Course Offerings

Modern American Women

COURSE CALENDAR:

Week One: INTRODUCTIONS & IDEAS
Vicki Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois, "Introduction"; and Nancy Hewitt, "Beyond the
Search for Sisterhood" in Unequal Sisters (3d. ed.), pp. xi-19.
Gerda Lerner, "Placing Women in History" in Major Problems in American Women's
History R
Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category for Historical Analysis," The
American Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 5. (Dec., 1986), pp. 1053-1075.
J-STOR
Optional Historiographical Essay:
Linda Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of
Women's History," Journal of American History, Vol. 75, No. 1 (June 1988), pp. 9-39. J-STOR

Week Two: CONFRONTING VICTORIAN-ERA WOMEN
Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860," American Quarterly, Vol.
18, No. 2, Part 1. (Summer, 1966), pp. 151-174. J-STOR
Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (Introduction and
Chapters 1-3)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" in Gilman, Herland, the Yellow
Wall-Paper and Selected Writings
Katy Coyle and Nadiene Van Dyke, "Sex, Smashing and Storyville in Turn-of-the-
Century New Orleans" from John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and
Gay South (NYU Press, 1997). R

Week Three: TURN OF THE CENTURY PROGRESSIVES AND RADICALS
Kathryn Kish Sklar, "Hull House in the 1890's: A Community of Reformers," in
Unequal Sisters (1st ed.), 109-122. R
Judy Yung, "Unbound Feet: Chinese Women in the Public Sphere" in Unequal Sisters
(3d.ed), 257-267. R
Linda Gordon, "Black and White Visions of Welfare: Women's Welfare Activism,
1890-1945," The Journal of American History, Vol. 78, No. 2. (Sep., 1991), pp. 559-590. J-STOR
Jane Addams, "Utilization of Women in City Government," in Rossi, The Feminist
Papers, 599-612. R
Web Research: Browse the Margaret Sanger Papers (www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger);
Skim some issues of WOMAN REBEL (especially first edition, p. 8); read letters from Emma Goldman to Sanger; and Sanger's articles, "To Mothers…Our Duty" (www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/mothers.htm) and "The Morality of Birth Control" (www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/morality.htm).

Week Four: GILMAN'S UTOPIA
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Women and Economics" selection from Alice Rossi, The
Feminist Papers, 566-598. R
**DUE: Short reaction paper to Gilman's ideas (2-3 pages)

Week Five: SUFFRAGE & THE BIRTH OF MODERN FEMINISM
Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (read entire book)
Emma Goldman, "The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation," in Rossi, Feminist Papers,
506-516. R
Theda Bara and Mary Pickford Images
Web Research: Browse the subject headings and read and bring to class copies of at least two documents of personal interest from the American Memory/"Votes for Women" site at Library of Congress http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/rbnawsahtml/
Film (to be viewed independently outside of class before we meet): "One Woman One
Vote" (available at Dinand Library)
**DUE: Research paper proposals and annotated bibliographies

Week Six: MULTIPLE NOTIONS OF THE "NEW WOMAN" IN THE TWENTIES
Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (discussion continued if necessary)
Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (Chapters 4-6)
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the
Appalachian South," The Journal of American History, Vol. 73, No. 2. (Sep.,
1986), pp. 354-382. J-STOR Also available in Unequal Sisters (2nd. ed.), pp. 348-372. R
Kathleen Blee, "Women in the 1920s Ku Klux Klan," Feminist Studies 1991 17(1):57-
77. R
Hazel V. Carby "It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime: The Sexual Politics of Women's Blues,"
in Unequal Sisters (2nd. ed.), pp. 330-341. R
Listening Exercise: Bessie Smith's Blues, selections

Week Seven: DEPRESSION-ERA EXPRESSIONS
Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (Chapter 7)
Selections from Part II, "Mothers," in Margaret Hagood, Mothers of the South R
Annelise Orleck, "We Are that Mythical Thing Called the Public": Militant Housewives
during the Great Depression," in Unequal Sisters (3d.ed), 376-392. R
Vicki Ruiz"Promise Fulfilled: Mexican Cannery Workers in Southern California," in
Unequal Sisters (2nd.ed.), pp. 264-274. R
Film (viewed outside of class): Mae West and Cary Grant in "She Done Him Wrong"
**DUE: Critical reviews

Week Eight: THE DOMESTIC CHALLENGES OF WORLD WAR II
Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community (entire book)
Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (Chapter 8)
Valerie Matsumoto, "Japanese American Women During World War II," in Unequal
Sisters (2nd. ed.), pp. 436-449. R
Film (to be viewed outside of class): "Rosie the Riveter"

Week Nine: WHAT'S UP, JUNE CLEAVER: THE EMERGENCE OF SECOND WAVE FEMINISM
Susan J. Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
(Introduction, Chapters 1-4)
Lillian Faderman, "The Love that Dares Not Speak Its Name: McCarthyism and Its
Legacy" from Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, pp. 138-159. R
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, Chapters 4-6. R
Excerpt from Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia Farnham, Modern Woman: The Lost Sex (1947) R
Video (in-class): "I Love Lucy" clip & happy wife handout
**DUE: Research paper update

Week Ten: POLITICAL ACTIVISM IN THE 1960S & 1970S
Anne Standley, "The Role of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement" R
Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
(Chapters 5-8)
Alice Echols, Daring to be Bad, 23-49. R
NOW Statement of Purpose (1966) at
http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/early1.html
"SNCC Position Paper"; Hayden & King "Sex and Caste" in Appendix, in Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. R
"The Redstocking Manifesto," in Major Problems in American Women's
History. R
"The SCUM Manifesto; Kate Millett, "Sexual Politics"; and Shulamith Firestone, "The Dialectic of Sex." in "The Women's Rebellion" chapter in The Sixties Papers. R

Week Eleven: DIVIDED SISTERHOOD & BACKLASH
Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
(Chapters 9-11)
Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, "Antiabortion and Antifeminism," in Major Problems in
American Women's History, 502-515. R
Alma Garcia, "Development of a Chicana Feminist Discourse" in Unequal Sisters (2nd
ed.), pp. 531-544. R
Frances Beale "Double Jeopardy, to be Black and Female" (1970) in The Sixties Papers,
500-508. R
"A Black Feminist Statement," Combahee River Collective and selected poems from
Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings
of Radical Women of Color. R
Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Chapters 9 &
10. R

Week Twelve: THIRD WAVE: A POST-FEMINIST AMERICA?
Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (Chapter 12 and Epilogue)
Gina Bellafante, "Feminism: It's all about me!" TIME (June 29, 1998): 54-62. R
Carolyn Sorisio, "A Tale of Two Feminisms: Power and Victimization in Contemporary
Feminist Debate"; Melissa Klein, "Duality and Redefinition: Young Feminism and the Alternative Music Community"; and Jeff Niesel, "Hip-Hop Matters: Rewriting the Sexual Politics of Rap Music" in Leslie Heywood and Jennifer Drake, eds., Third Wave Agenda R

Week Thirteen: RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSIONS
Note for students presenting their work today:
By no later than the date and time indicated to you in class, you must:
- place a copy your final paper in Prof. Yuhl's mailbox in O'Kane
- place four copies of your paper in the provided box on the bench outside Prof. Yuhl's office so your peers can read your work before we meet to discuss it.

Week Fourteen: RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSIONS
Note for students presenting their work today:
By no later than the date and time indicated to you in class, you must:
- place a copy your final paper in Prof. Yuhl's mailbox in O'Kane
- place four copies of your paper in the provided box on the bench outside Prof. Yuhl's office so your peers can read your work before we meet to discuss it.