Arts and Humanities Commons^™

I Love Lucy, That Girl, And Changing Gender Norms On And Off Screen, Emilia Anne De Leo

Honors Papers

Women on television of the 1950’s and 1960’s have a contested place in American television history. The common belief that women in postwar TV adhered to and promoted strict sexist stereotypes is pervasive, but there has been some debate as to how accurate this generalization is. This paper examines the roles women played on television through a close analysis of two shows, I Love Lucy (1951-7) and That Girl (1966-71). These two shows demonstrate women’s general places during the decades in which they aired, with Lucy Ricardo representing the housewife of the 1950’s and Ann Marie representing the increasingly popular …

Scarlett's Sisters: The Privileged Negotiations Of Plantation Women, Nancy Weissman-Galler

Honors Papers

This study examines the diaries, letters, and memoirs of twenty-six white plantation women in the American South during the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods. I have utilized these materials to reconstruct the lifecycle of plantation women and to establish their perspectives on their lives. In particular, I have focused on their participation in the culturally encouraged progression from bellehood, a period of relative power and independence, to mistresshood. For these women the transition entailed a loss of freedom and the addition of numerous domestic and social duties. Despite these added responsibilities, these women embraced the role of plantation mistress. …

The Evolution Of Women's Intercollegiate Athletics At Oberlin College, Leland J. Brandt

Honors Papers

Over two years ago, I read an article written in 1973 entitled "Sport is Unfair to Women." While researching possible honors topics, I remembered that article. Preliminary research uncovered a wealth of information on women's athletics, Title IX, and the continuing problems faced by female athletes. By sheer coincidence, I learned that Oberlin College was investigated for possible Title IX violations. Further inquiry revealed that little if any research existed concerning the history of Oberlin's young women's athletic program. Before I could say "Jack Scott," the topic entranced me, and I remain under its spell to this day. If ever …

The Politicization Of Maternal Care: The Lawrence Textile Strike Of 1912, Mary-Beth Moylan

Honors Papers

The Progressive era saw a series of social reforms and mass movements for better living and working conditions. Middle-class women emerged as the "housekeepers" of the public arena. Women like Jane Addams started these trends and acted as benevolent organizers for the immigrant people, who were entering the United States only to find crowded conditions and hostile cities. Strikes over dangerous work environments became pressing concerns. A history of related actions began to develop with the Triangle Fire disaster in New York City, the Lawrence strike in Massachusetts, and then the strikes in the mid-teens in Passaic and Patterson, New …

American Women's Intellectual History In The Revolutionary And New Republican Era: Charting A Shift In Feminist Theory, Holly B. Fechner

Honors Papers

This paper is a study of American women's intellectual history in the period 1770-1815. My aim is to develop a coherent conception of women's moral point of view as it is presented in prescriptive literature, political tracts, and women's own writing. Because of the nature of my goal, I will attempt to glean women's ideas out of the extant primary source material of this period. As the aim of this study implies the existence of a prescribed point of view which women were to share, I will use numerous examples from the genre of prescriptive literature.

Unlike our world of …

Jewish Women Reformers And Jewish Immigrant Women: The Columbian Council Of Pittsburgh, 1893-1920, Eileen Chotiner

Honors Papers

I began this project with an interest in Jewish immigrant women's adjustment to American life. I first examined general patterns of immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century, to determine how Jewish immigration fit into the patterns and specifically, the. role of Jewish women in Jewish immigration. I also sought to discover how Jews differed from other immigrant groups, and how these differences affected the establishment of Jewish communities in America.

Immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century falls into two categories : from approximately 1840 to 1880, immigrants came mostly from northern, western and central …

The Heart And Mind Of Simone De Beauvoir, Maryann Janosik

Honors Papers

This thesis will examine Beauvoir's views on women, her unique brand of feminism. The following questions will be pursued: How did Beauvoir break out of the traditional female role as a young woman? What were Beauvoir's views on women in general? On various types of women? How do Beauvoir's novels reflect her attitudes toward the condition of women? And why? How did other aspects of her thought- her attraction to existentialism and Marxism, her rebellion against her bourgeois background, affect her response to feminist issues?

Women In An Evangelical Community: Oberlin 1835-50, Lori D. Ginzberg

Honors Papers

Oberlin College is frequently mentioned in connection with women's education, women's rights, or the struggle for women's emancipation. The following passage from the 1834 First Circular is invariably cited: Oberlin's founders strove for"… the elevation of female character, by bringing within the reach of the misjudged and neglected sex, all the instructive privileges which hitherto have unreasonably distinguished the leading sex from theirs." Discussions seek to prove either that Oberlin is to be praised for its correct and "liberated" goals, or that it is to be condemned for hypocrisy in not going as far as publicized in the First Circular. …