Women's History Month in America according to Kerber, et al (1995) was developed and established by members of the National Women's History Alliance which included Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett and Bette Morgan in 1987. President Reagan wrote the first public proclamation, insisting that March was a time to recognise and salute women for their contribution to the American family and society (Leonard and Baradar, 1989). This is a statement that ignores the professional contributions to history women have made and enforced the idea that it was okay to continue to ignore women's history and furthermore legitimised misogyny in fields such as science, medicine, politics, the arts as well as continuing to contribute to gender inequalities in education. Therefore it is no surprise that a large amount of women have and still are ignored from history details Hughes (2016).
Statistically, The World Bank (2018) describes how women make up roughly 50% of the world's population and always have existed close to this estimation. However, questions arise when only 0.5% of recorded history is occupied by women, as suggested by Hughes (2016). Taking a look at pre- history, records show that women contributed a great deal to society. This is reflected in many of the figurines made between 40,000 BC, until around 5,000 BC, 90% of which were femaleHughes (2016) also offered. Women were well recorded in archaeological history but start to disappear when pre- history turns into history as stated by Smith (2008). The main reason that Smith (2008) gave for this is that societies started to become militarised and relient on muscle power thus misogyny became powerful and women were made effectively useless in the running of society. The balance of power in society shifted and has stayed this way for millenium. Maintaining the status quo of muscle power equals general power in society and as a result women were reduced to becoming family production machines and housewives not suitable for professional careers as reflected in the lack of female representation in history. It became the base of society and until modern times remained the case. The remnants of this ideology can still be seen in both western and eastern cultures. The main justification of the eradication of women from history is that whilst previous measures of achievement included the physical survival of a community and a good quality of life, achievement is now measured by success and expansion which is reliant on muscle power further proposes Hughes (2016).
It would be unfair to imply that history completely forgot women, however the reasons why history remembers figures such as Cleopatra and Helen of Troy is due to how oversexulised they have become as highlighted in the works of Pomeroy (1990). History mainly remembers women of power as figures who lured men to their beds as well as their deaths. Furthermore, history prefers to categorise women into stereotypes rather than by their characteristics states Hughes (2016). The work conducted by Pomero (1990) highlights the fact that Cleopatra was an excellent philosopher and poet as well as exceptionally good at maths, but despite historical records indicating that she was not overly attractive, historians often depict her as a big breasted, power hungry woman bathing in milk. Often, women simply exist in history only as a man's fantasy of a woman.
Realistically, by the word of Hughes (2016) it would be difficult to go back through 3500 years worth of history and give credit to women. However, historians have started to credit women who ultimately impacted and changed history. For instance, the 2016 biographical film Hidden figures does an expert job of highlighting the contributions made by Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson who were vital to calculating trajectories for the Apollo 11 mission. The reason why they were written out of the history of the Space Race according to Elks (2019) was because segregation in America was arife in 1961. Not only was sexism a massive issue in the workplace but so was racism therefore their efforts and contributions were seen as less than their white male counterparts. Many people in the 1960’s thought people who worked for NASA were weird so the employment of people of colour was overlooked whereas in other organisations hiring people of colour especially women was largely campaigned against.
In regards to science, women were largely overlooked. For a long period of time members of the field believed that the recognition of Marie Curie was progressive enough. Elks (2019) records that this led to the complete oversight of the work that physicist Lise Meitner contributed to in regards to discovering and explaining how nuclear fusion worked. Her contributions were completely unacknowledged by her friend and collaborator Otto Hahn, who went on to win the 1944 Nobel Prize for the breakthrough. Nevertheless, once the Second World War ended she was credited with being the mother of the atomic bomb. Another female scientist, Rosalind Franklin, who contributed to the discovery of the makeup of DNA was systematically written out of history and Elks (2019) records how this is best indicted by the fact that her colleagues Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins shared a 1962 Nobel for the discovery. However, Crick and Watson did acknowledge the debt they owed Franklin by admitting that all their findings were relient on the work of Franklin in data collection and DNA X- Ray mapping. Additionally, historians of science refused to acknowledge that the cells collected from Henrietta Lacks, an American cancer patient, contributed to the development of chemotherapy and other medical advancement. The cells were used without permission and it was only until the release of “ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” in 2010 that her contributions were acknowledged. More recently U.S computer scientist Katie Bouman, who developed the code to capture the famous photograph of a blackhole faced a large amount of backlash on social media which aimed to discredit her work. It is because women are largely unacknowledged in the history of science that this occurred and is still common practise.
It is not only in the history of science that women have been written out of history. The arts also suffer from the lack of female recognition. For example, Elks (2019) depicts how artist Margaret Keane, who is now known for her paintings of children with large eyes, often had her work credited to her husband Walter. After their divorce, Margaret took Walter to court and now her work is rightfully credited to her. Additionally, composer Fanny Mendelssohn was constrained by the social standards of the 18th century which made it hard for her to gain notability and many of her works were credited to her brother, Felix. To further the point, photographer Gerda Taro was a pioneering war photographer and died in 1937 on the frontlines of the Spanish Civil War. Many of her photos were credited to her partner Robert Capo and in honour of her 108th birthday Google released a GoogleDoddle commemorating her work. It is a success that the works and contributions of these women are now recognised, however architect Denise Scott Brown is still yet to be recognised by the Pritzker Architecture Prize Committee for her contributions in the field and despite modern societies equality stance they are still adamant on not recognising Denise Scott Brown although in 1991 they honoured her husband for work they most collaborated on (Elks 2019).
Additionally, the field of business and economics is male dominant. Elizabeth Magie is often recognised as the uncredited creator of Monopoly. In 1903, Magie filed a US patent order for a “ Landlord Game”. In 1904 the patent was awarded but it wasn't until 1935 that Monopoly came into circulation and the similarities between the two are undeniable. Charles Darrow based the board game on Magie's Landlord's Game and then sold it as his own creation and because he was a male he received the advantage of increased financial backing.
Despite currently making up half of the world's population, women are considered as a minority. How history tells the story of women in relation to minority groups such as the LGBT community and racial groups is particularly interesting. Through media, Sutton (2020) asserts that LGBT activism is often credited to white gay men however, after the Stonewall riots, black and Trans woman Marsha P. Johnson and her friend Sylvia Riveria created the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries which aimed to shelter children who were LGBT from abusive homes. Their contribtions are often overlooked due to the fact that they funded their organisation through sex work according to Sutton (2020). Additionally in the UK, Bolt (2014) indicates that historians often neglect to highlight the role that women of colour played in the suffragette movement. it is crucial to acknowledge that it was mainly white women who largely benefited from the legislative and social changes that transpired during the age of the suffragettes. Bolt (2014) goes further to suggest that Emmaline Pankhurst's infamous phrase ‘I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” suggests that black people had a choice in their enslavement. Nevertheless, British Suffragettes did not campaign for just the enfranchisement of white women such as Australia and or the United States which presented and still do present with more prominent racial hatred whereas Britain's racism is and was at that time more subdued in comparison. When the Representation of the People Act was passed in 1918 it did include all commonwealth subjects thus by default including women of other races. Sophia Duleep Singh, the daughter of the Maharaja Duleep Singh, was the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Thus the argument could be made that she was given special consideration due to her high social standing suggests Bolt (2014). Sophia took part in ‘Black Friday’ alongside 300 other women who wished to protest against the Government's refusal to take the Conciliation Bill further (Bolt, 2014). The women were met with brutal force in November 1910 and to suffragette deaths have been attributed to the events that transpired. Sophia was also a well-known member of the Women’s Tax Resistance League, refusing to pay her taxes as a sign of protest until all women were awarded the vote. However the efforts and achievements of the suffrage movement are often credited to the likes of Pankhurst, Millicent Fawcett and Emily Davison. By the same token, according to Sutton (2020), when individuals and historians study the Civil Rights Movement they are often faced with male leaders of the movement such as Martin Luther King Jr or Malcolm X but seemingly ignore the efforts made by the likes of Dorothy Height who consistently spoke out about the sexism she faced in the civil rights movement. By focusing on the efforts of males it systematically ignores the civil liberties of women and arguably undermines the civil rights movement as a whole.
In conclusion, the reasons why women were systematically written out of history vary but it largely comes down to the fact that at the beginning of history, empire, militarisation and muscle power were largely practised and seen as the most effective ways of helping society function. Thus this led to contributions of women to society such as in science, business and humanities as inferior. By only disproportionately crediting 0.5% of the world's history to women it creates the issue that is near impossible to go through 3500 years of history and feminise it. Not only that, by rewriting the history in favour of crediting women it may discredit other minorities.
References
Bolt, C., 2014. The Women's Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s. Routledge.
Elks, S., 2019, Katherine Johnson and 9 other women written out of the history books, available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/10-women-written-out-of-history/ [accessed 18/05/2020]
Hughes, B., 2016, WHY WERE WOMEN WRITTEN OUT OF HISTORY? AN INTERVIEW WITH BETTANY HUGHES, available at http://blog.english-heritage.org.uk/women-written-history-interview-bettany-hughes/ [accessed 18/05/2020]
Kerber, L.K., Kessler-Harris, A. and Sklar, K.K. eds., 1995. US history as women's history: New feminist essays. Univ of North Carolina Press.
Leonard, C.M. and Baradar, M., 1989. Celebrate Women's History.
Smith, B.G., 2008. The Oxford encyclopedia of women in world history (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press, USA.
Sutton,M., 2020, 12 of the most inspiring women written out of history available at https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a31153290/womens-history-month-inspiring-women/ [accessed 19/05/2020]
The World Bank, 2018, Population, Female, available at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.ZS [accessed 19/05/2020]
Pomeroy, S.B., 1990. Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra. Wayne State University Press.
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