MWF: 3-3:50 SPRING 1996

Professor: Susan Eacker Office phone: 529-5145 Office: 242 Upham Office hours: Mon. & Wed, 1-3

COURSE STRUCTURE AND REQUIREMENTS

This course has been designed as part of a series of special topics in women's history. We will be examining U. S. women's activism in various social and political movements with the goal of rendering visible women's historical participation and contributions to such reforms as abolition, feminism, labor organization, and civil rights movements. In the process of reading and analyzing scholarly interpretations and firsthand accounts of women's activism we will be asking several questions. They include (but are in no way limited to) the following: What types of arguments did women use to substantiate their involvement in various causes? What material conditions made their participation necessary? Was women's activism pivotal or peripheral to the movement or reform in question? Why and how were women's contributions acknowledged or ignored? Did women's participation make a difference? Why or why not?

Class meetings will consist primarily of discussions centered around assigned readings. All course participants will have the opportunity to lead class discussion, which will count as one-fourth of your final grade. Another one-fourth of your grade will be based on your attendance and participation in class discussions. The other half of your grade will be determined by a research paper, with 25% based on an initial prospectus and bibliography and the remaining 25% based on the final paper. Attached is a detailed explanation of this research paper.

BOOKS AND OTHER COURSE READINGS

The following books are required for the course. In addition, those readings followed by the symbolQ**Q may be checked out and/or copied at the Reserve Desk of King library. Alonso, Peace as a Women's Issue
Blee, Women of the Klan
Cameron, Radicals of the Worst Sort
Giddings, When & Where I Enter
Hayden, Grand Domestic Revolution
Nies, Seven Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition

SCHEDULE OF READINGS, FILMS, AND DISCUSSIONS

WEEK OF:

WED. JAN 17 Introduction to the Course

FRI. JAN 19 Discussion: Women Radicals: Theory & Tradition

Read: Nies, Intro

PART I: MORAL REFORM,ABOLITION & SUFFRAGE

MON. JAN 22 Moral Reform & Abolition

        Read: Nies, pp. 1-59; Giddings, chapter 2
        "Beauty, the Beast, and the Militant Woman" **
        "The Political Activities of Antislavery Women" **
        Sojourner Truth **
        "Declaration of Sentiments"

MON. JAN. 29 Suffrage

        Read: Nies, pp. 63-93; Giddings, chapters 3 & 7 & pp. 159-170
        "The Radicalism of the Woman Suffrage Movement" **
        "The Two Major Types of Suffrage Argument" **
        Film: "One Woman, One Vote"

PART II: DOMESTIC REVOLUTIONS & SOCIAL REFORMS IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

MON. FEB. 5 Read: Hayden, Grand Domestic Revolution

Nie, pp. 127-145

MON. FEB. 12 Black Women Activists

        Read: Giddings, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 12, & 13
        Ida B. Wells, **
        Terrell, **

MON. FEB. 19 PRESIDENT'S DAY: NO CLASS

TUE. FEB. 20 Film: "A Century of Women"

MON. FEB. 26 Feminism in the 1920s?

        Read: Blee, Women of the Klan
        "What Happened to Feminism in the 1920s? **

PART III: WOMEN & PEACE MOVEMENTS

MON. MAR. 4 Read: Alonso, Peace as a Women's Issue

MON. MAR. 11 "Female Support Networks" **

        Emma Goldman **
        "Its a Dick Thing"  **

FRI. MAR. 15 PROSPECTUS & BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

MAR. 18-24 SPRING BREAK

PART IV: WOMEN & LABOR ACTIVISM

MON. MAR. 25 Women as the First Industrial Workers

        "Lowell Textile Workers" **
        "Working Conditions in Early Factories" **
        "Building a Community of Labor" **
        "Where are the Organized Women Workers?" **
        Nie, pp. 97-123 **
        "Mother Jones"  **

MON. APR. 1 Southern Women Textile Workers

Read: "Cotton Mill People"**

WED. APR. 3 Film: "The Uprising of '34" (Time & Place TBA)

MON. APR. 8 Read: Radicals of the Worst Sort

PART V: FROM CIVIL RIGHTS TO THE SECOND WAVE

MON. APR. 15 1ST DRAFT OF PAPER DUE

         Women in the Civil Rights Movement
        Read: Giddings, Chapters 14, 15, & 16
        " Trailblazers: Women in the Montgomery Bus Boycott" **
        "Men Led but Women Organized" **
        Film: " Freedom on My Mind"

MON. APR. 22 The Second Wave: From Feminism to Backlash

        Read: Giddings, Chapter 17 & 19
        "Feminism and Antifeminism in the 1980s" **
        "The New Feminism & the Dynamics of Social Change"**

MON. APR. 29 PAPER PRESENTATIONS

HST/WMS 450/550 DISCUSSION GUIDELINES

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