Each essay will deal with one particular aspect of the life of the "individual" you have chosen to profile. Although you are focusing on a person from a particular racial/ethnic background, social status, time period, and region, you may want to compare the experience of "your" woman to that of women from other backgrounds in the same time period and region.
Each essay should be between three to five typed pages (750-1250 words) long, with consecutive footnotes or endnotes in the humanities format described in the Harbrace Handbook or Turabian. You must acknowledge paraphrased as well as quoted material. Introduce your topic in the first paragraph; cover all aspects of the issue, illustrating your points with specific examples from your sources; summarize your conclusions in a final paragraph. Use as many primary sources as you can. Do not confine yourself to "traditional" historical evidence. Try to use law codes, etiquette books, diaries, literature, artwork, artifacts, and other non-traditional sources as well.
Family Life
(Due September 23)
Discuss such things as childbirth, childhood, nature of education
(formal and informal), courtship and marriage, relations between spouses,
relations between parents and children, aspects of domestic life (nature
of housing, preparation of clothing and food)
Religious Experiences
(Due October 14)
Discuss such things as the morals and values of the society you are
studying, the dominant religion(s) of the society, the nature of religious
roles for women, treatment of women in religious literature, gender differences
in moral codes (e.g., Is there a double standard for sexual behavior?
If so, what is it?)
Economic Roles
(Due November 4)
Discuss such things as the nature of women's employment in and outside
the household, place of employment, status of women's work, women's wages,
women's economic contributions to the family
Political and Legal Rights (Due November 18)
Discuss such things as the type of political system, the nature of
citizenship, the role of women in the political life of the community,
gender differences in legal codes
Final Paper
(Due December 2)
The segments on family life, religious experiences, economic roles,
and political and legal status should be integrated into a collective biography.
The final paper should be between 12-20 typewritten pages with consecutive
footnotes or endnotes in the humanities format. Papers are due at
the beginning of class on 2 December and will be marked down 10 points
for each day late.
Write a new introduction which covers all the topics from your earlier papers and which includes a thesis stating what your research has proven about women from this particular ethnicity/race, social class, time period, and region. Remove any redundancies which appear in the four papers, and add transition sentences to connect the various topics discussed in each part. Check the finished paper for coherency. Add a conclusion which summarizes your main points and briefly restates the arguments which support your thesis.
Sample Endnote Page
Notes