History 266 Syllabus

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course centers on themes related to power in the lives of United States women since 1874, and the changing ability of women to control their life circumstances. The course focuses on changes in women's personal/family lives, women's working lives, and women's political lives. It will compare different groups of women, such as African-American and white women, in various social movements and in relationship to various public policies. Chronologically, the course emphasizes two periods, 1870-1930 and 1960-1990.

COURSE GOALS - to help students understand continuity and change in:

women's ability to control the circumstances of their lives;

sexuality and reproductive rights;

family life;

the relations between women and men;

women's paid work;

women's legal status;

women's political activism, especially in social movements;

women as active agents of social change;

how differences among women are structured and contested;

women's ability to control the distribution of social resources;

the gendered construction of citizenship.

DISCUSSION SECTIONS:

Section 1	Friday, 12:00PM-1:00PM	SW 328	Snyder
Section 2	Friday, 12:00PM-1:00PM	SW 330	Wrisley
Section 3	Friday, 8:30AM-9:30AM	SW 311	Snyder
Section 4	Friday, 2:20PM-3:20PM	LNG335	Wrisley

COURSE LISTSERV:
Students will be listed on two course listservs -- the general listserv for all who are enrolled in the course, and the listserv for each discussion section. Students should check their e-mail regularly for listserv messages from the course instructors. Students are encouraged to use the listservs as an opportunity to discuss course materials with one another and with the course instructors.

REQUIRED READING:

Sklar and Dublin, eds., Women and Power in American History, Vol. II
Susan Ware, Modern American Women: A Documentary History
Andrea Tone, ed., Controlling Reproduction
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi

Copies of all required reading are on reserve, but students are encouraged to purchase copies to bring to discussion section.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Experience
(This textbook will provide an overview.)
James Hoopes, Oral History: An Introduction for Students
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

LECTURES -- Attendance at lectures is required. Please sign in with your TA before each lecture. If you need to miss a lecture, please inform your TA and request an excused absence. More than one unexcused absence will drop your grade by a third of a grade-for example from a B to a B-.

WEBSITE--Students should consult the course website before each lecture, print relevant materials for the lecture, and bring the materials to lecture.

DISCUSSION SECTION -- Attendance at discussion sections is required. Students should arrive at discussion section prepared to discuss the week's readings, lectures, and offer answers to the week's study questions.

MIDTERM DEBATE -- Instead of a midterm examination, students will participate in a midterm debate that recreates the persons and the perspectives of the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment in 1920-1926. The debate will take place instead of Week 7 Wednesday lecture, October 13, 12-1 PM and in section October 15.

FINAL EXAMINATION -- The final exam will be cumulative. It will stress essay questions, but will also include brief identifications.

ORAL HISTORY TERM PAPER -- An oral history term paper of 10-15 pages is due in discussion section no later than Week 14, Dec. 3. Progress reports on term papers are due on Weeks 11, 12, & 13. Because it is unfair to students who complete their work on time, no extensions will be granted on written work.

COURSE GRADES:

Course grades will be determined as follows:

attendance at lectures (see above)

participation in discussion section, and written reports weeks 3 & 4 -- 25%

midterm debate -- 25%

final term paper, including written progress reports on term papers -- 25%

final examination -- 25%

1) For students who scored 84 or less on the New York Regents Exam in U.S. history, the course presents an historical narrative of the United States and its institutions, that covers at least a century of American history and connects that period to periods before and after it. The course also includes several themes that have shaped the development of American society, such as the struggle for democracy, citizenship, racial and gender equality, religious freedom, civil rights, etc.; the conflicts that have erupted over these issues; and the consensus, if any, that has been reached on each of them. The course also situates the history of the U.S. within the context of world history or of two or more regions of the world, as a means of understanding America's evolving relationship with the rest of the world.

2) For students who scored 85 or above on the New York Regents Exam in U.S. history, the course also considers United States society from the perspective of three or more groups that constitute that society, including African Americans, Asian Americans, and European Americans, showing how these groups have affected and been affected by basic institutions of American society, such as commerce, family, legal and political structures, and religion.

HARPUR COLLEGE SOCIAL SCIENCE REQUIREMENT:
History 266 seeks to impart a knowledge of major concepts, models and issues of history as an academic discipline, including the ways that historians evaluate and interpret evidence about change over time.