Take-Home Essay
American Women's History
History 286/Women's Studies 286
Professor Catherine Lavender
Fall 1997
This essay addresses information covered in lectures from October 15 through November 26, and course readings up to that date: Sara Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (available online); Mamie Garvin Fields, with Karen Fields, Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir, and Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman.
The format of this midterm will be a take-home essay.
Answer the following question in an essay of about five to seven pages in length. Be sure to answer the entire question, and to support your argument with evidence (examples, quotes from lectures or the readings).
- Using at least two of the three readings (Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper; Mamie Garvin Fields's Lemon Swamp and Other Places; and Ruth Underhill's Papago Woman), discuss the emergence of First Wave Feminism. How do these texts reflect the beliefs and concerns of First Wave feminists?
Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for History 286/Women's Studies 286 (American Women's History), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York, Fall Semester 1997.
Last modified: Wednesday 26 November 1997