U.S. Women's History

This course explores the history of women's experience in American society, emphasizing 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.

Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend lectures and take part in discussions. Exams 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 all assignments on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor. Further, no student with more than four unexcused absences will receive a passing grade for the course.

Contacting the Professor:

My office is in 2N 203, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours Mondays from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, Tuesdays 5:00 to 6:00 pm, and by appointment; I am usually in my office during the day on Tuesdays. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu.

Assignments:

First Midterm (20 October 1997): 25% of Final Course Grade
Take-Home Essay (19 November 1997): 25% of Final Course Grade
Second Midterm (17 December 1997): 25% of Final Course Grade
Participation (attendance and discussion contribution): 25% of Final Course Grade

Required Texts:

Sara Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America (New York: The Free Press, 1989)
Linda Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973)
The Sins of Our Mothers (documentary film to be viewed in class, or at the Audio-Visual Department at the Library)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (available online)
Mamie Garvin Fields, with Karen Fields, Lemon Swamp and Other Places: A Carolina Memoir (New York: Free Press, 1983)
Ida B. Wells and the Struggle for Justice (documentary film to be viewed in class, or at the Audio-Visual Department at the Library)
Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1979)
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (documentary film to be viewed in class, or at the Audio-Visual Department at the Library)

There are additional optional materials for this course on the WWW at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/286links.html

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction
	Wednesday, September 3	Introduction to the Course; Introduction to Women's History
	Readings: Evans, "Introduction."
Week Two: Colonial Origins
	Monday, September 8	The Colonial Family
	Wednesday, September 10	Witchcraft
	Readings: Evans, Chs. 1 and 2.
Week Three: Early Republican Women
	Monday, September 15	Deputy Husbands and Republican Womanhood
	Wednesday, September 17	Contrasts between Massachusetts Bay and the Chesapeake
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 3.
Week Four: Southern Women
	Monday, September 22	Patriarchy in the Chesapeake
	Wednesday, September 24	Slave-Holding Women and the Southern Family
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 4; Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Week Five: Women's Culture and Slavery
	Monday September 29	Slave Women
	Wednesday, October 1	NO CLASS--Classes follow a Friday Schedule
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 5; Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Week Six: Resistance and Reform
	Monday, October 6	True Womanhood
	Wednesday, October 8	Women and Abolitionism
	Readings: Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Week Seven: Harriet Brent Jacobs
	Monday, October 13	CUNY CLOSED--No class.
	Wednesday, October 15	Discussion of Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 6.
Week Eight: True Women in a World of Work
	Monday, October 20	First Midterm (Click here for the study guide)
	Wednesday, October 22	View and discuss The Sins of Our Mothers in class.
	Readings: Fields, Lemon Swamp. Also, click here for a discussion of "liberty rhetoric" in the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments.
Week Nine: Civil War and Reconstruction
	Monday, October 27	The Civil War and Sex Roles
	Wednesday, October 29	Reconstructing American Womanhood
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 7; Fields, Lemon Swamp
Week Ten: Progressive Reform
	Monday, November 3	Social Housekeeping; Discuss Fields, Lemon Swamp
	Wednesday, November 5	Ida B. Wells and Women's Fight for Racial Justice; View Ida B. Wells in class
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 8; Fields, Lemon Swamp; Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Week Eleven: Suffrage and Feminism
	Monday, November 10	Getting the Vote
	Wednesday, November 12	First Wave Feminism in the U.S.; Discuss Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 9; Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Week Twelve: Sexual and Social Revolutions
	Monday, November 17	The New Women, Flappers and Other Revolutionaries
	Wednesday, November 19	Take-home Essay (Click here for the take-home exam question)
	Readings: Underhill, Papago Woman
Week Thirteen: Depressions
	Monday, November 24	The Great Depression
	Wednesday, November 26	Discuss Underhill, Papago Woman
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 10; Underhill, Papago Woman
Week Fourteen: World War II and the Cold War
	Monday, December 1	Rosie the Riveter; view Rosie the Riveter in Class
	Wednesday, December 3	Containment
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 11; Fields, Lemon Swamp
Week Fifteen: The Second Wave
	Monday, December 8	Images of Women in the Post-War World
	Wednesday, December 10	Second Wave Feminism and Womanism; Discuss Fields, Lemon Swamp
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 12; Fields, Lemon Swamp
Week Sixteen: Finding Our Place
	Monday, December 15	Summing Up
	Readings: Evans, Ch. 13
Second Midterm (Non-Cumulative Final) (click here for the study guide)		Wednesday, 17 December 1997

Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for History 286 (American Women's History), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Fall Semester 1997. Last modified: Tuesday 2 December 1997