Gender Histories
When we read about history we often read about events that took place and were important enough to make it to the books. We might also read about honorable men in being military leaders or men who became political icons but much of history today is now having to be rewrote with the inclusion of women. This idea of including both men and women in history is called gender histories. Gender histories refers to how men and women’s cultural conventions have been altered, created and maintained overtime (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Many historical stories tell the tales of men and few from a women’s perspective or include stories of women. Scholars today are finding that documenting gender histories of women is difficult because women often didn’t have access to public documents, forums and records, thus, creating a barrier for women’s ideas and information to get out (Martin & Nakayama, 2009).
When we read about history we often read about events that took place and were important enough to make it to the books. We might also read about honorable men in being military leaders or men who became political icons but much of history today is now having to be rewrote with the inclusion of women. This idea of including both men and women in history is called gender histories. Gender histories refers to how men and women’s cultural conventions have been altered, created and maintained overtime (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Many historical stories tell the tales of men and few from a women’s perspective or include stories of women. Scholars today are finding that documenting gender histories of women is difficult because women often didn’t have access to public documents, forums and records, thus, creating a barrier for women’s ideas and information to get out (Martin & Nakayama, 2009).
Wars have been going on since the dawn of human
existence and typically we hear about men when it comes to wars. Gender histories tells a different tale
of war and seeks to include both men and women. For example, women are often not even mentioned in the war
of 1812 on either the British or American side. In reality, women played a role in the war from being
seamstresses and traveling with the soldiers to being servants for high ranking
military official’s houses (Ferguson, 2011). They were often companions who traveled
with their men off to war. Women
also took care of the home front allowing life to move forward in even those
times of despair (Ferguson, 2011).
Understanding that history isn’t one sided and needs
to be written with the inclusion of both male and female is empowering and will
make me think twice next time I go to read a historical piece. This also makes me reflect on my
lessons of history early on in my childhood, who was writing those text books?
Were they including all perspectives and genders? With communication being so fluid and fast today and
information being more readily available than ever I would says elementary
education should be more likely to include gender histories in textbooks then
in the past.
Picture of the New York
State Women Veterans Memorial honoring Women who have served in the military
for the past 200 years. (Web Urbanist, 2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmR-BSlFHyg
Here's a great video from youtube that interviews women of WWII specifically their roles on the home front. Like stated in my paper much of history only includes one side of the story. Gender histories looks at both male and female and their perspective roles in history. This is just an example of how scholars today are reaching out to find those hidden histories of females that were not told.
Bibliography
Ferguson, H. (2011, March 8). The Roles Women Played in the War of 1812. Retrieved February 1,
2012, from Upper Mississippi Brigade:
http://umbrigade.tripod.com/articles/women.html
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K.
(2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th Edition ed.). New
York, NY: McGraww-Hill.
Web Urbanist. (2011). 12
Monuments Dedicated to Amazing Women: From Joan of Arc to the Working Women of
Amsterdam. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from Local Designs to Global Destinations:
http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/13/12-monuments-dedicated-to-women/
Trying to include the woman's take on all our historical events is a great task. At it's completion, I feel positive that the stories recorded will benefit the young girls that read them; maybe even alter some assumptions men have about the contributions women can make to the progress of our society.
ReplyDeleteGreat example to use and write about Katie! Gender histories have played such an important part in our society today. I also liked the example you gave about men always being recognized for service during times of war instead of both men and women. Very surprising but true. Great post Katie!
ReplyDeleteGreat example! Think about how you can use photos and rich, descriptive narrative to bring your example to life. It's important that paragraph 2 shows us the concept in a real, applicable way. Also watch formatting to make sure everything is consistent throughout.
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