WS/FCS launched an original American Women's Studies course this year

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools began offering a new course this year called “American Women’s Studies.”

The idea for the class was born back in 2020. The district’s social studies department had been working on three multicultural courses: African American, Latin American and American Indian Studies. 

“And we were discussing the fact that there isn't an American Women's Studies course. And the three courses that we were working on, they actually have standards from the state, but there's nothing for women," says WS/FCS Social Studies Coach Melissa McGready. "And we were like, women are 50% of the population, and something needs to be done.”

She says even as she worked on the multicultural courses, she noticed women were still less represented than men in the curriculum. 

It made her think about her own experience in school and where she might be today had she learned about women’s contributions to society beyond taking care of children, being nurses and doing laundry for the troops. 

“I was a great math student, but I didn't feel that that was something for me, or computers for that matter," McGready says. "And it was just frustrating.”

And she isn’t alone. WS/FCS Director of Social Studies Courtney Tuck had the same feeling about her history classes growing up. 

“I got a really narrow sliver of the story," Tuck says. "And it's kind of like you think you read a book, but you only read a couple chapters, and just kind of a disappointment of why didn't I know?”

So McGready, Tuck and three teachers who shared their passion set out to design a high school course that would fill in the gaps they saw in their own educations. They worked through the summers, after school, and on the weekends for years, piecing it together. 

The class they came up with examines the experiences of women from colonization to present day. Students learn about the different waves of feminism, how women are depicted in pop culture and religion, and key figures who made contributions in science, medicine, technology, and more. 

Tuck says they’ve incorporated a variety of perspectives throughout the course too, including those of men, and other women with differing beliefs.

“We are not using a text that says, ‘This is how it went down, and here's who you should hate,'" Tuck says. "We've tried very hard to be good historians and to teach our kids good critical thinking skills, but not shy away from talking about women and their place in history, but use of primary sources, so that students are coming to their own conclusions versus being told what to think about it.”

And for the first time, this academic year, the course came to life. 

Inside a classroom at Carver High School one Friday afternoon, about a dozen young women learned about The Feminine Mystique, a 1963 book that challenged the assumptions that women would be fulfilled solely by their housework, marriage and children. 

It’s an idea that resonates with the students in the class, like 16-year-old Jaliyah Davis.

“We need women that want to be challenged, like firefighters, police officers, military women. Like, I feel like we need that today, because that shows how strong women can be," Davis says. "Because I feel like people downplay us and think we're weak, but we're not.”

The young women in this room are aspiring to become doctors, marines and homicide detectives. But until this class, Davis and others say they didn’t realize how hard generations before them had to fight to make exploring those careers a possibility. 

“It was actually very interesting to learn, like, how the women worked together to get us women to where we are today because women went through so many challenges back then, and I feel like we do take advantage of that," Davis says. "But ever since I started taking this class, it made me realize, like I need to appreciate what I have.”

That understanding of how far women have come is one of the takeaways Courtney Tuck hoped students would find from this class. But it’s not the only one. 

“Most importantly, I want for our young women in our district to believe that they can do whatever it is that they are interested in, and that there is no limit for them," Tuck says.

The course has been offered in five high schools throughout the district this year. But even students not taking this particular class are benefiting from its creation. 

The interesting and important stories uncovered about women throughout this process are being woven into all the other history classes, too — right where they belong. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.