WGS 499 B - History of Feminist Thought

How did women in the past understand their social roles (as mothers, wives, workers, artists)? Before there was such a thing as a “feminist” movement, how and why did women advocate for change (in educational opportunities, citizen rights, and cultural representation)? This course will offer a historical overview of pioneering voices on behalf of women throughout western Europe, from the Middle Ages, through the Enlightenment and the first organized movements for suffrage at the turn of the century. The class concludes with a look toward modern reform movements (including pacifism) shaped by the first World War (ending roughly at 1939). “Feminist thought” is taken broadly to include classic texts in feminist theory as well as creative explorations of women’s conditions and utopic aspirations in literary works (poems, plays) and cultural criticism (journalism, pamphlets). Works to be studied include those by Christine de Pisan, John Stuart Mill, Mary Wollstonecraft, the Grimké sisters, Harriet Jacobs, Frederich Engels, Christabel Pankhurst and Virginia Woolf. Specific topics include the politics of family and motherhood, the transformation of the household economy and work, women’s intellectual capabilities and education, religion and reformist thought, debates about contraception, and the emergence of a discourse of women’s (civil, political) rights. The historical framework of this course provides insight into the important conceptual and political backgrounds of contemporary feminist movements and theories. Also listed as ENG 415. (Group III)