HIST 277 Women and Community Health

This course explores the history of women as promoters of community health in the diverse cultures of the 19th- and 20th-century United States. Although women have not traditionally held power in mainstream biomedical occupations and institutions, women have nevertheless been critical to health and healing in local communities as caregivers, activists, and even scapegoats for disease. Furthermore, women's role in community health has been heavily shaped by gendered constructions of the body, disease, and well-being. Thus, while the focus of the course is on the social history of women's health and healing, the theoretical framework of the course also aims to explore how ideologies of gender, race, class, and sexuality shape women's relationship to community health, as both caregivers and health-seekers. The course is organized by a set of common themes that cut across time, space, and racial/ethnic boundaries in U.S. history. Themes include: spirituality and healing, work and health, sexuality and reproduction, activism for health justice.