History 322: Women and Power in Nineteenth-Century America
Professor Carol Lasser
Oberlin College
Fall 2002
Mondays 2:30-4:20
King 325
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 11 to noon and Thursday 1:30 to 3
Office: Rice 313
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Class Email List
This course focuses on how women different races, classes, and regions laid claim to participation, and
developed modes of exercising power in American public life in post-Civil War America. It examines in
historical context the conflicts and coalitions of women across lines of race, class, and national origin; the
relationship of different groups of women to the state in areas including citizenship, suffrage, sexuality and
reproduction, social welfare; and the problems and possibilities of the "maternalization of the state" under
the impact of women reformers.
During the first two thirds of the semester, the class meets together to discuss assigned readings, identifying
major historiographical trends, exploring various methods and sources, and analyzing important
developments. For the final third of the semester, students will pursue research projects. For more
information on those projects, see the Final Project Options at the end of this syllabus.
Books to purchase:
Kathryn Kish Sklar, Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Women's Political Culture, 18301900
Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-Of-The-Century New York
Margaret Finnegan, Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women
Optional Purchase:
Carol Mattingly, Well-Tempered Women: Ninteenth-Century Temperance Rhetoric
Other required readings are available on Electronic Reserve (ERes),
Schedule of Classes
Monday, September 9: Introductions: Time and Place, Concepts and Cultures
Readings:
Linda Kerber, "A Constitutional Right to Be Treated Like American Ladies: Women
and the Obligations of Citizenship," pp. 17-35 in Linda Kerber, Alice Kessler-Harris
and Kathryn Kish Sklar, eds., U.S. History as Women's History
Carol Mattingly, Chapter 2:"'Patriotic Reformers:' Called by the Spirit of the Lord to
Lead the Women of the World," and Chapter 3: "Well-Tempered Rhetoric: Public
Presentation and the WCTU," pp. 39-72 in Well-Tempered Women: NineteenthCentury Temperance Rhetoric
Monday, September 16: No Class for Jewish Holiday
I will schedule each of you for an appointment with me during this week to talk about what you hope to
achieve in the class. We can also begin to discuss your final projects. In addition, please note that the
reading assignment for September 23 is quite lengthy; begin it now!
Monday, September 23: Post Civil-War America from the Point of View of One White
Woman
Reading: Kathryn Kish Sklar, Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Women's
Political Culture, 1830-1900, entire
Monday, September 30: African American Women and the Transition from Slavery to Freedom
Readings:
Leslie A. Schwalm, "'Sweet Dreams of Freedom'": Freedwomen's Reconstruction of Life and Labor in
Lowcountry South Carolina,"Journal of Women's History 9 (Spring 1997): 9-38
Tera Hunter, "Domination and Resistance: The Politics of Wage Household Labor in New South Atlanta,"
pp. 343-357 in Darlene Clark Hine, Wilma King and Linda Reed, eds., "We Specialize in the Wholly
Impossible": A Reader in Black Women's History
Elsa Barkley Brown, "To Catch a Vision of Freedom: Reconstructing Southern Black Women's Political
History, 1865-1880," in Ellen DuBois and Vicki Ruiz, eds., Unequal Sisters, Third Edition, pp. 124-146
available temporarily at www.oberlin.edu/history/Brown.pdf
Website"How Did White Women Aid Former Slaves during and after the Civil War and What Obstacles
Did They Face?" http://womhist.Binghamton.edu/aid/abstract.htm please read the abstract, introduction, and
at least two documents.
October 7: Sex, Contraception and Women's Power
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Abortion Movement and the AMA, 1850-1880," pp. 217-244
in Disorderly Conduct (ERes)
Jesse Battan, "The 'Rights' of Husbands and the 'Duties' of Wives: Power and Desire in the
American Bedroom, 1850-1910," Journal of Family History 24 (1999): 165-186 (ERes
Andrea Tone, "Black Market Birth Control: Contraceptive Entrepreneurship and Criminality
in the Gilded Age," Journal of American History 87(2000): 435-459
http://www.historycooperative.com/journals/jah/87.2/tone.html)
(online
at
Your first paper is due at the end of this week,on
Friday, October 11. It will be 4-6 pages in length,
double spaced, in 12 point type. You will focus on
one aspect of the history and historiography of
women and power in the nineteenth century as we
have explored it to this point. A more specific
assignment will be distributed in advance. Click
here for details
October 14: Working Women at the Turn of the Century
Martha May, "Bread before Roses: American Workingmen, Labor Unions and
the Family Wage," pp 1-21 in Ruth Milkman, ed., Women, Work and
Protest
Lucie Cheng Hirata, "Chinese Immigrant Women in Nineteenth-Century
California, pp. 223-244in Carol Berkin and Mary Beth Norton, Women of
America (1 st edition)
Nancy Schrom Dye, "Creating a Feminist Alliance: Sisterhood and Class
Conflict in the New York Women's Trade Union League, 1903-1914," pp.
225-245 in Milton Cantor and Bruce Laurie, eds., Class, Sex and the Woman Worker
Ellen DuBois, "Working Women, Class Relations, and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the
New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1909," pp. 176-194 in Unequal Sisters (1 st edition)
Fall Break!
Think about the book you will choose for your monograph analysis
October 28: Gender, Class and Consumption
Jennifer Scanlon, "Introduction," pp. 1-12, in The Gender and Consumer
Culture Reader
Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements (entire)
Elaine Abelson, "Shoplifting Ladies," pp. 309-329 in Jennifer Scanlon, ed.,
The Gender and Consumer Culture Reader
Your choice of monograph is due today.
Click here for more information.
November 4: Making Suffrage "Modern"
Margaret Finnegan, Selling Suffrage: Consumer Culture and Votes for Women (entire)
November 11: What did Woman Suffrage Mean?
Kathryn Kish Sklar, "Why Were Most Politically Active Women Opposed to
the ERA in the 1920s?" pp. 25-35 in Joan Hoff-Wilson, ed., Rights of
Passage: The Past and Future of the ERA;
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, "Clubwomen and Electoral Politics in the
1920s," pp. 134-155 in Ann D. Gordon, ed., African American Women and
the Vote, 1837-1965
Your final project topic for your final project is due
today. Please submit a "mini-prospectus" that :
1. sketches out a problem for inquiry
2. suggests possible primary sources
Your "mini-prospectus" should be no longer than
two pages.
November 18: Presentation of Monograph Analysis
November 25: Class Work Session
December 2: Class Work Session
December 9: Preliminary Presentations
Monograph Analysis:
Your Choice of Monograph is Due October 28
The Monograph Analysis is Due November 18, in both written and oral form.
Each student will read a monograph from a list provided of works that related to questions about women
and power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Students will then write a 1000-1500 word
(normally 4-6 pages,double spaced in 12 point type) analysis of the work, and extract from it a 10
minute presentation for class. The analysis should
*identify the central point the author is trying to make
*place the author's focus and argument in the context of other works by historians
we *have read this semester --that is, place the work in historiographical context
and *identify its contribution to the historiography.
*briefly summarize the scope of the work--that is: what does the book cover
*briefly describe the kind of evidence the author uses
*and finally, evaluate whether the monograph is a "good book"--is it important to
the *historiography? is it well written? is it worth reading?
Final Project Assignment:
Your final project should launch you into original research in primary documents relevant to women and
power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Resources abound: newspapers, government
reports, autobiographies, popular magazines, manuscript records for both individuals and organizations. In
this latter category, the Oberlin College Library has rich holdings in its microfilm collections, and the
Oberlin College Archives includes an array of relevant sources. Your challenges will be:
framing an historical question or inquiry that draws from the historiography you have encountered in
your course reading
locating primary sources appropriate to the question
interpreting the sources
You have a choice of two formats in which to frame your project
1. You may write a research paper, 10-12 pages in length, drawing on at lease six (6) primary documents,
and at least two (2) secondary works not assigned for class.
2. You may do a "document based project" in which you frame a historical question and provide
transcription, head note, and annotations for at least four primary documents that address your question.
Students may choose to form small "teams" to undertake this project. Topics for this project should focus on
materials available in the Oberlin College Archive. A list of suggested sources will be distributed before Fall
Break.
In either case, your topics must be submitted for approval by November 11. Final projects are due on
December 17, the date for which the final exam would have been scheduled.
For some of the primary sources available in the Mudd Library collections, click here
For the Guide to Women's History Sources in the Oberlin College Archive, click here
For an example of a women's history website built around documents, see "How Did Oberlin College
Women Students Draw on their Experience to Participate in Social Movements?"