“The Feminist History Your Momma Never Taught You” and its Necessary Inclusion in WGS Intro Classes

Abstract

This paper will discuss why I specifically included women’s history in my Fall 2015 WGS intro class, the positive benefits for my students and me of using history to inform the current feminist conversation, and my belief as to why feminist history should be included in any introductory WGS class. It will also discuss why I had to create a syllabus and reader from scratch. I never learned feminist history pre-1980 as a WGS undergraduate. Outside of class, however, I stumbled 2nd wave feminist writings and was fascinated. I vowed to not shortchange my own students when I started teaching. Some benefits of my class structure included: zero student pushback when they realized the current inequality between men and women; the ease at which my students “got” nebulous concepts they had seen them at work through the semester; and the depth to which they could talk about current feminist trends because of their grounding in history. This being the first semester I taught, this paper will also explore things I might do differently the next time I have the opportunity to teach this class