Course Guide for History of Women

Course Guide for
HISTORY OF WOMEN
(last updated 03/2013)

Developed by Lisa Wade, PhD
Occidental College

Sports:

• The Manly Origins of Cheerleading (1800s-2000s)
• The Origins of Boys and Girls Bikes (1890s)
• Women and Exclusion from Long Distance Running (1896-1984; pictured)
• Vintage Women’s Basketball Teams (1900s)
• Opportunity and Athletic Performance (1900s-2000s)

Health:

• Changing Biology: Age at First Menstruation (1840-2000)
• Prohibition and Medicinal Alcohol (1919-1933; pictured)
• Social Hygiene and the Gender of Health (1922)
• Hysteria, the Wandering Uterus, and the “Vaginal Massage” (1930s)
• VD and the Virgin/Whore Dichotomy in WWII Propaganda (1940s)
• Personifying Danger: Women as Vectors of STDS (1940s)
• The Pill and the Invention of the Monthly Cycle (1960s-2000s)
• Male and Female Victims of “Intimate” Homicide (1976-2004)

Fashion and Norms of Attractiveness:

• From Manly to Sexy: The History of the High Heel (1600s, 2000s)
• Ankle Porn and Knee-Gasms: Making Sewing Sexy (1900s-1920s)
• A Historical Look at Bodies as Fashion (1900s-2000s)
• Women Wears Men’s Clothes to a Prize Fight; World Gasps (1910)
• Two Facts about Figure Skating Fashion (1920s-1930s, 1980s)
• The Feminine Ideal (1928; pictured)
• Plastic Surgery Ad (1936)
• Vintage Posters of African American Hair Products (1939)
• Putting Glamour in its Proper Wartime Place (1940s)
• “Are You Popular?”: An Educational Film (1947)
• 1950s Beauty Pageant Judging Guidelines (1959)
• Dressing Ourselves: Gendered vs. Unisex Pants (1960s-’70s)
• Regulating Black Women’s Hair (1969)
• Changing Fashion Standards: Sexy Shoes (1969)
• Gender Neutral Ruffles (1970s)
• Nipples and the Presentation of Femininity (1970s-2000s)
• Model on Cover of Elle has a Real Face (1986)

Work:

• A Historical Look at Changes in Work Type (1850-2000)
• Men Need Women’s Jobs to Avoid Being Bums (1934)
• Modern Appliance Girls (1936)
• World War II Era Chest Protector (1939)
• High-Tech Rosies in World War II (1940s; pictured)
• Myth Making and the “We Can Do It” Poster (1940s)
• The Changing Workplace: Caring for Female Workers (1940s)
• Women Soldiers During World War II (1940s)
• Guide to Hiring Women (1943)
• Vintage PSA for the Equal Pay Act… featuring BatGirl (1963)
• A List of Reasons Not to Hire Women (1963)
• Gender, the U.S. Workforce, and the Recession (1965-2005)
• Futurists Imagine the 21st Century (1967)
• “Don’t Call Me a Cowgirl!” (1969)
• Sexism in Aviation: Then and Now (1970s, 2000s)
• Job Segregation by Sex (1972-2008)
• Gender and Changes in the U.S. Occupational Profile (1972-2012)
• Kitchen and Maid Spanish (1976, 1978)
• Was “Cathy” a Feminist Heroine? (1976-2010)
• More Men and Fewer Women Earning Poverty Wages (1979, 2007)
• Women Cook, Men are Chefs (1980s)

Education:

• Women Now Graduating at Higher Rates than Men (1880s-1970s)

Marriage and Motherhood:

• Replacing Women: Slaves, Servants, and Technologies (1800s, 1940s)
• Miscegenation Ball Anti-Lincoln Cartoon (1864)
• The Two Paths: Good Mothers and Outcast Sluts (early 1900s; pictured)
• Why Did Married Mothers Go to Work? (1900-2002)
• Medicalizing Gendered Marriage (1939)
• Visions of the Future of Housework (1950s)
• Are More Women Marrying Younger Men? (1960-2007)
• Marriage Trends and Why I’m Not Married (1960-2010)
• Class Privilege and Parental Leave (1961-2008)
• “When You Marry”: A Textbook (1962)
• Of Housework and Husbands (1965-1995)
• Ritalin for Moms (1967)
• The Invention of the Playboy (1969)
• Women, Education, and Trends in Childlessness (1976-2008)

Suffrage:

• Vintage Anti-Suffragist Postcards (1900s)
• Facets of the Woman’s Suffrage Movement (1900s)
• How Suffragist Postcards Got Out the Vote (1910s)
• Delay Thanksgiving Dinners to See Suffragettes (1909)
• Against Giving Women the Right to Vote in Massachussetts (1915)
• Celebrating Women’s Suffrage (1919)

Marketing:

• Early Appropriation of the Women’s Movement in Advertising (1910)
• Anxiety about “Objectionable Hair”: Introducing Armpit Shaving (1915, 1934)
• Framing Tampon Use (1940s)
• Marketing Pre-Made, Non-Perishable Food (1940s; pictured)
• “For Men Only”: Vintage Campbell’s Soup Ad (1940s)
• Ad Shows Husband as Primary Caretaker (1947)
• Jell-O to the Rescue (1950s)
• More Leisure through Technology (1950s, 1970s, 2000s)
• Honda Fits She’s and the Dodge LaFemme: History Repeating Itself (1950s, 2000s)
• “The Orchid of Beer”: Beer for Women (1953)
• Changing Midol Ads (1960s, 1990s, 2000s)
• “Treat Your Rifle Like a Lady” (1968)
• “You’ve Got Your Own Cigarette Now, Baby” (1969)
• Mocking Feminism in a Smirnoff Ad (1970s)
• Appropriation of the Women’s Movement (1971)
• Contrasting Stereotypes of Mexican Men and Women (1975)
• Virginia Slims Ads (1978)
• Awesome Vintage LEGO Ad (1981)
• More Gender-Neutral LEGO Ads (1982)
• Marketing the Tampon: “Will I Still Be a Virgin?” (1990s)

Children and Toys:

• Historical Perspective on the LEGO Gender Gap: Part I (1932-1988; pictured)
• Encouraging Girls to Identify with Barbie (1959)
• Bob Barker Harasses Little Girls on The Price is Right (1970s)
• “Particularly with the Boy”: Worries about Feminization of Boys (1974)
• Historical Perspective on the LEGO Gender Gap: Part II (1989-2003)
• Historical Perspective on the LEGO Gender Gap: Part III (2004-2011)
• Historical Perspective on the LEGO Gender Gap: Part IV (2012)

War and Military:

• War as Sexual Domination (1957)
• Recruiting Women Marines (1970s-2000s)

Activism:

• Wimbledon Cartoon Imagines Progress for Women (1927)
• Appropriating Social Movements in Playboy (1960s-1970s)
• Gender Politics in Life and Time (1971, 1977)

Color, Sound,and Language:

• Men in Pink: Two Velasquez Paintings (1650s)
• Gender and the Social Construction of Sound (1906-2006)
• Changes in Gendered Language Over Time (1930-2005)
• The History of Pink and Blue (1960s)

Just for Fun:

• The Story of the Shopping Cart (1937-2000s)
• Urinals for Women: An Alternative Reality (1953)
• Constructing a Shocking (Falsely) Sexist Past (1955, but not really)
• Disney Futurists Imagine 2010 (1958)