History 352/Women's Studies 352
Spring 1998
Professor Margaret Jacobs
New Mexico State University
M, W, F 9:30-10:20
BC 109
HISTORY OF WOMEN IN AMERICA SINCE 1848
This class will explore the ways in which many different women in the United States experienced and gave meaning to their history from 1848 to the present. This course also examines gender as a system of power relations that has been integral to the shaping of American politics and public policy and to the development of the American economy.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
To explore the meaning of women's status across cultures and historical
periods since 1848;
To examine how women have attempted to define, maintain, or gain power in
changing historical circumstances;
To identify common dilemmas and struggles faced by women;
To inquire into women's difference based on race, class, and other factors;
To study gender as a system of power relations that manifests itself in
many realms of American history.
READINGS
Textbook: Mary Beth Norton and Ruth Alexander, Problems in American Women's
History
Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It?
Susan Ware, Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
Selected articles on reserve in the library and available from the Copy
Center, Corbett Student Union.
Readings must be completed by Friday of each week.
DISCUSSION GROUPS
During the first class, we will form small discussion groups. Each Friday,
these groups will meet in order to discuss the reading and the topic for
the week. Each week, a different person within each group will be
responsible for preparing and facilitating that week's discussion.
Attendance and participation in this group will account for 10% of your
grade.
JOURNALS
You are also expected to keep a journal (to be handed in each Monday) that
critically grapples with the readings, lectures, and discussions. Your
journal will count for 20% of your grade. This journal can be handwritten
neatly or typed. Each entry should include a brief summary of the week's
readings and topics and then a critical analysis of the subject.
ORAL HISTORY OF 20TH-CENTURY WOMAN
You will be asked to conduct an extensive interview with a woman 50 years
or older. You will then be expected to write a 5-8 page paper based on
placing this woman in the history of the twentieth century. (20% of your
grade.) DUE MONDAY, APRIL 13.
Details on this assignments will be handed out later.
EXAMS
There will be a take-home midterm exam (worth 25% of your grade) due on
MONDAY, MARCH 16 and a take-home final exam (worth 25% of your grade) due
on FRIDAY MAY 15.
ACADEMIC POLICIES
Late journals, papers, and/or exams will be docked a grade for each class
period they are late unless you talk to me before they are due and can
document a real emergency. NO incompletes will be given unless you have
passed the first half of the course and can document an illness or family
crisis that would preclude you from successfully completing the class.
Work submitted for other classes is unacceptable in this class. All assignments must be your original work this semester. Cheating or intentional plagiarism will result in an F for the class.
If you would like to know your grade soon after the course and/or to have final work returned to you, please bring a large, self-addressed stamped envelope to class by the last day, and I will send you your grade and final exams or assignments.
IF YOU NEED TO REACH ME
I am available for office hours, Monday, 10:30-12 and Wednesday, 2:30-4 or
by appointment. My office is in Breland Hall, Room 234. You can also
reach me through my office phone, 646-4409 and through e-mail:
marjacob@nmsu.edu.
TOPICS AND SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
WEEK 1 Women's History -- Theory and Methodology
W, Jan 14
Fri, Jan 16
Readings: Gerda Lerner, "Placing Women in History," and "Declaration of Sentiments," in Problems in American Women's History, 1-8, 167- 168.
WEEK 2 Women in the Mid-19th Century:
M, W, F True Womanhood and Women's Literature
Jan 19, 21, 23 A Western Woman Responds to U.S. Conquest
Readings: Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It?, 9-
153 (see handout)
WEEK 3 Women and the Civil War
M, W, F
Jan 26, 28, 30
Readings: Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It?,
171- end (see handout)
WEEK 4 Women in the Late 19th Century: M, W, F Black Women's Trials and Triumphs
Feb 2, 4, 6 Women Respond to Industrialization -- the Settlement House
Movement
Readings: Jacqueline Jones, "A Bridge of 'Bent Backs and Laboring
Muscles': The Rural South, 1880-1915" from Labor of Love, Labor of
Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the
Present and
Jane Addams, "Some Early Undertakings at Hull House, from
Twenty Years at Hull House (both on reserve in library or in packet
from Corbett Copy Center)
WEEK 5 Social Reform and the Suffrage Movement
M, W, F
Feb 9, 11, 13
Readings: Norton and Alexander, Chapter 10, "The 'New Woman':
Suffrage and Social Reform," Problems in American Women's
History, 253-283.
WEEK 6 Women's Changing Sexuality
M, W, F
Feb 16, 18, 20
Readings: Norton and Alexander, Chapter 9, "Victorian Sexuality,"
Problems in American Women's History, 217-252.
Estelle Freedman and John D'Emilio, "Breaking with the
Past," from Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (on
reserve in library or in packet from Corbett Copy Center)
WEEK 7 Women's Changing Work
M, W, F
Feb 23, 25, 27
Readings: Norton and Alexander, Chapter 11, " Work Culture in the Early Twentieth Century," Problems in American Women's History,
284-320.
March 2-6: SPRING BREAK
WEEK 8 Women and the Origins of the Welfare State
M, W, F
Mar 9, 11, 13
Readings: Linda Gordon, "What is 'Welfare'? and "Single Mothers,"
from Pitied But Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare,
1890-1935 (on reserve in library or in packet from Corbett Copy
Center)
WEEK 9 Women in the 1920s
M, W, F
Mar 16, 18, 20
Reading: Susan Ware, Amelia Earhart and the Search for Modern Feminism
TAKE HOME MIDTERM DUE, MONDAY MARCH 16.
WEEK 10 Women, the Depression, and World War II
M, W, F
Mar 23, 25, 27
Reading: Norton and Alexander, Chapter 13, "Decades of Crisis: The
Great Depression and World War II," Problems in American Women's
History, 357-397.
WEEK 11 The Postwar Years: Domesticity Revisited?
M, W, F
Mar 30, Ap 1, 3
Readings: Norton and Alexander, Chapter 14, "Women and the Feminine
Ideal in Postwar America," Problems in American Women's History,
398-437.
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, 11-160.
WEEK 12 Women and the Beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement
M, W
Ap 6, 8 NO CLASS FRIDAY, APRIL 10
Readings: Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, 161 to end.
WEEK 13 The Second Wave of the Women's Movement
M, W, F
Ap 13, 15, 17 Norton and Alexander, Chapter 15, "Political Activism and
Feminism in the 1960s and Early 1970s," Problems in American
Women's History, 438-481
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT DUE: MONDAY, APRIL 13
WEEK 14 The Feminization of Poverty
M, W, F
Ap 20, 22, 24
Readings: Ruth Sidel, "Who are the Poor?" and "The New Poor" from
Women and Children Last: The Plight of Poor Women in Affluent America
(on reserve in library or in packet from Corbett Copy Center)
WEEK 15 The Backlash Against Feminism
M, W, F
Ap 27, 29, May 1
Readings: Norton and Alexander, Chapter 16, "An Elusive Sisterhood:
Women and Politics Since 1972," Problems in American Women's
History, 482-530.
WEEK 16 Changing Notions of Gender and Women M, W, F The Men's Movement: Iron Johns, Promisekeepers, and Million May 4, 6, 8 Man Marchers
Readings: Deborah Rhode, "The 'No-Problem' Problem" and "Women's
Movements, Men's Movements," from Speaking of Sex: The Denial of
Gender Inequality
(on reserve in library or in packet from Corbett Copy Center)
TAKE-HOME FINAL DUE FRIDAY MAY 15.