Women's Studies in the High School Classroom
by Jaime Allesandrine

“This class is so amazing.” “I’d always noticed how women were left out of my other history classes.” “It takes a special teacher to teach this course.” These are the comments of eager, path-breaking students enrolled in June Barzilauskas’s Women’s Studies course at North Haven High School. The half-year course, offered to eleventh- and twelfth-grade students through the Social Studies Department, is currently in its first year. Twenty-two students, twenty-one females and one male, are enrolled. Opening with an investigation into the meanings and presence of patriarchy in America past and present, the course is an interdisciplinary analysis of gender, race, ethnicity, and class, exploring the history of women’s experiences in American society. Barzilauskas places emphasis on finding the women missing from the pages of traditional history textbooks, and she wants her students to recognize the lasting legacies of these women. Students in this course consider how their knowledge and interpretation of past women’s experiences contribute to what is conceived of as an “American” identity over time.

For most of the students, this course is the first in-depth look they have had at women’s roles, though they have been conscious of gender dynamics for some time. The students are committed to learning as much as they can during the semester and already cite several benefits of the course. All agree that its timeliness is most important, not just because they are teenagers, but with regard to current events in the global community as well. Agreeing with their classmates that a sexual revolution is ongoing, several of the students note that young women, from North Haven to Afghanistan, are continually engaged in efforts to assert themselves with their male peers and to ensure that their own voices are heard just as clearly. Their insights into current women’s issues are informed in this course by an enhanced knowledge and understanding of American women’s experiences throughout history. In-depth studies into republican motherhood, slaveholding women, the suffrage movement, and first and second wave feminism, as well as an exploration into body image and the media, challenge the students to supplant often held notions of women’s passivity and homogeneity. The primary texts read by students in this course are In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society (Routledge, 2001) by Marlene LeGates and Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, and Culture in Modern America (Routledge, 2001) edited by Philip Scranton. Barzilauskas supplements the students’ readings with many primary source documents by women throughout American history, ranging from testimonies of slave women to accounts of US servicewomen. Students also watch films including the 1997 film based on the book A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785 – 1812 (1991) by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and also Martin Scorsese’s 1993 film, The Age of Innocence, based on Edith Wharton’s novel about the rigidity of gender roles in Victorian-era New York.

Barzilauskas could not be happier with how her Women’s Studies course is progressing, and her students are raving. “This course is different from any other course I’ve taken because it’s about me,” is a common refrain among the female students. They appreciate the opportunities not only to explore women’s pasts, but also to openly discuss their own viewpoints with classmates. The academic, cultural, and social diversity among the students is another asset to the class’ success. Barzilauskas is gratified in teaching this course because it allows for women’s issues to take center stage, and thus allows her students to examine their own experiences from an enhanced perspective. Prior to this course, many of the students had never before questioned whether they would take their husband’s name upon marriage. Furthermore, many of the students are now raising an objection when male friends call them by their boyfriend’s first name instead of their own. Some students also share that they have had arguments with their friends and boyfriends simply because they are enrolled in this course, with one student admitting that she no longer tells people she is taking the course. While some have been booed and told they are learning “garbage,” many students have heard wonderful, positive feedback from family and friends. The class provides a forum for these experiences to be discussed in a comfortable, supportive manner.

The students have several opinions about why Women’s Studies is critical in the high school curriculum. They eagerly say they would enroll if similar courses were offered in various disciplines, but what they truly want to see now is a heightened awareness in their teachers. Lesson plans, classroom discussions, and reading assignments are some of the areas in which the students believe the wisdom of Women’s Studies must be better integrated. Many of the students perceive an increasing sense of gender equity in American society, and they want their classrooms to “catch up.” This course has also opened students’ eyes to the opportunity to pursue Women’s Studies on the collegiate level; several of the students intend to take courses and pursue a minor in the field after high school.