American Social History

26. Mon 3/30 – American women in mid-20th century
Reading: Rosalind Rosenberg, Divided Lives Ch 5 “Cold War Fears.”
This is for background reading to provide historical context to the postwar period. You should also begin reading Walker’s book on women’s magazines, starting with the introductory essay on pp. 1-20.


27. Wed 4/1 – Discussion Day: Nancy Walker, Women’s Magazines, 1940-1960.
Yes, the entire book: it’s short. If you need to read selectively, make sure you read and are prepared to discuss at least 2 or 3 documents from each of the six chapters.

Questions to consider:

What themes and ideas about gender and gender roles are raised by women’s magazines of this period?
Was there more, or less, diversity in these views than you expected?
How do these compare with or relate to prescriptive literature of the early 19th century?
Are women following these gender roles, and how could we know?
How can historians use these magazines as a source of information about women in this time period?
What women are left out, defined as “unwomanly” or otherwise stretch/break gendered boundaries?
What changes and continuities do you see over the 20 year period this book covers?

28. Fri 4/3 – Presentation Day #5
(Don’t forget: if you’re not presenting this week, it is a perfect opportunity to write a response paper! You can use any of the suggestions below as the basis for the response paper, or respond to any of the documents in Walker’s book.)

We have a full slate of presenters this week: Moffitt, Tompkins, Taylor, Dagle and Kozlowska. Here are some suggestions and ideas:

• Listen to and use the 12/16/08 episode of NPR’s On Point radio show. The guest was Sister Soulja. How does her voice and perspective expand the notion of American women’s experiences in the 20th century?
• This one’s taken (Tompkins) – Discuss images of women working in factories during WW2, such as the Rosie the Riveter painting (Saturday Evening Post, May 1943) by Norman Rockwell, or the “We Can Do It” government poster. How were such depictions both feminine and patriotic? For more information, steer clear of Wikipedia and explore other resources on the web, such as the National Park Service, the Rosie Riveter park in California, or an archived StoryCorps oral history with the daughter of “Dot the Welder.”
• Choose one of the chapters in Walker’s book and analyze the articles by comparing them to each other. In your presentation, give us a “guided tour” of the chapter’s primary sources, providing your expert commentary along the way.
• Explore the website “Levittown: Documents of an Ideal Suburb.” Do a little research into Levittown (actually that should be plural, Levittowns: there were three), and use the photographs and memories recorded in Hale’s affectionate tribute site to explore women’s experiences in the preeminent postwar suburb.
• Black women in 1950s popular culture were frequently portrayed using the derogatory “mammy” stereotype, even when those “mammies” were major characters in film or television, giving some limited exposure to African-American actresses. Explore this as an alternative image for American women. You might use the online Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia (search under “Mammy Caricature”), for example.
• Compare what we’ve learned from Walker with women’s magazine for black women in the 1950s. You could begin here, or by reading this review of Noliwe Rook’s book Ladies Pages.
• Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 – right in the middle of this period of heightened attention to female domesticity, public presence, and women’s work. Explore her story in the context of Walker’s collection about women, work, and femininity. Primary sources about her arrest are at the National Archives website, or at a nice website maintained by the Montgomery Advertiser.
• Explore women’s fashions from 1940 to 1960 – perhaps by beginning at the Costume Gallery.