History 12B: Women in United States History:  1890 to Present

Welcome! 

History 12B: United States Women's History: 1890 to the Present. In 1892 Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered a speech to the Congressional Judiciary committee. Titled "A Solitude of Self," Cady Stanton used this speech in an attempt to persuade the men in that august meeting that, in order to meet the challenges of life, women needed all the same opportunities as men. While Cady Stanton, a pre-eminent philosopher and tireless woman's rights advocate, was not successful on that specific day, the work she did provided a plinth, solid ground to stand on. Over 100 years later, we are almost there. This course covers the crucial events of the last 150 years and the ways that women interacted with those events to shape their lives. Beginning as the United States sought to both bind the nations wounds after Reconstruction and consolidate control over the West, this course covers all the various ways in which women contributed to the development of the U.S. as a modern nation and global leader. Working to aid the nation through the social challenges created by the Second Industrial Revolution, women will push for prohibition, demand government regulations to stem the abuses of factory work, contribute to the home front during World War I, and gain the vote. After the Great War many women will revel in the freedoms offered by the Roaring Twenties and the take advantage of the anonymity of urbanization to expand their own personal experiences. The tragedies of the Great Depression that followed were often unavoidable, like a hang over after too much time in a speakeasy. Restructuring the nation during the New Deal provided additional opportunities for women, but it was the demand for labor during World War II that really opened the door to women's economic opportunities. By the time of the civil rights movement and the call for feminist liberation, many women were demanding full access to modern womanhood: education, a job, and birth control to control her own destiny.  Not all women worked for the same goals, and not all women worked together. Racial and ethnic tensions abounded.  But through it all,  and from diverse positions, women actively shaped the transition of the U.S. into a global power. In the process, they became scientists, politicians, CEOs, entrepreneurs, Supreme Court judges.  Their story remains unfinished. But in November 2021, Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President, held the powers of the office of the President for the first while the President was under anesthesia. Cady Stanton surely must have been smiling.

How to Enroll

Enrolling Before Class Begins

If you would like to take this course, and there are still available seats, register for this class online. If the class is full but there are seats available on the waitlist, put your name on the waitlist. Waitlisted students will receive first priority to add the class as seats become available. If the waitlist is full, students need to find an alternate section of the course. 

Enrolling After the First Day of Class

If you would like to take this course and the course has already started, you need to request an authorization online via MyRAM. After you request an authorization online, I will receive a notification of your request and either approve it or deny it depending on the number of students already enrolled. If I approve your request, you will receive an email in your CCSF student email. This email will provide instructions for how to add the class online. You will then be enrolled.  It may take up to 24 hours for the course to show up in your Canvas. After it shows up, email me in Canvas Inbox so that I can adjust the first weeks' due dates for assignments.  All students who add the course after the first day of class will be expected to immediately catch up on all coursework already assigned. 

Attendance, Participation, and Getting Dropped from the Course Policy 

This course is a three (3) unit lecture course. According to federal requirements, three (3) unit lecture courses require fifty-two (52) total hours of lecture and one hundred four (104) hours of homework to earn credit for the course. That is a total of one hundred fifty-six (156) hours expected to complete this course. In the Social Sciences Department, any student who misses more than nine (9) hours of “lecture” may be dropped by the instructor. In an online course attendance and participation are the same thing. Both are required. In this course, participation is measured by turning in assignments. These are the participation rules: 

Module One must be completed within 72 hours of the start of class. 

This course is very popular and fills before the first day of class. There is a waitlist of students who also need the course for graduation. All students must complete all three Module One assignments within seventy-two (72) hours or they can be dropped as a “No Show” and their spot will be given to another student. Students added to the course after the first day have seventy-two (72) hours from gaining access to Canvas to complete all assignments in the first module. 

Weekly assignments count as participation. 

Each individual quiz, required written assignment, required discussion, or midterm counts as one (1) hour of class attendance. If you miss a combined total of six (6) or more quizzes, required assignments, or exams they will be counted as absences and you may be dropped for nonparticipation. Assignments labeled “extra credit” are not counted in this calculation, unless they are plagiarized. 

Plagiarized assignments, whether required or extra credit, count as an absence. 

If you plagiarize an assignment or cheat on a quiz or exam, whether required or extra credit, it will be scored as a zero, a report will be filed with Student Services, and it will count as an absence (since you did not do the work yourself).

Please read the Policies section of the syllabus. 

Yes, all your assignments will be checked for plagiarism.

My apologies. The vast majority of students in my classes are doing their own work. I only have to say this so that the policy can be used to enforce the Student Code of Conduct for the very few students who do cheat: If your written response has a greater than ten percent (10%) similarity report, it will be considered plagiarized. You can view your plagiarism report by submitting your assignment, then going to Assignments. Next to the assignment there is a flag. Click on the flag to see your similarity report. If you are caught using an online essay generator for an assignment, it will be counted as plagiarized. If you copy your peer’s written responses and then edit them into your own response, it will be counted as plagiarized. If you are caught not taking the quizzes or exams on your own, it will be counted as plagiarized. The best thing to do in this course is to not use outside resources (the internet, other classmates, other friends and family) to complete your assignments. Do your own thinking. Follow the assignment instructions. 

Any student with six (6) or more absences may be dropped from the course for non-participation. 

Important Dates

This course is completed entirely online with no required in-person meetings. Please check all important course dates in the official online class schedule. These dates include the first day of class, the last day to drop with a refund, the last day to drop with a W, the date of the final.  

Required Text and Materials

Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents, v. 2, 5th Edition. Volume 2 consists of chapters 7-12. This text costs approximately $45.00 to rent for the semester. 

All additional required reading materials for this course are provided free online in Canvas.

Course syllabus for Spring  2024