WOMEN IN WORLD HISTORY II: FROM 1500 TO 1950 in Spring 2025 (GS1011)

Why do women have less power, make less money, and have fewer opportunities than men do? Why have women's bodies been controlled, stigmatized, and pathologized? This is the second half of a year-long investigation of the origins and impacts of gender inequality. We start with the early modern period, looking primarily but not exclusively at socio-cultural developments that shaped Western understanding of gender and the role of women. We will analyze the political and economic roles of women the emergence of nation states, slave economies and colonial empires, and the political and social revolutions that gave birth to a certain type of liberal feminism that continues to shape contemporary societies.