American Women/American Womanhood, 1870-present

HIUS157, Winter 2018

Prof. Rebecca Jo Plant

Class time: T/TR 9:30-10:50 a.m.
Room: CSB 005

Office hours: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Thurdays, HSS 4062

Course description: This course examines the history of women in the United States from roughly 1870 to the present. We will explore the status and experiences of diverse groups of American women from a range of perspectives — social, cultural, political, economic and legal. A central concern will be the relationship between gender ideologies and divisions based on class and race within America society. Major areas of inquiry will include: strategies that women have employed to attain political influence and power; changing conceptions of women’s rights and duties as citizens; women’s roles as producers and consumers in an industrial and post-industrial economy; and attitudes and policies that have served to regulate female sexuality, reproduction and motherhood.

Ground rules: Ground rules: You are not permitted to use phones in class. I do allow the use of laptops, but I ask that you disable wifi while in class. People who choose to use laptops should sit on the right side of the room, and those who do not want to be distracted by laptops should sit on the left side. I understand that for some people laptops are preferable or necessary, but if that is not the case for you, I encourage you to take notes by hand. Studies have shown that, overall, even those students who use laptops only for note taking (rather than, say, surfing the web) perform worse when answering conceptual questions. This is because when you take notes on a laptop, you are more inclined to simply transcribe rather than processing information as you write. See “To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand.”  

Academic integrity: I take the issue of academic integrity very seriously and will report all suspected cases of cheating or plagiarism. Indeed, as a UCSD professor, I am required by the Office of the Academic Integrity Coordinator to file a report if I suspected such activity has occurred. Please do not make me take this step. (See the “Instructors’ Responsibility” and “Students’ Responsibility” sections of the University’s Academic Integrity Statement.) Plagiarism is not limited to the most flagrant examples of cutting and pasting material from the web. Any time you take a sentence, or even a phrase, from another person’s work without using quotation marks and providing proper attribution, you are plagiarizing. When you write a paper, the best way to avoid plagiarism is to do all the necessary reading, including online reading, before you begin to write. Once you start, you should not go online again until the paper is done. If you have any questions as to what is or is not plagiarism, please review the attached MLA statement. If you still have questions, please contact me.

Teaching + Learning Commons offers the following services to help you with your writing:

  • One-on-one writing tutoring by appointment, 6 days/week
  • Supportive, in-depth conversations about writing, the writing process, and writing skills
  • Help with every stage in the writing process
  • Walk-in tutoring (Mon-Thurs 5pm-7pm, and by availability)

Late paper policy: I will accept late papers without penalty only if an extension is requested by email at least seven days in advance of the due date. Otherwise, a letter grade will be deducted for each day beyond the due date.

Reading: Please have the day’s reading completed before you come to class. All course readings either have active links below or can be accessed through e-reserves. Unless you do all of your reading on-campus, you must establish a connection to the library’s proxy server — please do this immediately. The people at the library will help you if you encounter problems.

Course requirements:  

  • Short writing assignment (3-5 pages) (25%).
  • In-class midterm (25%). The midterm will consist of a series of mini essay questions. (Answers consist of a long paragraph or two.)
  • Final examination OR final paper (5-6 pages) (35%). 
  • In-class quizzes (15%; 5% each). This is essentially your attendance/participation grade. Over the course of the quarter, we will have a total of 4 quizzes on the weekly reading. At the end of the quarter, I will take your top 3 quizzes and disregard the lowest. As with my no-electronics policy, my use of quizzes has a two-fold purpose. First, I of course want to reward people for coming to class and doing the reading. But I also want to help you master the material and prepare for the final, and it turns out that being tested significantly enhances people’s ability to remember material that they study. (See “How Tests Make Us Smarter.”)

Grading: 97-100 = A+; 94-96 = A; 90-93 = A-; 87-89 = B+; 84-86 = B; 80-83 = B-; 77-79 = C+; 74-76 = C; 70-73 = C-; etc. Grading for this class will not be on a scale.

Academic integrity: I take the issue of academic integrity very seriously, and I will report suspected cases of cheating or plagiarism. Indeed, as a UCSD professor, if I suspect evidence of cheating or plagiarism in my class, I am required by the Office of the Academic Integrity Coordinator to file a report. (See the “Instructors’ Responsibility” and “Students’ Responsibility” sections of the University’s Academic Integrity Statement.) Please do not make me take this step.

The problem of plagiarism has become more pervasive since the rise of the internet. Obviously, purchasing a paper or taking a paper (or any part of paper) off of a website violates the principles of academic integrity. But plagiarism is not limited to these flagrant examples. Any time you take a sentence, or even a phrase, from another person’s work without using quotation marks and providing proper attribution, you are plagiarizing. When you write a paper, the best way to avoid plagiarism is to do all the necessary reading, including on-line reading, in advance. Once you begin to write, you should not go on-line again until the paper is done.

If you have any questions as to what is or is not plagiarism, please review the attached MLA statement. If you still have questions, please contact me.

Required Books

  • Jacqueline Jones Royster, ed., Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, Boston: Bedford Books, 1997
  • Leisa Meyer, Creating GI Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps during World War II, New York: Columbia Press, 1996
  • Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter, University of Washington, 2000 (orig. 1950)
  • Ji-Yeon Yuh, Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Korean Military Brides in America, New York: New York University Press, 2002

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week 1: Gender Ideology in the Gilded Age

Jan. 9: Introductions and Overview

Jan 11: The Debate over Women’s Access to Higher Education

Week 2: Women and Progressive Era Reform

Jan. 16: Women and Reform in Jim Crow America

  • Royster, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings, 47-68, 125- 41

Jan. 18: Maternalists and the “Protection” of Women and Children

In class: View segment of New York: A Documentary

Week 3: Fighting for Birth Control and the Vote 

Jan. 23: Birth Control and Abortion

Jan. 25: Feminism and the Suffrage Movement

Week 4: Motherhood and Modernity: 1920s and 1930s

Jan. 30: Politics and Culture in the 1920s

Feb. 2: Jade Snow Wong: Coming of age as a Chinese-American Woman

  • Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter

Short writing assignment due in class or in my mailbox by 4 p.m., 5th floor HSS

Week 5: The Depression, the New Deal, and Gender Roles

Feb. 6: Familial Life and State Policies in the 1930s

In class: View segment of Eleanor Roosevelt

Feb. 8: Midterm (Please be sure to bring a blue book.)

Week 6: World War II: A Watershed?

Feb. 13: Women’s Experiences and Gender Ideology during World War

  • Meyer, Creating GI Jane, 11-70, 100-21

Feb. 15: Women, the Left, and Anti-Communism in Cold War America

Week 7: Race and Family in the Midcentury U.S.

Feb. 20: Sexual Politics in Cold War America

  • Ji-Yeon Yuh, Beyond the Shadow of Camptown, 1-125

Feb. 22: Women in the Civil Rights Movement

Week 8: Feminist Movements in the 1960s and 1970s

Feb. 27: Reemergence of Feminism

Mar. 1: NO CLASS

Week 9: Progress and Reaction,  1970s-1990s

Mar. 6: The Rise of the New Right: The Backlash Against the ERA and Abortion Rights

Mar. 8: Women and a Changing Workplace

  • Dorothy Sue Cobble, “‘A Spontaneous Loss of Enthusiasm’: Workplace Feminism and the Transformation of Women’s Service Jobs in the 1970s,” International Labor and Working Class History 56 (1999): 23-44 (dropbox)
  • Nancy Maclean, “The Hidden History of Affirmative Action,” Working Women’s Struggles in the 1970s and the Gender of Class,” Feminist Studies 25:1 (Spring 1999): 43-78 (dropbox)

Week 10: Contemporary Issues, Unresolved Conflicts 

Mar 13: Sexual Harassment and the Backstory to #MeToo

  • View movie trailer for “Nine to Five” (1980) on YouTube
  • Excerpts from Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court Confirmation hearings, New York Times, October 12 (part. 1) and October 13 (part 2), 1991

Mar 15: Sexism and the 2016 Election

  • Hillary Clinton, What Happened (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2017), pp. TBA (dropbox)

Mar 20, 8:00 a.m.-11 a.m.:  FINAL (Remember to bring a blue book)