Women Have Always Worked: The U.S. Experience 1700 - 1920

As we see American women coming into positions of unprecedented economic and political power, we start to wonder: why now? The Women Have Always Worked MOOC, offered in two parts, explores the history of women in America and introduces students to historians’ work to uncover the place of women and gender in America’s past.

Part One of the course traces an arc from the Colonial Period through the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which formally established women’s right to vote. Participants will learn how women negotiated for the home and workplace and how they overcame the tension between the two to produce a more equal and more democratic society. They will also learn how race, religion, and class are embedded in ideas about gender. This course tells the story of overall achievement and growth for women, but also discusses expanding democracy, social justice and new definitions of liberty and equality.

The Women Have Always Worked course is the first full-length MOOC on the history of women in America.

Image courtesy of the Collection of the Victor Remer Historical Archives of the Children's Aid Society, the New-York Historical Society.