Women Have Always Worked: The U.S. Experience 1920 - 2016

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 Two of the course will focus on women and their work in the 20th century through the present. Participants will examine how ideas about men, women, and family have shaped the meaning and practice of citizenship for Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants will also learn about the implications of race, gender, and class for modern American economic, political, and social life. 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 Library of Congress.