This course deals with women's experience in and contribution to American culture from Colonial times to the present.  We will study both uncommon women of the past and also the daily life of the vast number of women who left few records of their passing but had a significant impact on American culture as they lived through it.  We will look at how these women dealt with families, work, sexuality, creativity, and the roles expected of them in society.  We will also look at how some women rebelled against certain social roles and expectations and founded the Woman's Rights Movement.

      Women's history provides a different perspective on history, one centered in women's point of view.  As such, it is a branch of Women's Studies, which reaches into every field, looking from a woman's point of view at subjects ranging from anthropology to physical science.  It contains elements of social history, economic history, political history, cultural history, and intellectual history.  It is also an example of the new scholarship of diversity, for it strives to include not just the European-American woman's perspective, but that of African-Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Spanish-speaking peoples.  It ranges beyond the middle class to study working class and poor women as well.

      Students will be expected to read various materials and participate in class discussions.  For Undergraduates this includes taking five quizzes on people, places, and events (5%); two exams, a take-home mid-term (25%) and a final (40%);  writing a book critique (5%); and producing a 10-page paper on some aspect of women's history in America using correct historical notation (25%).  For Graduate students this includes taking the mid-term (20%) and final exams (30%); writing a book critique (5%); producing an annotated bibliography of important books in American women's history (10%); and writing a 20-page paper in the area of American women's history using correct historical notation (35%).

Readings

Ellen DuBois & Lynn Dumenil, Through Women's Eyes, 2nd Ed.
Darlene Clark Hine & Kathleen Thompson, A Shining Thread of Hope

Plus Documents/Links on class website
    and articles on the web at umdrive.memphis.edu/mcaffrey/HIST4851-6851