HIST231

Women and Gender in American History examines U.S. history from the time the settlers arrived in North America through the present day. We focus on U.S. women’s history—with attention to race, class, region, ethnicity, and age—while simultaneously tracing how the changing definition of gender has impacted general historical trends. The course strives to present women’s and gender history as both an integral part of United States history and as a unique subject of historical investigation. We touch on a variety of topics in U.S. history, such as movements for abolition and suffrage, working-class mobilizations, efforts to regulate sexuality, campaigns for civil rights, feminist and anti-feminist activity,
and shifts in electoral politics. You also will be introduced to the methodology of women’s history and the often hidden and forgotten gender dimensions of the American past. The course, for example, engages with a variety of concepts currently at the center of related scholarship, including: “separatism as
strategy,” female moral authority, cross-class alliances, maternalism and the welfare state, and the “politics of respectability.” The course will help you to develop a framework for thinking like a historian. You will learn to analyze sources more effectively, form well-supported arguments, and think historically
about yourselves and the world.