AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE 20th CENTURY
HIS BC 3567 

web site: http://www.columbia.edu/~rr91
 

Teaching Assistants 

Prof. Rosalind Rosenberg
420 Lehman Hall
rrosenberg@barnard.edu
Office Hours: Tues.  4-6PM

Head Writing Fellow:

 

This lecture course will survey the varied experiences of women in twentieth century America. Through a combination of lecture and discussion, as well as readings in primary and secondary sources, students will explore both the vast changes and the persistent problems that women have encountered in family life, sexuality, housework, education, the workforce, and politics. 

In addition, students will have the opportunity to develop their research and writing skills through a paper, which they will write in three stages over the course of the semester. As they write, students will learn how to analyze a document, how to assess contrasting historical interpretations, and how to take advantage of various research techniques.  To assist students with this process, each student will be assigned to a Writing Fellow who will read each student's papers in draft and meet with the student to suggest ways of improving them before final submission. Paper topics appear at the end of the syllabus.

Requirements for this course are:

1) one-page document analysis -- due in draft on September 22 and in final form on October 6 in class;

2) five-page paper  -- due in draft on October 20 and in final form on November 5 in class;

3) eight-page paper – due in draft on November 24 and in final form on December 8 in class.

4) meeting with a Writing Fellow following the submission of each paper in draft.

5) final exam.

Grades for the course will be computed on the following basis:
- papers: document analysis 10%, 5-page paper 20%, 8-page paper 30%;
- class participation: 10%
- final exam 30%.

Lectures, assigned readings, and discussion sections are listed below. All of the readings have been placed on reserve at the Barnard Library and most are available on-line through CourseWorks. All books are also available for purchase at Columbia Bookstore.  They can also be ordered over the internet.

        Susan Ware, ed., Modern American Women, 2nd ed. (McGraw Hill)
        Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars (Monthly Review)
        Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism (Yale)
        Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound (Basic)
        Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (Dell)
        Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution (Dial)


 Schedule of Lectures & Readings


1 – (9/8) – The “Family Claim”


2 – (9/10) - The "Working Girl"

  • Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars, 11-91.
  • Ware, “Women at Work,” in Modern American Women, ch. 3.


3 – (9/15) - The "New Woman"

  • Ewen, Immigrant Women, 93-163.
  • Ware, “Visions of the New Woman,” and “Expanding Horizons for Educated Women,” in Modern American Women, chs. 1-2.


4 – (9/17) – Discussion Sections

·       Glenda Gilmore, "Forging Interracial Links in the Jim Crow South," in Gender and Jim Crow, 177-202.

·       Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (1892) - (20 pages)


5 – (9/22) – Domesticating the State

·       Ewen, Immigrant Women, 165-269.

·       Kathryn Kish Sklar, "Florence Kelley and Women's Activism in the Progressive Era," in Linda Kerber and Jane De Hart, eds., Women’s America, 6th ed. (Oxford, 2004), 327-339.

·       Muller v. Oregon (1908)

First draft of document analysis due in class -
sign up for conference with a Writing Fellow


6 – (9/24) - The Birth of Feminism

·       Nancy Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism, Introduction and ch. 1.

·       Ware, ed. “Feminists, Anarchists, and Other Rebel Girls,” and “The Final Push for Suffrage,” in Modern American Women, chs. 4-5.


7 – (9/29) - Claiming the Rights of Men

  • Cott, Grounding of Modern Feminism, ch. 2, 5, 8, and conclusion.  


8 – (10/1) – Discussion Sections

  • Ware, ed., “New Dilemmas for Modern Women,” in Modern American Women, ch. 6.
  • Joan Jacob Brumberg, "Modern Dieting" in Fasting Girls: The Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease (Cambridge: Harvard, 1988), 231-274.


9 – (10/6) - The "Forgotten Women" of the Great Depression

  • Ware, ed., “Women Face the Depression,” Modern American Women, ch. 7.
  • Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South," in The Journal of American History, 73 (September 1986): 354-382.


Revised Document Analysis Due in Class



10    – (1 10 – (10/8) – Movie: "Rosie the Riveter"

11     

·       Ware, “Rosie the Riveter and Other Wartime Women,” in Modern American Women, ch. 8.

 

 

11 – (10/13) – Women at War

 

·       Leisa Meyer, Creating GI Jane (New York: Columbia, 1996), 1-32.


12 -  (10/15) – Discussion Sections

·       Ruth Milkman, "Redefining 'Women's Work': War Mobilization and the Sexual Division of Labor," in Gender at Work, 49-64.

  • Susan K. Cahn, "From the 'Muscle Moll' to the 'Butch' Ballplayer: Mannishness, Lesbianism, and Homophobia in U.S. Women's Sport," Feminist Studies, 19 (Summer 1993): 343-369.


13 – (10/20)  - The “Feminine Mystique”

·       Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Norton), ch. 1.

·       Elaine May, Homeward Bound, chs. 1-5.

Draft of 5-page paper due in class -
sign up for conference with Writing Fellow


14 – (10/22) - “Womanpower”

·       Elaine May, Homeward Bound, chs. 6-9.

·       Ware, “The 50s: The Way We Were?” in Modern American Women, ch. 9.

 

 

15 – (10/27)  - Rethinking Cold War America

 

  • Daniel Horowitz, "Rethinking Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique: Labor Union Radicalism and Feminism in Cold War America," American Quarterly, 48 (1996): 1-42.

 

 

16 -  (1 16 – (10/29) - Discussion Sections

 

  • Joanne Meyerowitz, "Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946-1958," in Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, ed. Meyerowitz (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), pp. 229-262.



(11/3) – Election Day Break

 

17    – (11/5) – Discovering Jane Crow        

 

·       Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, chs. 1-10.

 

Revised 5-page Paper Due in Class



 18 – (11/10) - An NAACP for Women

 

·       Moody, Coming of Age, chs. 11-20 22-30.

·       Civil Rights Act, Title VII (1964)

 

 

 19 – (11/12) – Discussion Sections

·       Moody, Coming of Age, chs. 22-30.

 

 20 - (11/17) - From Bermuda Shorts to Sexual Politics

·       Ware, ”Sexuality and the Body,” in Modern American Women, ch. 12  

·       Beth Bailey, Sex in the Heartland (Cambridge: Harvard, 1999), pp. 106-135.

·       Susan J. Douglas, Where the Girls Are (New York: New York Times, 1994) pp. 83-98.  


 21 – (11/19) -  Women’s Liberation

  • Susan Brownmiller, In Our Time, begin.
  • Ware, “The Revival of Feminism,” in Modern American Women, ch. 10. 


 22  -  (11/24) - Equality and Difference

  • Ware, “Women, Work and Social Change,” in Modern American Women, ch. 11.
  • Felicia Kornbluh, "A Human Right to Welfare?  Social Protest among Women Welfare Recipients after World War II," in Kerber and de Hart, eds., Women’s America, 6th ed., 552-560.

First draft of final paper due in class-
sign up for conference with Writing Fellow


(11/26) – Thanksgiving Break


 23 – (12/1) –  Backlash


 24 – (12/3) – Discussion

  • Ware, “Backlash and Progress,” in Modern American Women, ch. 13.

 

Revised Final Paper Due in Class


 25 – (12/8) – Critical Mass


 26 - (12/10) – REVIEW


 TBA - Final Exam


WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

The history of any group reflects an ongoing tension between the forces of change and those of continuity.  Though American women underwent extraordinary change in the twentieth century, they also struggled with some stubbornly persistent issues.  These issues include: sexuality; family life; racial, ethnic, religious, and class divisions; education; employment; reform; feminism; and politics.  The purpose of these assignments is to give you an opportunity to explore in some depth one of these issues as it manifested itself in women's lives in the twentieth century.


Document Analysis (one page – two at the most)

Select the issue listed above that most interests you.   Then, identify a moment that might serve as the basis for exploring some aspect of the issue you have chosen.  It can be any moment in the twentieth century that particularly intrigues you.  For instance, if you are interested in sexuality, you might focus on 1915 when Margaret Sanger first called for a birth control movement; if you are drawn to feminism, you might concentrate on 1923 when Alice Paul first proposed the Equal Rights Amendment; if you are interested in sports your might concentrate on 1972 when Title IX was enacted.  Your "moment" need not be a specific year; it might be a period of a few years, like the years of the Great Depression, World War II, the first years of the Cold War, or the late 1960s.

The next step is to search for a document that matches up with your moment. You might begin by searching CLIO for books on your subject.  Skim a couple of likely sources and examine their bibliographies for further leads to both primary and secondary sources. Venture forth on the Web (see "Ideas for Papers").  Consider taking advantage of the fact that you are at an institution that has rich archival sources.  Visit the Barnard Archives in the basement of Lehman Hall, Columbiana in Low Library, the Rare Book and Manuscript Room on the 6th floor of Butler Library, or the Oral History Office on the 8th floor of Butler Library.  Once you have found a good primary source (e.g. a newspaper/magazine article, letter, diary entry, piece of legislation, speech, or a fragment of any of these), write a one or two-page analysis of your document.  You should react to the document in some way.   State a thesis that sums up your reaction.  Then say something about what you find interesting about the document in the context of this course.  Don't limit yourself to a general reaction; analyze the words and phrases.  You might ask yourself what assumptions does the author make?  Does the document contain surprises?  What questions might a historian ask of the document?    For examples of  some successful document analyses, written by students in prior classes, click here.


Second Paper - 5-pages

Once you have chosen and analyzed your document, return to the library to do further research for your second paper, which will be 4-5 pages. Your bibliography for this paper should include at least 6 secondary sources, of which at least 2 must be scholarly articles. You will probably want to use only one or two sources (in addition to your document) for this paper; save the rest for your final paper. Be sure to consult the electronic databases on the library web site.

All works of history are part of a larger conversation among scholars. As you read you should try to situate yourself within the conversation that has been taking place about documents like the one you have chosen. What are the differing perspectives of the authors you have chosen? What assumptions do they share? Where do they disagree? Why? Where do you stand?

Before you write this 4-5 page paper, be able to answer the following questions: What point do I want to make about the materials I have found? (What is my thesis?) How do my document and secondary sources support that point? (Don't just summarize your evidence; show, step by step, how your evidence supports each aspect of the argument you are making.) What should I say about those secondary sources that do not take the position I have taken?

Begin with an introduction that excites your reader's interest and indicates where you are going.  State your thesis.  Organize the rest of the paper as you see fit, but keep the following in mind: (1) be sure to develop a clear, well supported argument; (2) analyze the document/s you have selected and the event or moment to which it relates; (3) discuss the event or moment in relation to the broader issue in American women's history you have selected. As you write, take into account the views of any historians who support your position, as well as those who take a different view. The final paper should be an essay that helps you to understand one of the persistent issues of modern American history through the exploration of a single aspect of it.  Be sure to footnote all sources that you use, and append a bibliography that includes all of the sources you have found that bear on your topic, including those that you have not had time to explore for this paper.  Suggested length of paper: 4-5 pages.


Final Paper - 8-pages

Option A -- REVISE AND EXPAND YOUR FIRST DRAFT. We believe that the best way to learn how to write is to rewrite. Therefore, we encourage all students to take advantage of the comments on their first drafts by revising and expanding their papers. Suggested length of revised paper: 8-10 pages.  For examples of model papers click here.

Option B -- BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY:  From the following list of biographies and autobiographies select one and write an 6-7 page essay (double-spaced, typed) in which you give a brief account of your subject's life and analyze that life in the context of twentieth century women's history.  CAUTION: Do not spend your 6-7 pages summarizing the book you have read.  Ask yourself, what point do I want to make about this woman's life?  To what extent does she reflect the broader trends discussed in this course?  To what extent does she depart from those trends?  Why? What do I want my argument to be?  If you are not sure whether you are making an argument in your paper, seek help from your discussion leader.  If you would like to choose another biography, you may do so, but you must clear your choice with Professor Rosenberg first.

Alix Kates Shulman, ed., Red Emma Speaks -- anarchist feminist (out of print; try the library)

Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot, Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer - doctor

Elizabeth Perry, Belle Moskowitz: Feminism, Politics, and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith -- reformer and politician

Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart -- pilot

Virginia Durr, Outside the Magic Circle – southern activist

Peter Kurth, American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson -- journalist

Mary Paik Lee, Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America ­- immigrant

Blanche Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884-1933, OR Two, 1933-38

Mary Crow Dog, Lakota Woman -- activist

Desley Deacon, Elsie Clews Parsons, Inventing Modern Life – anthropologist.

Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, The Power and Passion of  M. Carey Thomas - feminist & college president

Cari Beauchamp, Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood -- writer

Valerie Boyd, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston- writer

Daniel Horowitz, Betty Friedan : And the Making of the Feminine Mystique – feminist

Kirstin Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal – Frances Perkins, Sec’y of Labor

 

**************************

 

 

Back to Top