday, December 18 |
Final Exam |
Last updated: Wednesday 11 October 2006.