Women's Experience in Britain: Race, Class and Gender since 1945 (Context)

Module title	Women's Experience in Britain: Race, Class and Gender since 1945 (Context)
Module code	HIH3062
Academic year	2023/4
Credits	30
Module staff	Dr Eve Worth (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	11	11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	15

Module description

The period since 1945 has been one of unprecedented flux in the lives of women in Britain. Womenâs relationship to education and employment, the state, and marriage and motherhood have dramatically shifted. On this module you will analyse why there has been such a rapid pace of change and what its implications are for the wider history of Britain in this period. You will also examine what the interrelationship is between these changes in womenâs lives and feminist activism. Does feminism cause or reflect shifts in womenâs lives? And why, even during this period of dynamic change, have so many aspects of gendered experience and expectation remained so sticky? The module will take an intersectional approach to the category of âwomanâ, analysing it through the lens of key axes such as race, class, sexuality, and generation.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Together with its co-requisite module, the aims of this module are for you:

To understand the dynamic changes in womenâs lives in this period and to interrogate the relationship between womenâs experiences and feminist movements.
To introduce you to intersectional theory and how we apply it to historical understandings of womenâs lives.
To encourage you to think about the ways in which centring womenâs experience shifts our perspective on key themes in recent British history.
To develop the skill of historicising contemporary events and how to bring together historiographical research with the research of other disciplines such as sociology and cultural studies.
To engage in-depth with the vast array of source material that is available on this topic: ranging from oral history collections; to policy reports; to social media. The module also offers the possibility of creating your own primary source material on this topic due to its contemporary nature.
To build research, analytical, interpretative and communication skills that can be applied in further academic studies or in graduate careers, in particular in policy and the civil service, through engaging with the complexities of womenâs lives.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Ability to evaluate the different complex themes in, and disciplinary approaches to, the recent history of womenâs lives and understand why there has been so much flux (but also continuity) in their experience since 1945.
2. Ability to make close specialist evaluation of the key developments in womenâs lives within this period and how this relates to wider historical trends.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Ability to analyse the key developments within womenâs lives and theories of their experience in this period.
4. Ability to focus on and comprehend complex issues.
5. Ability to understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible manner.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

6. Independent and autonomous study and group work, including presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning.
7. Ability to digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument.
8. Ability to present complex arguments orally.

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Domesticity and its discontents in the 1950s
Women and models of social class and mobility
Second Wave Feminism
The welfare state
Having it all? Women in the 1990s
Motherhood and Fatherhood
LGBT+ Activism
Gendering the economy
Post-feminism and the media in the 2000s
Gen Z women and social media
Womenâs relationship to education and employment
Intersectionality
Women in the post-imperial contextÂ

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	44	22 x 2 hour seminars
Guided independent study	256	Reading and preparation for seminars, course work and presentations

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Seminar discussion	Ongoing through course	1-8	Oral

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Portfolio	70	2 assignments totalling 4,000 words	1-7	Oral and written
Assignment	30	2,500 words	1-7	Oral and written

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Portfolio	Portfolio	1-7	Referral/deferral period
Assignment	Assignment	1-7	Referral/deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral â if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral â if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Helen McCarthy, Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood in Britain (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Natalie Thomlinson, Race, Ethnicity and the Womenâs Movement in England, 1968-1993 (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016)
Lynn Abrams, âLiberating the Female Self: Epiphanies, Conflict and Coherence in the Life Stories of Post-War British Womenâ, Social History, 39/1 (2014)
Claire Langhamer, âFeelings, Women and Work in the Long 1950sâ, Womenâs History Review, 26/1 (2017)
Kimberle Crenshaw, âMapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Colourâ, Stanford Law Review, 43/6 (1991)
Judith Walkowitz, âFeminism and the Politics of Prostitution in Kingâs Cross in the 1980sâ, TCBH, 30/2 (2019)
Jonathan Moss, Women, Workplace Protest and Political Identity in England, 1968-85 (MUP, 2019)
J. Dean, âWhoâs Afraid of Third-Wave Feminism? On the Uses of the âthird waveâ in British Feminist Politicsâ, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 11/3 (2009)
Heidi Safia Mirza, Black British Feminism: A Reader (Routledge, 1997)
Pamela Abbott and Geoff Payne (eds), The Social Mobility of Women: Beyond Male Mobility Models (Falmer, 1990)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE â Faculty to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Key words search

Women, Britain, Class, Race, Gender, Intersectionality, Contemporary

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	At least 90 credits of History at Level 1 and/or Level 2
Module co-requisites	HIH3061: Womenâs Experience in Britain: Race, Class and Gender since 1945 (Sources)
NQF level (module)	6
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	09/02/2023
Last revision date	27/02/2023