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1. Early North American Women

Native Americans had distinct and diverse cultures across North America. The communities varied depending on their environment and the traditions that developed there. Distinct gender norms developed as well. Much is known about these gender norms and the lives of women before European contact. 
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PicturePublic Domain
Before the US was, the US, the land was home to numerous Native American nations whose diversity, then and now, rivals that of Eurasia. Each of the hundreds of nations have, and had, their own language, religion, customs, governance structure, judicial system, and history. The role of women in Native culture is as complex and different as the nations from which they come. 

Like most cultures, so much depended on where the nation was located and the particular needs of that geography and environment dictated the various roles people within that society played. Northwestern nations lived on rivers and relied on fishing, while those on the plains followed buffalo and planted corn for their livelihood. While gender usually plays a role in determining responsibilities, gender did not limit women in many Native cultures.

Because there are many different cultural contexts, it is difficult but not impossible to generalize about the role that women in Native communities played… so we’re going to try. 

Investigating the lives of women native to North America is deeply challenging because the experiences of Indigenous people varied from region to region, community to community, and even within communities. Native people are diverse, their societies rich, complex, and enduring. Gender was, however, significant in the lives of early Native peoples wherever they were. 

PicturePublic Domain
Family and community systems brought Native people together under mutual reliance and respect. As in many places and cultures, men were generally responsible for hunting, warfare, and interacting with outsiders, therefore they had more visible roles. This is why the names of male Natives tend to pop out more in our histories. 

Role in Governance: Native women were active in community governance and activities. Many nations, perhaps one-fourth if not a majority, were organized matrilineally, where new husbands would come to live with the wife’s family and inheritance was passed down from the mother. 

In matrilineal societies, women owned the family’s home and goods. They did all the agricultural production and reared children. They also held important political and economic power. 

The Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, or the Haudenosaunee (hoe-deh-no-SHOW-nee) were all led matrilineally– with women at the helm. Clan leaders selected a male chief to represent the nation and they removed them when the women were dissatisfied. 

In other nations, women would even become warriors. Some were able to earn the title of chief because of their own achievement on the battlefield or due to their husband’s death. In the midwest, women often helped hunt and harvest buffalo. Women were responsible for utilizing the entirety of the animal. In these communities the relationship between gender and service to the nation was much less significant.

​Gender Norms: In others however, gender determined so much about the contributions to the community a person would make. For example, the Cherokee of the Southeast assigned male and female infants a bow or a sifter at birth to connect them to their future lives as hunters and fishers or agricultural production. The Iroquois of the Northeast, also known as the Haudenosaunee (hoe-deh-no-SHOW-nee), classified the forest as male and the village as female. ​

PictureEuropean sketches showing indigenous women farming, Library of Congress
But for Indigenous people, gender wasn’t always strictly binary. The Dine and Navajo recognized six different genders! That’s awesome! The Ojibwe did have male and female roles, but individuals could align with the gender of their choice.

Despite the birth rituals, the Cherokee also allowed for gender variance and even built it into their language. A variety of words in the Cherokee language describe people who are “Two-Spirit” or who’s gender expression or identity fits outside the binary male or female. There are words that translate to he or she thinks like a man or woman. Fascinating!
​

In most Native communities, women had significant spiritual roles. They often served as spiritual leaders, healers, and in political leadership. In many Native American creation stories, one of the female characters created life, nature, and Earth through their body through some sort of birth.

The Pueblo of the Southwest have a fascinating origin story where the Corn Mother gave birth to human life and corn sprouted up through the ground. All babies were given an ear of corn at birth to recognize this sacred connection to the Mother. This story illustrates the centrality of the feminine to Pueblo life.

The belief in women’s inherent spirituality lended to their role as healers. Many nations believed that the women had more healing power. Women had extensive knowledge of plants and medicines for healing and were vital to the nation's success. Most Native American women were master craftspeople producing blankets, baskets, jewelry and pottery. Because women work– and always have.

PictureEuropean sketches of indigenous mothers, Library of Congress
Marriage and Sexual Freedoms: Marriage and sexual activity in Native communities was extremely varied and sex was not necessarily only practiced within marriage and often began at a young age.  Some nations were polygamous– meaning people had multiple partners in their lifetime or at the same time– a practice still in place in some Mormon and Muslim families today. Some nations had formal marriage ceremonies, while others considered a couple married when they began living together. 

Women’s power in relationships and within the nation showed most notably in divorce. Both men and women could decide to end a marriage or relationship, but in many nations, women owned all the household belongings, so men leaving marriages could only take the items they had when they began the relationship. Unlike the patriarchal societies of Eurasia where fathers owned their children and mothers had little rights to them, children in Native societies often belonged exclusively to their mother. When a widow remarried, her children from the prior marriage would be adopted by the new husband. 

Native cultures had different practices around menstruation. In some, women inhabited separate quarters during menstruation. For the Ojibwe, women were considered most powerful during that time of the month. Generally, most cultures celebrated female puberty, rather than shamed it. The Hupa people, for instance, celebrate a 3-10 day coming-of-age ceremony following the first menstruation– where was that when I was a girl?  

Some nations would not allow a couple to have sex until their child reached a certain age, although this practice varied considerably, from the child’s ability to crawl to closer to ten years, as practiced by the Cheyenne. As a result, Native American families had about three children, while Eurasian families would sometimes have up to fourteen children.
Native women did what the later Europeans considered “men’s work.” But Native Americans believed in equality, fairness, and autonomy– novel concepts. Most scholars agree that Native American women had more authority and independence than their European counterparts. ​

Picture19th Century sketch of an Indigenous woman, Library of Congress
Property Ownership: The importance of property ownership depended on where the nation lived and what natural resources the nation used to sustain itself. 

In the Pacific Northwest, trees and acorns were incredibly important to their diet, so ownership of trees was passed down from mother to daughter. 

In the east, some Native nations placed emphasis on actual land ownership, and surprise surprise, women often owned the land. The Algonquin and other North Central nations used markers, like Eurasians, to show where one family’s property began and ended.

Other nations, like the Lenape, thought of ownership more like leasing, where someone had the right to use the land, but that it belonged to the nation as a whole. To the Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee (hoe-deh-no-SHOW-nee), women owned the fields they worked, the longhouses, and everything in them. The Hopi women owned the pueblos and the land which was inherited matrilineally.

One early Native source said, “You ought to hear and listen to what we women shall speak . . . for we are the owners of this land and it is ours.” Native Americans women engaged in agricultural activity for generations prior to European contact.

PicturePlains Natives, Public Domain
On the Great Plains, where buffalo were essential and nations migrated to follow them, their inheritance rules put emphasis on objects that people moved with them. When these nations, like the Lakota and the Pawnee got horses brought from Europe, they became the predominant source of wealth. Everyone, even children, had the right to own horses.

Domesticating animals, other than horses, was rare in Native cultures because they tended to believe that animals had equal spiritual rights as humans and because it disrupted gendered distributions of labor. 

We have few reliable written sources about Native women’s lives before contact, so unfortunately we have to turn to white men’s interpretation of Natives for some of our sources. In 1644, the Rev. John Megalopensis, minister at a Dutch Church in New Netherlands (modern day New York) said that Native American women were, “obliged to prepare the Land, to mow, to plant, and do everything; the Men do nothing except hunting, fishing, and going to War against their Enemies. . .” Chill John. Others described Native women as “slaves” to the men, probably because they didn’t really understand, or care to understand, the way Natives shared the burden of labor! 

European Arrival: After the arrival of more European explorers 90 to 95 percent of the Indiginous population was wiped out by diseases brought by the Europeans. Territorial disputes and the resulting conflicts also had devastating impacts on the already weakened Native populations.

Scholars disagree on how European expansion and migration impacted Native women. Some argue that, after contact, women’s authority declined because of a term called cultural assimilation– where cultures shift and change to become similar to the dominant culture. White men preferred to deal with Native men in trade and political negotiations, despite women sitting at the helm in most Native communities. White Christian leaders demanded of their Native converts that they follow patriarchal norms and European gender norms.

PictureMotherhood, Wikimedia Commons
And while that may be true in some places, other scholars insist that women’s leadership remained central to other societies. Matrilineal inheritance of clan identity remained important to many communities, as evidenced by women’s central role in those communities long after European contact and today. 

For example, in 1787, a Cherokee woman appealed to Benjamin Franklin on behalf of her community. She said, “. . . ought to mind what a woman says, and look upon her as a mother – and I have Taken the prevelage to Speak to you as my own Children . . . and I am in hopes that you have a beloved woman amongst you who will help to put her children right if they do wrong, as I shall do the same. . . . ” She played the “mother card,” and I’m here for it. 

Later in the 1800s when the Cherokee nation were increasingly forced out of their homes, groups of Cherokee women petitioned their Council to stand their ground. They forcefully stated, “[b]eloved children… God gave us to inhabit and raise provisions… [do not] part with any more lands.”

These quotes give merit to the suggestion that women’s roles remained and remain central to the leadership of at least some Native communities. 

​By the end of this era, so much remained in question. How would these rich cultures continue? What would happen to the Native people that survived European arrival and what role would women play in that survival? What efforts would be made to resist European expansion? And how many would assimilate to European norms and culture?

Draw your own conclusions

Learn how to teach with inquiry.
Picture
Pocahontas, Library of Congress
Is there a single Native American women's story?
In this inquiry, students will examine the lives of several native women who stories are published. Students will consider the similarities and differences in their stories and respond to the compelling question. This lesson would pair well with any number of lessons on native women from others below. 
1. How were women treated in indigenous cultures?
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Is there a single indigenous women's history?.pdf
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Picture
Why was captivity part of the American frontier experience, and how did its meaning vary?
In this inquiry, students will examine primary sources to understand the varying meaning of captivity on the American frontier and its overall impact. 
Why was captivity part of the American frontier experience, and how did its meaning vary?
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File Type: pdf
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Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
  • The National Women's History Museum has lesson plans on women's history.
  • The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History has lesson plans on women's history.
  • The NY Historical Society has articles and classroom activities for teaching women's history.
  • Unladylike 2020, in partnership with PBS, has primary sources to explore with students and outstanding videos on women from the Progressive era. 
  • The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out! 
  • The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in World History.
Period Specific Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
  • Gilder Lehrman: ​The conclusion that encounters between European settlers and Native Americans changed the lives of both groups has been central to many historical accounts of colonial history. While the arguments made are convincing, the discussions do not directly address the lives of women. It is possible that this omission is a result of a paucity of sources. Regardless of the problems with sources, the question may still be asked: Does this assumption hold up when we look at the encounter of women of both cultures? If not, why not? Before we can consider questions such as these, we need to look at the available primary sources for seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century women and gather as much useful information as we can. Because there is not a wealth of primary sources available on the Internet on these women, we need to read what we do have carefully and learn as much as we can. Hopefully, this will enable us to analyze and write this history. In this lesson, students will use primary and secondary sources to research and understand the lives of women (both Native American and European) in North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
  • NY Historical Society: Women were an integral part of the daily life and success of New Netherland. They served as translators between the Dutch government and the local Native tribes, and acted as liaisons during negotiations with enemy forces. Women were at the center of the colony’s struggle to define the terms of slavery and freedom for the black colonials who lived in the territory. Dutch women actively participated in the bustling trade in the colony, while Native women manipulated imperial power structures to ensure their own survival. And all women in New Netherland contributed to the survival of the colony while still carrying out the responsibilities of home and child care.
  • NY Historical Society: The traditional role of women in English society was one of subordination or second-class status. Women were expected to answer to their fathers, their husbands, and their religious and political leaders. The English common law practice of coverture made it so married women did not legally or economically exist, so they could not be free. But women were hard at work affecting the colonies in many ways, from enslaved women bringing agricultural knowledge that made colonies flourish to housewives inventing new ways to perform basic tasks. Women took part in the armed resistance to European invasion, and challenged the gender norms they were forced to live under. The power of women was well recognized by English colonial governments, who made laws to govern their reproduction, tried them for heresy and witchcraft, and severely punished their crimes, even when the women themselves were not at fault. The very first published poet of the English colonies was a woman. Even though the odds were against them, the women of the early English colonies were important to the development of the New World.​

Bibliography

Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.

DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.

“Letter from Cherokee Indian Woman to Benjamin Franklin, Governor of the State of Pennsylvania,” Paul Lauter et al., eds, The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume A: Beginnings to 1800, 6th ed. New York: 2009.

Megalopensis, John. “A Dutch Minister Describes the Iroquois.” Albert Bushnell Hart, ed., American History Told by Contemporaries, vol. I. New York: 1898.

Petitions of the Women’s Councils, Petition, May 2, 1817 in Presidential Papers Microfilm: Andrew Jackson. Library of Congress, series 1, reel 22.

Sanchez, Casey. "Book Review: Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory by Qwo-Li Driskill." Pasatiempo. August 19, 2016. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/books/book_reviews/asegi-stories-cherokee-queer-and-two-spirit-memory-by-qwo-li-driskill/article_846a2910-9ae8-5d06-956d-234b68ea4b7e.html. 

Teaching History Editors. “American Indian Women.” Teaching History. N.D. https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23931.

Yazzie, Jolene. “Why are Diné LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit people being denied access to ceremony? We should not be discriminated against when our gender roles don’t match our sex.” High Country News. January 7, 2020. https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.2/indigenous-affairs-why-are-dine-lgbtq-and-two-spirit-people-being-denied-access-to-ceremony#:~:text=In%20the%20Din%C3%A9%20language%2C%20there,N%C3%A1dleeh%20Hastii%20(gay%20man). 

Ward, Kathleen A. “Before and After the White Man: Indian Women, Property, Progress, and Power.” CONNECTICUT PUBLIC INTEREST LAW JOURNAL. Vol. 6:2. https://cpilj.law.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2515/2018/10/6.2-Before-and-After-the-White-Man-Indian-Women-Property-Progress-and-Power-by-Kathleen-A.-Ward.pdf.

Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Primary AUTHOR:

Kelsie Brook Eckert

Primary ReviewerS:

Dr. Margaret Huettl
​Hannah Dutton​
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Consulting Team

Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University

Dr. Barbara Tischler, Consultant
​Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University

Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, Consultant
Assistant Professor of History at La Sierra University

Jacqui Nelson, Consultant
Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University

Dr. Deanna Beachley
Professor of History and Women's Studies at College of Southern Nevada

Editors

Alice Stanley

Reviewers

Colonial
Dr. Margaret Huettl
​Hannah Dutton
​Dr. John Krueckeberg

19th Century
Dr. Rebecca Noel
Michelle Stonis, MA
Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA
Cony Marquez, PhD Candidate
​
​20th Century
Dr. Tanya Roth
​Dr. Jessica Frazier
Mary Bezbatchenko, MA
Remedial Herstory Editors. "1. EARLY NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 20, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com. 
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      • Episodes 1-10 >
        • S1E1 Our Story
        • S1E2 His Story Her Story
        • S1E3 Heroes and Sheroes
        • S1E4 Herstory's Complicated Suffrage
        • S1E5 His Sphere Her Sphere
        • S1E6 Fast Girls and 1936 Olympics
        • S1E7 Standards and Her Voice
        • S1E8 Rape and Civil Rights
        • S1E9 Textbooks and Crossdressing Spies
        • S1E10 It's not about feminism
      • Episodes 11-20 >
        • S1E11 Equal Pay and Ida Tarbell
        • S1E12 Equal Rights Amendment
        • S1E13 Culture Wars and the Frontier PART 1
        • S1E14 Culture Wars and the Frontier PART 2
        • S1E15 Women's Historians and Primary Sources
        • S1E16 Education and Nuns
        • S1E17 Blanks and Goddess Worship
        • S1E18 Thanksgiving and Other
        • S1E19 Feminist Pedagogy and the Triangle Fire
        • S1E20 Mrs. So and so, Peggy Eaton, and the Trail of Tears
      • Episodes 21-30 >
        • S1E21 First Ladies and Holiday Parties
        • S1E22 Sarah, Mary, and Virginity
        • S1E23 Hiding and Jackie O
        • S1E24 Well Behaved Women and Early Christianity
        • S1E25 Muslim Women and their History
        • S1E26 Written Out Alice Paul
        • S1E27 Blocked and Kamala Harris
        • S1E28 Clandestine Work and Virginia Hall
        • S1E29 Didn't Get There, Maggie Hassan and the Fabulous Five
        • S1E30 White Supremacy and the Black Panthers
      • Episodes 31-40 >
        • S1E31 Thematic Instruction and Indigenous Women
        • S1E32 Racism and Women in the Mexican American War
        • S1E33 Covid Crisis and Republican Motherhood
        • S1E34 Burned Records and Black Women's Clubs
        • S1E35 JSTOR and Reconstruction
        • S1E36 Somebody's Wife and Hawaiian Missionary Wives
        • S1E37 Taboo = Menstruation
        • S1E38 What's her name? Health, Religion and Mary Baker Eddy PART 1
        • S1E39 What's her name? Health, Religion and Mary Baker Eddy PART 1
        • S1E40 Controversial and Reproductive Justice PART 1
      • Episodes 41-50 >
        • S1E41 Controversial and Reproductive Justice PART 2
        • S1E42 Sexual Assault and the Founding of Rome
        • S1E43 Sexist Historians and Gudrid the Viking
        • S1E44 Byzantine Intersectionality
        • S1E45 Murder and Queens
        • S1E46 Hindu Goddesses and the Third Gender
        • S1E47 Women's Founding Documents
        • S1E48 Women and Bletchley Park
        • S1E49 Unknown Jewish Resistance Fighters
        • S1E50 End of Year ONE!
    • Season 2 >
      • Empresses, Monarchs, and Politicians >
        • S2E1 Let's Make HERSTORY!
        • S2E2 Empresses, Monarchs, and Politicians: How did women rise to power in the Ancient world? >
          • Women Explorers and Pioneers >
            • S2E29: Women Explorers and Pioneers: Who was the real Lady Lindy?
            • S2E30: What is the heroine's journey of women in the west? ​With Meredith Eliassen
            • S2E31: What is the lost history of the Statue of Freedom? with Katya Miller
            • S2E32: Why did women explore the White Mountains? With Dr. Marcia Schmidt Blaine
            • S2E33: How are native women telling their own stories? with Dr. Ferina King
        • S2E3 How did female sexuality lead to the rise and fall of Chinese empresses? with Dr. Cony Marquez
        • S2E4 How did medieval women rise and why were they erased? ​With Shelley Puhak
        • S2E5 Did English Queens Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn have agency? with Chloe Gardner
        • S2E6 Is Elizabeth a turning point in World History? with Deb Hunter
        • S2E7 How did Maria Theresa transform modern Europe? With Dr. Barbara Stollber-Rilinger
        • S2E8 Were Paul and Burns the turning point in women's suffrage? With Dr. Sidney Bland
        • S2E9 Were the First Ladies just wives? ​With the First Ladies Man
        • S2E10: How did ER use her position and influence to sway public opinion and influence politics? ​With Dr. Christy Regenhardt
        • S2E11: Why was women’s fight for low level offices needed? ​With Dr. Elizabeth Katz
        • S2E12 Should We Believe Anita Hill? With the Hashtag History Podcast
      • Women Social Reformers >
        • S2E13: Women in Social Reform: Should temperance have been intersectional?
        • S2E14: Why are material culture artifacts reshaping our understanding of women's history? With Dr. Amy Forss
        • S2E15: Did 19th institutionalizing and deinstitutionalizing healthcare make it safer? with Dr. Martha Libster
        • S2E16: Why are the interconnections between women and their social reform movements important? With Dr. DeAnna Beachley
        • S2E17: Did WWII really bring women into the workforce? ​With Dr. Dorothy Cobble
        • S2E18: How have unwell women been treated in healthcare? ​With Dr. Elinor Cleghorn
        • S2E19: How did MADD impact the culture of drunk driving?
      • Women and War >
        • S2E20: Women and War: How are Army Rangers still changing the game?
        • S2E21: Should we remember Augustus for his war on women? ​With Dr. Barry Strauss
        • S2E22: Were French women willing participants or collateral damage in imperialism? with Dr. Jack Gronau
        • S2E23: Was Joan of Arc a heretic? ​With Jacqui Nelson
        • S2E24: What changes did the upper class ladies of SC face as a result of the Civil War? with Annabelle Blevins Pifer
        • S2E25: Were Soviets more open to gender equality? ​With Jacqui Nelson
        • S2E26: Why Womanpower in the Women's Armed Services Integration Act of 1948? with Tanya Roth
        • S2E27: What role did women play in the Vietnam War? with Dr. Barbara Tischler
        • S2E28: Why were women drawn into the Anti-Vietnam Movement with Dr. Jessica Frazier
      • Women in World Religions >
        • S2E34: Women and World Religions: How did Confucianism’s enduring impact affect women in China?
        • S2E35: What precedent is there for female Islamic leaders? with Dr. Shahla Haeri
        • S2E36: Were Islamic Queens successful? with Dr. Shahla Haeri
        • S2E37: Is there space for female Islamic leaders today? with Dr. Shahla Haeri​
        • S2E38: Were Protestant women just wives and mothers? with Caroline Taylor
      • Women in Queer History >
        • S2E39: Queer Women in History: How did one woman legalize gay marriage?
        • S2E40: Was Title IX just about sports? with Sara Fitzgerald
        • S2E41: Was Hildegard de Bingen gay? with Lauren Cole
        • S2E42: What crimes were women accused of in the 17th and 18th Century? with Dr. Shannon Duffy
        • S2E43: How should we define female friendships in the 19th century? with Dr. Alison Efford
        • S2E44: Were gay bars a religious experience for gay people before Stonewall? with Dr. Marie Cartier
      • Women and Business >
        • S2E45: Women and Business: Do We still have far to go? With Ally Orr
        • S2E46: How did 16th century English women manage businesses? with Dr. Katherine Koh
        • S2E47: How did free women of color carve out space as entrepreneurs in Louisiana? with Dr. Evelyn Wilson
        • S2E48: Who were the NH women in the suffrage movement? with Elizabeth DuBrulle
        • S2E49: What gave Elizabeth Arden her business prowess? with Shelby Robert
        • S2E50: End of Year Two
        • BONUS DOBBS v. JACKSON WOMEN'S HEALTH
    • S3E1: Mahsa "Jani" Amini and the Women of Iran
  • Shop
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    • Learning Overview
    • World History >
      • 1. to 15,000 BCE Pre-History
      • 2. to 15,000 BCE Goddesses
      • 3. 10,000 BCE Agricultural Revolution
      • 4. 4,000-1,000 BCE City States
      • 5. 800-400 BCE Rome's Founding Myths
      • 6. 800-300 BCE Asian Philosophies
      • 7. 100 BCE - 100 CE Roman Empire
      • 8. 100 BCE - 100 CE Han Empire
      • 9. 0 CE Monotheism
      • 10. 100-500 Silk Roads
      • 11. 300-900 Age of Queens
      • 12. 700-1200 Islam
      • 13. 1000-1500 Feudalism
      • 14. 900-1200 Crusades
      • 15. 1200-1400 Mongols
      • 16. 1300-1500 Renaissance and Ottomans
      • 17. 1000-1600 New Worlds
      • 18. 1000-1600 Explorers
      • 19. 1450-1600 Reformation
      • 20. 1500-1600 Encounters
      • 21. 1500-1600 Slave Trade
      • 22. 1700-1850 Enlightenment
      • 23. 1600-1850 Asia
      • 24. 1850-1950 Industrial Revolution
      • 25. 1850-1950 Imperialism
      • 26. 1900-1950 World Wars
      • 27. 1950-1990 Decolonization
    • US History >
      • 1. Early North American Women
      • 2. Women's Cultural Encounters
      • 3. Women's Colonial Life
      • 4. American Revolution
      • 5. Republican Motherhood
      • 6. Women and the Trail of Tears
      • 7. Women in the Abolition Movement
      • 8. Women and the West
      • 9. Women in the Civil War
      • 10. Women and Reconstruction
      • 11. The Rise of NAWSA and NACWC
      • 12. Women and Expansion
      • 13. Women and Industrialization
      • 14. Progressive Women
      • 15. Women and World War I
      • 16. Final Push for Woman Suffrage
      • 17. The New Woman
      • 18. Women and the Great Depression
      • 19. Women and World War II
      • 20. Post-War Women
      • 21. Women and the Civil Rights Movement
      • 22. Women and the Cold War
      • 23. Reproductive Justice
      • 24. The Feminist Era
      • 25. Modern Women
  • Resources
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    • Movies >
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      • US History Films