Modern American Women

Back to Course Main Page

Reading and Required Texts:

Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss intelligently the day's assigned readings. The following books are required and can be purchased at the Holy Cross College Bookstore (Hogan):

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland, the Yellow Wall-Paper and Selected Writings
Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism
Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture
Gretchen Lemke Santangelo, Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community
Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media

In addition, I ordered seven copies each of the texts listed below for those of you who may be less familiar with the general outline of twentieth-century U.S. history/women's history and/or who may wish to supplement our discussions with more information. I will be happy to guide you through these texts as necessary. They too are available at the bookstore (Hogan):

Sara Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America
Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America

Required Reserve and Electronic Reading:
I have also placed several books, documents and articles on reserve in Dinand Library. I have delineated these reading assignments in the course calendar below with a bold-faced, capital R. Three different editions of Unequal Sisters are on reserve, so pay attention to which one is assigned when and save yourself some hassle.
In some instances, an article or document is available electronically through a website (the pertinent address is noted on the syllabus) or through the J-STOR electronic database available at Dinand Library. You can download full-text articles using J-STOR. This and the America: History and Life database will serve you well in your final paper research, so familiarize yourselves with them.