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Home , Anne Koedt, Antifeminism, Gerritsen Collection, Lillian Wald, Meridel Le Sueur, Paula Gunn Allen

AMS 370 Women Radicals and Reformers Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00-12:15

Professor: Julia Mickenberg Email: [email protected] Office: 456 or 420 Burdine Office phone: 232-2650 Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-2:00

Course Description Concentrating on the twentieth century but beginning with eighteenth and nineteenth- century precedents, this course will look at traditions of women’s radical activism and female traditions of reform, using decisions and actions on the part of historical actors from the past as a lens for thinking about how to make ethical choices in the present and future. Our course will touch upon ideas about women’s citizenship from the revolutionary era to the current day, including the struggles for suffrage and equal rights; women’s role in the abolitionist, socialist, anarchist and communist movements; female activism against lynching; the settlement house movement; agitation; labor and welfare rights activism; the peace movement; women’s role in ethnic nationalist movements; and women’s liberation efforts in the 1970s and beyond. Throughout, we’ll attend to the ways in which backlash and the threat of backlash shaped and limited radical and reform movements. We’ll also examine aesthetic and cultural radicalism, from avant-garde writing to women advocating free speech and free love. We’ll consider the ways in which various movements took on particularly “feminine” dimensions; the dynamics between individual leadership and communal organization; the impact of race, gender, ethnicity, class, region, and sexuality on women’s individual and collective sensibilities; the interrelations between women and men in various social and cultural movements; and the variety of forms in which women’s and ’ reformist or radical sentiments have been expressed.

Our course reading load is significant but designed to give students a good sense of the range of American women’s radical and reform activism (and the ethical and moral issues these encompass), so that students can see both continuity and change over time.

Assignments are designed to give students space to grapple with issues raised in the readings and in class discussions (especially as these relate to ethical and moral concerns), to offer students the opportunity for independent research on topics of interest to them related to the course, and to build writing and research skills. Students will actively contribute to course content through research and presentations to the class, through sharing their writing, and through informed participation in class discussions.

Course Readings: (available from University Co-op and on Canvas) Sheila Rowbotham, Dreamers of a New Day , and Other Essays Tillie Olsen, Yonnondio Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzuldua, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color Jessa Crispin, Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto

Unless otherwise noted, additional readings, if not linked on the syllabus (see version on Canvas) are available on Canvas under “documents”

Films: Paris Was a She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry

Digital collections (for research projects): : Women’s online http://gerritsen.chadwyck.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/home.do

Women and social movements http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/was2/was2.index.map.aspx

Women’s Liberation Movement print culture (Duke): http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/wlmpc/Series/General%20and%20Theoretical

Independent Voices http://voices.revealdigital.com/cgi-bin/independentvoices?a=p&p=home&e=------en-20- -1--txt-txIN------1

Resources on Ethics Ethics Unwrapped (UT site) http://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/

WGS Librarian Gina Bastone is available as a resource for individual or group consultations. Email: [email protected]

Class goals:

Content goals: •By the end of the course, students should have a basic grounding in the tradition of women’s progressive and radical activism in the , a sense of the ways in which these traditions have foreign roots and internationalist dimensions, and a sense of how, if at all, these traditions are gendered female.

•By the end of the course, students should be able to articulate ways in which women’s concerns have tended to vary according to broader historical circumstances as well as race, religion, ethnicity, class, age, and region.

•By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss patterns of reaction against progressive and radical women’s activism.

• Students should have some sense of links (and distinctions) between aesthetic and political radicalism.

•Students should be able to draw connections between ways in which historical actors of the past grappled with ethical dilemmas and how these might be related to the ethical challenges of today.

•Students should understand the difference between radicalism and reform.

•Students should have a very basic understanding of terminology and some key issues in the field of Ethics.

Skills goals: •Students should hone their ability to conduct primary research and analyze and evaluate sources.

•Students should be able to draw connections between different sources, and different kinds of sources.

•Students should improve their ability to write in a clear and organized fashion, and marshal evidence to support an argument

•Students should hone their presentation skills.

•Students should build their ethical reasoning skills.

Flags:

This course carries the Ethics and Leadership flag. Ethics and Leadership courses are designed to equip you with skills that are necessary for making ethical decisions in your adult and professional life. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments involving ethical issues and the process of applying ethical reasoning to real-life situations.

This course carries the Independent Inquiry flag. Independent Inquiry courses are designed to engage you in the process of inquiry over the course of a semester, providing you with the opportunity for independent investigation of a question, problem, or project related to your major. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from the independent investigation and presentation of your own work.

This course carries the Writing Flag. Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from your instructor to help you improve your writing. You will also have the opportunity to revise one or more assignments, and you may be asked to read and discuss your peers’ work. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work. Writing Flag classes meet the Core Communications objectives of Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility, established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Course requirements and procedures:

1.Informed participation in class discussions. You should come to class having done the reading assigned for that day; unless otherwise indicated, bring a copy of the assigned reading to class (readings on Canvas or posted on line can either be printed out or read from an e-reader that allows for annotation—I recommend the program i-annotate).

Attendance is mandatory and your participation is vital to the success of the course. Missing more than two classes is likely to affect your grade. Missing more than six classes is grounds for failure.

•In-class writing, at instructor’s discretion, will contribute to your class participation grade.

2. Weekly Canvas postings based on the readings.

Each week you’ll be required to react to the readings on Canvas, discussing the ways in which the readings raise issues related to ethics, leadership, or morality. Although you should focus on the readings in the historical context they were written (or that they discuss), you are welcome to extrapolate to the present in your discussion of ethical issues raised by the readings.

These responses need not be long (150-300 words) and the writing can be informal, but you should use proper grammar, spelling, and syntax, and whenever possible, use concrete examples from the readings. End by raising questions for discussion. You’re also encouraged to draw links to other weeks’ readings and, especially, to recurring themes in the course.

Posts will be evaluated on a check, check plus, check minus scale, based on level of engagement with the material, the originality of your points, and your efficacy at highlighting ethical dimensions of the material. DO NOT simply summarize the readings—the point is to critically assess their significance and the issues they raise. Late posts will not be allowed, but you may miss one week without penalty; those who post every week, on time, will receive extra credit.

Unless otherwise noted, Canvas posts are due by 8:00 am on Thursdays.

You should also read your peers’ responses, and comment on at least one of them each week; comment need not be more than a line or two, but you might also use another person’s post as a jumping off point for your own, in which case your comment might be something to the effect of “this post provoked my own response—see below.”

3. Formal Paper 1: close reading of an assigned primary text, situating it in a social and historical context based on assigned readings and considering the larger context of women’s radicalism and reform (based on course material up to this point). 4-6 pages. Due Sunday, October 8, 5:00 pm.

4. Team Presentation: On the first or second day of class you will sign up for presentations to the class on topics of various weeks’ discussions. Done in teams of two (possibly three) people, presentations should be based on original research, but should also draw connections to the common class readings. You are responsible for evenly dividing the workload of researching, organizing, and preparing the presentation. You are encouraged to bring in audio/visual material to illustrate your discussion, and the presentation should be clear, well-organized and informative. Presentations should end with questions for class discussion.

Presentations should last 15-20 minutes (no more than 20), and should be geared toward providing background that will inspire a richer discussion of the readings.

Each presenter should provide a bibliography/overview of the material they researched, and as a team you should prepare for the class a 1-page summary/handout, which includes 2-3 questions for discussion, linking your presentation to the assigned readings for that week.

*Unless otherwise specified, be prepared to give your presentation on the Tuesday of your assigned week. **Post the subject of your presentation on Canvas (on “presentations” forum) at least one week in advance. You are encouraged to come to my office hours to discuss possible topics and sources.

5. Final projects (7-10 pages per person) will focus on a historical figure or set of figures’ ideas and actions, a historical phenomenon, or of a set of events. They should contain original research, reference to relevant scholarship, and a meditation upon the relevance of your subject for thinking through moral, ethical, or leadership issues in the present. Because this is a term paper (in lieu of a final exam) it should also reflect upon your subject’s relationship to larger course timelines.

The project may grow out of your presentation, first paper, or one of your responses, or may treat an entirely new topic. Using both primary and secondary sources, your essay should be geared around mining history for thinking through what could arguably called timeless moral or ethical dilemmas. Your project should include a general overview of themes and material we’ve discussed throughout the class, and your particular contribution should use at least three scholarly (i.e. peer reviewed sources), at least one primary source (more if they’re short sources), and should refer to at least three readings from the course. At least two of your scholarly sources should be from outside the course. The project can be done individually or collaboratively (if the latter, the project length should be commensurate according to the number of people collaborating, with clearly designated roles). It can take the form of a traditional research paper or website/Scalar book (if you are interested in doing the latter but need training in how to do this, please see me and I’ll put you in touch with folks from the UT Libraries and/or the Faculty Innovation Center who can help you). In all cases, work should be well organized and clearly written using supported documentation in a standardized format.

Paper proposal and annotated bibliography due Sunday, November 12 at noon on Canvas

Friday, November 17, 5:00 pm 1 page of writing due

Wednesday November 29th, Rough drafts due

December 5th and 7th: Presentations

December 8: Final draft of paper due

Grading:

1. Class participation (includes informed participation in class discussions, attendance, in-class writing or other homework as assigned; peer reviews: 10% 2. Weekly Canvas postings (averaged): 25% 3. Paper 1: 15 % 4. Team presentation: 15% Final Paper: 35% (grading rubric will include points for revision)

Policy on Electronics: You may not use laptops in class unless you have been specifically asked to bring one in for a particular class period or you have obtained special permission from the instructor. You may use e-readers to read assigned readings, but if caught using e-reader (or phone) for purposes other than accessing assigned reading your device will be confiscated for the day and you will lose reading privileges; subsequently you must print all readings and bring them to class.

Additional Resources:

Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities (512-471-6259, [email protected], http://ddce.utexas.edu/disability/, or videophone 512-471-6644). Please provide documentation of your needs during the first week of class, if possible, so that I can make the necessary accommodations promptly.

Student Support Services: There are numerous free and/or low-cost support services available to students at UT. They include (but are not limited to) the following: Undergraduate Writing Center (512-471-6222, http://uwc.utexas.edu) • The Undergraduate Writing Center at http://uwc.utexas.edu/ helps students with every phase of writing assignments for their courses. • The Sanger Learning Center at http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/slc/ provides study skills, time-management and note-taking courses. • University Health Services at http://healthyhorns.utexas.edu/ provides medical and health promotion services for currently enrolled students and some non- students who are officially enrolled in certain University programs. • The Counseling and Mental Health Center at http://cmhc.utexas.edu/ helps students with their personal concerns so that they can meet the daily challenges of student life.

Course Schedule (subject to adjustment; see Canvas for most up-to-date schedule)

Week 1 Introductions, , Women and the Early Republic

Thursday, August 31: Introduction and Overview

Week Two: Feminist Ethics and the Enlightenment Roots of U.S. Women’s Radicalism

Tuesday, Sept 5 Reading due:

1. Allison JAGGER, FEMINIST ETHICS, from Becker Encyclopedia of Ethics

2. Feminist Ethics (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-ethics/#pagetopright) [jigsaw—teams of students will each read different sections and report to the class]

Thursday, Sept 7: Revolutions and Women’s Rights Reading due:

1. , A Vindication of the Rights of Women (excerpt)

2. Linda Kerber, “The Republican and the Woman Citizen: Contradictions and Choices in Revolutionary America”

3. Documents: Supporting the Revolution

4. Document: The Law of Slavery

Week 3: From Abolitionism to First-Wave

Tuesday Sept 12 Slavery, Abolition, and Women’s Rights Reading due:

1. •Documents: Claiming Rights I: Grimké sisters

2. •Selections from Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent), Incidents in the Life of a Slave : Read Preface by the author, Introduction by the Editor, “The Trials of Girlhood,” “The Jealous Mistress,” “The Lover,” “What Slaves are Taught to Think of the North,” “A Perilous Passage in the Slave Girl’s Life,” “The New Tie to Life.” https://archive.org/details/incidentsinlifeo00jacoiala

3. Documents: Claiming rights II, Declaration of Sentiments, Married Women’s Property Acts; ’s Defense of the Rights of Women

Thursday September 14: Reconstruction, Seneca Falls and the First Women’s Movement Reading Due:

1. Tera Hunter, “Reconstruction and the Meaning of Freedom”

2. Documents: After the Civil War: Reconsidering the Law

3. Document: The Women’s Centennial Agenda

PRESENTATION (Thursday): Seneca falls and first-wave feminism (, Susan B. Anthony, , ); , Temperance movement

Week 4 New Women and Early Twentieth Century Visions of Emancipation

Tuesday Sept 19

Reading due: 1. Dreamers of a New Day, introduction and chapter 1

2. Choose two of the following (although I’d recommend you read all three because they’re all great)

a. Emma Goldman, “The Tragedy of Women’s Emancipation” (from Anarchism and Other Essays)

b. Ida B. Wells, excerpt from Southern Horrors

c. Kate Chopin, The Awakening https://archive.org/details/awakeningchop, chapters I-VI

PRESENTATIONS: Kate Chopin, /; Emma Goldman; Jessie Fauset; Mary Church Terrell; Anna Julia Cooper, Heterodoxy

Thursday Sept 21 Sex, Class, and Free speech

Reading due: 1. Women of a New Day, chapters 2, 3, and 4

2. Rose Pastor Stokes, “The Right to Control Birth” from Jewish Radicals

Week 5: Progressive maternalism, wage work and the reimagined home

Tuesday Sept 26: Reading due: 1. Women of a New Day chapters 5 + 6 2. , “Women and Economics” (excerpt)

Recommended: , Twenty Years at Hull House http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/addams/hullhouse/hullhouse.html

Lillian Wald, The House on Henry Street https://archive.org/details/houseonhenrystre00wald2

PRESENTATION: Settlement Houses (Jane Addams, Lillian Wald, etc.); Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Herland, etc); Labor activism in the (Florence Kelley, Kate Richards O’Hare, Rose Schneiderman, Clara Lemlich, Pauline Newman)

Thursday Sept 28: Reading due: 1. Dreamers of a New Day chapter 8

2. Annelise Orleck, From the Russian Pale to Labor Organizing

3. Document: Protecting Wage Workers—Muller vs. Oregon, Pauline Newman, “We fought and we bled…”

Week 6: Work, Duty, Justice, and

Tuesday Oct. 3 Reading Due: 1. Dreamers of a New Day Chapter 9

2. Kathryn Kish Sklar, “Florence Kelley and Women’s Activism in the Progressive Era”

3. Marie Sukloff, “The Making of a Russian Terrorist” The Century 89 (1915), 93-105

Presentation: International Women’s Movement; American Friends of Russian Freedom; Women’s Peace Movement (Women’s Peace Party, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915 women’s peace conference at the Hague

Thursday, October 5 Reading due: 1. Dreamers of a New Day, Chapter 10 and conclusion

2. Documents: Dimensions of Citizenship: MacKenzie vs. Hare, 1915; 19th Amendment; Adkins vs. Children’s Hospital, Margaret Sanger, “I resolved that Women Should Have knowledge of Reproduction”

3. Emma Goldman, The Traffic in Women OR and Love

Sunday, October 8th, 5:00 pm paper 1 due on Canvas

Week 8: Feminists, Race Women, Expatriates, and Red-baiters Tuesday, October 10 Reading due: 1. Ellen Carol DuBois, “Woman Suffrage and the Left: an International Socialist- Feminist Perspective,” Review 1:186 (March-April 1991)

2. Emma Goldman, “Woman Suffrage,” from Anarchism and Other Essays

3. Julia Mickenberg, “ and Soviets: American Feminists and the Specter of Revolutionary Russia” Journal of American History 100: 4 (March 2010)

Presentations: Suffrage struggle; Harriot Stanton Blatch, , , , National Woman’s Party, National Woman’s Suffrage Association

Thursday, October 12 Reading due:

1.Betty Livingston Adams, “Putting Real Ideals in American Life,” in Black Women’s a. Christian Activism: Seeking Justice in a Northern Suburb (NYU, 2016)

2. Mary Chapman, “A ‘Revolution in Ink’: Sui Sin Far and Chinese Reform Discourse” American Quarterly 60: 4 (December 2008)

Film: clips from Paris Was a Woman

Recommended: Kim Nielsen, “Bolshevik in the Shape of a Woman: Gender and America Antiradicalism,” from Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, ,and the First Red Scare

Week 9: Proletarian Women/Proletarian Writers:

Tuesday October 17: Women and the Great Depression

Introduce Final Project

Reading due: 1. Zaragosa Vargas, “Tejana Radical: Emma Tenayuca and the San Antonio Labor Movement during the Great Depression.” The Pacific Historical Review , Vol. 66, No. 4 (Nov., 1997), pp. 553-580 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030- 8684%28199711%2966%3A4%3C553%3ATRETAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

2. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South”

Thursday Oct 19 Women and Literary Radicalsim Reading Due: Yonnondio

Presentation (Thursday): Women and Literary Radicalism (, Tillie Olsen, Dorothy Myra Page) Women in the New Deal

Week 10: From Class War to World War

Tuesday Oct. 24 Reading due: Yonnondio

Presentation: Women and World War II; Alice Childress, Elizabeth Hawes; Ann Petry (The Street)______

Thursday, Oct 26 Reading Due: 1. Alice Childress, Florence

2. Elizabeth Hawes, excerpt from Why Women Cry: or, Wenches with Wrenches

3. Mary Inman, “The Pivot of the System” from Writing Red

4. Amy Swerdlow, “Ladies Day at the Capitol: Women Strike for Peace vs. HUAC”

In class:

Clips from The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter

Week 11: From to Women’s Liberation

Tuesday, Oct 31: •Reading Due: -Daniel Horowitz, and the Origins of Feminism in Cold War America http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/stable/30041520?pq- origsite=summon&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

•Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (selections--jigsaw)

Tillie Olsen, “Silences” (originally published in Harper’s magazine in 1965)

PRESENTATION; Anne Moody [Coming of Age in Mississippi]; Louisa Moreno; Claudia Jones, Congress of American Women; Women Strike for Peace); /Silent Spring;

Thursday Nov. 2

Reading Due : Documents from following from Women’s Liberation Movement Print culture collection at Duke; See documents under “General and Theoretical”: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/wlmpc/Series/General%20and%20Theoretical

I. All: Read Jo Freeman, “The Women’s Liberation Movement: Its Origins, Structures, and Ideals”

II. Choose two of the following (on same website, see link above):

Anne Koedt, “The Myth of the Vaginal ” (in Notes from the First Year) Kathy Amatniek, “ Funeral Oration for the Burial of Traditional Womanhood” (in Notes from the First Year) Jennifer Gardner, “Woman as Child,” in Notes from the First Year Radicalesbians, “The Woman Identified Woman” from Notes from the Third Year Cellestine Ware, “” from Notes from the Third Year “A Feminist Look at Children’s Books,” from Notes from the Third Year Barbara Mehrof and Pamela Kearon, “: An Act of Terror,” from Notes from the Third Year Pat Mainardi, “The Politics of Housework,” from Notes from the Second Year Kate Millet, “: A Manifesto for Revolution,” from Notes from the Second Year , “Love,” from Notes from the Second Year

Week 12: Feminist Reverberations and Reactions: Tuesday, November 7:

Reading due: 1. Marjorie Spruill, “Women Unite: Lessons from 1977 for 2017” http://www.processhistory.org/women-unite-spruill/

2. Anne Valk, “ Feminism and Separatism,” from Radical Sisters: Second-Wave Feminism and Black Liberation in Washington

In class: Free To Be You and Me (selections)

PRESENTATION: Second-wave feminists (, Kate Millet, Shulamith Firestone, Robyn Morgan, Audre Lourde; WITCH, 1977 National Women’s Conference)

Thursday, Nov. 9—

Viewing due: Watch film, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (A screening will be arranged for the class if there is interest but also available on multiple screening services)

CLASS MEETS IN Briscoe Center for American History

Final paper proposal and preliminary annotated bibliography due Sunday, November 12 at noon

Week 12: Women of Color and Intersectional feminism Tuesday, Nov 14 Reading due: 1. Selections from This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color 2. Read either:

A. Maylei Blackwell, “Interpretive Dilemmas, Multiple Meanings: Convergence and Disjuncture at the 1971 Conferencia du Mujeres Por La Raza” in Chicana Power! Contested of Feminism in the Chicano Movement or

B. Diane C. Fujino, “Grassroots Leadership and Afro-Asian Solidarities: Yuri Kochiyama’s Humanizing Radicalsim,” in Want to Start A Revolution: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle.

Discussion of film and archive visit

Thursday, Nov. 16 Reading due, 1. Selections from This Bridge Called My Back 2. Frances Beal, “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female”; 3. , “Who is Your Mother: Red Roots of 4. Marta Cotera, “Among : Racist Classist Issues”

PRESENTATION (Thursday): Women and Ethnic Nationalism (eg. Black Panthers, Chicana movement, etc…. , , Erica Huggins,) women’s health); National Welfare Rights Organization

Friday, November 17, 5:00 pm¸ 1 page of final paper text due

Week Thirteen: Research and Conceptualizing

Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 20 and Nov 21, conferences (no class held)

Reading due: Jessa Crispin Why I am Not a Feminist (first half of book)

Thursday, Nov. 23 Thanksgiving

Week Fourteen: Feminism’s Future (and the future of your papers)

CANVAS POSTS DUE MONDAY

Tuesday, Nov. 28 Reading due: Jessa Crispin, Why I am Not a Feminist (finish book)

Wed., Nov. 29 Paper drafts due

Thursday, November 30 Thursday and Friday December 1: Peer review workshops

Week 15 Presentations and Final paper

Tuesday Dec. 5: Presentations

Thursday Dec. 7: presentations

Friday Dec. 8: Final project due