The (Broken) Historical Record
by LeanneB, SheKos editor
Confession time: I never can remember that March is Women’s History Month. Every year, someone who isn’t me has to shove it under my nose for me to realize that it’s that time again.
Me: March? Yeah, so?
Exasperated not-me person: It’s Women’s History Month, dumbass.
Me: [clutching head] Ohhhh, my head...
Not-me: And don’t even try to blame this on the migraines. You do this every year!
For someone who self-identifies as a feminist and, uh, co-edits a weekly round-up of articles dealing with women’s issues – this probably seems akin to forgetting one’s own birthday. Year after year.
I am a little embarrassed that while I seek to raise awareness of the issues that impact women’s lives, my own awareness isn’t high enough to keep track of the month dedicated to women’s history without external reminders. But I’m not sure that this is so much an indictment of my own convictions as it is a barometer for the overall effectiveness of Women’s History Month itself.
It’s not that I don’t think Women’s History Month is a good idea – I do. It’s just that I look at how long we’ve been celebrating it (thirty years), and then I look at the degree of visible changes in our society where women are concerned (Gender pay gap still huge? Check! Abortions still difficult to obtain, especially if you’re poor? Check! Women still extremely under-represented in U.S. history textbooks? Check-checkity-check!), and I have to say that I don’t see much of a return on the investment.
There is no arguing that Women’s History Month doesn’t have the right idea. In fact, this year’s theme is especially important and ambitious: Writing Women Back into History, although one could argue that it the more accurate goal would be "Writing Women into History in the First Place." Certainly in the United States, textbooks dealing with American history have always focused on men as the main drivers and actors in the historical landscape. A 2006 research study evaluating K-12 textbooks on U.S. history has this to say:
Teachers of history often use the metaphor of a journey through time. Students travel by train through each time period, and teachers help students gain basic historical knowledge as they travel toward the present (Frederickson, 2004). Using this metaphor, students have encountered very few women on their journeys, and the historical record has been narrated by a man. The metaphor highlights the debate over the integration of women’s history into current American history textbooks.
The blame for this state of affairs can very likely be laid at the feet of Thomas Carlyle, a nineteenth century historian and essayist who is generally credited with creating the Great Man theory.
The Great man theory is a theory held by some that aims to explain history by the impact of "Great men", or heroes: highly influential individuals, either from personal charisma, genius intellects, or great political impact.
For example, a scholarly follower of the Great Man theory would be likely to study the Second World War by focusing on the big personalities of the conflict — Sir Winston Churchill, Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Stalin, etc. — and view all of the historical events as being tied directly to their own individual decisions and orders.
It is often linked to 19th century philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle, who commented that "The history of the world is but the biography of great men."
This way of looking at history was adopted and applied with almost religious fervor by writers of history textbooks in the nineteenth century, and as anyone who came up through the American public school system as late as the 1970s and ‘80s can attest, it was still the primary method of surveying historical events throughout most of the twentieth century, too. One problem with the "great man" method of interpreting history is that there’s a tendency to attribute important events, inventions, and discoveries to a single person, even when the thing in question was really more of a collaborative or concurrent effort.
Another problem with it is that when one is looking for the "great man," one tends only to see – naturally - men. Historian Judith P. Zinsser described how this theory influenced the practices of textbook publishers:
Simply, women were not viewed as an integral part of the historical record. The vast majority remained silent and invisible, their history subsumed under general descriptions of men’s lives. . . . Extraordinary figures like the queens of sixteenth-century Europe or the nineteenth-century reformers in the United States, active agents in their own right, fared no better. Though sometimes praised for having successfully assumed male roles, traditional, patronizing phrases and denigrating stereotypes abstracted and diminished even their exceptional personalities and experiences.
And while the representation of women in our textbooks has improved in recent year (according to a study of three 2005 history textbooks from the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels:
In actual numbers, there were increases in female illustrations from the elementary textbook to the middle school textbook, and then a slight decrease in the high school textbook. In comparison to early textbooks studies, this study indicates current American history textbooks have incorporated a greater number of females in text content and illustrations. Moreover, greater numbers of women are included in history textbooks since the publication of the National History Standards (1994), although the impact of the standards on gender balance is unknown.
...the improvement is simultaneously undercut:
However, while female representation in textbook content and illustrations increases across grade levels, male representation increases at an even greater rate. Thus, as students proceed through the grade levels, they are exposed to an increasingly smaller ratio of females-to-males. Since the range of pages on which males are represented is also significantly higher than the range for females, it is apparent that overall textbook content continues to be male dominated.
Moreover, the manner in which women are presented in history textbooks can also belie the effectiveness of their presence:
Also in 1992, the K-12 Education Committee of the Western Association of Women Historians evaluated 22 middle school and high school American history texts. This informal assessment revealed publishers’ efforts to integrate women’s history and include non-sexist language and illustrations of women in non-traditional roles. However, they also found that information about women was not fully integrated within the text but rather was added as sidebar notes. They reported that women’s history was not contained within the main narrative, and the historical record continued to be voiced from a male perspective (Reese, 1994).
Now, I will stipulate that a lot of this "male-narrated" perspective is gradually changing. We certainly tend to see a lot of women, in fiction and in real life, functioning in roles of power and influence and clearly participating in what will one day be considered the historical record. If that were not the case, would we have seen a woman come so close to being the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008? Unlikely. But let’s not get too dewy-eyed; women are scandalously under-represented in the U.S. legislature: only 17 female senators and a scant 74 women in the House. A group that makes up about fifty percent of the population ought to have more representation than that, for Pete’s sake.
So who’s at fault here? I am. And you are, and every woman in the country who forgets about Women’s History Month, or who hasn’t worked to change how society views the female contribution to history, or who thinks that the fact that Women’s History Month exists means that someone else is doing what needs to be done so they don’t have to. This month isn’t meant to be the month we think about women’s issues and then assume the other eleven months will take care of themselves. It’s meant to be not the end in itself, but a catalyst to (year-round) action.
What can we do? Well, I am hoping that people will contribute lots of good ideas for taking action in the comments (which I will compile and add to this article), but in the meantime, you might consider donating to the National Women’s History Project.
And with that, ShePeeps... I’m history!
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THIS WEEK IN WOMEN'S HISTORY: First Ladies of Science, Social Justice and Speed Skating
by joedemocrat
- This Week in 1838, Alice Fletcher was born. She was one of the first female anthropologists. She is especially well known for her writings about the Plains Indians, and Indian culture. She was also involved in the women's suffrage movement.
- This week in 1863, Anna Wessels Williams was born. She was a bacteriologist. She isolated a strain of the diphtheria bacteria crucial to the development of an antitoxin that helped eliminate the disease in New York City. She studied some of her era’s most pressing public health concerns, such as diptheria, polio, and scarlet fever.
- This Week in 1905,Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were married. Eleanor had a very painful childhood, but her struggles gave her empathy for others. She had a lot of accomplishments as First Lady. She traveled the country, and put herself directly into people's lives more than any other member of FDR's Administration. She visited coal miners, laborers, sharecroppers, and people living in slums. She informed FDR about the struggles that many Americans faced during the Depression. Also, she held press conferences open only to women reporters, championed civil rights well before the Democratic Party did, and worked against the poll tax and for including African Americans in government programs. She was very concerned about adequate housing, and worked to improve living conditions in distressed urban areas. She was very active in the labor movement and championed the idea of a living wage. Following her husband’s death, Eleanor remained active in politics. She served on President Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women. She wrote a newspaper column, My Day, that ran until 1962, the year of her death. She is one of the most admired people of the 20th century.
- This Week in 1964, Bonnie Blair was born. She competed as a long track speed skater in four Winter Olympiads between 1984 and 1994, winning a total of five gold medals and one bronze medal. She was America’s most decorated Winter Olympian until men’s short track speed skater Apolo Ohno surpassed her in Vancouver last month (he now has eight). In 2004, she was elected to the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.
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SAGE AND SWEETGRASS: Boujou! (Hello and Welcome!)
by Aji
Sage and Sweetgrass is a new column here at SheKos, dedicated to issues related to Native American women. KentuckyKat has generously agreed help me co-host this section.
About the name: Sage and sweetgrass are two of the plants that many - perhaps all - tribes use ceremonially and medicinally. I've always thought of both as distinctly female plants. For me, sage has always represented wisdom, and sweetgrass carries attributes of growth. Both traits are representative of so many of the women I've known, and they're worthy ideals in their own right.
Today's entry is only a welcome; next week we'll delve into substantive issues in some depth. In the meantime, if you'd like a little background on Native American demographics, the U.S. Census Bureau's sub-pages are here A comprehensive set of tables from the Bureau's latest cumulative data (2004-2005) can be found here. Keep in mind that data from Native communities is vastly underreported, so these data provide a somewhat distorted picture. For general background on Native Americans, I highly recommend Kossack Ojibwa's Indians 101 series.
Miigwech (thank you) for reading, and I look forward to working with the SheKos team!
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GLBT NEWS THE KAT DRAGGED IN: If the Administration Supports GLBTs in a Forest, and There's No One There to Hear It...
by KentuckyKat
I've been fairly vocal in past editions of SheKos and WGLB when I believe that the Administration or Congress, or both, were letting GLBTs down. But I also believe in rewarding positive behavior. It is in that spirit that I share this article, which brings us some positive news in a horrifying story.
Last week I touched on the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill. President Obama received a good deal of criticism for staying quiet on the subject. When he did condemn the bill, he stated:
We can take different approaches to ending inequality, but surely we can agree on the need to lift our children out of ignorance; to lift our neighbors from poverty. We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are -- whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.
Despite his comments, some remained displeased by what they saw as the President's tepid response. It is surprising to me, then, that news of the concrete actions taken by the administration with respect to this bill have not received more attention. Here are a few examples of what the administration has done. The quotations below are from the first linked article unless otherwise indicated.
Two US diplomats from the US Bureau of African Affairs–-Geeta Pasi, the bureau’s East Africa director, and Bruce Wharton, the bureau’s director of public affairs--traveled from DC earlier this month to meet with a group of Ugandan LGBT activists. Held at the US Embassy in the city of Kampala on March 3, the meeting was centered around the development of strategies to defeat the controversial anti-gay bill in the African nation.
While no financial support from the US was discussed, the diplomats did say that they would consider granting American visas to Ugandan gay leaders so they can travel to the US this summer and raise awareness about the legislation.
Ugandan gay rights leader Brown Kiyimba, a Unitarian minister who attended the meeting, said that the US administration officials "promised to fight hard to make sure the bill doesn't go through." Link.
According to Kiyimba, gay leaders suggested a range of strategies, including imposing economic sanctions on the country and convincing US Evangelicals who are popular in Uganda to speak out more forcefully against the bill.
One member of the Civil Society Coalition even urged a Ugandan visit from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but Kiyimba said the image of Clinton smiling and shaking hands with Ugandan politicians would make it look like she endorses their anti-gay views.
One of the GLBT activists who attended this meeting said, "It's just a beginning. The Obama administration is seriously concerned about the bill and committed to help." So, we now have the President speaking out against the bill as his administration works with GLBT activists in Uganda to defeat the bill. Meanwhile, he is considering allowing visas should the legislation pass and GLBT Ugandans are forced to flee. This is progress, and it should be celebrated!
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WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE: A Woman's Place
by pat of butter in a sea of grits
Last week Oke posted a link to an article about an international survey regarding women's place. Do women belong in the home? I might imagine that few here in the United States would agree with that statement - although it was 25 percent, according to the poll. (What's the overlap, I wonder, between that 25 percent and the 37 percent who have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin, according to the Washington Post? Why do I have the feeling that people who think women belong in the home make an exception for conservative women?)
The United States scored somewhat in the middle on this poll. We weren't the most progressive - that label went to Mexico, France, and Argentina, where only 9 percent agreed that women belong at home. We also weren't the most conservative. In both Turkey and India, a little over half of respondents felt women belonged at home, as did almost half of people in Japan and a third of respondents in China, South Korea, and Russia. The U.S. had a similar response to Britain, Australia, and the Czech Republic.
Networks can be critical for business success, but their utility for younger women seems to be fading. Younger women don't tend to seek out the support of older women in the workplace the way women did more commonly several years ago, according to London Business School professor Elisabeth Kelan's new book. According to this article,
"Younger women find it difficult to connect to women's networks in the workplace, because they view these networks as something that belonged to their mother's generation," said Elisabeth Kelan, a lecturer in Work and Organisations in the Department of Management at King's College in London.
Kelan describes this situation as "gender fatigue," where people in the workplace lack the energy to tackle afresh something that they no longer see as a problem.
These findings go along with a commonly held opinion that feminism is no longer necessary or useful for women today; it's seen as a vestige from an earlier generation. But younger women still face issues of work/life imbalance, pay inequity and other work challenges; they, and all of us, can benefit from connections with other women at work
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
by Oke
- In Lady Gaga and Emergent Feminism, cabaretic diaries about the connection between "third wave" feminism and the public persona of an edgy, outspoken singer, Lady Gaga. While not, perhaps, finding much common ground with her "in your face" antics, cabaretic gives appreciation to a woman willing to turn expectations of sexuality on its head.
- In Pay Disparity for Women In America is No Longer Acceptable, RDemocrat points out that while the Lilly Ledbetter Act as an important step in giving women (and men) a method for redress of pay inequities, there is still much work to be done. The Paycheck Fairness Act would prevent employers from using any reason based on a sex-linked attribute as a reason to deny equal pay. RDemocrat provides the details.
- In Weekly Concert--International Women's Day Edition, zenbassoon, in his weekly series, blogs about that rare creature, the female conductor. From Hildegard von Bingen in the 11th century to Nadia Boulanger in the 19th century, zenbassoon provides the low down on top notch composers, including samples of their work. Worth the read and listen.
And from outside the Orange:
- SC Legislature Overturns Proposed Abortion Coverage Ban
The South Carolina state House voted 57 to 54 early this morning against a provision in the proposed state budget that would have ended health insurance abortion coverage for victims of rape or incest. The provision had previously been approved by the state House Ways and Means Committee in February of this year.
- 'Girldrive' hits the road for feminism
The idea for the cross-country road trip was hatched during a girlfriend brunch of eggs and Bloody Marys. Emma Bernstein and Nona Willis Aronowitz were consumed with one question: What does feminism mean today?
Aronowitz's mother, Ellen Willis, a well-known feminist writer, had died a few weeks earlier. Bernstein, a student at the University of Chicago, had recently attended a three-day symposium called "Feminist Future."
So in the fall of 2007, the 23-year-olds set out from their home state of New York in Aronowitz's Chevy Cavalier with the idea of interviewing women young and old about the state and meaning of feminism.
- Beautiful Betty: a warning from home-making history
In Mad Men, Betty Draper has everything a woman in the early 1960s could possibly want: a handsome high-earner husband, an attractive suburban house, two rambunctious kids, and a clatter of pleasant distractions – horse-riding, children's birthday parties, coffee klatches.
- Stop Social Security discrimination against same-sex couples
Limiting legal marriage to heterosexual couples has a clear discriminatory impact on gay and lesbian seniors. While people with same-sex partners are required to pay into Social Security, they are not eligible for key benefits. Same-sex couples are denied spousal benefits and cannot claim survivor and death benefits if their partner dies.
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RECOMMENDED READING: Muslim Feminism and the West
by dirkster42
Feminists in the Muslim world have a very different perspective from their American and European sisters. One clear way to see the distinctiveness of Muslim feminism is to take a look at how it views--and sometimes critiques--the West. Two books by Northern African feminists are particularly pertinent for this task. Of course, the sampling from such a narrow geographic area does not represent the full spectrum of Muslim experience.
The Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi's Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems has irresistible chapter titles, such as "The Mind as Erotic Weapon." When Mernissi travels in the West, she's shocked at how pervasively women’s erotic appeal to men is linked to notions of intellectual inferiority. She shares insights that one might not expect from a Muslim woman, which counteract stereotypes that we have in the West.
Leila Ahmed, an Egyptian raised in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of pre-revolutionary Cairo, recounts her life in A Border Passage: From Cairo to America - A Woman's Journey. She describes the challenges of her life in Egypt. But she also expresses the difficulty she had in Western feminist circles making herself heard on the full range of Muslim women's experiences beyond the veil.
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VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Michelle Obama
And now, a word from The First Lady, about health insurance from a women's perspective: