Who I Should Have Learned About in High School
To satisfy my CLA history core, which I was not excited about, I decided to take a HIS/WOST course. I learned about the exact same time periods and issues that teachers taught in high school; however, everything I learned in the WOST course was completely new material for me. I am absolutely appalled at the fact that I had never stopped and wandered what the women were up to during this "history" school "taught", and even more appalled that schools can get away with only teaching half of the real story. For this assignment, I've decided to look through my notes of the real history WOST course and refresh my mind of what I had learned. I picked out a few of the most important people and the issues that they stood for. Of course, there are millions of others that should be mentioned, and hundreds that I could mention, but I only have room for a few:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Stanton and her colleagues organized the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to discuss the status of women. They drew up the Declaration of Sentiments to highlight women’s oppression in the same vocabulary and writing style of the Declaration of Independence. This is known for jump-starting the women’s movement. One important issue they wanted to revise was the concept of coverture. Through most of the 1800’s single women could own property, develop contracts in their own names, create wills, and act on numerous other legal and civic duties or rights. Once a woman married, however, these rights were no longer honored. They were considered to be “covered” under their husbands’ identities, and their identities no longer carried weight. Also on the declaration was the demand for the right to vote. This was not a unanimous decision at the time and was considered quite radical.
Buffalo Bird Woman
When Natives’ homes were being stolen and Anglo gender roles were being forced onto the men and women, Buffalo Bird Woman was a leader who resisted the practices that were not traditional to her Hidatsa upbringing. Through practice, oral stories, and other teachings she kept her culture alive.
Jane Adams
Among others, Adams helped to set up settlement houses. Her particular house was called Hull house. These were places for immigrants and those with little income to find refuge. She set up health clinics, English classes, after school programs, and hygiene education.
Florence Kelley
Kelley dedicated her life to protecting (mostly) women and children from terrible working conditions. She fought for the 8 hour work day, minimum wage, and over all better working conditions for all classes.
Ida B. Wells
Wells is known as the “Princess of the Press”. She is an African American woman who used her journalist skills to open the public’s eyes about Lynching. Her anti-lynching campaign went from 1892-1900, a time when both African Americans and women had little say in public policy. Wells made her voice heard and was known globally. I read a book containing all of the pamphlets that she was known for and speeches that she had recited through out the world, and it was one of the most moving compilations I have ever read in my entire life. I found myself sobbing on a regular basis while attempting to finish the book. I highly recommend reading anything that she written. I find myself most surprised about never learning about her in school. In fact, I believe lynching in general was only mentioned from some outside context; it was completely glazed over in the text books, never studied in and of itself.
Margaret Sanger
Sanger defied strict laws by opening the first birth control clinic in 1916 in Brownsville, New York. She was jailed, and the clinic closed, but she continued her “crusade” for birth control, giving women more control and knowledge of their own bodies, and saving hundreds of lives in the process.
Combahee River Collective
This organization was founded in Boston in 1974. It was formed by African American women fighting for equality based on sex, race, class, and sexuality. They felt that these identities all intermingled especially for them who dealt with sexism from white people and black people who felt that their “isolation” was disrupting the black organization as a whole. On the other hand they were experiencing racism in the 2nd Wave Women’s Movement. They believed that if they were given “freedom” or equal rights then oppression would be abolished altogether because they were considered the very bottom of society. They played a role in getting women abortion rights and health care. They also did work with battered women and rape victims.