More Than Dates and Names
As I read through other people’s entries, I noticed a debate discussing how much women should be included in our history textbooks. Some people thought they were severely lacking while others believe they should be less prominent than men because it has just been recently in history that women have made huge societal impacts and changes. As I thought about this issue more, I came to realize that I was never impressed by the women that were listed in the textbooks because of the factual style of schoolbooks.
I learned about women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton but the ideas she fought for and things she achieved were ones that seem so common and obvious today. The ideas are so basic to our current society that I figured they were easy to achieve; they just needed someone to get the ball rolling. To show women’s achievements through dates and labels of events, and to skip the context of current society overlooks the struggle and effort women activists went through.
I believe that women should be more prominent in our general history educations, but that they shouldn’t be added to our current books. I believe a different book or lesson plan should be used that emphasizes women’s roles and limitations in the time period they were set in. This is why Iron Jawed Angels impacted deeply me in terms of showing the struggle of earning the right to vote. Of course the real event wasn’t followed by an empowering soundtrack or filled with all attractive people, but it did show clearly the everyday conflicts women encountered and overcame. I think our classrooms would benefit with similar lessons of showing what women achieved against their existing society.