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Oct 23, 2026
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HIST 2242 - History of Women in Modern America
Credits: 3
Catalog Description
This course examines women’s experiences in America from 1900 to the present. We will consider the relationship between race, class, gender, and sexuality as we learn about women’s roles as reformers, consumers, activists, students, mothers, workers, immigrants, etc. Topics covered include African-American women and the “Jim Crow” south, women’s participation in reform movements, the achievement of the right to vote and the debate about the Equal Rights Amendment, women in the “Roaring Twenties” and Great Depression, the “Feminine Mystique” and Cold War America, women’s participation in major social movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the Black Power movement, and the Women’s Rights Movement. We will read extensively from original documents (“primary sources”) for class discussion and to develop critical-thinking skills about historical methods.
Minnesota Transfer Curriculum (MnTC) Goal Area(s) fulfilled: Goal 05C: History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Goal 07B: Human Diversity, Race, Power, and Justice in the United States
Cross-Listed Course(s): WGST 2242
Additional fee to student: No
Learner Outcomes
- Employ historical methods and analyze historical data to understand women’s experiences in the United States since 1900.
- Use historical theories to critique primary sources, and develop possible alternative theories or explanations for historical events.
- Demonstrate knowledge about major debates within the field of women’s history and explain how the historical study of gender has changed the historical profession.
- Understand how race, class, gender, and sexuality impact women’s group identities, and how those group identities changed over time.
- Explain how women have attempted to define, maintain, or gain power in changing historical circumstances.
- Explain women’s participation in social institutions over the time period covered in this course.
- Analyze changes in gender roles and explain how the “proper” role for women has changed.
- Analyze how African-American women’s activism impacted the United States in the Jim Crow South and during the Civil Rights Movement.
- Explain how and why women achieved the right to vote.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the debate about the Equal Rights Amendment and explain why women were divided by this issue.
- Demonstrate an understanding of women’s experiences during the 1950s and be able to analyze the “Feminine Mystique”.
- Understand women’s role as activists in major social movements such as the anti-Vietnam War movement and the Women’s Rights movement.
Major Areas of Course Content
- Introduction to gender as a category of historical analysis
- Methods used by historians to examine primary sources
- Influence of race, class and sexuality to both divide and unite women
- Women in Social and Reform Movements
- Achievement of Women’s Suffrage
- Debate Over the ERA
- The “Feminine Mystique” and Cold War America
- Changing gender roles and the “proper” roles for women
Credit for Prior Learning Options
No credit for prior learning option is available for this course.
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