HIST 237 Changing Views of Gender, Women, and Sexualities

In early modern times, popular conceptualizations of the intersection of gender and sexuality, ethnicity/race, and rank/class divided women from each other. Activist advocacy for women emerged from a debate on women's nature to a debate on opportunities for women: to be educated, to write, to speak out, to preach, to express one's individuality in dress and demeanor, or to work in one's chosen occupation. For the transformation in political theory from Lockean family representation to Suffragette individual representation in the state, we shall explore the literature on "rights" from Wollstonecraft to United Nations declarations on global Women's Rights & current revival of American movement for Equal Rights Amendment. We shall experience together a diversity of films as students discuss the intersectionality of race, gender, class, religion, and sexualities.