March 2022: Women's History

Lesson Plans and Pedagogy  

1. A Practical Guide to Teaching Women’s History, by Allyson Scettino (OAH Webinars, 2021). 
   • In the last few decades, historians have made impressive strides in bringing the stories of women in American history to light. Despite these advances, it is oftentimes still a struggle for teachers to incorporate these vital stories in already overloaded syllabi. In this interactive webinar, Allyson Schettino, Associate Director of School Programs at the New-York Historical Society, will introduce their new online database, Women and the American Story, and give concrete examples of how educators can easily weave women's history into preexisting lesson plans.
2. How to Teach Controversial Constitutional Issues Facing Women, by Mary Frances Berry (Magazine of History, 1988). 
   • An article on how to teach about various Women’s Rights issues through constitutional history. 
3. From the Archives…. Women’s History, by OAH Staff (Process History, March 2017). 
   • A review of several articles in the Journal of American History’s history and the evolution of Women’s and Gender history. 
4. Transfeminist Perspectives on History and Pedagogy, by Finn Enke (Process History, Sept. 2016). 
   • An interview with Finn Enke about the field of Transgender studies and how a transfeminist approach can improve pedagogical practices. 
5. Teaching about Rosie the Riveter: The Role of Women during World War II, by Karen Anderson (Magazine of History, June 1998). 
   • This article focuses on centering social and feminist history rather than military history in classrooms that focus on World War II history. 
6. Women and the New Western History, by Susan Armitage (Magazine of History, Fall 1994). 
   • A case for incorporating Women’s History for a complete intersectional survey course. 
7. What’s Gender Got to Do with it? Women and Foreign Relations, History by Kristin Hoganson (Magazine of History, March 2005). 
   • A case for completely reevaluating the history of United States foreign relations to challenge patriarchal stereotypes in geopolitical discourses. 
8. Giving Women the Vote: Using Primary Source Documents to Teach About the Fight for Women’s Suffrage, by Margaret Jacobses (Magazine of History, June 1988). 
   • A lesson plan with primary source material for teaching about Women’s Suffrage organizing. 
9. Hollywood “Take” on Domestic Subversion: THe Role of Women in Cold War America, by Victoria Straughn (Magazine of History, Jan. 2003). 
   • A lesson plan for teaching World War II propaganda and the misogyny in overprotective actions of parents during the Cold War through the lens of the film Mildred Pierce. 
10. Those Waterless, Sandy Valleys: Petition of the Moqui Women, by Jean West and Wynell Burroughs Schamel (Magazine of History, Jan. 1991). 
    • A lesson plan for teaching about competing views about land ownership between Native and European Americans. 
11. American Women and Sport, by Jane Curry and Marjorie Bingham (Magazine of History, June 1992). 
    • A Lesson Plan for teaching the history of women in America’s sports history but also how this intersects with women’s activist history. 
12. ERIC Resources for Teaching about the Seventies and Women, by Cheryl B. COhen and David M. Seiter (Magazine of History, June 1988). 
    • An annotated bibliography of ERIC resources for 1970s Women’s history and how to use them in your lessons. 
13. American Women and the Great War, by Lynn Dumenil (Magazine of History, Oct. 2002). 
    • A lesson Plan for teaching World War I American Poster Images of women. 
14. African-American Women Workers’ Protest in the New South, by Tera W. Hunter (Magazine of History, June 1999). 
    • A lesson plan teaching about the history of African American domestic workers’ reality as opposed to how it is taught via popular culture. 
15. Women: From the American Revolution to the United States Constitution, by Sharlene N. Watkins (Magazine of History, Jan. 1988).
    • A lesson plan teaching colonial gender roles and the role of women in the Revolutionary War and Constitutional Convention. 
16. Servitude to Service: African-American Women as Wage Earners, by Rita G. Koman (Magazine of History, Jan. 1997). 
    • A lesson plan on how to teach about African American women in the antebellum south. 
17. The Struggles of Women Industrial Workers to Improve Work Conditions in the Progressive Era, by Nancy J. Barrett (Magazine of History, March 1999). 
    • Multiple lesson materials for teaching about INdustrial Womens’ Workers’ movements. 
18. Beyond Amelia Earhart: Teaching about the History of Women Aviators, by Amy Sue Bix (Magazine of History, July 2010) 
    • A case for expanding discussions of women in technology beyond the big names - especially women in aviation. 
19. From the Women’s West Teaching Guide: Women’s Lives in the Nineteenth Century American West, by Martha Boethel (Magazine of History, March 1988) 
    • Lesson Plans for adding women’s history to Westward Expansion lessons. 
20. The Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls: A Lesson Plan, by OAH Magazine of History (Magazine of History, June 1988). 
    • A lesson plan to familiarize students with primary historical documents such as the Declaration of Sentiments as well as key personalities and organizations to help them remember the significance of key moments in the history of women’s rights. 
21. National Organization for Women (NOW) Bill of Rights for 1969 (Magazine of History, 1985). 
    • A combined lesson plan with primary sources  for teaching the NOW Bill of Rights for 1969. 
22. Histories of Abortion in the United States, by OAH Blog (Process History, May 2019). 
    • A Compiled resource of books and reviews for those wanting to learn and teach about the history of abortion, reproductive rights, and Roe v. Wade. This review sweeps how the field developed over 4 decades. 
23. General Federation of Women’s Clubs: A Role playing exercise for studying the Progressive Era, by Sherman Barker (Magazine of History, Jan. 1986).
    • A lesson plan for teaching the women of the Progressive era in which students will role play an imaginary caucus of women. 
24. Analyzing Change and Continuity in Women’s Experience as Wage Earners, 1840-1940, by Vagel Keller (Magazine of History, Sept. 2000). 
    • A lesson plan looking at working conditions during the Industrialization of the UNited States that asks students to analyze change and continuity in women’s experiences. 
25. Who is the Nurse? Rethinking the History of Gender and Medicine, by Cynthia COnnolly and Naomi Rogers (Magazine of History, Sept. 2005). 
    • A lesson plan to deconstruct ideas of gender in health care settings through primary source materials. 
26. Business and Domesticity: Cooking, Lighting, and Heating the American Home, by Mark Rose (Magazine of History, Jan. 2010). 
    • A lesson plan to discuss the concept of gender as socially constructed through discussions of social relationships that construct gender such as business, social practices, urbanization, technology, and consumerism. 
27. Courtship in American History, by Valerie Matsumoto (Magazine of History, July 2004). 
    • A lesson plan for teaching the history of Courtship in the United States through primary sources, oral history interviews, secondary sources, and considering how gender roles can shift over time. 
      • For an annotated bibliography of further resources for the history of courtship, check out Beth Bailey’s resource list from July 2004 in the Magazine of History. 
28. No Secret Anymore: Lesbian Representations in Cold War America, by Marcia M. Gallo (Magazine of History, March 2006). 
    • To emphasize the importance of media in creating American attitudes about sexuality, this lesson plan utilizes visual examples of popular images of lesbians in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
29. Envisioning “The Black Woman” and Analyzing Voices of Protest, by Rhonda Y. Williams (Magazine of History, July 2008). 
    • A lesson plan to teach the varied roles of Black Feminists in the social movements of the 1960s. 

Key Figures 

1. Chautauqua, III (Louisa May Alcott), by Anne Howard and Ruth Rosen (Talking History, May 2001). 
   • For the conclusion of our Chautauqua series, a talk with writer Louisa May Alcott...as performed by Anne Howard. This program contains an op-ed by professor Ruth Rosen, author of The Women's Movement: An Unfinished Revolution, about Mother's Day and its roots in public activism.
2. Eleanor Roosevelt, by Talking History Staff (Talking History, Dec. 2002). 
   • In this week's show we will be looking at the most prominent of the nation's first ladies, Eleanor Roosevelt -- the eyes, ears, and legs of President Franklin Roosevelt, but who was an important figure in her own right.
3. Mother Jones, by Talking History Staff (Talking History, Sept. 2002). 
   • Talking History celebrates Labor Day by examining the life of one of American labor's most colorful and controversial figures--Mother Jones.
4. Carrie Nation, by Fran Grace (Talking History, April 2002). 
   • An interview with Biographer Fran Grace about the woman who became known as the hatchet wielding saloon buster. Fran is the author of Carrie A. Nation: Retelling the Life.
5. Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit, by David Margolick (Talking History, Feb. 2002). 
   1. A look at the song, Strange Fruit, made famous by singer Billie Holiday about lynching in the South. Margolick is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine and author of Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society and an Early Cry for Civil Rights.
6. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, by Bryan Le Beau and Camila Townsend (Talking History, March 2006). 
   • Pocahontas has inspired poets, filmmakers and historians, earning a place as an icon in American history. Bryan Le Beau's guest this week, Camilla Townsend, author of Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, sheds new light on the woman behind the myth. Townsend is a professor of history at Colgate University.
7. “Third Wave” Democratization, by Larry Diamond and Susan Ware (Talking History, March 2001). 
   • Including for the op-ed by Harvard University professor Susan Ware, giving us her list of the 20th century's most influential women. 
8. Beyond Harriet: African American Women’s Work in the Underground Railroad, by Jazma Sutton (Process History, Oct. 2019). 
   • Sutton argues for expanding the history and discussion of the Underground Railroad to appreciate the labor of all the Black Women involved. 
9. Politicizing and Practicing Motherhood: Why We Should Care What Phyllis Schafly Served her Kids for Breakfast, by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela (Process History, Oct. 2016).
   • A history of Phyllis Schafly and the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment. 
10. Thinking about Shirley Chrisholm during the Current Presidential Primaries, by Barbara Winslow (Process History, Feb. 2016). 
    • A historical take on the significance of Shirley Chrisholm’s presidential nomination and misogynistic sentiment in presidential primaries. 
11. “Instruments of Seduction”: A Tale of Two Women, by Sandra F. VanBurkleo (Magazine of History, Jan. 1995). 
    • A history of Ann Hibbens and Anne Hutchinson, New England women who both had legal contests with the church and government who lost and challenged notions of the roles of Church and Community. 
12. “The World Was on Fire”: Black Women Entertainers and Transnational Activism in the 1950s, by Ruth Feldstein (Magazine of History, Oct. 2012). 
    • An analysis of several Black Women entertainers and their significance to Civil Rights History. 
13. Transforming Sex: Christine Jorgensen in the Postwar U.S., by Joanne Meyerowitz (Magazine of History, March 2006). 
    • A history of when Christine Jorgensen entered the public eye as a transwoman from the military and the historical significance of that moment. 

Key Events 

1. A Social Movement for a Global Age: U.S. Feminism and the Beijing Women’s Conference of 1995, by Robyn C. Spencer, Lisa LEvenstein, and Loretta Ross (JAH Podcasts, Sept. 2018). 
   • Guest host Robyn C. Spencer speaks with author Lisa Levenstein and Beijing Women's Conference attendee Loretta Ross about Levenstein's article, which appears in the September 2018 issue of the Journal of American History. 
2. Women of the Holocaust, by Marion Kaplan and Elizabeth Chey (Talking History, Nov. 1998). 
   • Marion Kaplan discusses Women of the Holocaust and there is a commentary by Orange County Register reporter Elizabeth Chey on the women of the Cambodian holocaust.
3. Halloween Special: The Salem Witch Trials, by Elizabeth Reis (Talking History, Oct. 1998). 
   • A history of the Salem Witch Trials by Elizabeth Reis and a commentary by Mathew Dennis of the University of Oregon about the origins of Halloween.
     • For more on Witch Trials, check out “Grandier Witch Trial” by Roberty Rapley and Walter Stephens,” (Talking History, Oct. 1999) or “Salem Witch Trials” by Eileen Dougan and Mary Beth Noron (Talking History, Oct. 2002). 
4. The 150th Anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, by Ellen DuBois and Vivien Rose (Talking History, July 1998). 
   • Discussing the history of women’s rights in America as well as the Historical Park at Seneca Falls dedicated to the Women’s Rights Convention as a historical site. 
5. Veterans’ Day Special: How we Memorialize War, by G. Kurt and Piehler (Talking History, Nov. 1998). 
   • Including this for the commentary by historian, intelligence officer and army helicopter pilot, Connie Reeves, on women in combat.

Women in Families 

1. “What, Another Female Husband?”: The Prehistory of Same-Sex Marraige in America, by Ed Linenthal and Rachel Hope Cleves (JAH Podcasts, March 2015). 
   • Ed Linenthal, executive editor of Journal of American History, speaks with Rachel Hope Cleves, Associate Professor of History at the University of Victoria. In this episode they discuss her article, “What, Another Female Husband?”: The Prehistory of Same-Sex Marriage in America which appears in the March 2015 issue of the JAH.
2. Mother’s Day Special: Child Birth from a Woman’s Perspective, by Judith Leavitt and Erika Kuhlman (Talking History, April 1998). 
   • This program also features a commentary by Erika Kuhlman of Idaho State University on housewivery in America.
     • For special on the history of parenting, check out “Mother’s Day”, by Julia Grant (Talking History, May 2000). 
3. Debutantes and Delinquents, by Sherrie Innes Thomas Hine (Talking History, March 2000). 
   • A talk with English Professor Sherrie Innes, editor of Debutantes and Delinquents: 20th Century American Girls Cultures, on the socialization of young girls in American society. The program contains an op-ed by Thomas Hine on how the concept of the teenage years is a fairly recent one. Hine is the author of The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager.
4. Wives of Whalefishermen, by Lisa Norling (Talking History, May 2002). 
   1. An interview with Lisa Norling, author of Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and Whalefishery, 1720--1870, on the lives of seawives. Norling is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota.
5. The Entitlements of Freedom: A Mother’s Pursuit of Mastery in the Antebellum South, by Alisha J. Hines (Process History, Jan. 2019). 
   • A history of a Black mother using the state to secure protection for her daughter. 

 
Women in Leisure

1.  Beauty in America, by Lois Banner and Robert McElvaine (Talking History, Sept. 1998). 
   • Lois Banner breaks down the history of American Beauty trends and standards and Robert McElvaine discusses the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal. 
2. Women in Baseball, by Gai Berlage (Talking History, June 2000). 
   • You can also catch her op-ed on the same topic in World Series (Talking History, Oct. 1999). 
3. Sex in Advertising, by Charles Sable and James Farrell (Talking History, Oct. 2002). 
   • Women have long been the central image of advertising and commercials -- both because of their role as consumers and because sex sells. This week we speak with Charles Sable of the Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design about the history of women in advertising. And, speaking of consumers, Dr. America, James Farrell, returns this week -- this time commenting on the celebration of the Mall of America's tenth anniversary.
4. Sex in the Heartland, by Beth Bailey (Talking History, Sept. 2002). 
   1. This week we look at sex in the heartland -- in Kansas, to be more specific -- during the 1960s. It was the sexual revolution -- or was it? And was it all about sex -- or was it concerned with politics and culture? That is the subject of Talking History’s feature interview with Beth Bailey.
5. Cheerleading, by Mary Ellen Hanson (Talking History, Nov. 2001). 
   • A look at the distinctly American tradition of cheerleading and how it has evolved over the years with Mary Ellen Hanson, author of Go! Fight! Win! Cheerleading in American Culture. Hanson is a professor at the University of New Mexico.
6. Keeping a Record of Life: Women and Art During World War II, by Kimberly L. Phillips (Magazine of History, March 2005). 
   • A history of war time propaganda targeted at women and how it reified social differences. 

 
Women in Diverse Communities

1. Immigrant Women, by Donna Gabaccia (Talking History, March 1999). 
2. Transsexuality, by Talking History Staff (Talking History, Nov. 2002). 
   • Talking History takes a look at probably the most famous event in the history of transsexuality in the United States - the operation by which George Jorgensen became Christine Jorgensen and made national headlines. 
3. Federal Segregation and Gold Star Mothers, by Frances Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant (Process History, Oct. 2017) 
   • An interview with Frances Clarke and Rebecca Jo PLant about their article “The Crowning Insult: Federal Segregation and the Gold Star Mother and Widow Pilgrimages of the Early 1940s” which was published in Sept. 2015 in the JAH. This discusses African American responses to the segregation of Gold Star Mothers pilgrimages in the 1930s. 
4. An Angle of Vision: Black Women and the United States Constitution, 1787-1987, by Darlene Clark Hine (Magazine of History, 1988). 
   • An article on the importance of centering Black women in discussions of the United States Constitution. 
5. Black Women, Police Violence, and Gentrification, by Anne Gray Fischer (Process History, Sept. 2020). 
   1. Fischer looks at the history of Black Women’s activism fighting police violence in the wake of the murder of Breonna Taylor to argue it is not new. This is also a history of policing. 
6. “Have We a New Sex Problem Here?” Black Queer Women in the Early Great Migration, by Cookie Woolner (Process History, Oct. 2017). 
   • An analysis of Black Queer Women’s lives in Chicago in the early 20th century. 
7. “No Promised Land”: Oral Histories of African-American Women in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Beverly A. Bunch-Lyons (Magazine of History, March 1997). 
   • A migration history of differences and commonalities among stories of Black women as they migrated north during the World Wars. 
8. Immigrant Women in Tampa: The Italian Experience, 1890-1930, by Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta (Magazine of History, March 1990). 
   • A study of the Tampa immigrant community of Spanish, Cuban, and Italian immigrants and how the diversity shaped life in the city. 
9. Beyond Bound Feet: Relocating Asian American Women, by Sucheta Mazumdar (Magazine of History, June 1996). 
   • A history of 19th and early 20th century Asian migration to the United States centered around the experience of Asian American women. 
10. African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia, by Lisa Levenstein (Magazine of HIstory, Jan. 2012) 
    • A neighborhood case study of Black Life and Civil Rights in the Urban North. 

 Women in the Workforce 

1. “Mill Girls” and Labor Movements: Integrating Women’s History into Early Industrialization Studies, by Sheila Kirschbaum (Magazine of History, March 2005) 
   • Kirschbaum discusses how to center women in discussions of Labor Movements in surveys and Industrialization focused U.S. History courses. 
2. "Why So Many? Filipino Nurses & the COVID Frontlines", by Catherine Ceniza Choy, (Intervals, Aug. 2021). 
   1. Catherine Ceniza Choy is professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of the book, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (2003), which explored how and why the Philippines became the leading exporter of professional nurses to the United States.
3. What Does an Engineer Look Like? Women Engineers and the Movement for Social Change, by Laura Micheletti Puaca (The American Historian, February 2016) 
   • This article examines the history of women in the field of engineering and how they were pioneers for social change
4. Needles and Hoops: Sports Programs in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, the Socialist Party, and their Communist Rivals, by James W.J. Robinson (Process History, Feb. 2018). 
   • Robinson discusses various women’s unions and their efforts in the twentieth-century.
5. Evanston Women in the Progressive Era: Women Performed Social Work Representative of National Concerns, by Darlene Emmert Fisher (Magazine of History, 1986). 
   • This brief article is intended as the kind of material that a student doing research on the Progressive Era might find at a local historical society or in the files of a hometown or city newspaper. 
6. As Patients and Healers: The History of Women in Medicine, by Charlotte G. Borst and Kathleen W. Jones (Magazine of History, Sept. 2005). 
   • An analysis of the various roles women have played in medicine including midwives, wives, mothers, doctors, nurses, teachers, experts, and activists. 
7. From Rosie the Riveter to the Global Assembly Line: American Women on the World Stage, by Leila J. Rupp (Magazine of History, July 2004). 
   1. An analysis of how women entering the workforce during the Second World War thrust America onto the world stage in more than one way.

Women’s Activism

1. Trafficking in Women, by Martina Vandenberg (Talking History, June 2002). 
   1. Martina Vandenberg, a researcher for Human Rights Watch's Women Rights Division talks about the long history of trafficking in women and how widespread it is around the world.
2. Abortion and Public Health in Pre-Roe California, by Alicia Gutierrez-Romine (Intervals, 2020). 
   • An analysis of California’s prohibitions on abortions before Roe v. Wade and its effects on Public Health. 
3. On Heartbeats, Abolitionists, and Abortion Bans, by Jennifer Holland (Process History, May 2019). 
   • A history of abortion activism before and after Roe v. Wade concludes: “The bills in Georgia, Alabama, and Missouri are not evidence, then, that the modern movement has become more extreme. Rather, they are a reminder that the anti-abortion movement has always been extreme.” 
4. Votes for Colonized Women, by Laura Prieto (Process History, May 2020). 
   • An analysis of the 19th Amendment’s impact for women in the Caribbean and Pacific Territories of the UNited States. This transnational research on Women’s suffrage contextualizes U.S. history into the broader history of its empire. 
5. The Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, by Steven Mintz (Magazine of History, 2007). 
   • An article of the various campaigns and state referenda that went into the Nineteenth Amendment’s passage. 
6. The Supreme Court’s Sexual Counter-Revolution, by Marc Stein (Magazine of History, 2006). 
   • An analysis of the various Supreme Court Cases after World War II that redefined how the Federal Government approached the law and sex. 
7. Women Unite! Lessons from 1977 for 2017, by Marjorie Spruill (Process History, Jan. 2017). 
   • 40 years of Women’s Rights movements giving context to the present moment. 
8. Church Ladies and Grassroots Political Religion, by Gale Kenny (Process History, April 2019). 
   • A historical take at the intersection of religious practice and political activism. 
9. #MeToo, Networks of Complicity, and the 1920s Klan, by Mara Keire (Process History, Jan. 2019). 
   • A reconsideration of the demise of the 1920s Klan through the lens of its history with sexual violence. 
10. Beyond Miss America 1968: A Feminist History, by Anne M. Valk (Process History, Dec. 2018). 
    • A history of the various Miss America protests. 
11. Abortion in the American Imagination, by OAH Staff (Process History, Sept. 2015). 
    • An interview with Karen Weingarten about her work overlapping feminist movements for reproductive rights and Disabled activism. 
12. Women, Domesticity, and Postwar Conservatism, by Michelle Nickerson (Magazine of History, Jan. 2003). 
    • A case study of the conservative movement in Los Angeles and its subservs suggests that women were important actors in the ascendancy of Conservativism and its effects on postwar gender norms. 

Era Histories including Women 

1. Women in the Early Republic, by Patricia Cline Cohen (Magazine of History, Jan. 2000). 
2.  American Women in a World at War, by Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith (Magazine of History, March 2002). 
3. Black Women and Black Power, by Rhonda Y. Williams (Magazine of History, July 2008). 
4. Women Numerous and Armed: The Confederate Food Riots in Historical Perspective, by Stephanie McCurry (Magazine of History, April 2013). 
5. Gender History and the Origins of the Civil War, by Elizabeth R. Varon (Magazine of History, April 2011). 
6. American Women’s History During the 1970’s, by Hugh Davis Graham (Magazine of History, June 1988).