HIST& 215: Women in American History

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Class Program
History
Distribution
Social Science,
Diversity
Credits 5 Lecture Hours 55
A survey of women and U.S. history from pre-colonial times to the present. This course explores women’s place in American History, including historical attitudes about women’s place in society and the realities of life and work for women. This course also covers the women’s rights movements from the mid-1800’s to the present. Topics include cultural, ethnic, political, social, and economic history.
Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge or skills:

  1. Discuss knowledge and understanding of the key people, events and ideas relating to the history of women in the United States.
  2. Debate how women fit into the larger developments and events of American history.
  3. Interpret historical attitudes reflecting women’s roles and the relationship between these attitudes and the realities of women’s life experiences and work.
  4. Explain an awareness of the diversity of women’s attitudes and experiences in American history.
Course Content Outline
  1. America to 1650
    1. The traditions and experiences of Native American women, slave women, and European colonists
  2. 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
  3. Women in early American Republic, 1776-1820
    1. Women in the Revolution and Social Changes
      1. Native Americans
      2. African Women
      3. White colonial Women
    2. The Doctrine of Separate Spheres
    3. The Republican Motherhood and Education
  4. Through the Antebellum 1800-1860
    1. True Womanhood vs. Realities
    2. Women Earning a Wage
    3. Women and Slavery
    4. Overland Trail: Native Americans
  5. Civil War and Reconstruction 1861-1900
    1. Expanding Women’s Sphere
      1. Abolitionism
      2. Women’s fights
      3. Reform in family life
    2. War
      1. Emancipation
      2. Women involvement
    3. Post Wa
      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
    8. Immigrant wives and daughters
  6. 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 pension
      3. Progressive women and political parties Abolitionism
      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
  7. Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, World War II, 1920-1945
    1. The 1920s
      1. Women at work and politics
      2. The new woman – Flappers
    2. The Great Depression, the 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
  8. Feminine Mystique and Beyond, 1945-1965
    1. Family and culture
      1. Changing gender roles
      2. New wealth and family life
      3. Cold War and family
      4. Women and Work
      5. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
Department Guidelines
PO5 should be assessed: Students will be able to solve problems by gathering, interpreting, combining and/or applying information from multiple sources.