Women: a history untold

“History class.” For you, these two words may conjure up memories of Mr. Grace being “better since seeing you,” a vi- cious game of buzzword in Mr. Dawson’s class, or hours of cramming for tests if you took APUSH. But the history we are being taught has a problem. Our history is written by men, about men.

The UN estimates that women make up approximately 51% of the United States’ population. After knowing this fact, I now ask you to name more than 3 females who are a part of Philadelphia’s history. Most people will either think of Betsy Ross, or draw a blank completely. That, in my opinion, is depressing. This inability to recognize women as part of our history is a much more.

For instance, Lucretia Mott, born in 1793, was a Quaker abolitionist, social reformer, and women’s right’s activist. She co-founded Swarthmore College, the American Anti-Slavery Society, and the American Equal Rights Organization. She also organized one of the first women’s rights conventions in Seneca Falls. She laid the groundwork for Women’s Suffrage, inspiring women to take to the streets and demand the vote. Lucretia Mott played a huge role in trailblazing the path towards equality for humans of all races and genders, but her story remains mostly unknown. The contribu- tions of Mott and similar women have not been touched upon or learned about by the majority of society. Women have shaped what Philadelphia and the United States look like today; they just aren’t recognized for it.

In the book Failing At Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls, authors Myra and David Sadker researched the absence of women in high school curriculum. The Sadkers’ studies revealed that in one 819 page textbook, the text written about women added up to barely one page. Another textbook had only three percent of their text on women, and, for every four pictures of men, there was only one of a woman. The authors of our textbooks are conditioned to only write about the stories of men, and, as a result, students are only informed about the stories of men. This blatantly obvious preference towards men in our textbooks is one of the main reasons why students are not being adequately educated on the contributions made by women in our history.

Getting women equal recognition on the pages of history books and on the minds of students at LM isn’t a feminist agenda; it’s an educational agenda. As students, we should be informed about what women have done for us in our past. The endless pages of history books assigned to us, the lectures we’ve had to sit through simply just do not inform us of the countless contributions women have made in history. I challenge you, students of Lower Merion, to take control of what you learn and educate yourself about these women. Let their voices and actions be heard by you. Don’t let the untold stories of women fade away like a picture left out in the sun; it is our responsibility to carry on their legacy. We are the future, but we must recognize our past.

#opinion