History of American Women

History 286-4719/Women's Studies 286-4720, Fall 1996
Tuesdays 10:10-12:05, 2N-001
Thursdays 10:10-12:05, 2N-107
Professor Catherine Lavender


Course Description:

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.

Getting In Touch with The Professor:

My office is 2N 203, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours 4:30 to 6:30 Tuesdays, 1:00 to 3:30 Thursdays, and by appointment. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu. You can also visit my homepage, or see additional optional materials for this course.
Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend lectures and take part in discussions. Papers 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 papers and assignments on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor.

Assignments:

There will be two midterms for the course (one on Thursday, 17 October, and one on Thursday, 5 December). Each will account for 25% of your course grade.

In addition, your semester-long assignment will be to choose one first-hand historical account of being female in America about which to write analytical essay (due Thursday, 12 December). This will account for 25% of your course grade.

Finally, you will be required to attend class and take part in discussions. This will account for 25% of your course grade.

Required Texts:

Sara Evans, Born For Liberty: A History of Women in America
Nancy Hewitt, ed., Women, Families and Communities Vols. I and II
Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction
Tuesday, 3 September: Introduction to Course, Discussion of Requirements
Thursday, 5 September: Introduction to Women's History and Feminist Historiography
Reading for this week: Evans, "Introduction"

Week Two: Colonial Origins
Tuesday, 10 September: The Colonial Family and Witchcraft
Thursday, 12 September: Native American Families
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 1; in Hewitt, Vol. I, Scholten, "On the Importance of the Obstetrick Art," Lebsock, "No Obey," Koehler, "The Salem Village Cataclysm," and Scott, "Sisters, Wives, and Mothers"

Week Three: Revolution and Republicans
Tuesday, 17 September: Republican Womanhood
Thursday, 19 September: The Cult of Domesticity and the Family Wage
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 2; in Hewitt, Vol. I, Kerber, "Politicizing the Household," Johnson, "The Modernization of Greenleaf and Abigail Patch," Dublin, "Building a Community of Labor," and Smith-Rosenberg, "Beauty, the Beast, and the Militant Woman"

Week Four: Slavery
Tuesday, 24 September: Slave-Holding Women and the Southern Family
Thursday, 26 September: Slave Women and the Slave Community
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 3; in Hewitt, Vol. I, Purdue, "Domesticating the Natives," White, "Female Slaves," and Hewitt, "Women's Antislavery"

Week Five: Resistance and Reform
Tuesday, 1 October: View Ida B. Wells biography in class
Thursday, 3 October: No class; instead, spend time in library looking for subject for final project.
Reading for this week: Evans, Chs. 4 and 5.

Week Six: Charity, Antislavery, and Expansion
Tuesday, 8 October: Benevolent Women
Thursday, 10 October: Westward the Women
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 6; in Hewitt, Vol. I, Faragher, "The Midwestern Farm Family"

Week Seven: First Midterm
Tuesday, 15 October: No Classes (Columbus Day); study for midterm
Thursday, 17 October: First Midterm Exam

Week Eight: Civil War and Reconstruction
Tuesday, 22 October: The Civil War and Sex Roles
Thursday, 24 October: Reconstructing American Womanhood
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 7; in Hewitt, Vol. I, Ginzberg, "A Passion for Efficiency," and Jones, "Freed Women?"

Week Nine: Progressive Reform
Tuesday, 29 October: Social Housekeeping
Thursday, 31 October: No Class; continue working on final projects
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 8

Week Ten: Suffrage and Sexual Revolutions--The New Woman
Tuesday, 5 November: Getting the Vote
Thursday, 7 November: Flappers and Other Revolutionaries
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 9; in Hewitt, ed., Vol II, Levine, "The Transformation of a Laboring Community," Hyman, "Immigrant Women, Community Networks, and Consumer Protest," and Deutsch, "Transforming Hispanic Communities"

Week Eleven: Depression and World War II
Tuesday, 12 November: The Great Depression
Thursday, 14 November: Rosie the Riveter and Women in WWII
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 10; in Hewitt, ed., Vol II, Blackwelder, "Women of the Depression," and Clive, "The Home Front and the Household"

Week Twelve: Containment and Liberation
Tuesday, 19 November: Containment
Thursday, 21 November: Civil Rights
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 11; in Hewitt, ed., Vol II, Davidson and Lytle, "From Rosie to Lucy," and Garrow, "The Origins of the Montgomery Bus Boycott"

Week Thirteen: American Women and Nature
Tuesday, 26 November: View Silent Spring in class, and discussion
Thursday, 28 November: Thanksgiving Break
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 12

Week Fourteen: Redefining the "Women's Movement"
Tuesday, 3 December: View Anita Hill> video in class, and discussion
Thursday, 5 December: Second Midterm Exam
Reading for this week: Evans, Ch. 13

Week Fifteen: Conclusions
Tuesday, 10 December: Discussion of semester-long projects
Thursday, 12 December: Summing Up; Final Essay Due
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Last modified: Friday, 2 May 1997