Time Schedule:
Uta G. Poiger
HSTEU 273
Seattle Campus
Examines European women' s changing social role and competing views of femininity from the Enlightenment to the end of the cold war. Special focus on the relationship of gender and politics and on the female body in bourgeois society, industrialization, imperialism, the welfare state, fascism, and the cold war.
Class description
This course is an introduction to European women's and men’s changing social roles and competing views of femininity and masculinity from the Enlightenment to the end of the cold war. We will pay special attention to the relationship of gender and politics and to the female body and sexuality. Throughout we will tackle the questions of equality and difference. Have men and women thought of the sexes as different and/or equal? What have been differences in power between women and men? How have factors such as race, class, or sexual orientation shaped differences among women and men? Topics include women in the French Revolution, bourgeois society, industrialization, imperialism, women's movements, popular culture, fascism, the cold war, and decolonization.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Lectures twice a week with occasional film excerpts. Lectures and readings will form the basis for the weekly discussion sections. Readings include a range of articles by historians, a novel, political manifestos, autobiography, and scientific treatises. Two 5-6 page papers, two exams.
Recommended preparation
This is an introductory course, and no previous knowledge of the subject is presumed.
Class assignments and grading
