U.S. Women's History

HIST 286-454/WMS 286 Professor Catherine Lavender
Spring 1997 Office: 2N 203, 718-982-2869
Monday, Wednesday 12:20-2:15 Office hours: M 11:00-12:00, W 2:30-4:30, and by appointment
Room 3N 222

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, and writing skills through student writing. 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.

Contacting the Professor:
My office is in 2N 203, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours Mondays from 11:00 to 12:00, Wednesdays 2:30 to 4:30, and by appointment; I am usually in my office on Tuesdays. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu.

Assignments:
First Midterm (Monday, 10 March, 1997): 25% of Final Course Grade
Second Midterm (Wednesday, 9 April, 1997): 25% of Final Course Grade
Final Exam (Wednesday, 21 May, 1997): 25% of Final Course Grade
Participation (attendance and discussion contribution): 25% of Final Course Grade

Required Texts:
Linda Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America (New York: The Free Press, 1989)

Glenn Altschuler and Jan M. Saltzgarber, Revivalism, Social Conscience and Community in the Burned-Over District: The Trial of Rhoda Bement (New York: Cornell University Press, 1983) (Reading questions for Bement)

Linda Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973) (Reading questions for Brent)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper and "Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper" (available online)

Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1979)

There are additional optional materials for this course on the WWW at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/286links.html

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction
Wednesday, January 29 Introduction to the Course; Introduction to Women's History
Readings: Evans, "Introduction."
 
Week Two: Colonial Origins
Monday, February 3 The Colonial Family and Witchcraft
Wednesday, February 5 Republican Womanhood
Readings: Evans, Chs. 1 and 2.
 
Week Three: Revolution and Republicans
Monday, February 10 View Mary Silliman's War
Wednesday, February 12 CUNY CLOSED--No Classes
Readings: Evans, Ch. 3; Altschuler & Salzgarber, The Trial of Rhoda Bement.
 
Week Four: Slavery
Monday, February 17 CUNY CLOSED--No Classes
Wednesday, February 19 Slave-Holding Women and the Southern Family
Thursday, February 20 Slave Women
Readings: Evans, Ch. 4 and 5; Altschuler & Salzgarber, The Trial of Rhoda Bement; Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
 
Week Five: Resistance and Reform
Monday, February 24 Women and Abolitionism; Discussion of The Trial of Rhoda Bement
Wednesday, February 26 True Womanhood
Readings: Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
 
Week Six: True and Charitable Women
Monday, March 3 Discussion of Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Wednesday, March 5 Women's Benevolence
Readings: Evans, Ch. 6.
 
Week Seven: Expansion
Monday, March 10 First Midterm
Wednesday, March 12 Westward the Women
 
Week Eight: Civil War and Reconstruction
Monday, March 17 The Civil War and Sex Roles
Wednesday, March 19 Reconstructing American Womanhood
Readings: Evans, Ch. 7
 
Week Nine: Progressive Reform
Monday, March 24 Social Housekeeping
Wednesday, March 26 Ida B. Wells and Women's Fight for Racial Justice; View Ida B. Wells in class
Readings: Evans, Ch. 8; Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
 
Week Ten: Suffrage and Feminism
Monday, March 31 Getting the Vote
Wednesday, April 2 First Wave Feminism in the U.S.; Discuss Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Readings: Evans, Ch. 9; Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
 
Week Eleven: Sexual and Social Revolutions
Monday, April 7 The New Women, Flappers and Other Revolutionaries
Wednesday, April 9 Second Midterm
Readings: Underhill, Papago Woman
 
Week Twelve: Depressions
Monday, April 14 The Great Depression
Wednesday, April 16 Discuss Underhill, Papago Woman
Readings: Evans, Ch. 10; Underhill, Papago Woman
 
Week of April 21-26--Spring Break, CSI Closed
 
Week Thirteen: World War II and the Cold War
Monday, April 28 Rosie the Riveter; view Rosie the Riveter in Class (click here for discussion questions concerning Rosie the Riveter).
Wednesday, April 30 Containment
Readings: Evans, Ch. 11
 
Week Fourteen: The Second Wave
Monday, May 5 View Salt of the Earth in Class
Wednesday, May 7 Discussion of Salt of the Earth; Second Wave Feminism
Readings: Evans, Ch. 12
 
Week Fifteen: Finding Our Place
Monday, May 12 Feminist Social Critique; view Silent Spring in class
Wednesday, May 14 Summing Up
Readings: Evans, Ch. 13
 
Final Exam Wednesday, 21 May 1997
 
Last updated: Monday, 14 April 1997