6 June 2009

Dear Professor Kramer,

Please accept this letter as my proposal to author History 356 (United States Women Since 1865) for Carolina Courses Online for the FridayCenter for Continuing Education. As you are aware, the History Department at UNC has recently divided History 362 (Women in American History) into two consecutive courses, History 355 (United States Women to 1865) and History 356 (United States Women Since 1865). My proposed course, CCO History 356, will serve as the on-line counterpart to the same course offered on campus. It will offer a broad survey of women’s experiences in American history from 1865 to the present, paying particular attention to issues of race, class, culture, and gender equality. Consequently, the course will fit the needs of distance learners who want to learn about the myriad ways in which American women have participated in and shaped American history.

As a textbook for CCO History 356, I plan to use Women and the Making of America (Volume Two) by Mari Jo Buhle, Teresa Murphy, and Jane Gerhard. I will also assign a primary documents reader, most likely Modern American Women: A Documentary History, edited by Susan Ware. Other primary documents will be made available either on blackboard or via electronic reserve. The students will also write an analytical paper on an autobiography or historical novel of their choosing. I will provide them with a list of titles for their selection.

The class will be discussion-based, with students participating in on-line discussion forums each week. I will provide weekly discussion prompts based on the students’ reading assignments. In addition to responding to discussion prompts, students will also be required to respond to one another in order to facilitate interaction and dialogue. Students will be responsible for two written assignments (5-7 pages each), a midterm quiz, and a final exam.

The course will consist of fourteen weekly lesson plans that correspond to chapters in Women and the Making of America. The lessons are roughly arranged chronologically with attention to thematic topics. I have attached a list of tentative lesson topics as well as a sample lesson regarding women’s roles during World War II.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the proposed course or if I can provide you with more detailed information. If the proposal meets with your approval, please notify Judith Benowitz that the course will be offered for a minimum of three semesters, per the requirements of the FridayCenter.

Sincerely,

Robin K. Payne

Ph.D. Candidate

Department of History, CB #3195

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill, NC27599-3195

CCO History 356 Proposal

Tentative Lesson Outline

Robin K. Payne

Lesson One / In the Age of Slave Emancipation, 1865-1877
Lesson Two / The Trans-Mississippi West, 1860-1900
Lesson Three / The New Women at Work and at Home
Lesson Four / The Woman Movement, 1800-1900
Lesson Five / The New Morality, 1800-1920
Lesson Six / The Progressive Era, 1890-1920
Lesson Seven / The Suffrage Movement
Lesson Eight / The Jazz Age, 1920-1930
Lesson Nine / The Great Depression, 1930-1940
Lesson Ten / World War II Home Fronts, 1940-1945
Lesson Eleven / The Feminine Mystique, 1945-1960
Lesson Twelve / Civil Rights and Liberal Activism, 1945-1975

CCO History 356, Sample Lesson

Robin K. Payne

History 356: United States Women Since 1865

Lesson Ten: World War II Home Fronts, 1940-1945

Notes

America’s entry into World War II in December of 1941 held profound consequences for women across the nation. Though the number of women in the paid workforce had steadily increased since the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, wartime demands opened new opportunities for women on a number of fronts. Perhaps most notably, barriers of sex-segregation in the workplace began to deteriorate. Heavy and skilled industrial jobs, once considered the sole domain of men, were offered to women in order to meet the demands of wartime production. Moreover, racial barriers in women’s work began to crumble. African American women, who had been largely confined to agricultural and domestic work, suddenly found higher paying industrial jobs within their reach. Aside from the industrial sector, women almost made notable gains in terms of military service. Whereas donning the nation’s uniform had once been seen as a purely masculine act, women played important roles in various branches of the armed forces during the war.

Many American women were also affected by a massive wave of migration during the war. Some women, who were often single, relocated to urban areas in search of better paying industrial jobs and independence, while other women relocated with their families because of new job opportunities for their husbands. Amidst these kinds of voluntary relocations, Japanese American women were subject to forcible relocation to internment camps for the duration of the war. Across the board, these wartime migrations affected women’s lives in myriad ways as they adapted to new environments and forged new communities.

The war also had a tremendous impact on women’s domestic lives. Throughout the economic crisis of the 1930s, the majority of women had worked hard to ensure their families survival despite limited resources. Thus, with the advent of wartime rationing, women were well-equipped to make due for the duration. Day-to-day survival was not always easy; however, women often took pride in knowing that they were sacrificing daily luxuries in order to help their brothers, fathers, and husbands survive abroad.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, as American soldiers returned home, there was a concerted effort to re-established a number of the barriers women had breached. Women were amongst the first laid off from industrial jobs and many of the opportunities that had opened were once again closed. Coupled with growing prosperity for the majority of Americans, the effort to push women back out of the public sector helped to fuel an apparent return to domesticity. Nevertheless, women’s wartime work experiences had proved that women could do the same work as a man and had provided a strong foundation upon which to build their growing demands for equality in coming years.

Reading and Research

Women and the Making of America, Chapter 18

Modern American Women, Chapter 8

Some Relevant Internet Sites:

JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives

Women Airforce Service Pilots

Women Veterans Historical Collection: World War II

The Women’s Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service

Regional Oral History Office: Rosie the Riveter, WWII American Homefront Project

Rosie the Riveters (The Eastern Oklahoma County Regional History Collection)

Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During WWII

Rosie the Riveter: Real Women Workers in World War II

Important Terms

“For the Duration”

Double V Campaign

Rosie the Riveter

All American Girls Baseball League

War Bonds

Internment Camps

Women’s Army (Auxiliary) Corps

Women’s Air Force Service Pilots

Questions to Consider

  • Why did women enter the industrial workforce in unprecedented numbers during World War II?
  • What impact did the war have on the kinds of work women did and in employment opportunities?
  • How did the government target women in its mobilization for the war?
  • How did representations of women in popular culture change during the war?
  • Did minority women experience greater freedom and opportunity during the war?
  • What impact did wartime migration have on women during the war?
  • How did wartime restrictions impact Japanese American women?

Discussion Forum Questions

World War II entailed a wide range of disruptions and transformations in women’s lives. After having read several first-hand accounts of women’s war-time experiences, which groups of women seem to have undergone the most significant transformations? Did particular groups of women seem to fair better than others? Why or why not?