What Every Woman Should Know
Over at The New Agenda blog, we’ve kicked off a new bi-weekly series by Anna Belle Pfau on American women’s history. The first installment is about Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman — what a pair! — and the movement to legalize birth control.
It’s easy for those of us who are steeped in feminist history to forget that most people just don’t know this stuff. Birth control used to be illegal? Even talking about birth control used to be illegal? Huh?
18 Responses to “What Every Woman Should Know”
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Ali says:
I know! I had no idea about this particular hell that women used to suffer until today.
And I have to say, Anna Belle is an excellent writer. She really brings these women, their times and their foes, to life.
January 6th, 2009 at 12:53 am EST -
Violet says:
I lurve Anna Belle. I gained so much insight from her this past year about what is going on in the schools and the extent to which women’s history just isn’t known. More than ever I believe that we MUST develop a grand cultural narrative of women’s history.
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simply wondered says:
in the uk, we have black history month. when will we have herstory month? long overdue.
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Ali says:
Violet,
I am one of THOSE teachers who does not know women’s history! This is great for me. I said over at New Agenda how insane it is that most k-12 teachers are women yet we don’t teach women’s history. I have spent the majority of my time teaching about MLK, Malcom X, Cesar Chavez, etc. But not women’s history.
And I’ve been asking around - teachers, history majors, those who like to wear shirts that say “so many books, so little time”…. NOBODY knows who Alice Paul is. These stories are not known!
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Anna Belle says:
Oh my word, ladies, I am so verklimpt! Can I just use this space to pay tribute to the wonderful lady who started it all? Dr. Anne Kearney was her name, and she offered a course in American Women’s History when I was just a twenty-three year old sponge, soaking up everything that came my way. Many of the women in this class literally wept that we where adult women and learning this history for the first time. I was instantly changed by her course. I dream of one day being able to offer such a class myself, where I can pull these stories of the rolling wheel in my brain that cycles them daily.
I took a pledge all those long years ago that I wouldn’t let the girls I know get that far without learning their own history. And I told myself I would tell this stuff to whomever would listen. I am so gratified to know that people are listening. This has made my day, Violet. I’m tearing up as I type this…
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Sis says:
A link for you. There’s also a site archiving all or most of the feminist writings from the 60s and 70s. I’ll see if I can find it–on another hard drive.
http://www.archives.gov/resear.....women.html
Re finding women’s history. I’m sorry these stories are not known here, but these stories *are* known to second-wave radical feminists. Lotta good that did in your election.
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Sis says:
Here you go: archives of women’s history, early feminist writings and more:
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Ali says:
Yeah Sis, it’s crazy that so many young(ish) feminists like myself don’t know these stories. I think the biggest issue is how those outside of the feminist sphere do not know these stories. Question - did they ever? At one point years ago did school girls and boys learn about Alice Paul? The Night of Terror? Sanger and Goldman and god knows who else that I don’t have the education to reference?
My guess is no and I’m guessing it’s a big reason why we are where we are.
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purplefinn says:
Violet,
Brilliant move. I’m an older feminist. I see it lots of places - younger people weren’t there when we fought for these rights and just don’t know. Knowing more of our past and that we are standing on others’ shoulders will add to our strength in moving forward.
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Anna Belle says:
Bingo, Ali and purplefinn.
Here’s what I wonder. I wonder if we had had women’s history in the schools for some thirty-odd years, like we’ve had black history, would it have made a difference in the election? I think it would have. You can’t kick around a protected class like you can an unprotected class, and that’s really the difference between women and minorities these days. Black cultural awareness in the schools led to greater and greater sympathy for minority races, so much so that now you have majority white males actually identifying with minorities, as if they could actually understand what minority life is like by emulating it.
That could have all been ours. Women could have been the ones that third wavers identified with, Hillary could have pointed to our stories (and make no mistake, I suspect she’s a seething second waver beneath that public persona), which would have been as common to the public as Martin Luther King’s or Frederick Douglass’. No race card can be played in that scenario, and the cheating would have filled the airwaves. That’s what we lost by not making this a priority long ago.
I understand the frustration, even the anger that we feel toward third wavers, especially since they made the impact they did this year. Now the parties know that women are another constituency asking to be duped, and we can to a large extent blame that on out-of-touch boomer women (which is a specific subset of boomer women, which probably does not apply to anyone reading this blog) and third wavers. It’s true. But we also can’t win this without them. We can’t shout them out of existence. We have to convert them. This is just one of many stealth ways to do so, and I urge every person reading who agrees with that premise to go out and begin to tell the stories. I’ll do my best to keep you stockpiled with them in the coming months.
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Anna Belle says:
I got modded! Prolly too long winded…
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no pasaran says:
I can confirm that at my daughter’s public school it is often about MLK, Malcolm X, etc. etc. and ZIP about women. There is so much danger in us women not having our own stories; it is exactly why we are still so powerless. I think teaching our children women’s history is one of the best ways to tackle the horrific inequalities we women and girls face.
Until then, can any of you recommend books on women’s history or bios that would be suitable for my 5- and 9-year-old daughters?
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anna says:
Here is a site listing links to the full text of feminist literature:
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Lisa says:
This is crucial. We HAVE to get women’s history and women’s issues addressed in the grade schools on up. NOW. I would like to come up with a ONE PAGE flier that can be printed out, with website addresses, TONS OF STARTLING AND FRIGHTENING STATISTICS ABOUT THE STATUS OF WOMEN, and more info and have them available for downloading and printing for everyone. My purpose for them is that I would like to inundate the schools with them. Give them to all my children’s teachers, and all the other women teaching at the school. The teachers need to see this as a priority. We need to reach them and get them motivated.
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Sis says:
I think we learned this as feminists, searching for ourselves. It was there, but only little available in collections. But the feminist historians and librarians must have made an effort to find it and bring it to us. I think it started to be collected then, in the 60s and 70s.
But also, we each can contribute someone. From our childhood, young adulthood and lives as mothers and workers, we all know a woman who made some difference, however small, in however small a sphere or community. Write her life. The mistake I think is to assume women were only noteworthy if they did what men do. ie) politicians. They are, but not “only”.
Just as an example; and this is incomplete. Most of us know Neil Young. Quite a gift with lyrics eh? Everyone assumes he got it from his dad, the reporter/writer. Well and where did his dad get it from? Neil Young’s grandmother was a gifted writer, in the small ways a woman can be when she can’t make it her all. She worked as a newspaper reporter in several small northern Canada newspapers. You only had to read one of her pieces to know she had it. Well, Jean Young was a far better writer than Neil could ever hope to be. Take it from me. She didn’t make millions selling records, she got no Grammies, but like a certain blog writer we know, when you read Jean Young, you held your breath. She was good, damn it.
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Ali says:
I did a little thinking this evening about what I think is need to get women’s history into the k-12 curriculum. I thought about my experiences as a teacher, what I think will get teachers off their bum to teach this stuff. In addition to what has also been mentioned and Lisa’s great idea above I have:
1. Contact publishers of educational materials. In droves. Request Women’s history materials. Offer contacts of those who can create such materials if needed. Teachers love nice materials. Shiny booklets. I have them in my home right now - booklets about MLK, Cesar Chavez, Malcom X, The Japanese Internment Camps. They are easy to use and I love the way they look. Xerox copies eventually get lost. These books stick around.
2. Create a small publishing company of women’s history material. Not as impossible as it sounds. My college teacher created just such a company to generate more materials with Native American themes.
3. Infiltrate the government system. Those who work for the federal, state and local governments doing teacher training and curriculum development need to be on board. I’ve been to a million of these trainings. Women’s history is not part of the scene.
4. Lead presentations at educational conferences across the country. This might be the easiest thing to do if we can get our educators on board. These conferences are always looking for something new. This would indeed be new and it’s not so hard to write up a proposal.
5. At teacher’s conferences and workshops, educational publishers always set up booths to sell their materials. Teachers love this stuff and they are always looking for new stuff. We need a publishing presence to present beautiful books and posters.
Yeah, I know these goals are a bit loftier, and take more than a bit organizing. But this is what I think is needed to REALLY get in there.
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Anna Belle says:
No, actually, these are GREAT ideas, Ali. I especially like the idea of producing books like the ones for the men you mentioned. I was thinking in terms of lesson plans, but a whole booklet of teaching ideas? Fantastic!
I just got into teaching about a year ago after having the same kind of DUH moment I had with my English degree several years ago (it took me forever to find my major, because I didn’t know how to make money with English–I still don’t, but I accept that my sanity is more important than my pocketbook). Anyway, I was uncertain which track I would pursue, and I almost went with middle school ( I love that age group. They aren’t hardened yet). I need to find out more about these books and how curriculum development works at the elementary, middle, and high school level, because we need to start at those levels first. I am haunted by the fact that freshman today will be voting in four years. We need to reach them before they do.
Great ideas.
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Greenconsciousness says:
My mother was one of the first 200 women to enter military service in WWII. They were called the Women’s Axillary and their model was Athena. Athena’s picture is in all their books and medals. I contacted the WI Vet Museum and they came and did one interview and carted all her stuff off to be archived. They gave us the transcript of the interview. I think they should do subsequent interviews ….but what they did do will be part of the women’s stories at the Veteran’s Museum.
Get your mother’s stories transcribed.
