HISTORY 597
WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Maryville University of St. Louis
Dr. Linda Pitelka
Email: pitelka@maryville.edu
NOTE: This course is an intensive three week summer graduate course intended
primarily for social studies teachers. The course meets three hours per day,
four days per week for three weeks. To make the requirements more
manageable, students have the opportunity to begin reading before the course
begins and to turn in final papers/projects three weeks after the course ends.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Putting women at the center of interpretation, this course explores the impact
of historical events on the lives of American women and the varied roles
women played in shaping American history. A major focus will be to understand
how class, ethnicity, and race influenced American women's work, family life,
and organized activities from the invasion of North America by Europeans to
the 1990s. Topics include: Native American women's lives; gender and family
life under slavery; the impact of industrialization on women of different
classes; the ideology of separate spheres; women's political activities
including the antislavery movement, the suffrage movement, the 19th Amendment,
and the resurgence of feminism in the 1960s; and transformations in the lives
of modern women including work, politics, sexuality, consumption patterns, and
leisure activities.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:
Discussion and dissection of assigned readings will serve as the center for
class meetings, so preparation, attendance and participation in discussion is
mandatory. To ensure the thorough examination of the week's reading, assigned
students will undertake the responsibility of leading discussions. Everyone
will read core titles listed for the week, although sometimes the reading will
be shared among class members. Students will keep a reading journal to be
turned in at the end of the course. Journal entries should include discussion
of bibliographical information, author information, summary of book or article
and main arguments, sources and methodology, theoretical underpinnings,
contribution, problems or questions left unanswered. Students will undertake
a final project for the course that may be turned in within three weeks of the
last class meeting (by July 25). The project may consist of a research paper
(10-12 pages) on a topic to be agreed upon or a historiographical paper. If
they wish, teachers taking the class may choose to submit a detailed unit plan
and set of lesson plans intended to include women's history in the high school
social studies curriculum.
GRADING:
Participation 30%
Reading Journal 40%
Final Project 30%
REQUIRED READING:
Mary Beth Norton and Ruth Alexander, Major Problems in American Women's
History
Vicki Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois, Unequal Sisters: Multicultural Reader in
U.S. Women's History
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
See books for individual reports listed at the end of this syllabus.
NOTE: Some readings will be shared among students; not all students will
read all readings.
SCHEDULE:
Monday June 16: Why Women's History?/Native American Women
Read: Major Problems, Chapters 1-2
Unequal Sisters, Ch. 3: Theda Perdue, "Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears"
Ch. 6: Joan Jensen, "Native American Women and Agriculture: A Seneca Case
Study." Ch. 32: Tsoste, "Changing Women: The Crosscurrents of American
Indian Feminine Identity"
Tuesday June 17: Witchcraft/American Revolution
Read: Major Problems, Chapters 3-4
Book presentation: Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale
Wednesday June 18: The Cult of Domesticity
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 5;
Unequal Sisters, Ch. 4: Boydston, "To Earn Her Daily Bread" Ch. 5: Gonzalez,
"La Tules of Image and Reality"
Book presentation: Clinton, The Plantation Mistress
Thursday June 19: Women in Slavery
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 6
Unequal Sisters, Ch. 2: "Female Slaves"
Book presentations: White, Ar'n't I a Woman?
Jones, Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from
Slavery to the Present
Monday June 23: Women and Activism - 19th Century
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 7
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 8: Stansell, "Women, Children, and the Uses of the
Street" ; Ch. 7: Paula Baker, "The Domestication of Politics: Women and
American Political Society, 1780-1920."
Book presentation: Rothman, Hands and Hearts: A History of Courtship in
America
Tuesday June 24: The West
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 8
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 10: Pascoe, "Gender Systems in Conflict: The Marriages
of Mission-Educated Chinese American Women"
Book presentation: Schlissel, Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey
Wednesday June 25: Victorian Sexuality
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 9
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper website. Browse the
information on the website for discussion.
Gilman, Herland
Unequal Sisters Ch. 9: Van Kirk, "The Reputation of a Lady"
Book presentation: Rosen, Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in America
Thursday June 26: The New Woman/Suffrage and Social Reform
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 10
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 11: Gordon, "Black and White Visions of Welfare" Ch.
14: DuBois, "Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot
Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909" Ch. 15:
Yung, "The Social Awakening of Chinese American Women"
Book presentation: Muncy, Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform
Monday June 30: Working Women
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 11
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 13: Tax, "The Uprising of the Thirty Thousand" Ch. 18:
Sanchez, "`Go After the Women': Americanization and the Mexican American
Woman" Ch. 19: Ruiz, "Dead Ends or Gold Mines? Using Missionary Records in
Mexican American Women's History"
Book presentation: Peiss, Cheap Amusements
Tuesday July 1: The Twenties
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 12
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 12: Meyerowitz, "Sexual Geography and Gender Economy"
Ch. 23: Dowd Hall, "Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the
Appalachian South" Ch. 24: Peiss, "Making Faces: The Cosmetics Industry and
the Cultural Construction of Gender"
Book presentation: Giddings, When and Where I Enter
Wednesday July 2: Great Depression/World War II
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 13
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 25: Weber, "Raiz Fuerte: Oral History and Mexicana
Farmworkers" Ch. 27: Matsumoto, "Japanese American Women During WWII" Ch. 28: Davis and Lapovsky Kennedy, "Oral History and the Study of Sexuality in the Lesbian Community: Buffalo, NY" Ch. 29: Solinger, "Race and Value: Black and White Illegitimate Babies in the US, 1945-1965" Book presentation: Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment
Thursday July 3: Postwar Era
Read: Major Problems, Chapter 14-15
Unequal Sisters: Ch. 30: Swerdlow, "Ladies' Day at the Capitol: Women Strike
for
Peace Versus HUAC"" Ch. 31: Kelly, "To Become an American Woman" Ch. 34:
Kessler-Harris, "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs. Sears, Roebuck
and Company: A Personal Account" Ch. 35: Giddings, "The Last Taboo"
Book Presentations: Evans, Personal Politics
Douglas, Where the Girls Are
Each student will be assigned one of these books and will present it to the
class:
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A MIDWIFE'S TALE
Catherine Clinton, THE PLANTATION MISTRESS
Deborah Gray White, AR'N'T I A WOMAN?
Ellen K. Rothman, HANDS AND HEARTS
Jacqueline Jones, LABOR OF LOVE, LABOR OF SORROW
Lilian Schlissel, WOMEN'S DIARIES OF THE WESTWARD JOURNEY
Ruth Rosen, LOST SISTERHOOD: PROSTITUTION IN AMERICA
Robyn Muncy, CREATING A FEMALE DOMINION IN AMERICAN REFORM
Kathy Peiss, CHEAP AMUSEMENTS
Paula Giddings, WHEN AND WHERE I ENTER
Barbara Ehrenreich, THE HEARTS OF MEN
Sara Evans, PERSONAL POLITICS
Susan Douglas, WHERE THE GIRLS ARE
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