First the disclaimers. I know and admire both authors. I used materials Marjorie and Susan developed since the 1980s to great acclaim from my students. Not only are the materials well done, Marjorie and Susan are expert in helping a teacher navigate and make best use of unfamiliar new material.
For my first foray into the history of the USSR, I found a copy of Women of the USSR in the high school book storage room. I dusted it off, sank back in my desk chair to skim, and was enthralled by the material. I knew my students would be captivated.
Each unit includes brief chapters that highlight women’s issues with relevant primary material that Marjorie and Susan contextualize. The units also include discussion questions to guide students through the material. In the Women of the USSR, Bingham and Gross include a chart that compares and contrasts the status of women during the decades of the Soviet Union’s existence.
Glenhurst Publishing is no longer, but these books are available on the Web. Marjorie and Susan have written volumes on women across the world but for purposes of this blog and Jewish Luck, it’s the Women of the USSR that is the most relevant.
Both Marjorie and Susan are now retired. Both were classroom teachers at St. Louis Park Public Schools and together they founded Glenhurst Publishing to promote women’s history and to make it accessible to teachers. Their seminars reached teachers across the US and their emphasis on women’s history as a discipline, not an add-on, shaped my thinking as I taught history these past thirty-nine years. I owe them a great debt and consider myself very fortunate to have been able to learn from both Marjorie and Susan. Continue the chain and check out their materials.