Syllabus
Women in History, summer semester 2017/2018
ABO800698, ABO800698E, ANMPAPV39
Tue 18, 20–19, 50 p.m., room 206 (Šporkův palác, Hybernská 3, 2nd floor)
Syllabus
Links to the separate MOODLE of the Center for Gender Studies, for accessing MOST assigned texts: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=4418 NEBO http://gender.ff.cuni.cz/ and then go to MOODLE. Password: knihovna:
We also recommend to use sources in some libraries: Knihovna Jana Palacha (nám. J. Palacha 2), Knihovna etnologie (Celetná 20), Knihovna gender studies (Gender Studies o.p.s, Masarykovo nábřeží 8, http://en.genderstudies.cz/ ) 1/ (February 20) The birth of liberal thought in the 19th century and its relations to feminisms. Constitution of environment for women´s public engagement in early modernity. 2/ (February 27) Discussion of the studied sources:
READING ASSIGNMENT:
A/ John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): The Subjection of Women, chapter 1 and 3, from the edited text on MOODLE.
B/ Michael Waener. „Public and Private“. In Stimpson, Catherine R. – Herdt, Gilbert (eds.). Critical Terms for the Study of Gender. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. MOODLE
(C/ ADDITIONALLY/ALTERNATIVELY, EXCERPTS) Karen Offen: from European Feminisms 1700-1950. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. MOODLE)
Questions:
AD/ MILL:
CHAPTER 1 1/What does Mill mean by prevailing public "sentiment" or "feeling" about women? And what does his position of "reason" mean in realaton to women? (at least one concrete argument) 2/ What does Mill mean by comparison of the current position of women and slavery?
CHAPTER 3 1/ How does Mill argue for free access of women to public occupations? How does he employ the argument about women "governors" (rulers)? 2/ What are some of his arguments (at least two) against the common opinion that women´s incapability to succeed in public offices/professions is rooted in their nature?
AD/ WAENER: 1/ There are conflicting meanings of private and public depicted at p. 364. Choose one of these pairs and pinpoint the problems with the given pair from your own experience - personal or from your historical knowledge. 2/ What does the slogan "the personal is political" mean? 3/ What are the advatages and disadvatages of the liberal philospohical and political tradition? 3/ (March 6) The birth of Czech national consciousness and its influence on the “woman question”.
READING ASSIGNEMENT:
“Introduction”; voluntarily “Božena Němcová”, In Wilma A. Iggers: Women of Prague. Ethnic Diversity and Social Change from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Providence – Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995, pp. 1-29, 49-89 (also accessible from Google Books)
“Karolina Světlá”, “Eliška Krásnohorská”, In Francisca de Haan, Krassimira Daskalova and Anna Loutfi, eds., Biographical dictionary of women's movements and feminisms in Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe : 19th and 20th centuries. New York : Central European University Press, 2005.
(ALTERNATIVELY, VOLUNTARILY: Božena Němcová on Radio Prague http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/bozena-nemcova-the-mother-of-czech-prose-1
Karolina Světlá on Radio Prague http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czechs/social-chronicler-and-society-girl-karolina-svetla; http://www.radio.cz/en/section/in-focus/new-projects-aim-to-keep-legacy-of-karolina-svetla-alive)
QUESTIONS: 1/ On the basis of reading the “Introduction” to Wilma Iggers book Women of Prague (in Google Books), try to formulate what was the connection between the development of Czech women´s emancipation and the development of Czech nationalism? Please, give one or two facts (contained in the “Introduction”) that prove this connection. 2/ How did the activities of Czech women in the 19th century differ from the situation and position of Prague women of other ethnicities? 3/ Which facts of life of Karolina Světlá and Eliška Krásnohorská (voluntarily Božena Němcová) seem surprising to you and why? I.e. which ones would you like to discuss more in depth (2 facts for each woman – choose two women of these three).to the separate MOODLE of the Center for Gender Studies ( (Short biographical entries of Světlá and Krásnohorská from The Biographical Dictionary accessible from the separate MOODLE of the Center for Gender Studies, see links above; a chapter about Němcová is in Wilma Iggers´s book, Google Books) 4/ (March 13) Gendered Patterns in scholarship. First Czech women medical doctors
READING ASSIGNEMENT:
See „Anna Bayerová“, MOODLE
Pnina G. Abir-Am – Dorinda Outram eds., Uneasy carriers and intimate lives: Women in Science. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
Marilyn Ogilvie – Joy Harvey, eds. The biographical dictionary of women in science : pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. New York – London: Routledge, 2000 (National Library – Referential Center)
Women in Science, entry in Wikipedia (as a starting point)
QUESTIONS: 1/ READ the two biographical entries of first Czech women medical doctors in the MOODLE, under the heading „Anna Bayerová“, and be ready to point out how their careers were related to the Czech women´s emancipation movement. Look up, please, when women became allowed to study at the universities in your countries and when first women medical doctors with university education started their practice there. 2/ Read the entry “Women in Science” in the English Wikipedia, and on its basis (and/or the basis of other studied sources - The biographical dictionary of women in science : pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century MENTIONED ABOVE IS AVAILABLE IN in the National Library of the Czech Republic, „Národní knihovna“, not far from Náměstí Jana Palacha) describe some two concrete social conditions or influences that hindered (or enhanced) women´s engagement in science in a concrete historical and cultural context. REMEMBER THAT WE STRESSED THAT GENDER RELATIONS WOULD ALWAYS CHANGE IN THE COURSE OF HISTORY IN DIFFERENT CULTURES. Choose one woman scientist (or expert) and be ready to inform us about her in a 3-minute presentation. 5/ (March 20) No session. Students will study sources to find out about women´s activities, about women in public space (or in science, or scholarship, or any professional or half-professional fields in the 19th-century or early 20th-century national contexts of their choice).
RECOMMENDED READING:
Pnina G. Abir-Am – Dorinda Outram eds., Uneasy carriers and intimate lives: Women in Science. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
Marilyn Ogilvie – Joy Harvey, eds. The biographical dictionary of women in science : pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. New York – London: Routledge, 2000 (National Library – Referential Center)
Women in Science, entry in Wikipedia (as a starting point) 6/ (March 27) STUDENTS PRESENTATIONS on the basis of assignment 5/. 7/ (April 3) Milada Horáková: Czech lawyer, feminist, politician, and victim of Stalinist trials
READING ASSIGNEMENT:
Marci Shore. Narrative/Archive/Trace: The Trial of Milada Horáková. In Kalivodová, E. – Shore, M. – True, J. (eds.) One Eye Open. Special Issue I-II: Gender and Historical Memory. Praha 1998. MOODLE
Eva Kalivodová: „Czech Society in-between the Waves“, IN: European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol 12, 2005/4. London: Sage. MOODLE
QUESTIONS: 1/ Ad/ „Czech Society in-between the Waves“: Can you explain what is meant by the pre-feminist and post-feminist aspects of gender r
Annotation
The course combines lectures and seminar work (1/1). It concentrates on general theoretical problems of studying women in modern history, starting from 1848.
The general questions will be explored in authentic historical conditions of western cultures with a focus on the multicultural Habsburg monarchy (the 2nd half of the 19th century, turn of the centuries), and with a focus on the independent Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938), its Nazi occupation during WW II, and lastly on the socialist regime that controlled Czech society between 1948–1989. The stories of Czech women will be used as case studies.
These would be complemented by the varied historical knowledge and research of the international students participating in the course. A related focus of the course will be on the historical and philosophical circumstances of womenʼs engagement in the humanities and sciences.
A walking tour around Prague tracing remarkable Czech women may be a part of the course.