Gender in War and Peace

Special Topic: Gender Roles in Wartime and Peacetime
Instructor: Paula Maggio
Spring Semester 2008
Days and Times:
W: 5:20-7:50 p.m.
Location:  Ayer Hall, Room 113

Gender Roles in Wartime and Peacetime is a seminar-style course that explores the myth that men are natural warriors and women natural peacemakers by investigating the cultural construction of gender roles during times of war and peace.

The course will focus on the cultural, social, and economic effects resulting from conflicts ranging from World War I to the War in Iraq by focusing on readings in the disciplines of history and literature.

The course will also investigate the fast disappearing division between battlefront and homefront as technology changes the way war is waged and the demographic profile of its victims.

As a student in this course you will be encouraged to explore the way gender constructions shape our views of nationalism and patriotism, war and peace, warrior and peacemaker, and masculine and feminine.

The material and assignments will encourage you to sharpen your reading, writing, presentation, and critical thinking skills.

Important resources and links for this course:

1. Download the course syllabus:  Gender Roles in Wartime and Peacetime
2. Download the Essay Rubric
3. Get the course readings online at the UA Libraries E-reserves page. Click here, then enter the password included in your syllabus.
4. Read Chapter 1 of Joshua S. Goldstein’s Gender and War and excerpts from other chapters.
5. Download details about the films shown in this course:  Gender & War Film List
6. Download Week 1 Lecture Notes: Gender Roles in Wartime and Peacetime: An Introduction
7. Download Week 2 Lecture Notes: Warriors, Peacemakers, and Gender
8. Download Week 3 Student Discussion Group Notes:
   The New Woman and Generational Conflict: Perceptions of Young Women’s Sexual Mores in the Weimar Republic and The Double Helix 
9. Download Week 3 Lecture Notes: Why We Fight
   on George Mosse’s article, “Two World Wars and the Myth of the War Experience”
10. Download Week 4 Lecture Notes:  WWI and Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
11. Download Week 5 Lecture Notes:  WWI and the Battlefront
12. Download Week 6 Lecture Notes:  Total War on the Homefront
13. Download Week 7 Lecture Notes:  WWI: The End
14. Download Week 8 Lecture Notes: The Interwar Years
15.  Week 9: Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas. Learn more about Woolf at Blogging Woolf.
16. Download Week 10 Lecture Notes: Katherine Burdekin’s Swastika Night
17. Download Week 11 Lecture Notes:  World War II: Over There

Additional links and resources for this course:

• The Women’s War, a story and interactive feature about the war in Iraq on the New York Times Web site
• Blogging Woolf, a Virginia Woolf blog with links to numerous Woolf resources
• Bibliography on Gender, War, and Peace
• List of Online Resources on Gender, War, and Peace. Also, see the blogroll on http://ablogofourown.wordpress.com under the heading War & Gender.
• History of the Hello Girl in WWI
• NY Times articles about Rebecca West
• Rebecca West Society