Attendance is required.
In this course we will survey the history of American women from colonial times to the present. We will begin by discussing women's history as a discipline and its importance to the understanding of the American past and present. Then lectures and assigned textbook readings will trace the development of women's roles and activities C public and privateCin American society. The autobiographies have been selected to reveal the diversity of women's experiences and to expand on historical themes and events of the periods in which the authors lived. Throughout the course the importance of women as historical actors, not mere victims, will be stressed.