Changing Lives Women’s History from Fin-de-Siècle to the Interwar years

Course description

The decades of late 19th and early 20th centuries had witnessed the emergence of new identities for women variously described as “the New Woman,” “xin nuxing,” 新女性 or “la garçonne.” In this course students will be introduced to the historical formation of these new identities of women through an examination of how the profound economic, political, social, technological and cultural changes at the

turn of the century impacted on the lives and roles of women.

How had women changed?

How different did these two Chinese women look?

Course modules

Module 1 Women and WWI

Module 2 Sex, marriage and motherhood

Module 3 Educating the new woman

Module 4 Women and employment

Module 5 Women and consumerism

Issues of the course

What were the changes in women’s lives?

What were the causes of these changes?

How did these changes affect women’s identities?

Case studies: the West and China

Module 1 - British Women ambulance drivers in Belgium

Module 2 – Sex, marriage and motherhood

Module 3 – Educating the new woman

Module 4 – Women and employment

Module 5 – Women and consumerism