Posted on March 1, 2020
It's weird to even have the concept of "Women's History Month." I mean, about half of the world's population are women/girls! So shouldn't all of history include major amounts of information (like, about half of all historical information) about women?
You'd think!
But for the human animal, men-as-a-group tend to be bigger than women-as-a-group, and men-as-a-group tend to be stronger (at least in some ways) than women-as-a-group. So
men have dominated leadership in many societies. They tended to make the rules, and for a while there, lots of the rules looked like this:
Rule 1 - Listen to and obey your king. (By the way, only men can rule as kings.)
Rule 2 - Listen to and obey your priest. (By the way, only men can be priests.)
Rule 3 - Listen to and obey your lord. (By the way, only men can be lords.)
Even when people created societies ruled by democratically elected leaders, rather than kings and priests and lords, for a while there only men could run for office, and only men could vote.
In the past, men not only dominated government and power, they also dominated education, art, invention, and science. Women who fought through all the hurdles placed in their way and somehow managed to get an education and create an invention - or make a discovery - or do valuable science - or paint or write something notable - often had their work attributed to a man!
Anyway, with all this men-dominating-everything, men also dominated the writing of history. And those written histories tended to talk about kings, rather than everyday women; about male emperors and pharaohs and generals leading armies of male soldiers, with all the invasions and wars and battles and conquering-other-peoples that armies tend to get involved with, rather than everyday life. Women who were there - wherever and whenever "there" was - tended to have their contributions and work and lives ignored by historians, with the occasional token exception demanded by historical reality. More women led their people than merely Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth I, and more women achieved "firsts" than merely Amelia Earhart, and more women helped start social movements than merely Rosa Parks.
Women's History Month is a good time to learn about the everyday lives of women throughout history, and it's a great time to learn more about the timeline to women having voting rights and other human rights, and it's a super-duper time to learn about a wide variety of women - from all over the world and from all over our historical timeline - who have made a difference through art and science and every other possible field!
To help you explore "women's history," here and here are some starter sources.
men have dominated leadership in many societies. They tended to make the rules, and for a while there, lots of the rules looked like this:
Rule 1 - Listen to and obey your king. (By the way, only men can rule as kings.)
Rule 2 - Listen to and obey your priest. (By the way, only men can be priests.)
Rule 3 - Listen to and obey your lord. (By the way, only men can be lords.)
Even when people created societies ruled by democratically elected leaders, rather than kings and priests and lords, for a while there only men could run for office, and only men could vote.
In the past, men not only dominated government and power, they also dominated education, art, invention, and science. Women who fought through all the hurdles placed in their way and somehow managed to get an education and create an invention - or make a discovery - or do valuable science - or paint or write something notable - often had their work attributed to a man!
Anyway, with all this men-dominating-everything, men also dominated the writing of history. And those written histories tended to talk about kings, rather than everyday women; about male emperors and pharaohs and generals leading armies of male soldiers, with all the invasions and wars and battles and conquering-other-peoples that armies tend to get involved with, rather than everyday life. Women who were there - wherever and whenever "there" was - tended to have their contributions and work and lives ignored by historians, with the occasional token exception demanded by historical reality. More women led their people than merely Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth I, and more women achieved "firsts" than merely Amelia Earhart, and more women helped start social movements than merely Rosa Parks.
Women's History Month is a good time to learn about the everyday lives of women throughout history, and it's a great time to learn more about the timeline to women having voting rights and other human rights, and it's a super-duper time to learn about a wide variety of women - from all over the world and from all over our historical timeline - who have made a difference through art and science and every other possible field!
To help you explore "women's history," here and here are some starter sources.
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