Dr. Catherine Badura
211 North Ashley Hall
Office Hours: 11:00-12:00 M-Th
Office phone: 249-4833; e-mail:
cbadura@valdosta.edu
REQUIRED Texts:
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND DEFINITION:
This course views U.S. History from 1869 to the present from the
perspective of women. Our goals are numerous. The first is to understand
that the course is about both "woman" and "women." "Woman" focuses on the
shared experience of women across cultural boundaries; "women" admits the
role cultural diversity (race, class, ethnicity, religion, age, etc.) in
addition to gender plays in shaping women's identities and experiences.
With that qualifier as a guide, our goal becomes threefold: We want to
understand the ways and the extent to which women have been an integral
part of our country's past. We also want to understand some of the
political, social, & economic constraints imposed on women throughout the
eras we cover. And we want to examine the ways women worked both within
and outside those constraints to shape their own lives, those of their
families, and of their local and national communities. The required texts
will help with each of these goals. Sara Evans' Born for Liberty is a
survey text, a historical narrative from women's perspective. The
Ruiz/DuBois and the Kerber/DeHart readers will help us understand the
social, political, and economic constraints women from all cultures faced,
and will also help us to see how women operated within and beyond those
restrictions to shape their lives and their identities.
The course is designed to rely heavily on and refer often to the texts and the films. Although lectures will supplement primarily by providing historical context for the readings, exams and class participation will be based largely on assimilation, knowledge, and interpretation of the reading assignments.
SPECIFIC COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING CRITERIA:
Ideally the course would require a conversant knowledge of traditional
American history to 1869; however, since some students may not have had
college level history courses to provide the basic background, that is not
a requirement. Again, lectures will supplement the readings to provide
both historical and historiographical context. Also, I will provide a
traditional U.S. History Time Line for reference to help us stay oriented.
Exams will be taken from readings, films, and lectures, and will most
likely be a combination of both objective and subjective questions.
GRADING for History 306: Weekly reflections/writings on reading assignments & films 30% Mid-term exam 25% Final \Exam 25% Attendance at VSU Womens' Studies Conference 10% (See Week 8) Class Participation 10% 100%
Students taking History 506 will be required an additional writing assignment, namely a 10-15 page paper critiquing the primary works of a woman in U.S. History. The student will assess the works in historical perspective.
GRADING FOR History 506: Weekly reflections/writings on reading assignments & films 20% Mid-term exam 20% Final Exam 20% Paper from primary sources 20% Attendance at VSU Womens' Studies Conference 10% Class Participation 10% 100%
CLASS CONDUCT AND ATTENDANCE:
If enrollment permits, most days we will conduct the class much like a
seminar, wherein discussion and dialogue rather than monologue and
lecturing characterize the class. In any event student participation is
encouraged. An exception to the rule of participation will apply if any
one or a small number of students begins, for whatever reason, to
monopolize student response. An additional exception to the rule of
participation will apply if the expression of dissenting or differing
opinions becomes disruptive or anything but diplomatic and well-meaning.
Independent thinking is highly encouraged as long as it is informed
thinking--that is, thinking informed by credible sources (your textbooks,
for instance)--but especially as long as diplomacy, respect, and tact
govern its sharing and expression.
Attendance is required. Five absences will be tolerated without penalty. Those five absences include both legitimate as well as not so legitimate excuses. Legitimate excuses are illnesses, yours or your family's, deaths in the family, etc. athletic obligations, and any other allowable university functions. Doctor's excuses, notes from coaches, etc. are not necessary. The penalty for each absence beyond five will be a reduction of 2% in your final grade. For instance, seven absences would subtract 4% from your final score, 10 absences would subtract 10% from your final score, etc.
For policies regarding withdrawal, please refer to the VSU annual bulletin for university policy.
TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE
Note: "R&D" below refers to readings in the Ruiz & DuBois edited reader and
"K&D" refers to readings in the Kerber & DeHart edited reader.
January 7-9 Introduction to Women's History; Syllabus;
film: "One Woman/One Vote";
Baker in R&D, "The Domestication of Politics: Women
and American Political Society, 1780-1920"
Week 1 Women in the Gilded Age
Jan. 12-16 Evans, Chapter 6, "^ÑMaternal Commonwealth' in the Gilded Age"
Brown in K&D, "Maggie Lena Walker & the Independent Order of St. Luke"
films: "Maggie Lena Walker" & "Women in American Life: 1880-1920:
Immigration, New Work and New Roles";
"Women in American Life: 1861-1880: Civil War,
Recovery, and Westward Expansion";
Week 2 Women in the Progressive Era
Jan. 19-23 Evans, Chapter 7, "Women and Modernity"
Gordon in R&D, "Black & White Visions of Welfare: Women's Welfare
Activism, 1890-1945";
Tax in R&D, "The Uprising of the Thirty Thousand";
Document in K&D, "Pauline Newman, ^ÑWe Fought & we bled & we died....'";
Thomas in K&D, "^ÑThe passionate desire of women . . . for higher
education'";
Deutsch in K&D, "Hispanic Village Women on the Southwest Frontier";
Pascoe in K&D, "Home Mission Women, Race, & Culture: The Case of
^ÑNative' Helpers"'
Banner in K&D, "Menopause & its Meaning";
Week 3 Women in the 1920s
Jan. 26-30 Evans, Chapter 8, "Flappers, Freudians, & All That Jazz"
Cott in K&D, "Equal Rights & Economic Roles";
Brumberg in K&D, "Fasting Girls";
Cowan in K&D, "The ^ÑIndustrial Revolution in the Home";
Hine in R&D, "Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women...."
Hall in R&D, "Disorderly Women: Gender & Labor Militancy in the
Appalachian South"
Week 4 Women in the Depression
Feb. 3-6 Evans, Chapter 9, "Surviving the Great Depression"
film: "Women in American Life: 1917-1942: Cultural Image and Economic
Reality"
Jones in K&D, "Harder Times: The Great Depression";
Hagood in K&D, "Of the Tenant Child as Mother to the Woman";
Gordon in K&D, "^ÑThe Powers of the Weak': Wife-Beating & Battered
Women's Resistance"
Feb. 6 *********Mid-Term Exam***********
Week 5 Women in the 1940s
Feb. 9-13 Evans, Chapter 10, "Women at War"
film: "Women in American Life: 1942-55: War Work, Housework & Growing
Discontent";
Bailey & Farber in K&D, "Prostitutes on Strike";
Matsumoto in K&D, "Japanese-American Women During WWII"'
Milkman, "Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor During WWII";
Week 6 Women and the Cold War
Feb. 16-20 Evans, Chapter 11, "The Cold War and the ^ÑFeminine Mystique'"
Davis & Kennedy in R&D, "Oral History and the Study of Sexuality in the
Lesbian Community";
Solinger in R&D, "Race & ^ÑValue': Black & White Illegitimate Babies";
Kunzel in K&D, "Unwed Mothers, Social Workers, & the Postwar Family";
Cahn in K&D, "^ÑMannishness,' Lesbianism, and Homophobia in U.S. Women's
Sports"'
Week 7 Women in the 1960s
Feb.24-27 Evans, Chapter 12, "Decade of Discovery: ^ÑThe Personal is
Political'"
Swerdlow in K&D, "Ladies' Day at the Capital: Women Strike for Peace
Versus HUAC";
Documents in K&D: Kingston, Friedan, Willis;
Tsosie in R&D, "Changing Women: Crosscurrents of American Indian
Feminine Identity"
Week 8 Women in the 1970s
Mar. 2-4 Evans, Chapter 13, "The Politicization of Personal Life"
film: "Women in American Life: "
Document in K&D, "Remembering Vietnam";
Kelly in R&D, "To Become an American Woman";
Garcia in R&D, "The Development of a Chicana Feminist Discourse";
Mar. 5-7 Anual VSU Women's Studies Conference
Week 9 Women in the 1980s & 90s
Mar. 9-13 Evans, Chapter 14, "Toward a New Century"
film: "The Double Burden";
Kessler-Harris in R&D, "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission vs.
Sears..."
Giddings in R&D, "The Last Taboo";
DeHart in K&D, "The New Feminism & the Dynamics of Social Change";
Week 10
Mar. 16-18 films: "A Century of Women" on work, sexuality, image, social
justice, & popular culture
Last Day of Class: Wednesday, March 18
Final Exam: Monday, March 23, 1998 8:00a.m.-10:00a.m.
Catherine Badura, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History
Department of History
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698-0035
office: 912-249-4833 or 912-333-5947
home: 912-293-0997