HISTORY OF WOMEN
Course mailing list: Hist2800c@uleth.ca
Course Instructor: Doug Parker
Office: TH116
Class times M-F: 10:20 am – 12:30 pm
Office hours: M-F: 9:00 am – 10:20 am
email: douglas.parker@uleth.ca
Office Phone: (403) 329-2421
Room TH 133
Fax: (403) 329 - 5108
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The University lists this course as the “History of women in ancient and early modern
Europe. The impact of the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, industrialization,
urbanization and revolution on the lives of women in both the European and American
context.”
This year, the course focuses on ancient and medieval women (to 1600) in Europe; later
developments in Europe and aboriginal and colonial women’s lives in North America
will not be studied through the text readings.
Contemporary feminist theories regarding the social construction of gender will be used
to enlarge our understanding of how women, as socially-situated beings, have been
disempowered, or disenfranchised, by historically-contingent perceptions of sexual
difference manifest in science, politics, medicine, education, and so forth. Women, over
time, have not consistently gained authority and power but often lost ground. These
losses do not imply that women lack historical agency or fail to achieve significant
goals. They do suggest that the patriarchal system has been the major force for men
maintaining power over women – a system that is not natural but is culturally imposed.
REQUIRED TEXT:
Pomeroy, Sarah. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity.
(Second Edition, Schocken, 1995).
Anderson, Bonnie and Judith P. Zinsser. A History of Their Own (vol. 1): Women in
Europe from Prehistory to the Present (Revised Edition, OUP, 2000).
GRADING SYSTEM
%
GRADE
GPA
%
GRADE
GPA
94-100
90-93.9
86-89.9
82-85.9
78-81.9
74-77.9
A+
A
AB+
B
B-
4.0
4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
2.7
70-73.9
66-69.9
62-65.9
58-61.9
50-57.9
C+
C
CD+
D
2.3
2.0
1.7
1.3
1.0
REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING SCHEME:
5% Seminar Presentation – one summary of reading for class discussion
15% Seminar Participation – response to in-class primary source readings and
discussion
10% Primary source analysis (2 x 5%) – July 9th and July 13th
30% Secondary source analysis (6 pages double-spaced typed) DUE:
WEDNESDAY, July 21st
20% take home midterm exam – AVAILABLE THURS. July 15th - DUE FRI.,
July 16th
20% final exam FRIDAY JULY 23rd
Please note:
Without exception late papers will be penalized by 5% per day, unless they are
accompanied by a doctor’s note.
Do not send papers by attachment on E-mail. Only hard copies will be accepted.
High standards in writing, language use and essay organization are expected and
required. Please consult manuals such as William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A
Guide for Students (on reserve) or linkup with University of Calgary’s Department of
History’s excellent site for guidance http://hist.ucalgary.ca/essay/essay.htm regarding
research techniques, how to interpret sources, how to cite bibliographic sources, and
more generally on the methodologies of the discipline. The Calgary website includes a
sample bibliography.
Recommended style guide:
As a style guide for your essays or book reviews use the most recent edition of Kate
Turabian, A manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (University
of Chicago Press).
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism "is the use of someone else’s words or ideas without proper credit"
(including paraphrasing) see The History Student Writer’s Manual, Scott & Garrison
(eds.) Prentice Hall, 1998, p121. Proper credit must be given through the use of
footnotes or in-text citations if you incorporate a quotation for an external source or you
adopt an idea that you have read elsewhere. Failure to do so may result in academic
penalties.
Inclusive language policy:
You are encouraged to use inclusive language in all your work. "Inclusive language
may defined as language which does not discriminate among characteristics of gender,
age, race, or ethnicity, religion or minority." University of Lethbridge Calendar.
SCHEDULE of LECTURES and READINGS
Class topic appear in normal font
Dates of classes appear in bold font
Assignments appear directly after the date and in bold font
Readings appear in italics
July 5
July 6
Introduction to course and primary source presentation
Women in Greco-Roman mythology; matriarchy; women in
Homeric epic and Bronze Age reality; Women in Dark Age and
Archaic Greece – Pomeroy pp. 1–56. In-class primary source
“workshop”
July 7
Legal Status of Women in Classical Athens; Women in Classical
Literature – Pomeroy pp. 57-74 and 79–112.
July 8
Women in Classical Literature (cont.); The Status of Women in the
Hellenistic Period – Pomeroy 113-148.
July 9
In-class document test (30 min.)-Women in Republican Rome and
Status in Roman Law; Non-elite Women during the late Roman
Republic and Roman Empire; Women in the Public Sphere – Pomeroy
149-204.
July 12
Women in Religion–Pomeroy pp. 75-78 & 205-230.
July 13
In-class document test (30 min.) - The Ancient Negative and
Positive Influences - Anderson and Zinsser (pp. 24-66).
(All subsequent readings from Anderson and Zinsser appear in parentheses)
July 14
Early Christianity (pp. 67-84).
July 15
Pickup take-home Mid-term Exam - Pre-Industrial Rural Economics
(pp. 87-118) and Family Life (pp. 119-150).
July 16
Hand-in Mid-term - Witch Persecutions (pp. 151-178); the Medieval
Church (pp. 181-227).
July 19
Reformation (pp. 228-266); Medieval Noble Society (pp. 269-304).
July 20
Chivalry and Romance (pp. 304-350).
July 21
Secondary Source Analysis Due - Revival of Medieval Towns (pp.
353-391).
July 22
The Commercial Revolution (pp. 392-444).
July 23
Final Exam