Women & Gender Studies Professor Profile: Julia Gossard

Witches, Workers & Wives

Gender and Family in Early Modern Europe and America

Julia Gossard

Assistant Professor of History

What do you hope students will learn from your class?

Students focus on ‘everyday’ people in the 15th to 17th centuries in Europe and America. We examine these three deep stereotypes of witches, workers and wives, their agency, or lack of agency during this time. Students learn how notions of sexuality and gender have changed, as well as how they have stayed the same.

For example, we read an academic article about 17th Century dating practices and students were surprised that public displays of affection were acceptable in a highly religious society. When we divided labor into masculine and feminine categories, the continuity between the past and today’s labor was quite consistent.

A student asked me, “How much were women compensated at that time?” I explained that in today’s economy it was about seventy cents on the dollar. The student responded, “Not much has changed has it?”

Teaching the class using a seminar approach means it is not predominantly a lecture. So students become active and therefore it is very student-centered, which means more fun. Our readings include academic articles and books, and I recently expanded resources to include public primary sources, such as diaries and images from the period. Students use gender analysis to connect the history to a wider public viewpoint.

I have noticed students in this class are a combination of history majors, women and gender studies minors and those interested in witchcraft. Many students have limited knowledge of the North American witch trials from popular culture. The worldview is steeped in superstition and religion during this time in history, so events are not explained by science. Men have brought women to trial for feminine crimes. We break down the history of witchcraft, which we find can involve widows or anyone else questioned for not abiding by a patriarchal society.