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3. 10,000 BCE The Agricultural Revolution: A great mistake? 

The Agricultural Revolution allowed humanity to evolve from hunter gather societies to societies capable of building advanced and enormous civilizations, but did we lose more than we gained? Maybe. Women became slaves to the grind stone, health declined, and hierarchies established gender norms that lasted millennia. Birth rates improved, surpluses of food, and everything considered modern evolved from the agricultural revolution. Weighing it all-- it's hard to say whether this was revolutionary for women. 
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Between 10,500 and 8,500 BCE, humans began to switch from hunting and gathering to farming, a change which led to larger populations, permanent settlements, and many other developments we now consider typical across the globe. This development is known as the first Agricultural Revolution or the Neolithic Revolution. For many generations it was considered a great leap forward as it led to the creation of cities and accompanied the emergence of organized religions and political structures as well as a wide range of occupations and economic trade. But as we learn more and more about how humans lived before the Agricultural Revolution it seems like we lost more than we gained.

The Agricultural Revolution took place at different times in different parts of the world, but the first one began in what we call the Fertile Crescent, the land that stretches from the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys in Mesopotamia to the Nile River valley in Egypt. It is here that archeologists have found the earliest evidence for the beginning of agriculture. So that is where we will take our closest look at the evidence.  To keep things simple, we will focus on bones and artifacts from two cultures in the Fertile Crescent, the Neolithic farming settlement at Abu Hureyra and the settled hunter-gatherers of the Natufian culture that existed prior to the Neolithic Revolution. Archeological evidence does not always offer us a complete picture of what happened, so we will also consider evidence anthropologists have gathered from foraging societies that exist today.

Prehistoric women might have been at the heart of the transition to farming from hunting and gathering. Hunting would have been the task assigned to the most able-bodied people of the community, usually men in their prime, though some modern foraging societies invited women who had not yet had children take part in the hunt. That means women, children, and the elderly would work together to gather grains, fruit, and legumes from the wild. It is possible that women were the ones who observed the connection between fallen seeds and a richer harvest when they returned to a certain spot later. The earliest version of farming predated the Bronze Age, so it did not involve a plow. Rather, the farmer would use a stick to poke a hole in which the seed was dropped. After harvest, women would do much if not all of the food preparation, a task that called for grinding the grain on a stone pallet. There is evidence that women in the earliest farming communities were physically very strong. A comparison of prehistoric women’s arm bone fragments to the Cambridge Women’s Rowing team showed the ancient women had bone strength that measured 9% stronger than modern athletic women. 
​

 That strength came with a cost, however. When Theya Molleson of the British Museum looked at the remains of women from Abu Hureyra, a site occupied for 6000 years in what is now Syria, she found evidence that these women spent hours kneeling over their grinding stones, resulting in deformed toes, curved thigh bones, and arthritic knees and backs. Pre-agriculture skeletons revealed none of those issues. Furthermore, the teeth of earlier humans were in much better shape. The teeth of Neolithic farming people first showed more wear and tear as tiny bits of stone ended up in the grain, and later showed more cavities and gum disease as the soft porridge they ate left a build-up of sugar and carbs on the tooth enamel. Farming peoples worked harder and were far less healthy overall. 

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In addition to the impact on the bones of farming peoples, they had a far less nutritious diet because they focused on a few crops that grew easily compared to other foodstuffs.  That meant they had fewer foods to choose from and a limited diet is automatically not as rich as a varied diet. The farming people would have been more likely to develop heart conditions and digestive difficulties, among other things.

Humans lost their connection to nature along the way, as well. Modern-day foragers, who lived much like our hunter gatherer ancestors did, still experience this deep sense of connection with the natural world. When a forager arrives at a new place, she will spend time observing and absorbing the sights and smells around her. Many wild animals do the same thing.  

How do we know that the diet of the earliest farmers was lacking when compared to that of hunter gatherers? Well, we can’t be certain if this was true of all prehistoric peoples, but evidence from earlier Natufian sites tell us that their diets were rich, and they did not have to work hard to get enough to eat. Though we used to assume that life before farming was brutal, archeologists have unearthed wonders that dramatically alter what we thought we knew about life before the Neolithic Revolution. One site, named Ohalo II, had been inhabited continuously for many generations almost 23,000 years ago. These humans were hunter gatherers, but they were not migratory. They often lived in small villages near forests and waterways and let the food come to them. That means that they survived on a rich array of resources without having to travel far to find them.  

Archeologists have found the remains of food such as almonds, pistachios, olives, grapes, and many other edible plants. Among these is a fruit known as the Rubus, similar to a blackberry. That’s something that had to be eaten fresh. Animal remains included a wide variety of fish, turtles, waterfowl, and several breeds of mammal ranging from rabbit to gazelles. They did find grinding stones that still held fragments of barley, wheat, and oats. There were even sickle blades, showing us the residents of this tiny village had figured out how to harvest even though the evidence suggests they only engaged in small-scale planting.  Archeologists have found very little wear and tear on the sickle blades, supporting the idea that they were only used occasionally. Residents in this settlement would have been well fed, but probably not overworked. Men’s and women’s skeletons were very similar in terms of wear and tear and overall health. It was only after humans took up farming that women’s bodies bore the mark of physical labor while bent over a grindstone. Farming people were also shorter than earlier humans, due to the limited nutrition available.

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Historian, Jared Diamond, argued, “Farming may have encouraged inequality between the sexes, as well. Freed from the need to transport their babies during a nomadic existence,and under pressure to produce more hands to till the fields, farming women tended to have more frequent pregnancies than their hunter-gatherer counterparts- with consequent drains on their health. Among the Chilean mummies, for example, more women than men had bone lesions from infectious disease.”

The Agricultural Revolution represents a move away from tiny settlements like we find at Ohalo II and towards massive populations laboring to farm larger and larger territories. The process shows its first dramatic changes of inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent between 9,500 and 8,500 BCE. Humans sought to increase production of wheat, originally a wild grass, but one which grew easily if properly protected. Doing so meant not just plowing the soil and sowing the seeds. It meant draining the land if the weather was too wet and building irrigation ditches if it was too dry. Wheat had to be protected from pests like rabbits with the introduction of fences. Just as we saw with the activities surrounding the preparation of grains—the kneeling to grind grain for hours on a regular basis—the labor that went into the planting and protection of the fields left its traces on human bones. Spines, knees, necks, and feet showed increasing damage with every generation of farmers. 

Furthermore, settling so many people in one place led to a build-up of human and animal waste, spreading diseases such as parasites, infections, and viruses. Pests too small to block out with fences, such as rats and mice, were attracted to stored food. The growth of rodent populations attracted predators such as wild cats and dogs, leading to the domestication of those animals. 

Apart from wild pests, fields also had to be protected from human rivals. Though scholars have claimed since the Renaissance that prehistoric humans were violent brutes, their lives were nothing compared to the violence that accompanies competition for scarce resources.  When a hunter-gatherer group felt the pressure of a stronger bunch of foragers, they could simply move elsewhere. That was no longer an option. The farmed land had to be protected from scavengers and neighbors or the community would starve. Even the simplest farmer had to be prepared to defend the land. 

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This competition and need to protect the harvest contributed to a growing hierarchy in society. Just as farming might have been advanced by a clever individual who could direct projects and rise in status in the group, the need for protection introduced dedicated warriors to guard the boundaries. The next logical step, of course, is that dedicated warriors and community leaders were increasingly excused from the actual labor and were fed by the work of others. Hierarchies emerged, leaders became entrenched, and over thousands of years, division of labor extended to specialized occupations that served those in power at the expense of those who worked the hardest. 

Even burial practices reflected the change in social order. In pre-farming burial sites, the graves of men and women are all roughly the same. People were buried with a few items that seemed to link each person to a particular clan or place. The dead were often buried very near to the homes of descendants, linking the living to the ancestors. After the agricultural revolution, graves began to show enormous differences in wealth and status. Poor laborers were buried with almost nothing, while warrior graves contained weapons, and the graves of the wealthy and powerful people contained treasures and food offerings. It is pretty clear that, just as agriculture created wealth for some, it also led to poverty for others.

All territories were now under someone’s control. Even if someone chose to leave life in the settled city, there was not much “free territory” available. If you did find an unclaimed piece of land, it usually required even more hard labor if you and your family had to clear the land in order to survive.  

What made humans settle down and take up farming, if it made life harder and damaged our overall health? One possibility is that humans simply had no choice. At the end of the last great Ice Age, the climate was changing dramatically. Parts of Mesopotamia that we tend to think of purely as desert were actually once very wet. 

Landscape archeologist Jennifer Pournelle has been able to map out the elaborate waterways and wetlands that used to cover all of Southern Mesopotamia. The land was lush, and food was plentiful. However, as the land began to dry up, the great diversity of plants and animals disappeared. Humans were left with the task of encouraging a few edible plants to grow on as much land as possible. The early phases of farming might not have required backbreaking labor, since it was still possible to throw seeds on fertile land that was exposed as waters receded. As the climate became even drier, though, humans had to adapt their work again to make crops grow.

During and after the Agricultural Revolution, when enormous cities emerged in Mesopotamia, some semi-migratory groups continued to thrive. They were not foragers, however. They tended to be pastoralists who largely lived off herding goats, sheep, and cattle. These groups continued to enjoy relatively egalitarian social relations. However, they had a pretty hard life and farming livestock had a severe impact on the animals themselves.​

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A hunter will take any animal that he finds, but the farmer will carefully select more easily controlled animals. He will eat male animals and female livestock too old to breed, but spare young female animals to ensure a bigger herd through their young. The movement of animals had to be limited to keep them from wandering off, and pastoralists had to stay on the move to find enough food for the herd while fending off predators. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle as we know them today are almost completely dependent on human care. They would not survive in the wild.

Apart from climate change, another possible explanation for the move towards agriculture has to do with religion. In Turkey, there is an ancient religious complex at Göbekli Tepe, dating back to 9500 BCE. There were no dwellings or fortifications here and all the evidence points to the fact that this religious site predated widespread farming. There are traces of feasts, in the form of ancient bread and beer, all made from grains collected in the wild. There are large carved sculptures of humans and wild animals. There are a small number of huge, stone monoliths as well. For most of history, we have assumed that large building projects occurred only after the rise of agriculture. But, clearly, something moved these foragers to cooperate in the creation of something majestic in honor of the gods.

Some mysterious spiritual calling led hunter-gatherers to gather at Göbekli Tepe to build, to worship, and then return to their nomadic or semi-settled lives. Ideas about the cosmos and worship of deities may have indicated a growing sense that humans were not like other animals. Some scholars believe that our growing disconnection from nature is what led to farming, rather than farming leading us away from nature.

Another interesting question is why did humans not reverse course when they realized that life had become so much harder? The simplest explanation is that when you see how everything has changed, it’s usually too late to reverse course. Change is gradual, and even if we are aware that society is changing, it is very difficult to figure out how to improve your situation. Consider this: a serious downside to hunter-gatherer life is the absolute need to limit the size of the population even if that meant committing infanticide to keep numbers low. After the Agricultural Revolution, when surplus food was possible, families were able to feed more people, and therefore they were able to have bigger families. It is a little hard after a couple of generations of population growth to simply go back to being hunter-gatherers.

In fact, there is still some debate on the impact of humans having bigger families. Historian Yuval Noah Harari reminds us that humans no longer practiced infanticide after the advent of settled farming, but the loss in health usually increased infant mortality all the same. Many farming mothers fed their babies porridge in order to stop nursing and return to heavy labor. The lack of mother’s milk contributed to illness and weaknesses among children.

By the end of this era, so much remained in question. Did the benefits of settled life outweigh the loss of free time and a more equal society? Could ancient humans have made any other choice? It is possible that the life of a forager is the best in terms of balance, connection to nature, a varied diet, and mutual respect for all members of the community. But, for all its cost, agriculture has led, over time, to amazing advances in the arts, science, language, and literature. Once we jumped on the agriculture path, everything we enjoy in modern life became possible. Was it worth it, or was the Agricultural Revolution a huge mistake?  ​

Draw your own conclusions

Learn how to teach with inquiry.
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How did women in the ancient world come to power?
In this inquiry, students will compare and contrast Kubaba, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, three women rulers of the ancient world who ruled outright and explore what is known about how they came to power. Are their patterns in women's path to leadership?
How did women rise to power in the ancient world?
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File Type: pdf
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"The Fall of Man." Wikimedia Commons
What do origin stories say about the role of women?
To answer this question students will read origin stories from cultures around the world. Students will consider the ways that gender is represented and the long term impacts the messages contained within these myths can have on a culture.
What do origin stories say about the role of women?.pdf
File Size: 583 kb
File Type: pdf
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Ishtar, Wikimedia Commons
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Public Domain
How did the Epic of Gilgamesh explore gender roles? ​
In this inquiry, students read portions of the translated epic to better understand how this story not only reflects, but established gender based norms and fears. 

​Coming soon!
How did Hammurabi's code solidify gender norms?
In this inquiry, students read portions of the translated laws to better understand how they reflected social values and engrained gender based discrimination for millennia to come. 

​Coming soon!
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Wikimedia Commons
How were women treated in this cuture? WEBQUEST
​
Measuring a culture by how they treat women is a great way to help students better understand society and time periods. Let the students become the historian and determine how "advanced" the society was. The following Webquest requires students to have access to the internet. On whatever time period or culture you are learning about in a World History, Geography, or Cultures class, ask students to look for articles that answer these questions, and ultimately let students decide how they treated their women.
How are women treated in this culture?
File Size: 201 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
  • This website, Women in World History has primary source based lesson plans on women's history in a whole range of topics. Some are free while others have a cost.
  • 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.

Bibliography

Belfer-Cohen, Anna, & A. Nigel Goring-Morris, “Becoming Farmers: The Inside Story,”Current Anthropology v. 52, No. S4, (October 2011)

Christ, Carol. “Women and Men in Egalitarian Matriarchy,” Feminism and Religion (2018)

Diamond, Jared. “The Worst Mistake in Human History.” Discover Magazine, 1987. http://public.gettysburg.edu/~dperry/Class%20Readings%20Scanned%20Documents/Intro/Diamond.PDF. 

Harari, Yuval Noah. “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” (2015)

Manning, Richard. “Against the Grain: How Agriculture has Hacked Civilization” (2004)

Scott, James C. “Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States” (2017)

Strayer, R. and Nelson, E., Ways Of The World. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.

Ungar, Peter S. “Evolutions Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins” (2017)

AUTHOR:

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer

Consulting Team

Editors

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

Dr. Nancy Locklin-Sofer, Consultant
Professor of History at Maryville College. 

Chloe Gardner, Consultant
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University

Dr. Whitney Howarth, Consultant
Former Professor of History at Plymouth State University

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

​Maria Concepcion Marquez Sandoval
PhD Candidate in History at Arizona University
Ron Kaiser
Humanities Teacher, Moultonborough Academy

Reviewers

Ancient:
Dr. Kristin Heineman
Professor of History at Colorado State University
Dr. Bonnie Rock-McCutcheon
Professor of History at Wilson College
Sarah Stone
PhD Candidate in Religious Studies at Edinburgh University
Medieval:
Dr. Katherine Koh
Professor of History at La Sierra University
Dr. Jonathan Couser
Professor of History at Plymouth State University
Dr. Shahla Haeri
Professor of History at Boston University 
Lauren Cole
PhD Candidate in History at Northwestern University
Modern:
Dr. Jack Gronau
Professor of History at Northeastern University
Remedial Herstory Editors. "3. 10,000 BCE THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION: A GREAT MISTAKE? ​" The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com.​
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    • All Episodes
    • Season 1 >
      • 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
    • OTD Calendar
    • Book Club
    • Books
    • Movies >
      • World History Films
      • US History Films