HIST& 215: Women In US History

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Class Program

History

Credits

Weekly Contact Hours

Course ID

091686

Meets Degree Requirements For

Diversity,

Social Science

Description

A survey of women and U.S. history from pre-European settlements to the present from the perspective of women of various racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Explores women's place in American History, emphasizing how female roles in family, work, politics, and culture have changed over time, creating definitions of womanhood.

Grading Basis

Graded

Course Learning Outcomes

Learn critical thinking skills through reading and analyzing historical texts, literature and sources.

Express and defend historical positions based upon primary or secondary research.

Discuss knowledge and understanding of the key people, events and ideas relating to the history of women in the United States.

Debate how women fit into the larger developments and events of American history.

Interpret historical attitudes reflecting women’s roles and the relationship between these attitudes and the realities of women’s life experience and work.

Explain an awareness of the diversity of women’s attitudes and experiences in American history.

Core Topics

America to 1650
1. The traditions and experiences of Native American, African, and European (Indentured servants) women.
Colonial America, 1607-1750
1. Southern Colonies
  1. British Women
  2. African Women
2. Northern Colonies
  1. Puritan Women and Family
  2. Disorderly Women
3. Diversity of America
Women in early American Republic, 1776-1820
1. Women in the Revolution and Social Changes
  1. Native American Women
  2. African Women
  3. White colonial Women
2. The Doctrine of Separate Spheres
3. The Republican Motherhood and Education
Through the Antebellum, 1800-1860
1. True Womanhood vs. Realities
2. Women Earning a Wage
3. Women and Slavery
4. Overland Trail: Native Americans & Mexican Women
Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1900
1. Expanding Women’s Spheres
  1. Abolitionism
  2. Women’s fights
  3. Reform in family life
2. War
  1. Emancipation
  2. Women’s involvement
3. Post War
  1. Constitutionalizing
  2. Women’s rights
  3. Women’s suffrage
4. Southern Reconstruction
  1. Black women in new South
  2. White women in new South
  3. Slavery aftermath
5. Leisured Class
  1. Gilded Age
  2. Christian temperance
6. Consolidating the West
  1. Native American women
  2. Families in the West
7. Late 19th century immigration
  1. Immigrant wives and daughters
Progressive Era, 1900-1920
1. Female Labor Forces
  1. Wage earners, organizing workers
2. Female Dominion
  1. Public housekeeping
  2. Protective labor legislation and mother’s pensions
  3. Progressive women and political parties
  4. Outside the Dominion: Progressivism and Race
3. Votes for Women/Suffrage Movement
4. Emergence of Feminism
  1. Feminist program
  2. The birth control movement
5. World War I
  1. Women’s involvement
  2. Winning women’s suffrage
The Roaring Twenties, Great Depression and World War II, 1920-1945
1. The 1920s
  1. Women at work and politics
  2. The new woman – Flappers
2. The Great Depression, 1930s
  1. Home life
  2. Working Women
  3. Women’s New Deal
3. World War II
  1. Women in the military
  2. Wartime work
  3. War and everyday life
Feminine Mystique and Beyond, 1945-1965
1. Changing gender roles
  1. New wealth and family life
  2. Cold War and family
  3. Women and work
  4. Redefining women
2. Women’s Activism
3. Civil Rights Movement
  1. Legacy of NOW and liberal feminism
4. Women’s liberation and ideas
5. Diversity, Race, and Feminism
Modern Feminism, 1965-1980
1. Impacts of Feminism
2. Changing Public Policy
3. Changing social mores
4. Impact of Title Nine on women’s athletics
Global Age, 1980-Present
1. Feminism and the new right
  1. Abortion wars
  2. Antifeminism
2. Women and politics
3. Changes in family and sexuality
4. Inequalities new and old faced in Modern America