MODERN AMERICAN WOMEN

Dr. Karen Manners Smith
Spring 1999
(AH 300 A, MWF 9:00 - 9:50)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
 By focusing on the twentieth century, this course enables us to concentrate on the political aspects of American women's lives as well as their social history.  Our story properly begins in the 1890s, with the reunification of the women's suffrage movement, and goes on through the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, the domesticated Fifties, and the Women's Liberation Movement of the Sixties and Seventies, taking in women's activities in two world wars along the way.  You will note from the reading list that race and ethnicity are central concerns in the story of twentieth century women.
 The last quarter of the course will be devoted to a discussion of women's lives today, and to the political and social issues that confront women in American society on the eve of a new century.  This discussion will be organized around student reports.
     Women's history is the story of women's shared experiences -- those experiences that are shaped by their sex or gender alone -- but it is also the story of differences between women that are determined by their region, race, religion, ethnicity, and social class.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
 The format of the course includes lecture and discussion.  I expect active engagement by everyone in the class.  This means you must complete assigned readings before the class in which they are scheduled to be discussed.  Always bring relevant books and readings to class with you.
 You are allowed to miss six classes for any reason without penalty.  After that I will begin to deduct points from your grade for each absence.
 There will be a midterm and a final examination in this course, plus two short papers.  In addition, each student will prepare a report on a current women's topic for presentation to the class.  These reports will be given in April and May, and the script or outline submitted for grading.
 Class participation will be worth 15% of your grade.  The final exam is 15%, and other exams, reports, and papers 70%  Improvement in written work and class participation throughout the semester will favorably affect your grade.  Papers graded C- and below may be rewritten to improve grades.  Late papers will lose grade points.  If you are ill or having difficulties with the course, please see me before your grade is jeopardized.
 
ACADEMIC HONESTY
 All ESU rules regarding academic honesty apply in this course.  Plagiarism (the use of another writer's work without appropriate citation or attribution) is a serious academic offense.  Plagiarized work will receive a grade of F and may result in a failing grade for the course.  If you are unsure about the proper way to cite another's work, please consult me.

REQUIRED READINGS
1. Susan Ware: Modern American Women: A Documentary History (McGraw-Hill 1997)

2. Leslie Tentler: Wage Earning Women: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press)

3. Jessie Redmon Fauset: There is Confusion (Northeastern University Press 1989 [first published 1920s])

4.  Sara Evans: Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (Random Vintage 1978)

5.  Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior (any edition)

6.  Judith Ortiz Cofer: Silent Dancing Arto Publico Press

RECOMMENDED
1.  Rosalind Rosenberg: Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century (Hill and Wang 1992)

RESERVE READING
  Most short readings for this course will be found in Ware: Modern American Women, but there will also be some articles on Reserve in the library. Reserve readings will be listed in the course schedule or announced in class.

CLASS SCHEDULE (subject to change and amendment)
January 13:  Getting Acquainted  Syllabus, paper work, etc.

January 15:  Introduction to the Course  General discussion of the field of women's history and a brief review of American women's history up to our point of departure, 1890.

January 18:  No Class:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

January 20:  Overview: Women's Issues of the 1890s  For this class prepare Ware, Introduction and Chapter 1, pp. 3-29.

January 22:  Progressive Women  Read Ware Ch 2 and 4.  Begin reading Tentler, parts I and II

January 25:  Women and Progressive Reform: Discussion

January 27:  Women and Reform II Continue reading Tentler to end

January 29:  Working Women  Read Ware Ch 3 Discussion

February 1:  Working Women II Discussion of Tentler

February 3:  Women in War and Politics;  Ware, Ch 5.  Begin reading Fauset: There is Confusion

February 5:  Politics after Suffrage  Ware Ch. 6

February 8:  The End of Separatism; Lesbian Issues Simmons or Faderman article on reserve.

February 10:  Harlem Renaissance, Black Middle Class, and ASWPL

February 12:  Women and the Depression Ware Ch. 7 to p. 194.

February 15:  Discussion of There is Confusion

February 17:  Women and Labor in the 1930s; Mexican American Women's Experience   Ware pp. 195-204 and Deutsch article on reserve.

February 19:  Film: With Babies and Banners

February 22:  Women in Politics: Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Mary McLeod Bethune   FAUSET PAPER DUE

February 24:  World War II: Women in Uniform  Ware Chapter 8.

February 26:  World War II:  Films "Rosie the Riveter"  "Women at War"

March 1:      World War II: Conclusion of Films; Minority Women: Japanese Internment  Read Matsumoto article on Reserve

March 3:   Post-War Women; Mid-Term Exam Review  Discussion

March 5:   Mid-Term Exam

March 8:   The Fifties: Regression or Progress?  Read Ware, Chapter 9

March 10:  Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique  Begin reading Evans: Personal Politics

March 12:  The Sixties: Women Return to Politics; Formation of N.O.W.  Read Ware, Ch. 10 pp. 277-286

March 15:  Developing the Theoretical Context for the Women's Liberation Movement:  Kate Millett, Susan Brownmiller, Germaine Greer, Simone deBeauvoir, etc.  Reading TBA

March 17:  From Civil Rights to Women's Rights  Ware Ch 10 pp. 286-292

March 19:  Radical Women  Discussion of Evans: Personal Politics

March 22-26:  Spring Break  Read The Woman Warrior   and Silent Dancing

March 29:  Dissension: Minority Women and Lesbians  Read Ware, Ch. 10 292-end.

March 31:  Film on Radical Women

April 2:   Discussion of Kingston: The Woman Warrior

April 5:   Opposition: The 1970s, Phyllis Schlafley and Stop ERA
Read Ware, pp. 378-383

April 7:   The Eighties and Nineties: Backlash

April 9:   Backlash Continued   Reserve articles TBA

April 12:  Immigrant Women's Issues: Discussion of Cofer: Silent Dancing

April 14 - May 5:  WOMEN'S ISSUES TODAY  Student Reports on current women's issues.  We will balance readings in Ware with relevant student topics.  April 14 will be a day in the library learning how to access current periodical sources.

May 7:     Review for Final Exam
 

For more information, contact:
Professor Karen Manners Smith
phone: (316) 341-5570


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