HIST 371 - Women and Work in the 20th Century United States

3 Credit(s)

From the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in 1911 to the “second shift” in the 1980s, this course examines experiences of working women and the nature of women’s work in the United States in the 20th century. How have societal expectations for women shaped their paid and unpaid labor? How have class, ethnicity, and race impacted definitions of and women’s experiences with work? Researching from both primary and secondary sources that describe a variety of work settings and occupations, students study the labor process and sexual division of labor, consider changes in the labor market and modes of managerial control, and debate the historical resilience of job segregation and the ideology of sex-typing.
This course fulfills requirements for the GWS major and minor.