HIS 640 European Women’s History Seminar

Kenneth J. Orosz                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Office Hours: T 1:00-2:00

Fall 2017                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    W 10:00-12:00

Class Meetings: Classroom Bldg C214                                                                                                                                                                                                    Office: Classroom Bldg C213

            W 4:30-7:10                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Telephone: 878-3203

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               E-mail: oroszkj@buffalostate.edu

Course Description

            This seminar explores European women’s history from the Reformation through the 1990s. Topics include women’s political activism, feminism, women’s wartime experiences, domesticity, women and religion, the changing nature of women’s work, women and imperialism, family dynamics, sexuality, and reform campaigns.

Requirements:

            Academic misconduct (including cheating and plagiarism) will not be tolerated. Buffalo State College policies on academic misconduct, including the possible use of textual similarity detection software, are outlined on page 15 of the Graduate Catalog. Please note that the minimum penalty for cases of academic misconduct will be an F on the assignment.

            Please note that in order to pass this course you must make a good faith attempt to complete all components and requirements. LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT PRIOR ARRANGEMENT. Incompletes will be granted at the sole discretion of the instructor and require a written application outlining the rationale behind granting the incomplete, a list of outstanding assignments and a timetable for their completion. This application must be signed and, if granted, will constitute a formal contract for the completion of the course.

            All written assignments must conform to the broad stylistic guidelines outlined in the History Style Sheet. When it comes to citation and bibliography formats, Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Thesis and Dissertations 8^th ed. is the bible for historians. The rules spelled out in her manual are simple and easy to understand. Come see me if you have questions regarding citation format, presentation of quotations, or other writing concerns.

30%    Discussion: Regular attendance and active participation in weekly class discussions is required. As part of their discussion grade, all students will be required to prepare and lead at least one class discussion of the assigned readings. These readings, which are to be completed by the dates given, include required texts, journal articles, and selected book chapters. Most journal articles can be accessed through the library’s electronic databases; highlighted readings are available in Blackboard under the Content tab.

20%    Precis: Students will write eight 2-3 page précis analyzing weekly assigned texts. Each précis should identify the main thesis of the work(s) in question and outline the key arguments/pieces of evidence used in advancing that thesis. It may also include a description of the work’s ideological orientation and its contributions to the larger historiography of imperialism. A précis thus provides its reader with a brief summary of a larger work. While the choice of which works to write your précis on are up to you, each précis is due in class on the day that the work in question is scheduled for discussion. Hence, if you are writing on Eisenach, that précis would be due in class on September 13.

50%    Historiographical Essay: Students will write a 20 page historiographical essay on a topic you have chosen that is germane to the course. These essays should analyze the evolution of historical thinking on your chosen topic, identifying key historical camps and their arguments, shifts in interpretation, methodologies, and sources. Topics must be chosen by October 4 with a preliminary bibliography to follow by November 1. The essay itself is due in class on December 13.

Books: The following books are required reading and are available in the bookstore:

            Renate Bridenthal, When Biology Became Destiny                                                                                     ISBN    978-0-853-45643-8

            Emily Eisenach, Husbands, Wives and Concubines                                                                                                 978-1-931-11235-2          

            Sara Fishman, From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution                                                                                              978-0-190-24862-8

            Dominique Godineau, The Women of Paris and their French Revolution                                                               978-0-520-06719-6

            Susan Grayzel, Women’s Identities at War: Gender, Motherhood & Politics                                                         978-0-807-84810-4

            Erika Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of London’s West End                                       978-0-691-04476-7

            Mary Louise Roberts, Disruptive Acts: The New Woman in Fin-de-Siecle France                                                 978-0-226-72125-5

            Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has no Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science                                           978-0-674-57625-4

Supplemental Readings

            These are highlighted in blue on the syllabus and are available in the appropriate folders under the Content tab in Blackboard

Recommended Background Reading

Marilyn Boxer and Jean Quataert, eds. Connecting Speheres: European Women in a Globalizing World, 2^nd ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999)

Renate Bridenthal, Susan Stuard and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Becoming Visible: Women in European History, 3^rd ed (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998)

            Bonnie Smith, Women in European History since 1700 (NY: D. C Heath, 1988)

Katherine French and Allyson Poska, Women and Gender in the Western Past (Boston:Cengage 2006)

Class Schedule:

August 30                  Introduction

September 6              Women and the Reformation

The German People and the Reformation (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1988), pp. 148–72.

The Hutterite Experience of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Sixteenth Century Journal 23 (1992), 49–70.

Miriam Chrisman, “Family and Religion in Two Noble Families: French

Catholic and English Puritan,” Journal of Family History 8 (1983), 190–213.

Education Quarterly 19 (1979), 93–116.

Journal of the History of Ideas 56, no. 2 (1995), 177–93.

Susanna Burghartz, “The Equation of Women and Witches: A Case Study

of Witchcraft Trials in Lucerne and Lausanne in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries,” in Richard Evans (ed.),

The German Underworld: Deviants and Outcasts in German History (London, Routledge, 1988), 57–74.

September 13            Work, Family and Demography in Early-Modern Europe 

            Emlyn Eisenach, Husbands, Wives and Concubines: Marriage, Family

and Social Order in 16^th Century Verona

James Collins, “The Economic Role of Women in Seventeenth-Century

France,” French Historical Studies 16 (Fall 1989), 436–70

Christina Vanja, “Mining Women in Early Modern European Society,” in

Thomas Max Safley and Leonard N. Rosenband (eds.), The Workplace Before the Factory: Artisans and

Proletarians, 1500–1800 (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1993), 100-117.

Ulinka Rublack, “Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Female Body in Early

Modern Germany,” Past and Present 150 (February 1996), 84– 110.

September 20            Women in the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

Londa Schiebinger, The Mind Has No Sex? Women & the Origins of

Modern science

Katherine Clinton, “Femme et Philosophe: Enlightenment Origins of

Feminism,” Eighteenth Century Studies 8 (1975), 283–99.

Jolanta T. Pekacz, “The Salonnieres and the Philosophies in Old Regime

France: The Authority of Aesthetic Judgment,” Journal of the History of Ideas 60, no. 2 (April 1999), 277–97.

September 27            On the Barricades: Women in Revolutionary Europe

Godineau Dominique, The Women of Paris and their French Revolution

Robert Nemes, “Women in the 1848-1849 Hungarian Revolution,”

Journal of Women’s History 13:3 (Autumn 2001): 193-207

Judith DeGroat “The Public Nature of Women’s Work: Debates and

Definitions during the Revolution of 1848,”, French Historical Studies 20:1 (Winter 1997): 31-47

Carolyn Eichner, “‘Vive la Commune!’: Feminism, Socialism, and

Revolutionary Revival in the Aftermath of the 1871 Paris Commune,” Journal of Women’s History 15,

2 (Summer 2003): 68-98

October 4                   Work, Family and Sexuality in the 19^th C 

Barbara Franzoi, “Domestic Industry: Work Options and Women’s

Choices,” in John Fout (ed) German Women in the 19^th Century: A Social History

(New York: Holmes & Meier, 1984): 256-269.

Rachel Fuchs, Women in 19^th Century Europe (New York: Palgrave

MacMillan 2005), ch 2-3.

Theresa McBride, “A Woman’s World: Department Stores and the

Evolution of Women’s Employment 1870-1920, French Historical Studies 10, no 4 (Autumn 1978): 664-683.

Rachel Fuchs and Leslie Moch “ Pregnant, Single and Far from Home:

Migrant Women in 19^th Century Paris” American Historical Review 95, no. 4 (October 1990):1007-1031.

Stephen Nicholas and Deborah Oxley, “The Living Standards of Women

during the Industrial Revolution 1795-1820” Economic Historical Review 46, no. 4 (November 1993): 723-749

Joan Scott and Louise Tilly “Women’s Work and the Family in 19^th

Century Europe” Comparative Studies in Society and History 17, 1 (January 1975) 36-64

Ellen Jordan, “The Exclusion of Women from Industry in 19^th Century

Britain” Comparative Studies in Society and History 31, 2 (April 1989): 273-296

Maxine Berg, “What difference did Women’s Work Make to the

Industrial Revolution?” History Workshop 35, no. 1 (Spring 1993) 22-44

Historiography paper topics due

October 11                 Domesticity, Consumerism and Culture

Erika Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure: Women in the Making of

London’s West End

Joanna Bourke “Housewifery in Working Class England” Past & Present

143, no. 1, (May 1994): 167–197

Sibylle Meyer, “The Tiresome Work of Conspicuous Leisure: On the

Domestic Duties of the Wives of Civil Servants in the German Empire 1871-1918” In

Mailyn Boxer and Jean Quataert eds Connecting Spheres: European Women in a Globalizing World,

2^nd ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 185-193

October 18                 Morality and Reform Campaigns

Rebecca Rogers “Boarding Schools, Women Teachers and Domesticity:

Reforming Girls Secondary Education in the first half of the 19^th Century” French Historical Studies

19,1 (Spring 1995): 153-181

Iris Schröder and Anja Schüler “‘In Labor Alone is Happiness’ Women’s

Work, Social Work and Feminist Reform Endeavors in Wilhelmine Germany” Journal of Women’s History

16, 1 (Spring 2004): 127-147.

Marilyn Boxer, “Protective Legislation and Home Industry: the

Marginalization of Women Workers in late 19^th and early 20^th Century France”

Journal of Social History 20:1 ( Autumn 1986): 45-65.

Irene Stoehr, “Homework and Motherhood: Debates and Policies in the

Women’s Movement in Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic,” in Gisela Bock

Maternity and Gender Policies: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States 1880s-1950s

(New York: Routledge, 1991): 213-232

Judith R. Walkowitz, “Male Vice and Feminist Virtue: Feminism and the

Politics of Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century Britain” History Workshop, No. 13 (Spring, 1982): 79-93.

Patricia Hilden, “The Rhetoric and Iconography of Reform: Women Coal

Miners in Belgium, 1840-1914" Historical Journal 34, 2 (1991): 411-436.

Sudesh Vaid, “Ideologies on Women in Nineteenth Century Britain,

1850s-70s,” Economic and Political Weekly 20, no. 43 (Oct. 26, 1985), pp. WS63-WS67

October 25                 Gender, Race and Empire

Phillipa Levine, “Sexuality, Gender and Empire,” in Phillpia Levine (ed)

Gender and Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): 134-155.

Eliza Riedi, ”Options for an Imperialist Woman: The Case of Violet

Markham,1899-1914” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies,

Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 2000): 59-84.

Marie-Paule Ha, “Engendering French Colonial History: The Case of

Indochina,” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring 1999): 95-125.

Line Predelli “Sexual Control and the Remaking of Gender: 19^th Century

Protestant Women Export Domesticity to Madagascar,” Journal of Women’s History 12, no 2 (Summer 2000): 81-103.

Mary A. Procida, “Good Sports and Right Sorts: Guns, Gender, and

Imperialism in British India,” Journal of British Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4 (October 2001): 454-488.

Lora Wildenthal, "’She is the Victor": Bourgeois Women, Nationalist

Identities and the Ideal of the Independent Woman Farmer in German Southwest Africa,”

Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, No. 33, (September 1993): 68-88.

James Wolf, “A Woman Passing Through: Helen Caddick and the

Maturation of the Empire in British Central Africa,” Journal of Popular Culture 30, no. 3 (Winter1996): 35-55.

November 1               Women in the Belle Epoque

Mary Louise Roberts, Disruptive Acts: Woman in Fin-de-Siècle France

Marueen Wright, “The Women's Emancipation Union and Radical-

Feminist Politics in Britain, 1891-99" Gender & History 22, no. 2 (2010): 382-406.

Richard J Evans, “German Social Democracy and Women's Suffrage

1891-1918,” Journal of Contemporary History 15, no. 3 (July1980): 533-557.

Seth Koven and Sonya Michel, “Womanly Duties: Maternalist Politics

and the Origins of Welfare States in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, 1880-1920”

American Historical Review 95, no. 4 (October 1990): 1076-1108.

Preliminary Paper Bibliography Due

November 8               World Wars and Depression

Susan Grayzel, Women’s Identities at War

Paula Schwartz, “Redefining Resistance: Women’s Activism in Wartime

France” in Margaret Higonnet (ed) Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars

(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987): 141-153

Neal A. Ferguson, “Women's Work: Employment Opportunities and

Economic Roles, 1918-1939,” Albion: A Quarterly Journal

Concerned with British Studies, 7, no. 1 (Spring,1975): 55-68.

Ann Taylor Allen, “Women in the Second World War,” in Ann Taylor

Allen, Women in Twentieth Century Europe (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), 60-78

Jane Lewis, “In Search of Real Equality, Women Between the Wars,” in

Frank Gloversmith (ed) Class, Culture and Social Change: A New View of the 1930s

(Brighton England, Harvester Press, 1980), 208-239.

November 15             Women and Authoritarian Regimes 

            Bridenthal and Koonz, When Biology Became Destiny

Victoria de Grazia, “How Mussolini Ruled Italian Women” in Francoise

Thébaud (ed) A History of Women in the West, vol 5 (Cambridge: Belknap 1994) ch 4

Daniella Sarnoff, “Interwar Fascism and the Franchise: Women's Suffrage

and the Ligues,” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, Vol. 34, No. 2, (Summer 2008), pp. 112-133

November 22             No Class

Luisa Tasca and Stuart Hilwig “The Average Housewife in Post-WW II

Italy” Journal of Women’s History 16, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 92-115.

Ali Haggett. “'Desperate Housewives' and the Domestic Environment in

Post-War Britain - Individual Perspectives,” Oral History, 37, no. 1, (Spring 2009): 53-60.

Ute Gerhard, “‘Anything but a Suffragette! Women’s Politics in Germany

after 1945: A movement of Women” in Claire Cucken and Irene Banhauer Schoffman (ed)

When the War Was Over: Women, War and Peace in Europe 1940-1956 (Leicester: Leicester University Press 2000): 161-170.

Francesca de Haan, “Women as the Motor of Modern Life: Women’s

Work in Europe West and East since 1945" in Joanna Reuliska and Bonnie Smith (ed) Women and Gender in Post War Europe:

From Cold War to European Union (NY: Routledge 2012), 87-103.

Lisa Greenwald, Not "Undifferentiated Magma": Refashioning a Female

Identity in France, 1944-55,” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, 22, no. 2 (Spring 1996), 407-430.

Merith Niehuss, “French and German Family Policy 1945-60,”

Contemporary European History 4, no. 3, (November 1995): 293-313.

Ann Taylor Allen, “The Best of Both Worlds? Women in Western Europe

in the Post-war Era, 1945-1970,” in Ann Taylor Allen, Women in Twentieth Century Europe

(New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), 79-96.

December 6               Peace, Greens and the Sexual Revolution

Sarah Fishman, From Vichy to the Sexual Revolution

Dagmar Herzog, “Between Coitus and Commodification: Young West

German Women and the Impact of the Pill,” in Axel Schuldt and Detlef Siegfried, Between Marx and Coca Cola:

Youth Cultures in Changing European Societies 1960-1980 (NY: Berghahn Books 2006): 261-286.

Lawrence Wittner, “Gender Roles and Nuclear Disarmament Activism,

1945-1965” Gender and History 12:1 (April 2000): 197-222.

Sarah E. Summers, “‘Thinking Green!’ (And Feminist): Female Activism

and the Greens from Wyhl to Bonn,” German Politics and Society 33, no. 4 (Winter 2015) 40-52

December 13             Final Paper Due