WMST 228 Women in European History: 1750 to the Present

This course examines the lives of European women in the modern world from the mid-eighteenth century through the twenty-first, with particular attention to women’s creative choices in navigating an oppressive gender system. Focus will be on the applicability of the standard periodization of European History to the lives of European women as they experienced the intersectionality of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and as they responded with risk-taking strategies for living lives of meaning. Scope will encompass the expanding economic, political, social, and legal opportunities available to women and their innovative strategies for taking advantage of these opportunities.

Credits

3

Prerequisite

Eligible to enroll in ENGL 121

Hours Weekly

3

Course Objectives

1. Identify the responses of European women to an oppressive gender system and organize understanding around the creative strategies they invented to navigate systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality, while pursuing meaningful lives for themselves, their families, and communities.
2. Consider the applicability of the standard periodization of European History to the lives of European women and explore alternative ways of understanding women’s history through variations in the sexual division of labor as well as new roles during the industrial and agricultural revolutions, wars, political revolutions, and the pursuit of equal rights, especially in campaigns for suffrage in Britain and France.
3. Apply ideas to an analysis of fictional portrayals, in print and film, of women and their families, comparing the portrayals with what we know about actual women and their families.

Course Objectives

1. Identify the responses of European women to an oppressive gender system and organize understanding around the creative strategies they invented to navigate systems of race, class, gender, and sexuality, while pursuing meaningful lives for themselves, their families, and communities.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Research assignment

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT1
2. Consider the applicability of the standard periodization of European History to the lives of European women and explore alternative ways of understanding women’s history through variations in the sexual division of labor as well as new roles during the industrial and agricultural revolutions, wars, political revolutions, and the pursuit of equal rights, especially in campaigns for suffrage in Britain and France.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Online quizzes, writing assignments

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT2
   • CT3
3. Apply ideas to an analysis of fictional portrayals, in print and film, of women and their families, comparing the portrayals with what we know about actual women and their families.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Online writing assignments

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT4