“We sometimes ask our students at The American University to list twenty famous women from American history. There are only a few restrictions. They cannot include figures from sports or entertainment. Presidents’ wives are not allowed unless they are clearly famous in their own right. Most students cannot do it. The seeds of ignorance were sown in their earliest years of schooling.” – Failing at Fairness by Myra & David Sadker
My friend Ashlie used to refuse to read novels written by men. She told me that her high school and college education was male-dominated and she had decided that she needed to compensate by reading many of the women authors that get neglected within our schools.
I can’t say she doesn’t have a point.
Today, I can name many fantastic authors, but if I look back upon my formal education, with the possible exception of the Bronte sisters and Jane Austin, I don’t believe we studied any women writers. Female scientists? Marie Curie. That’s the extent of the list I was ever taught. Can’t even think of one female mathematician or physician. Historical figures? Short of presidents’ wives, I got none. Well, there’s Anne Frank, but I’m not sure what category she falls under.
Quite pathetic if you ask me.
I was never explicitly told that just because I am female, I’m not supposed to be good at a certain field. In elementary school, I rocked in math and the teacher never made me feel like that was a bad thing. For middle and high school, I attended an all-girls school so obviously there was no male-female competition there. But I have consistently been interested in the male-dominated fields and I have never felt intimidated by the men around me. So I always thought that maybe I grew up without gender discrimination.
The fact is, gender discrimination is there all the time. I didn’t avoid it. Most people aren’t even aware that they are biased. I, for the most part, haven’t internalized it. ( Though, I did internalize a whole lot of other things.) Just because it didn’t destroy my life, or at least not in the ways I’m aware of, doesn’t mean the bias isn’t out there. Doesn’t mean it isn’t important. And it surely doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect many others.
Can you name twenty women from American history?
Previously? Good Mate.
I can! Here’s my list and (bery short) commentary:
Twenty Famous Women from American History:
1. Eleanor Roosevelt–principal author of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
2. Amelia Earhart, first person to make several flights, including the transatlantic one.
3. Sojurner Truth–one-time slave, abolitionist and women’s right actiist.
4. Margaret Sanger–women’s right activist who called for the legalization of birth control in the United States.
5. Susan B. Anthony–women’s suffrage activist.
6. Sacajawea–Native American guide to US explorers Louis and Clark.
7. Helen Keller–deaf and blind abolitionist, suffragist, and social-justice activist.
8. Elizabeth Blackwell–first female doctor in the US.
9. Clara Barton–nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.
10. Harriet Tubman–ex-slave and abolitionist.
11. Sandra Day O’Connor–first women justice, currently serving on the Supreme Court.
12. Deborah Samson–American revolutionary who joined the army disguised as a man.
13. Margaret Mead–anthropologist.
14. Amelia Bloomer–suffragist and social reformer.
15. Louisa May Alcott–author of “Little Women”, transcendentalist, and social reformer.
16. Georgia O’Keeffe–artist.
17. Rachel Carson–environmentalist and scientist, author of “Silent Spring.”
18. Rosa Parks–civil rights activist who was the catalyst of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
19. Maya Angelou–writer and poet.
20. Betty Friedan–women’s right activist and author of “The Feminine Mystique.”
elenita, i can’t tell you how you’ve made my day! you rock!!
Ooops. That was supposed to be “very”.
Karenika, thanks–both for the exercise and the comment. It sure was fun to rack my brains for those women. And the funny thing? I had no problem for the first ten, struggled with the next four or five, and then the names wouldn’t stop coming. I kept thinking, “I should have included ____ or ____. And especially ______!”
Thanks again for the challenge. This was good info to retrieve from my mental attic. I probably *would* have forgotten them sooner or later if you hadn’t reminded me.