Amst 40A
Women in American History
Tuesdays and Fridays: 11:00 – 12:20
Location: Brown 316
Dr. Jillian Powers
Office Hours Tuesdays and Fridays: 1-4
Course Description: This course traces the various experiences of women in the U.S. from
the colonial period to the present. Throughout the semester we will analyze the impact that
gender, class, race, and ethnicity have made in shaping the lives, opportunities,
perspectives, and contributions of Americans in our country’s past. Specifically, we will
explore women’s cultural worlds, and their historical exclusion from the arenas of public
power and their struggle for inclusion. We will also examine differences among women
that stem from race, age, region, religion, and class. We will utilize both primary and
secondary sources to uncover this rich history.
Course Objectives:
- Transform traditional ways of knowing—in and out of the classroom—by reaching
across epistemological and methodological divisions to foster interdisciplinary
perspectives on social life
- To understand historical change through the eyes of women and the values they
define. Female experience is placed at the center of historical analysis. Women are
seen “on their own terms”
- To understand the diversity of women’s class, racial, ethnic, religious, and regional
identities, as well as the commonalities of female experience that transcend such
differences.
- To work towards developing relational gender history that views women’s roles in
terms of their interaction with men’s roles.
- To analyze the relationship between women’s behavior and prescriptive definitions
of female roles, identifying the gaps between women’s real lives and constructed
myths and stereotypes.
- To use and learn to analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources, including
fiction, films, biography, autobiography, newspapers, essays, and other historical
narratives to examine the changing contours of women’s lives.
Four-Credit Course (with three hours of class-time per week)
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will
spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class
(readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
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Course Requirements:
1. Complete all readings and actively participate in discussions
2. Daily Memos
3. Attend ONE event listed & write response
4. “New Women” & Suffrage
5. Advertisements/Consumption
6. Second Wave
7. Memoir, Oral History Paper
8. Self-Directed Paper
5%
10%
5%
15%
15%
15%
15%
20%
Assignment details to be discussed further in class
Participation, attendance and classroom engagement: Readings are to be completed
before the class period for which they are assigned. Attendance is a crucial aspect of class
and you are expected to come prepared, ready to engage, and willing to participate in a
respectful and thoughtful manner. Three unexcused absences will result in the deduction of
a whole letter grade from your overall score (An ‘A’ will be reduced to a ‘B’). Five or more
unexcused absences, you fail the course. Please send me an email if you are unable to
attend class by 9AM to have your absence count as excused.
Memos: For each class period you will draft a short outline of the material covered to help
facilitate class discussion. Choose a few passages to share. What do you find especially
compelling, puzzling? Consider author, intent, audience, and historical context. What is the
purpose of the document or intent of the author? What rhetorical and/or ideological
strategy does she use? What are her main themes?
These are supposed to be rough and will not be graded for style or writing – use these
to work on your comprehension and to pose questions that intrigue you or confuse you. If
you focus on what you find most intriguing and what you find most confusing, you will
come to class prepared and ready to engage.
Each memo should be about a page (plus passages). Make sure to write the date and
your name on each submission. Email this to me by MIDNIGHT the night before class.
Throughout the semester you must submit 20 memos—use your free days (5) wisely. It is
your responsibility to keep track of your memo tally—any missing memos will negatively
influence your grade.
Late Policy: NO LATE COURSEWORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. All coursework must be
completed on time unless we have come to an agreement before the due date, nothing will
be accepted after the last day of class.
Evaluations
Your final grade will be determined by your performance on the above requirements. All
assignments will be graded on a standard scale of 0 to 100.
The final grade will be given using the letter grade system standard at Brandeis University.
The table below shows how the numeric grades will be converted into letter grades:
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97-100
93-96
90-92
87-89
83-86
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
67-69
63-66
60-62
below 59
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
University Policies
Academic Accommodations: If you are a student who has academic accommodations
because of a documented disability, please contact me during the first two weeks of the
semester and give me a copy of your letter of accommodation. Federal law and university
policy require provision of reasonable accommodation for students with diagnosed
learning disabilities that may affect how they participate in the class or meet class
requirements. I encourage students who believe they need such accommodation to contact
the Academic Services Office early in the term. Detailed information on policies,
procedures, and resources related to learning disabilities can be found at this link:
http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/disabilities/index.html
If you have any questions regarding documenting a disability, contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in
the undergraduate Academic Affairs Office (x63470, brodgers@brandeis.edu).
Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.
University Policy on Academic Integrity: You are expected to be familiar with and to
follow the University’s policies on academic integrity. You are expected to turn in work that
is completed, written, and designed by you! This means use footnotes and quotation marks
to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or ideas found in published
volumes on the Internet or created by another student.1 I will refer any suspected instances
of alleged dishonesty to the Office of Academic Affairs.
Violations of may result in failure of the course or on the assignment or in
suspension or dismissal from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for
any assignment in the course, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification. Do not test
me! Ask if you have any concerns before compromising your undergraduate experience!
See: http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/ai/top10students.html
I encourage all students to visit the Brandeis writing center if you would like to improve
your writing.
In creating many sections in this syllabus regarding Brandeis’ policies, I have turned to previous syllabi in
American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sociology.
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TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM
Laptops, PDAs, cell phones, headphones, and all other technological distractions MUST BE
OFF AND AWAY at all times during class-time.
On Controversial Subjects and Classroom Community
We will be discussing many contemporary and historical issues that are the subject of
intense controversy. Many might consider what we will cover as taboo, controversial,
deeply personal, or simply unfamiliar. You may have strong feelings about these issues, and
those feelings or opinions may be opposed to some of the articles and chapters you’ll be
reading. I will encourage discussion and debate on these topics, as I believe that one duty of
the course is to critically examine what we may accept as “common knowledge” or
accepted practice. In addition, you may also find that that some of the material raises
deeply personal or painful experiences.
To ensure that your own personal experiences and opinions do not affect your class
performance, and to keep discussions and debates civil and academically focused, I ask you
to keep the following points in mind:
1. Students are expected to serve as resources for each other and fully commit to the
2.
3.
4.
5.
collaborative and supportive community required to successfully complete a
course/project of this nature
Be aware that understanding arguments made in the readings does not require
accepting those arguments. Indeed, even if you disagree with an argument, you
must first understand it to make a reasoned critique. Do not simply dismiss them.
Opinions are not acceptable arguments in discussion. If you wish to critique a
concept, you must provide some evidence or data from the readings (or outside
material, if you so wish, as long as it is scholarly). Do not be afraid, however, to
speculate on potential consequences or impacts based upon existing data or to
inquire about the existence or quality of data with regard to an argument.
Anecdotes are not data. Just because something happened to one person at one time
does not imply a pattern or trend. The difference between an anecdote and an
example is that examples are illustrations based on systematic data (this point will
be crucial for your final paper!)
Do not become emotional or engage in personal attacks. While you may have strong
feelings on these issues, remember to always keep a cool head and show respect for
differing opinions. I am committed to creating a safe and supportive classroom
community.
Required Reading
Jennifer Finney Boylan, She’s Not There
Maxine Craig, Ain’t I a Beauty Queen
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, Norton Critical Edition. Edited by Kristen
Fermaglich and Lisa Fine. 2012.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
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Articles listed on the syllabus are posted on Latte, or available through the hyperlinks
provided.
Other Texts/Resources
Mary Beth Norton and Ruth Alexander, Major Problems in American Women’s History.
Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil, Through Women’s Eyes.
Shirley Hune and Gail Nomura, Asian/Pacific Islander American Women.
Linda Kerber, et. al. Women’s America.
Schedule
Introduction
January 15: Introduction to the course
January 19: Introduction to Women’s History
Gerda Lerner – Placing Women in History
Gisela Bock – Challenging Dichotomies in Women’s History
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham – Afro-American Women in History
Kerber, et. al. – Introduction: Gender and the New Women’s History
Freedman: Race and the Politics of Identity in U.S. Feminism
January 22:
Library Day – Farber 101
Women in Colonial and Revolutionary America
January 26:
Linda Kerber- The Republican Mother and the Woman Citizen
Linda Kerber – Beyond Separate Spheres
The American Woman in the Nineteenth Century
January 29
Kerber et. al. Intro
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg- The Female World of Love and Ritual
James Mohr- Abortion in America
Document – Declaration of Sentiments 1848
Document – Married Women’s Property Acts, New York State 1848, 1860
Women in Slavery and Abolition
February 2
The Lives of Enslaved Women: Chapter 6: Norton and Alexander
Susak Zaeske- Signatures of Citizenship: Debating Women’s Antislavery
Petitions
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Drew Faust – Enemies in Our Households: Confederate Women and Slavery
Grimke– The Connection between Religious Faith, Abolition, & Women’s
Rights
EVENT:
Feb. 2 p.m. Book Talk and Q&A -- Hope into Practice: Jewish
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Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears
Mandel Center for the
Humanities
Progressive Reform
February 5
Catherine Kish Sklar, “Hull House in the 1890s: A Community of Women Reformers”
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174308?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Primary Source: Jade Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (1910).
Kathryn Kish Sklar- Florence Kelley and Women’s Activism in the Progressive Era
Melaine Gustafson, Partisan Women in the Progressive Era: The Struggle for
Inclusion in American Political Parties
Women’s Rights, Suffrage,
February 9
Wineapple – It is the Nation’s Time: How Women Won the Vote
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/18/it_is_the_nations_time_how_women_won_the_
vote/
Steven Buechler – The Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement
Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe on Why Women Should Not Seek the
Vote, 1869
Sojoruner Truth: Aint I a Woman?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton “The Solitude of the Self”
Women and Politics in the 1920s
February 12
Lynn Dumenil, The New Woman and the Politics of the 1920s
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, In Politics to Stay: Black Women Leaders and Party
Politics in the 1920s.
Ellen Carol Dubois: The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and
Grassroots Politics
Nancy Cott: Equal Rights and Economic Roles: The Conflict over the Equal Rights
Amendment in the 1920s.
NO SCHOOL
Paper 1: “New Women” and Progressivism: Browse the Women and Social Movements
Website, consult any outside sources and use another other archives. What were the roots
of the first Women’s Movement? How did Progressivism shape these movements? What
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sorts of coalitions are being built? Who is being excluded? What ideological strategies are
being used? Who is addressed, what is being addressed?
DUE FEBRUARY 22
Claiming Her Rights
February 23
Yamila Azize-Vargas The Emergence of Feminism in Puerto Rico, 1870-1930
Murray, "Ilse Women and the Early Korean Community: Redefining the
Origins of Feminist Empowerment." * Pending
Judy Yung – Unbound Feet: From China to San Francisco’s Chinatown
Elinor Lerner: Jewish Involvement in the New York City Woman Suffrage Movement
EVENTS
Feb.
4 p.m. Bystanders, Upstanders, and Justice: Gittler Prize
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Award Presentation and Lecture with Martha Minow
Feb.
4 p.m. WSRC discussion: Is the Label 'Women Composers'
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Still Useful?
Rapaporte
Treasure Hall
Epstein
Feminist Visions
February 26
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
The Depression and World War II
March 1
Ruth Schwartz Cowan: The “Industrial Revolution” in the Home: Household
Technology and Social Change in the Twentieth Century
Annelise Orleck: “We Are That Mythical Thing Called the Public”: Militant
Housewives during the Great Depression
Jacqueline Jones, Harder Times: The Great Depression
Valerie Matsumoto, Japanese American Women during World War II
Film: The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter- https://vimeo.com/18770076
EVENT
Mar.
2
12:30 p.m. 'Ready to Turn the World Upside Down': Women's
Liberation and Jewish Identity
Epstein
Women in Post-WWII America
March 4
Zeisler, Andi. 2008. “American Dreams, Stifled Realities: Women and Pop Culture in
the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.,” in Feminism and Pop Culture. Pp.23-56
Fermaglich and Fine, pp. 344-358
Joyce Antler: Imagining Jewish Mothers in the 1950s
Television’s Prescriptions for Women
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Joanne Meyerowitz: Competing Images of Women in Postwar Mass Culture
Lillian Smith, Selection from Killers of the Dream (1949)
Film: Tupperware
EVENT
Mar.
10 a.m. "I Am Diversity" - Not Your Mother's Diversity
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Workshop
ICC Main
Lounge
Second Wave Feminism
March 8
Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, In Fermaglich and Fine also pp. 379-381,
519-522, 443-489
Jane Sherron De Hart: Second-Wave Feminism and the Dynamics of Social Change
Mar.
8
12:30 p.m. Memoir of a Rebel: A Woman Before the Women's
Movement
Epstein
Black Women Fighting for Change
March 11
Charles Payne: A Woman’s War: African American Women in the Civil Rights
Movement
Anne Standley: The Role of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement
A Mass Movement for Civil Rights
Women in the Civil Rights Movement
Patricia Hill-Collins – What’s in a Name: Womanism, Black Feminsim and Beyond
Paper3: How did the Second Wave and Civil Rights grow from the first women’s movement
and abolition? Did it? Browse the Women and Social Movements Website, consult any
outside sources and use another other archives. What were the roots of these social
movements? How did the historical moment shape these movements? What sorts of
coalitions are being built? Who is being excluded? What ideological strategies are being
used? Who is addressed, what is being addressed?
DUE MARCH 14
Sexuality & Sexual Identity
March 15
Joanne Meyerowitz. Sexual Geography and Gender Economy: The Furnished-Room
Districts of Chicago, 1890-1930
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0424.1990.tb00101.x/abstract
Vicki Ruiz: The Flapper and the Chaperone: Mexican American Teenagers in the
South”
Donna Penn: The Meanings of Lesbianism in Postwar America
EVENTS
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Mar.
15
12:30 p.m. On Frances Perkins: Sexism in the National Industrial
Recovery Administration (NIRA)
Epstein
Mar. 17 12:30 p.m. Lecture: Who Was Catherine Filene Shouse? Epstein
Mar. 17 7 p.m.
SKIN Fashion Show
Levin Ballroom
March 18
Workshop Day
MARCH 22 & MARCH 25 NO SCHOOL
Sexuality & Sexual Identity
March 29
Leslie J. Reagan- When Abortion Was a Crime: Reproduction and the Economy in the
Great Depression”
Beth Bailey: Prescribing the Pill: The Coming of the Sexual Revolution in America’s
Heartland
Changes in Family and Sexuality
EVENT
Mar. 30 12:30 p.m. Film screening: 'Grace Paley Collected Shorts' Epstein
April 1
Jennifer Finney Boylan, She’s Not There
Nan Alamilla Boyd, Bodies in Motion: Lesbian and Transsexual Histories
Women’s Bodies
April 5
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Fasting Girls: The Emerging Ideal of Slenderness in American
Culture
Photo Essay: Adorning the Body
Kethy Peiss: Making Faces: The Cosmetics Industry and the Cultural Construction of
Gender, 1890-1930
EVENT
Apr. 7 12:30 p.m. WSRC presents: The Words to Say It Epstein
April 8
Craig: Ain’t I a Beauty Queen – Selections
Advertisements and Women’s Bodies:
Advertisement Paper Due April 11
Women’s Work
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April 12
“Defence of Factory Girls”
Mary Paul’s Letters, 1845-1848
Thomas Dublin: Women Workers in the Lowell Mills
Annelise Orleck: From the Russian Pale to Labor Organizing in New York City
Fannie Barrier Williams: “The Problem of Employment for Negro Women,” 1903
Ruth Milkman: Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II
Voices of “Rosie the Riveter”
EVENT
Apr. 12 12:30 p.m. WSRC Film Series: 'Women Unchained' Epstein
Opting Out/Leaning in
April 15
Evelyn Nakano Glenn, 1985. “Racial Ethnic Women’s Labor: The Intersection of
Race, Gender, and Class Oppression,” Review of Radical Political Economics. 17(3)
http://rrp.sagepub.com/content/17/3/86.short
Belkin: The Opt-Out Revolution
Warner The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In
Sheryl Sandberg – Ted Talks on Leaning In
http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders
?language=en
https://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_so_we_leaned_in_now_what?language
=en
Radical Feminism: Making the Personal Political
April 19
Documents from Kerber et. al.
Fermaglich and Fine pp. 391-416
Carol Hanisch, The Personal is Political
http://carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html
SUGGESTED: CLAUDIA RANKINE: LYRIC
Recovering Women’s History through Oral History, Memoir, and Journal Writing
April 21
Judy Yung – “A Bowlful of Tears”: Lee Puey You’s Immigration Experience At Angel
Island
Gail M. Nomura- Filipina American Journal Writing: Recovering Women’s History
Audre Lorde: Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference
Devra Anne Weber: Raiz Fuerte: Oral History and Mexicana Farmworkers (Ruiz and
DuBois)
Gloria Anzaluda: La conciencia de la mestizo, in Borderlands/La Frontera
EVENT
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Apr. 21 12:30 p.m. WSRC Film Series: 'Mamadrama' Epstein
Paper 3: Due May 2
Final Paper: DUE MAY 6
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