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6. 800-300 BCE Asian Philosophies and Women’s Place

In Asia, three religious philosophies emerged that would define human lives for millennia to come: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. What do these philosophies have to say about women, and what roles did women play in their founding? This varied from faith to faith, although women feel a bit like an afterthought in each. But women are all over the founding stories and traditions. 
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PictureMalta Devi, Public Domain
In Asia, three of many religious philosophies have dominated the lives and experiences of women: Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. While different, these philosophies have existed in tandem, merged, and prescribed the way women should be treated and the role they should play– nothing like some serious mansplaining to last millennia. 

Hinduism: In the Indian subcontinent, a religion known today as Hinduism was spreading.  The fundamental principle was that the human soul was part of a universal soul or deity and that the final goal of humankind was to be unified with that soul. From its inception, Hindus worshiped many gods including female goddesses. Hindus believe in reincarnation and that through the process of birth and reincarnation humans would eventually progress to this elevated state. Good actions resulted in a rebirth at a higher social position or caste. This caste system, which divided Hindus largely into five groups, legitimized gender differences: being female was somehow a punishment for poor behavior in a previous life, and each caste had different ideals of womanhood. Like other spiritual traditions around the world who viewed women with hostility, misogynistic Hindu laws entrenched this patriarchy in tradition. The Laws of Manu for instance, composed in the early common era, stated that embryos were born male and the female babies were mutilated males produced by weak semen. It advocated for child marriage. And stated, “a virtuous wife should constantly serve her husband like a God.” It prescribed a philosophy similar to the Three Obediences found in ancient China. It also argued that a woman could only achieve spiritual salvation through her husband, and also equated all women - especially during menstruation - with the polluted lower castes. Although many now consider the Laws of Manu outdated, much of the patriarchal ethos remains entrenched in Indian and other Hindu cultures today. ​

PictureKali, Wikimedia Commons
Contradictorily, however, many Hindu deities remained female, unlike the Jewish and Christian faiths where the all male God was elevated over pagan female goddesses. Some of these goddesses were powerful, fearsome, and destructive. Were these just stereotypical tropes of powerful women, or were they feminist icons? One famous portrayal of the goddess Devi, in her incarnation as Kali, shows her standing with her foot on top of her husband‘s head. Powerhouse? Yes. Did it also legitimize male fear of women? Probably. Did she crush his head?  We don’t know. Or perhaps another goddess ran up and kicked his head off his body like she was kicking a field goal. And thus American football was invented. Only kidding.

Entrenched in Hindu philosophy is the idea of shakti, or feminine power. It holds that the feminine power is indeed greater than masculine power, and thus in need of creative control. Nonetheless, it is believed that shakti and the masculine energy, Shiva, are equally codependent, and thus Hinduism can also provide a great model of equality at a spiritual level. ​

PictureConfucius, Wikimedia Commons
Confucianism: In China, the rise and eventual adoption of Confucianism by the Han Dynasty represented a birth of uniquely Chinese culture that would last for millennia, but what was that like for women? Did the improved bureaucracies and emphasis on meritocracy extend to them as well?

Nah– Confucian ideology emphasized moderation, virtue, and filial piety and covered up the authoritarian policies of the regime. For women, Confucianism was, and remains, a problematic barrier to women’s rights and feminism and is deeply engrained in Asian cultures.

So who is this Confucius and what was his beef with women? He lived around 500 BCE and was considered one of the great Chinese sages. He was a bureaucrat, teacher, and philosopher. He lived in a time when leaders were corrupt and not working toward the needs of the empire and its people. He wanted social harmony and political stability grounded in trust and mutual moral obligations for China. 

Confucius’ ideas were recorded as a philosophy, but one that is often associated with oppressing women through subjugation to the male head of the household, even to their sons during widowhood! So wait, you changed their diapers one day, and they stand over you the next? Whether Confucius intended this discrimination is hard to know, but Confucius and sexism are intertwined. 

Perhaps there’s too much fire thrown at Confucius, after all, he basically ignored the existence of women in his writing. When 10 ministers came to see the King, Confucius states that 9 came– one of them was a woman. Why he neglected her is unclear. Was he commenting on the unusuality of a woman in that role? Or was he merely distinguishing men from women? There are only a few direct references to women, and one of them is hostile: “Women and servants are hard to deal with.” 

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It is from Confucius that we get the Yin Yang concept, that balances feminine qualities and male qualities as separate but equal. Feminists today reject this model as it has been used to justify women’s subordination and exclusion from life outside the home. Yin and Yang are starkly different, man and woman have different qualities. Yang is strong, but Yin is weak and yielding– please. Have you met women? A man was honored for his strength, yet a  woman was glorified for her beauty.

Confucian philosophy meant that women lived pretty subjugated lives. Women could not earn money outside the home and were expected to leave their family to join their spouses when they married, so many baby girls were abandoned shortly after birth, a practice called “infanticide.” And this wasn’t restricted to China: baby girls in every region of the world faced the threat by simply being female. Female infanticide (by the way there is no male infanticide and it remains one of the largest human rights issues of our time) happened everywhere, and in many places continues today. One ancient Chinese man recalled, “even a poor man would bring up a son, but even a rich man will dispose of a daughter.” Girls in China who survived were given virtuous names like Chastity in hopes that she would live up to it. Chinese women had no control over who they married and had to live with their spouse’s family, who selected her as a strong mate. The old proverb went: “A boy is born facing in; a girl is born facing out.” 

Confucianism solidified women’s second-class status, and culturally ingrained the prohibition on women’s formal education. Women’s education ebbed when outsiders gained control of traditional Chinese regions, but the persistent domination of Confucianism locked women into perpetual slavery to their families.  One scholar wrote, “Few people teach their daughters to read and write nowadays for fear that they might become over ambitious.”  Another wrote, “It is sufficient for women to know a glossary of a few hundred words such as fuel, rice, fish and meat for their daily use. To know more can do more harm than good.” 

Analects About Women, an early text, encouraged girls to be chaste and silent.  It also provided guidance for parents:
“Keep your daughter indoors… she ought to be under your total command. You should scold her roundly if she is not quick to obey, remind her often of self-discipline and household duties. Ensure that she shows due deference towards guests and that she retires quietly once the tea has been served. Do not spoil your daughter for fear of her becoming unruly. Never encourage or tolerate self-destructive behaviour for fear of fostering in her a suicidal tendency. Do not teach her to sing for fear of corrupting her mind. Do not let her loiter for fear of evil-temptation.” 

PictureMahapajapati Gotami, Wikimedia Commons
Buddhism: Living and teaching around the same time as Confucius was Gautama Buddha, the father of Buddhism. He too had a powerful philosophy that had a massive impact on women’s lives. 

Buddhism focuses on personal development and attainment of deep knowledge. Buddhists seek to achieve enlightenment through meditation, spiritual learning, and practice. They believe in reincarnation, that life is full of suffering, but the path to peace is through reaching nirvana: a joyful state beyond human suffering. Sounds amazing! So where did women stand in this?

In Buddha’s famous story, Mahapajapati Gotami and her sister Maya were princesses who married the king Súddhodona in ancient India. Maya gave birth to the boy who would go on to become the Buddha but she died only seven days after his birth. Her sister raised the boy along with her own children, even nursing him in infancy. 

But Buddha renounces his wealth and the world, living in poverty for six years. It is a wealthy woman who offers him milky rice, enough fuel to allow him to meditate. The story goes that just before enlightenment, the Buddha-to-be was overwhelmed by Mara the God of Illusions and the Earth Mother came and washed Mara away with water from her hair. The Buddha is often pictured with a hand down to earth in gratitude for the Earth Mother.

PictureAnanda asking Buddha, Public Domain
After the Buddha discovered the Middle Path and began to build a religious community, his aunt/adopted mother Gotami followed his teaching. Buddha improved women’s status by emphasizing man’s dependence on women, as woman is the mother of man, earning reverence and veneration. He also improved women’s opportunities in education and spirituality, by eventually, and reluctantly, allowing women into monastic life.

The story goes that after the death of his father, Gotami approached the Buddha to ask if women could join the order as nuns. He refused her request. Disheartened, Gotami and her many women followers proceeded to shave their heads and put on the yellow robes worn by Buddhist monks. They followed the Buddha as he traveled even though he had said they could not become nuns. They persisted in living as if they were already nuns, but still sought his blessing.

By tradition, the Buddha refused Gotami’s request three times. When at last one of the Buddha’s closest assistants, Ananda, offered to speak for the women, he was also at first refused. Buddha said, “women are stupid, Ananda. That is the reason, Ananda, that is the cause, why women have no place in public assemblies.” Changing tactics, Ananda asked the Buddha if women were capable of achieving sainthood. The Buddha agreed that they could but he still hesitated. Ananda then gently reminded the Buddha of the great love and service his aunt had rendered as his foster mother. Finally, the Buddha agreed that Gotami and the women who followed her could be ordained.

But, there was a catch. The Buddha said the women could be ordained only if they agreed to follow the “Eight Chief Rules”. The rules themselves applied only to nuns and they clearly dictated that, in every way, a nun would always be dependent upon monks and would occupy a more subservient role to the men of the order. Even a nun of “a hundred years standing”, said rule number one, should bow down to a monk even if he’d been ordained only a day earlier. Typical.

Gotami had a big choice to make. Her dedication to the Buddha and her advocacy on behalf of women like herself is unquestionable. Most of the women who followed her were also widows with adult children—women who had very few opportunities for making their own way in the world. However, Gotami’s acceptance of the Eight Rules would cement the lower status of women within Buddhism for generations to come. Ultimately, she accepted the terms because doing so opened up new possibilities for women in India even if it came with serious limitations.

The nunnery itself was revolutionary for women. Most women in India were entirely dependent on the men in their lives. The nunnery offered something unprecedented: women living independently from their families in prayerful pursuits. ​

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Confucianism and Buddhism spread throughout Asia and merged in some ways as the philosophies were not incompatible. In India for example, women’s status declined with the rise of organized and monotheistic faiths. The society had been patriarchal and had a strict caste system, but the abundance of powerful female goddesses and the existence of a female warrior class, shows that women were regarded with high status and respect. There was a prayer for a scholarly daughter and admiring texts for female academics. Vedic texts reveal that women were honored and empowered both in traditional domestic spaces as well as in public spaces traditionally dominated by men. Yet as the Buddhist, Jainist, Brahmanist faiths expanded, child marriages became more common, and by 200 CE, women’s right to education, selection in marriage, and other observable measures of freedom were withdrawn. The introduction of Brahmanism was the final nail in the coffin of women’s ultimate subservient position. Brahmanism is the belief in one true God, or Brahman.

In every part of the world, culture enforced the standard that a woman’s sole purpose was the rearing of the children. Those women who defied the norms did so at their own risk. Some were protected by class, others supported by men, and some found loopholes to exploit. But women who pushed the boundary too far, stood too strong, were denounced as whores and met with violence in the form of domestic abuse, honor killings, charges of witchcraft, or some other horrible demise.

Widows in many parts of the world, no longer virgins, were expendable. Sometimes during famines, people would eat older women to survive.  In India, it was common for widows to commit suicide to join their spouse in the afterlife, for what purpose could she serve?  These women, often child brides married at 7, had never had any choice in their life. On the death of their spouse, they were drugged and expected to join them on the burning pyre. While it is debated how commonly this actually happened, it remained as the ideal death for a widow. 

By the end of this era, so much remained in question. Why did these norms develop? Why would women submit to these norms? Why were they so universally accepted? Would women be able to circumvent these norms? Would means of women’s education and liberation become available, if not in the modern sense? Would men stop being ridiculous?

Draw your own conclusions

Learn how to teach with inquiry.
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Are Hindu Goddesses feminist icons or stereotypical tropes?
​In this inquiry, students will examine diverse sources related to ancient Hindu goddesses and determine how these goddesses are portrayed and if that portrayal is empowering to women and how different genders may perceive this portrayal. 
Are Hindu Goddesses a Feminist Icon or a Stereotypical Trope?.pdf
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Was Confucius sexist?​
In this inquiry, students explore early Chinese writings about women to compare what Confucius supposedly said about women to common ideals for women. Students will also examine the writings of the most well-known female Confucian writers and how her ideas about women compare. 
Was Confucius sexist?
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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
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Why did women resist empire?
Women in the ancient world took up arms to fight empires. Despite all the gender barriers women crossed the gendered threshold into a man's world? Why? In this inquiry there are four examples of women who resisted empire in Rome and the Han and Wu empires in China. Why did they do it?
Why did women resist Empire?.pdf
File Size: 768 kb
File Type: pdf
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​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

Goldin, Paul R. “Ban Zhao in Her Time and in Ours”, After Confucius: Studies in Early Chinese Philosophy (University of Hawai’i Press, 2005)

Goldin, Paul R. “Admonitions for Women”, Hawaii Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture (University of Hawai’i Press, 2017).

National Geographic Editors. “Chinese Religions and Philosophies.” National Geographic. N.D.https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/chinese-religions-and-philosophies

Ohnuma, Reiko. “The Debt to the Mother: A Neglected Aspect of the Founding of the Buddhist Nuns’ Order”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Dec. 2006, Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 861-901.

Phongsai, Arree. “The Eight Chief Rules for Bikkhunis”, The Tibet Journal, Summer 1984, Vol. 9, No. 10, pp. 35-37.

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

Willis, John E. “Ban Zhao”, Mountains of Fame: Portraits in Chinese History (Princeton University Press, 1994.

AUTHOR:

​Kelsie Brook Eckert

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. "6. 800-300 BCE ASIAN PHILOSOPHIES AND WOMEN’S PLACE." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com.​
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        • 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
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    • Movies >
      • World History Films
      • US History Films