As a historian, I am here to argue that Women's History Month should be abolished. Why do you ask? Well, let's start with a visual thinking strategy. One of my favorite female role models, the indubitable Dr. Brasher, showed this image in our European Women to 1500 class last week. I'm curious to hear your reactions, so please, comment below!
What's going on in this picture? What makes you think that? -These are common visual thinking directed questions.
What an overwhelming majority of the class responded when we first viewed this photo was a synchronized groan of disappointment at the caricatured depictions of famous women. What I have a problem with is why the gravitation is towards single figures? We honor Women's History month with discussions of how specific women have become memorable and shout out women for being awesome, when we really should be doing that all the time!!
Side note: IMO Amelia Earhart, icon? For flying a plane into an ocean? Girl...
We have allowed ourselves to be contented with the sop of parallel studies and a single month devoted to women’s achievements. It takes the heat off conservative, closed-minded academics who think that female influence is overrated, and that in any event there is no need to incorporate these figures further as a separate discipline. So what looks like inclusion is actually exclusion!! Same goes for Black History month, Black History is our history, Women's History is our history.
Talking about Women's History is not just simply add women and stir. Feminism is not about making women feel strong, they are already strong. Instead, we should consider how we allow others to perceive that strength. The challenge is to highlight the unique successes of women as a whole and acknowledge how that operates within societal context.
When we limit Women's History to a single month, we are strengthening the view that it is less worthy than traditional, male-centered history. Not only that, but the media we encounter, museums we visit, and physical representations that we interact with severely lack the prevalence of women. Only 8% of historic statues in the United States represent women. "Only nine of the 100 statues in the National Statuary Hall collection in the U.S. Capitol are of women, and fewer than five percent of the 2,400 national historic landmarks chronicle women’s achievements. No women appear on U.S. paper money and there are no federal holidays in honor of women." (HuffPost)
As a result, children of all genders grow up with a distorted, inaccurate and incomplete understanding of women in American history. Not only is this perspective factually wrong, but the impact on young people is significant and harmful. The lack of girls and women in textbooks and civic environment sends a clear message about the relative stature of women in society. This lack of representation further subverts female confidence, leadership skills, and achievements. What can we do to fix this?
So, let's abolish Women's History month and restore history to women, and restore women to history.
Your post definitely made me think more about the exclusiveness of women's roles when it comes to appreciating our past. For me personally, it is difficult to think of a statue of a women that I have seen (besides the Statue of Liberty, but you know what I mean). America should definitely become more open to accepting the accomplishments that women have had and the influence that it created on our country.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the lack of female representation in countless places needs to addressed and changed, but I don't agree that the solution to this problem is abolishing Women's History month. Women's History month, African American History month, Pride month, etc are too little too late, yes, but it's something. Having months like these make government bigwigs feel like they are doing something to apologize for oppression and pain in the past. I personally feel like we should continue to celebrate Women's History month and other months like it because they are a step in the right direction. These months emphasize and celebrate these groups, and they bring attention to the fact that Women/LGBT members/and African American people have been suppressed for a long long time. Just because women have a designated month doesn't mean we can't celebrate them every other month, and the same goes for other people who have gotten a designated month. By giving women a month, the government is saying that they have been pushed aside forever, but we are attempting to rectify that. Representation of women in society and culture needs to change, but I don't think taking away their designated month will help.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking a lot about how the "standard" is still "straight, white male." Anything outside of this needs a special label, which I resent. For example, gay marriage. Is anything about the marriage fundamentally different than a straight marriage? Nobody would ever say "straight marriage" so let's start there. It's two people in love signing a paper telling the state "we are in love and would like to file taxes together."
ReplyDeleteI also saw a post recently that said "the wage gap doesn't exist. Men just go for higher paying jobs like CEO, surgeon, and senator. Women go for lower paying jobs like woman CEO, woman surgeon, and woman senator." I wrote a blog post about this earlier in the semester, but that "woman" label that gets tacked on to words makes me so angry. I can see where Vivienne is coming from and I can see where you are coming from. Both arguments are valid because the issue is so complex and not black-and-white. Does the "woman" label emphasize the power of being a woman or discount/minimize these achievements? It's hard to say.
Wow. Cheyenne, that was beautiful! Your argument is so well-stated, and you certainly convinced me with all of your facts and examples! These "history months," while attempting to include, are actually excluding the populations they are celebrating. They provide a nice sentiment, but they suggest something else much more devastating to young women and minorities. I wish there was a way that we could fix this on a large scale and enforce the teaching of women throughout history to our children. But it seems nearly impossible to change how the education system and society has been for so long. I still have hope, however, that we will be able to bridge the gap between the history of the "others" and male-dominated history.
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