American Women, American Womanhood, 1870s to the Present

Course description

This course examines the history of women in the United States from roughly 1870 to the present. We will explore the status and experiences of American women from a range of perspectives — social, cultural, political, economic and legal. A central concern will be the relationship between gender ideologies and divisions based on class and race within America society. Major areas of inquiry will include: strategies that women have employed to attain political influence and power; changing conceptions of women’s rights and duties as citizens; women’s roles as producers and consumers in an industrial and post-industrial economy; and attitudes and policies that have served to regulate female sexuality, reproduction and motherhood.

Contacting Prof. Plant

email: rjp@ucsd.edu
Phone: 534-8920
Office hours: Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.., HSS 6016

Course Requirements:

The course requirements are as follows: one 2-3 page paper (20% each); the midterm (20%); a 4 page paper (30%) and the final examination (30%).

Details regarding the paper assignments are below. Here it is important to note that I do not accept papers as attachments; you must provide me with a hard copy.

The midterm will consist of a series of short answer questions. The final will have identifications, short answer questions, and two essay questions. Answers to the identifications should be roughly two sentences and should identify the person, event, or term and briefly explain its significance. Short answer questions require a paragraph-long response. Essay responses should be roughly five-paragraphs. You must bring a blue book (or two, in the case of the final) to class on exam days.

Policy regarding late papers: I will accept late papers without penalty only if an extension is requested by email at least seven days in advance of the due date. Otherwise, a letter grade will be deducted for each day beyond the due date.

Grading scale:

97-100 A+
94-96 A
90-93 A-
87-89 B+
84-86 B
80-83 B-
77-79 C+
74-76 C
70-73 C-
Etc.

Grading for this class will not be on a scale.

Academic integrity:

I take the issue of academic integrity very seriously, and I will report suspected cases of cheating or plagiarism. Indeed, as a UCSD professor, if I suspect evidence of cheating or plagiarism in my class, I am required by the Office of the Academic Integrity Coordinator to file a report. (See the “Instructors’ Responsibility” and “Students’ Responsibility” sections of the University’s Academic Integrity Statement.) Please do not make me take this step.

The problem of plagiarism has become more pervasive since the rise of the internet. Obviously, purchasing a paper or taking a paper (or any part of paper) off of a website violates the principles of academic integrity. But plagiarism is not limited to these flagrant examples. Any time you take a sentence, or even a phrase, from another person's work without using quotation marks and providing proper attribution, you are plagiarizing. When you write a paper, the best way to avoid plagiarism is to do all the necessary reading, including on-line reading, in advance. Once you begin to write, you should not go on-line again until the paper is done.

If you have any questions as to what is or is not plagiarism, please review the attached MLA statement. If you still have questions, please contact me.

Required Reading

Jacqueline Jones Royster, ed., Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, Boston: Bedford Books, 1997

Leisa Meyer, Creating GI Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps during World War II, New York: Columbia Press, 1996

Maxine Hong Kingston, Woman Warrior: Memories of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, New York: Vintage Books, 1989, orig. 1975

Weekly Schedule

Week 1: Gender Ideology in the Gilded Age

January 4 Introductions

January 6 Overview: Women's Status and Gender Ideology in the Late 19th Century

Edward H. Clarke, Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for the Girls, Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1873, 11-30, 65-77

Julia Ward Howe, ed., Sex and Education: A Reply to Dr. Edward Clarke’s “Sex in Education,” Boston: Robert Bros., 1874, 13-31

Sue Zschoche, "Dr. Clarke Revisited: Science, True Womanhood, and Female Collegiate Education," History of Education Quarterly 29 (Winter 1989): 545-69 (e-reserves)

Week 2: Women and Progressive Era Reform

January 11 Labor and Immigration

Nancy Dye, “Creating a Feminist Alliance: Sisterhood and Class Conflict in the New York Women’s Trade Union League, 1901-1914,” Feminist Studies 2 (1975): 24-38 (e-reserves)

Jacqueline Jones Royster, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings, 14-19, 27-41, 50-72, 75-82, 117-30, 138-48

Week 3: Sexuality, Motherhood and Modernity in the Early 20th Century

January 18 The Birth Control Movement and the Practice of Abortion

Margaret Sanger, Woman and the New Race, New York: Brentano's, 1920, chaps. 1, 6 and 10

Leslie J. Reagan, “‘About to Meet Her Maker,’” Journal of American History 78 (1991): 1240-64 (e-reserves)

January 20 Consumer Culture and "Modern Motherhood"

Judith Walzer Leavitt, "Birthing and Anesthesia: The Debate over Twilight Sleep," Signs 6:1 (Autumn 1980): 147-64 (e-reserves)

Rima Apple, “Constructing Mothers: Scientific Motherhood in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” Social History of Medicine 8 (1995): 161-78 (e-reserves)

Week 4: Women and Politics: The Fight for Suffrage and Its Aftermath

January 25 Feminism and the Suffrage Movement

PAPER #1 DUE IN CLASS

Ellen Carol Dubois, “Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909,” Journal of American History 74 (1987): 34-58 (e-reserves)

January 27 Women's Politics in the 1920s

Nancy F. Cott, “Feminist Politics in the 1920s: The National Woman’s Party,” Journal of American History 71:1 (June 1984): 43-68 (e-reserves)

Eleanor Roosevelt, "Women Must Learn to Play the Game as the Men Do," Red Book Magazine 50 (April 1928): 78-79, 141-42

Kim Nielson, "How Did Women Antifeminists Shape and Limit the Social Reform Movements of the 1920s?" Document Project, Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000. You can access this through ROGER, but it is restricted to UCSD IP addresses. On Roger, select "title" and type in "Women and social movments in the United States." Then select "Document Projects" (left-hand side of screen) and scroll down until you find this particular project. Please read the introduction and Documents 6-10, 14 and 16.

Week 9: Progress and Reaction: Sexual Politics and the Workplace, 1970s-1990s