Friday, January 4, 2008
Introduction and Chapter 1:
- On what basis was women's history initially pursued in the twentieth century? How was it categorized, or understood?
- What is the distinction between gender and sex? Do you find this distinction to be useful and/or coherent?
- How does a focus on women and gender affect the way historians understand such basic questions as periodization? What are some of the challenges women's history presents to traditional approaches to periodization in the medieval, Renaissance, and early modern periods?
- What are some negative concepts of women stemming from antiquity and the Christian tradition? Are there positive aspects of these traditions?
- What were the positions in the Renaissance debate about women?
- What changes did the Protestant reformers bring to the social roles of women? What in your opinion was the net effect--positive, negative, or neither?
- For the scientific revolution, same question.
- What are some of the ambiguities of women's legal position, particularly stemming from the understanding of women as less than fully responsible adults?
Chapter 2:
- Be able to explain the ways in which early modern people understood physiology in general and women's phyiology in particular.
- How did early modern people's concept of the male life cycle differ from their concept of the female life cycle?
- What are some of the negative beliefs concerning menstruation during this period? What is the basis for these beliefs? Do any of these notions persist today?
- For menopause, same question.
- Note the differences between Protestant and Catholic views of marriage and sexuality.
- What were the responsibilities of the midwife in early modern Europe? How do birthing practices today differ from those of that time?
- How did people of the period we're studying react to sexual relationships between females?
- To what extent were women able to own and/or control property?
- How do expectations concerning marriage in the early modern period compare to expectations today?
Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 2, 2008
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