Description

This course surveys the history of women in the British North American colonies and United States with a special focus on social and economic change. It examines women as a distinct group but also attends to divisions among them, particularly those based on class, ethnicity/race, and regional diversity. Course themes include concepts of womanhood, the development and transgression of gender roles, unpaid work and wage labor, social reform and women's rights activism, as well as changing ideas and practices with respect to the female body.