2001 Annual Grant Issue
Judith Krouse: Kast Grant Report
Creation of Senior Elective: Women in World History and Culture

Despite the fact that I am reporting on my activities and findings related to my Kast Grant, which was presumably a summer project, I feel that my work is very much unfinished and that I've only begun to scratch the surface in my study of women in world history and culture. Even when I begin to teach the class entitled "Women in World History and Culture" in the spring semester of 2002, I know that I will continue to tinker, edit and expand this project. I am sure that it will take several years to make this class what I want it to be, as I see what works and what doesn't work with my students. Having said that, here's where I stand at this point:

In my project proposal, I said that the first thing that I would do would be to figure out what to study and to pick some books that might be used. In many respects, this was the easiest part of this project. I decided to divide the class into two segments - first, a broad overview of women's history, and second, a study of pertinent issues relating to the culture of women in the world today. I had originally thought I might use Rosalind Miles' The Women's History of the World as the basic text. As I began to read this book, I decided that although it was very readable and even entertaining, it was a bit dated. I decided to see if there was a more recent version of Miles' work. As luck would have it, she had just published a new edition of her original work, but she had updated it and even changed the title to the catchier Who Cooked the Last Supper? The Women's History of the World. I procured this book and eagerly read it.

Complete without being too dense, irreverent without being too disrespectful, I found this book to be useful, readable, humorous and timely. I believe it will be one that the students will enjoy, yet it will open the door to some lively debates, based on her arguments from a fiercely feminist perspective. After a thorough introduction on the need to study women's history, she begins with the story of the human race and focuses on early woman, especially on the fact that "early woman was in fact intensively occupied from dawn to dusk." (p. 19) I learned much, right from the beginning of this book: for example, she has a fascinating discussion of "handedness." She argues that the reason that most women carry babies on the left side of the body is that this position makes it possible for the baby to be comforted by the beating of her heart. This "frees the right hand for action, and would have been the spurt toward the evolution of predominant right-handedness in later human beings." (p. 23) While this is a simple point, one that I never thought about before, (despite often carrying friends' children that way) it was one that made a lot of sense.

Her chapters go through history gradually, but in a concise and thorough manner. From early humans, to the time of the "great goddess," through the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, Part I of the book studies ancient history. Part II, entitled "The Fall of Woman" chronicles the rise of the great religious systems and their impact on women. It provides a nice segue into what will eventually be studied in the second half of the course by discussing bride sale, genital control, female genital mutilation and female infanticide. She then examines the Middle Ages in a chapter she calls "A Little Learning." Part III - Dominion and Domination, begins with a chapter on a key subject in any history of women - "housewifery," which includes not only the usual chores associated with housework, but also doctoring, nursing, and midwifery and other skills associated with the private sphere. She then gets into two chapters focusing on subjects vital to a study of history that focuses on men: the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Imperialism. Her final part, called "Turning the Tide" covers the birth of the women's rights movement to women's entry into "the body politic" and the desire to address such key issues that might fall under the concept of "the personal is political," such as contraception, marriage and divorce laws, women's health, and simply, the concept of "the right to refuse." She concludes with a chapter on the growth and status of women in the twentieth century and a challenge for the future: to harness the new strength of the new woman, or as she quotes Alfred Adler, "the struggle to rise from an inferior to a superior position, from defeat to victory, from below to above." (p. 287)

I am still in the process of finding readings to supplement and dig deeper into the topics presented by Miles' book. I have recently spent a lot of time digging through some resources I acquired through a website on "Women in World History" (definitely one of those "eureka" resources!) This site gave me access to some wonderful lessons on women in the Ancient Near East, India, and the Muslim world. I have even ordered curriculum units, and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. For an example of the kinds of lessons offered, go to: http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson10.html.

The second part of the course, on women in world culture, is coming together, slowly but surely. The main topics that I plan to cover in this part of the course are as follows: cultural relativism, the status of women under the Taliban regime, female genital mutilation, bride burnings and "honorable murders" in India and the Middle East, female baby killings and abortion in China, forced removal, rape and genocide in Kosovo, and the phenomenon of the inroads made by NGO's -non-governmental organizations that are key to working on global issues and the banks (such as the Women's Bank of Bangladesh) that are providing financial assistance to women in emerging nations through the use of micro loans.

Before the September 11 tragedy, there was a lot produced about the treatment of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. However, since that time, the increased scrutiny and study of that region has opened new doors and provided new opportunities to study that subject. Thus, I may not fully determine the direction that I will go with that unit until I see what the United States' next step will be in response to the Taliban regime's involvement in the terrorist activities. For example, the documentary "Beneath the Veil," Saira Shah's journey from the refugee camps of Pakistan into Taliban Afghanistan, was recently screened by CNN, and I am trying to procure a copy for classroom viewing. I guess as they say in television land, I'll have to "stay tuned" to complete this unit.

One of the units that I've most fully developed is that on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Because this has been a hot topic of late, there are many directions that I can take with this subject; however, I will begin with a study of what FGM is, and then proceed to time spent on how FGM affects many women in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even the United States. There have been many attempts by women in recent years to seek asylum in the US for political reasons as they attempt to flee their homelands. To further understand both FGM and the issues related to FGM as a human rights issue and as it relates to U.S. immigration policy and domestic law, we will then read the first part of an extraordinary book I discovered and read this summer entitled Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja. It is the story of a young woman growing up in Togo, West Africa, who was sheltered from the tribal practices of polygamy and FGM by her beloved father. When he died suddenly, she was forced into an arranged marriage and told to prepare for kakia, the ritual we know as FGM. Instead of submitting, Fauziya Kassindja fled first to Germany and then to the United States. I wish that we had time to read this entire book, but we will be forced to concentrate on the first third, discussing her childhood, the culture she lived in, and her attempt to flee to freedom.

I am still gathering resources and reviewing videos for the topics covered in the latter part of the course. Little did I know when I set out to begin this project and I projected under "time schedule" that I'd spend a minimum of forty hours during the summer how little time that would end up being. I know that I've spent many more than forty hours just reading the two main books that I plan to use and beginning my search of the seemingly endless resources that the Internet has to offer. I have a tentative syllabus ready for my course and I promise that I'll be ready to teach it come January 22. The reality is that as of now, in October, the syllabus is still in its nascent stage. I have no choice but to continue to work on this project. Lest that sound like a complaint, let me say that it's not. If anything, this project has intrigued me enough that I feel that there weren't enough hours in the summer and there aren't enough hours in the school day (between teaching those pesky classes and coaching!) for me to do what I want to do to complete my task. The Kast Grant has opened the door for me, but I suspect I won't close it for quite some time. I thank the Kast Grant committee for its support and, hopefully, its patience as I continue my quest for knowledge and information on this topic.