STUDY QUESTIONS AND UNGRADED WRITING ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS FOR THE SECOND UNIT, HIST 254
UNGRADED WRITING ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
Boris. What was industrial homework and why was it banned in the 1930s? How did the defense of "sacred motherhood" shape the debate? How did industrial homework reflect "the very sex-gender division of labor that made it seem natural?" (Due, March 9)
According to Beth Bailey, how did the role of competition in dating function both before and after World War II? What role did media play in defining and perpetuating the post-war marriage trend in the United States? Why did "experts" support the cultural phenomenon of early dating and early marriage in the 1950s? Describe the conflict between parents of the pre-war generation and children of the post-war generation over courtship patterns. (Due, March 25)
According to Ruth Feldstein, "motherhood itself was a battleground on which the meaning of [Emmett] Till’s death was fought." (p. 133). How did those reacting to his murder, including Mamie Till Bradley, use discourses about motherhood to express their views on race relations and American citizenship? (Due, April 1).
According to Rickie Solinger, in the post WWII period the "social conditions of motherhood" became more important than "biology in defining white motherhood." How and why was the biology of giving birth separated from the concept of motherhood for white women in this period? What were the three public attitudes toward Black unwed motherhood in the same period? Why was the adoption market a "sellers market" for white babies and a "buyers market" for black babies? (Due, April 8)
STUDY QUESTIONS
Describe the effects of the Great Depression on women workers. How did differences in race, ethnicity, urban/rural residence, and other social variables affect women’s experiences of the depression?
According to Linda Gordon, "Women’s invention of a right not to be beaten came from a dialectic between changing social possibilities and aspirations." (pp. 413-414). How did changes in the social context affect women’s possibilities, aspirations, and their opposition to marital violence? Gordon also concludes that "women’s assertiveness against battering was both strengthened and limited by childraising" and that "as mothers they felt entitled, as women not." (p. 415-416.) Discuss the effects of maternal responsibilities on women’s assertiveness against violent mates. By contrast, male batterers’ "sense of entitlement was so strong it was experienced as need." (p. 423.) How did this sense of entitlement affect marital relations and men’s decisions to resort to violence?
Describe management hiring practices during WWII with respect to the use of women workers in industry. How did employers explain their assignment of jobs by gender? Which women did they employ? What happened to women workers after the war?
Matsumoto. How did conditions in the "relocation" camps of WWII and the resettlement policies that allowed some to leave the camps affect family relations and women’s activities and status among Japanese Americans?
Bailey. How did the culture of consumption affect courtship patterns in twentieth century America? How was the consumer dimension of dating encouraged by business and advertising practices? How were women commodified in the dating system? What economic and social implications did the need to embody the "ideal beauty" (and hence be desirable commodities) hold for women?
According to Beth Bailey, the sexual conventions of youth culture were opposed by a set of regulatory systems that made women "the controllers of sex" (p. 87). What ideas did "experts" and institutional authorities advance to explain and justify this system? How were these ideas enacted in institutional policies, including university rules and legal responses to rape charges? How did these understandings affect women’s relationships to men, their safety, and their personal autonomy?
Bailey. What was the "crisis of masculinity" in postwar America? How did experts explain this "crisis" and what cures did they suggest for it? How did this sense of crisis affect the etiquette of dating? How did the enactment of this etiquette affect young men and women?
According to Beth Bailey, "marriage experts…used the concept of appropriate authority to justify intervening in family life." (p. 121). How did these experts claim and institutionalize their authority? What kinds of advice about courtship and marriage did they provide? What were the effects of the marriage education movement?
According to Susan Cahn, "fears of mannish female sexuality in sport initially centered on the prospect of unbridled heterosexual desire." When and why did this fear develop? When, how, and why did this change to a concern that associated female athleticism with lesbianism?
Swerdlow. How did the members of Women Strike for Peace counter the red-baiting tactics of the House Committee on Un-American Activities? To what extent did they use maternalist rhetoric and strategies in their mobilizing efforts?
According to Lynn Weiner, the La Leche League "simultaneously promoted women’s autonomy and restricted women’s roles." (p. 364). What form of autonomy did it promote and from whom? How did it restrict women’s roles? What was its relationship to scientific motherhood? To the feminine mystique? To the materialism of the 1950s?
Identify and state the historical significance of the following: Executive Order 9066, Women Strike for Peace, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Women’s Emergency Committee, Mamie Till Bradley, La Leche League; sexual revolution.