Women's Pasts--Women in New York City, 1890-1940

This course examines the discipline of women's history by tracing out the historigraphical and methodological debates surrounding women's experiences in New York City from 1890-1940. We will investigate women's pasts in the city, looking at women of differing classes, races, and ethnicities. We will look both at views of women and women's views of themselves, at women's political and social activism, and women's cultural activities in the city. Students will have opportunities to undertake directed primary research into women's history in the area, and to read both primary and secondary accounts of women's pasts.

Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend class meetings and take part actively in class discussions. Written work will require students to synthesize readings, lectures, and discussions. Students must also read and assimilate assigned readings, and be prepared to discuss the readings on the schedule listed below. Students will submit all assignments on time; late assignments will only be accepted by prior arrangement with the professor.

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 Tuesdays from 1:30 to 3:30, Wednesdays from 9:00 to 10:00, and by appointment. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu.

Assignments:

Weekly Writing Assignments: Ten assignments, 5% of final grade each (50% total)
Final Project: 25% of final grade
Participation in Class Discussions/Attendance: 25% of final grade
CSI ATTENDANCE POLICY: Any student with two or more unexcused absences will receive a grade of WU for this course.

Required Texts (starred * items for purchase at College bookstore):

    Christine Stansell, "Women, Children, and the Uses of the Streets: Class and Gender Conflict in New York City, 1850-1860"
    *Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)
    Helen Campbell, "Shop Girls and Piece Workers" (1893)
    Clara Lanza, "The Office Clerk" (1891)
    Sadie Frowne, "A Sweatshop Girl's Story" (1902)
    Kathy Peiss, "Putting On Style: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York"
    Kathy Peiss, "'Charity Girls' and City Pleasures: Historical Notes on Working-Class Sexuality, 1880-1960"
    Belle Lindner Israels, "Dance Hall Madness" (1909)
    Working Women's Letters to the Jewish Daily Forward (1907 & 1914)
    Paula Hyman, "Immigrant Women, Community Networks, and Consumer Protest: The New York City Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902"
    *John F. McClymer, The Triangle Strike and Fire
    Blanche Wiesen Cook, "The Radical Women of Greenwich Village: From Crystal Eastman to Eleanor Roosevelt"
    Ellen Carol DuBois, "Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriet Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909"
    H. F. Freeman, "A Pioneer Settlement House" (1890)
    Hazel V. Carby, "'It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime': The Sexual Politics of Women's Blues"
    *Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to the Course
	Monday, August 31	What is Women's History?
	Readings: Christine Stansell, "Women, Children, and the Uses of the Streets"

Week Two: No Class Meeting
	Monday, September 7	CSI Closed--No Classes
	Readings: Crane, Maggie; Campbell, "Shop Girls and Piece Workers"; Frowne, "A Sweatshop Girl's Story"; and Lanza, "The Office Clerk"

Week Three: Stephen Crane's Maggie
	Monday, September 14	Discuss Crane, Maggie --(Look at a brief biography and reflections on teaching Crane's literature, and a site about Women of the Gilded Age.)
	Readings: Crane, Maggie; Peiss, "Putting On Style" and "'Charity Girls' and City Pleasures"; Israels, "Dance Hall Madness"

Week Four: Women Immigrants and Working in the City
	Monday, September 21	CSI Closed--No Classes (Meets on Wednesday this week!)
	Wednesday, September 23	Women's Labor History (Classes follow Monday schedule)
	Readings: Hyman, "Kosher Meat Boycott"; Women's Letters to Jewish Daily Forward; Crane, Maggie; McClymer, The Triangle Strike and Fire

Week Five: Stephen Crane's Maggie, II
	Monday, September 28	Discuss Re-reading of Maggie
	Readings: McClymer, The Triangle Strike and Fire

Week Six: The Triangle Shirtwaist Strike and Fire
	Monday, October 5	Discuss McClymer, The Triangle Strike and Fire

Week Seven: No Class Meeting
	Monday, October 12	CSI Closed--No Classes

Week Eight: Cultural History of Women in the City
	Monday, October 19	Women's Cultures
	Readings: Cook, "The Radical Women of Greenwich Village"; DuBois, "Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance"; and Freeman, "A Pioneer Settlement House."

Week Nine: Women as Agents of Social Transformation
	Monday, October 26	Greenwich Village Women
	Readings: Carby, "'It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime'"

Week Ten: Women as Artists
	Monday, November 2	Women's Blues and Other Expressions
	Readings: Larsen, Passing

Week Eleven: Women as Community Leaders
	Monday, November 9	Women of the Harlem Renaissance
	Readings: Larsen, Passing

Week Twelve: Women's Identities
	Monday, November 16	Discuss Larsen, Passing

Week Thirteen: Researching Women's History
	Monday, November 23	Women's History Workshop

Week Fourteen: Researching Women's History
	Monday, November 30	Women's History Workshop

Week Fifteen: Researching Women's History
	Monday, December 7	Women's History Workshop; Final Projects Due Friday, December 11, 5:00 pm

Week Fifteen: Researching Women's History
	Monday, December 14	Viewing Final Projects