Women & Gender US Hist to 1865

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the history of women in North America from 1400 to 1865. Over the course of the semester, we will examine how women were affected by and also influenced historical change. We will consider whether key events and issues, including European colonization, the American Revolution, slavery, and the Civil War look differently when we integrate women into the historical narrative. We will study how women's interactions with work, religious practices, and family life were influenced by race, class and ethnicity. One of the guiding questions of the course will be: how has gender-understood as the meanings attached to being male and female-changed over time?