On Creating Feminist Opportunities in Education
November 12, 2008
by Anna Belle Pfau
|Regardless of which side you were on (and there were more than two sides) in this election, most of the female population in this country has been awakened to the reality that sexism and misogyny still exist in our culture. Having women run for national office is still not something most Americans are used to, and we saw evidence of that everywhere this year: on the campaign trail, in newsrooms across the country, in marketing, organizing, and in the most surprising place of all — within the ranks of American feminist organizations.
In the wake of this election year, many of us have been left asking what we can do to help create a better world for women. In blogs across the Internet discussions are taking place regarding how how we can unify to address issues in the media, in politics, in the culture at large, and in my area, education. What to do, what to do? In a world that is not ready, how do we act to ready it?
Education is the place for me to start. It’s a natural direction to take, given that I already am a teacher, and that I have incredible stores of knowledge regarding women’s history. I can, and often do, interject into just about any conversation the story of a woman from history or current events that relates to the topic at hand. These stories roll off my tongue daily and have for years been my subversive effort to get the history out there. It’s time to bring the matter to the public.
March is Women’s History Month. It follows Black History Month, which is in February. As I detailed in my post Eyes on the Prize, black historical narratives have found their way into the classroom via this vehicle of BHM. Black History Month began as Black History Week in 1926, and was launched by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who was a staunch advocate for making black history available to the general public. Dr. Woodson understood the power of narratives to change lives. His idea did not take off nationally, however, until Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday was made a national holiday. The effect has been amazing, and the ideas are definitely worth taking a look at for cues on how we can move women’s issues forward as well. One could argue that it has at least helped to elect the first African American to the office of President.
The way I see it, women need a two-pronged effort to influence educational institutions. The first prong, which we can begin to work on immediately, is getting the information in the schools this coming March. We are in November now, and we don’t have much time, but we can begin to make a difference today. If you have kids, join the PTA so you can bring up the topic of how the school will celebrate Women’s History Month often. If you do not have kids, consider calling the local PTA (or PTAs if you’re ambitious) and asking them if the school has plans for celebrating Women’s History Month. Ask how you can help. If you are a teacher, or were a teacher, or even if you just have creative ideas, consider creating a lesson plan suitable for Women’s History Month. Call the Principal and offer it free to your school. Teachers LOVE free lesson plans.
Also, for you creative types, this is where you can put your skills to good use. We’ll need flyers and posters that we can offer to schools for free. If you have the skills, you could write a play or two that can be put on as a show at schools. Write one for each level–elementary, middle and high schools. My daughter’s school almost always did some sort of play or show related to either MLK or the Civil Rights struggle. They sang songs and staged scenes, and they were always so earnest that there was rarely a dry eye in the house. Never underestimate the power of getting people emotionally involved. That emotional response reinforced those lessons in those kids, and made those narratives even more powerful.
The second prong is the long-term goal. We need a Martin Luther King Jr. If we can’t identify one in history, we need to make one today. Instead of a single positive role model and leader women can unify under, as African Americans did under MLK, we get International Women’s Day. That will never do. We can’t unify under the sea of symbols that produces, and I’m not convinced that isn’t by design. Fracture is the best way to thwart a movement, after all. If everyone is off appreciating their own idea of what women’s struggles looks like, they aren’t likely to go looking to include others, are they? No, we need a unifying symbol, something we can lobby for: another holiday.
I’ve been looking at the major leaders of the women’s movement for March cues. Neither Stanton nor Paul have a birth or death associated with March. Susan B. Anthony died in March, so that’s an idea. Susan B. Anthony was very much a tireless reformer. She became the legs that Elizabeth Cady Stanton could not have as a mother of eight with a traveling husband. For 45 straight years she gave between 75 to 100 speeches per year in favor of women’s rights in America and abroad. By conservative estimates, that’s nearly 3,500 speeches on behalf of women’s rights. She walked a beat across New York state in the early years. She’s been kicked off the dollar coin, replaced with the lovely and honorable Sacajawea, so I think it’s time to resurrect her reputation.
That’s one idea, a two-prong idea, for getting women’s history into schools, and thus into the culture. We’ve got to begin now, before we get to March. You can get started today making a real change in the lives of little girls, who are the women of tomorrow. You have skills and talent and a mind that sees that something must be done. Now is the time to act on it. What will you do to ready the world for women?
Adapted from a post at Peacocks and Lilies.
We badly need womens history to be taught. I’ve had so many arguments with grown up people who insist that women won the right to vote before black men and that the Equal Rights Amendment passed sometime in the 1970′s. It makes me want to scream.
And woven within womens history is a history of the Dem and Republican parties. It is burned into people’s brains that Democrats are the great defenders of womens rights and Republicans are the oppressors. People don’t realize that some of our great feminist icons leaned Republican. The first female congressperson was a Republican, the first woman nominated for the presidency at a convention was a Republican.
A lack of awareness of both of these facts really played into this election. People have this set of beliefs that are false, but they still colored their views. For example, Palin couldn’t possible be a feminist because she was a Republican. And in spite of no evidence at all, in fact even with some evidence to the contrary, Obama is viewed as a great advocate for women’s rights simply because he has a D after his name.
There is Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day so why not a Women’s Day for a national holiday? I seem to recall that a couple of History classes were mandated in most colleges so why shouldn’t one class on women’s history be mandatory? I mean we are looking at half the population here who has done half to sustain the nation all these many years, so why not?
Since we started this conversation at the Reclusive Leftist, I’ve been surfing the internet to see what is available for teachers. There’s a lot of information out there, but not much that has been turned into “use as is” lesson materials for teachers. A teacher wanting to put together lessons plans for women’s history month would have hours of work ahead of her. Let’s help by doing it for her. We need the plays and posters that Anna Belle speaks of, but we also need web-based lessons like webquests and interactive games. For the teachers who want to create their own lessons, we need to create a website where they can go to find the links to the information they will need to do it a la Kathy Schrock’s site at the Discovery Channel. Maybe the Biography Channel could be persuaded to host it. In time we need to offer teachers opportunities for their students to showcase their work like writing and photo contests. When we’ve conquered all that, we need to take on the textbook companies so that every day in history class is women’s history, too, and that reading anthologies include more works by women. Wasn’t it Virginia Woolf who said, “Throughout most of history, anonymous was a woman”?
Unfortunately I have no experience with children, don’t know any teachers, and sadly I am seriously lacking in creativity or artistic talent of any kind. However if there is anything I can do to help with research or designing handouts (good with computers) etc. I would be happy to help. My experience is in sales, management, and marketing so if someone comes up with a cool idea I would be happy to “sell” it to the appropriate people at my local schools or lobby the local PTA’s to let us present the ideas to them?
Also, I used to volunteer at a battered women’s shelter and I think the same presentations we come up with for schools could be tweaked a little and used there. Those women desperately need to feel less isolated and alone and making them feel part of a larger community of women could give them strength. They also need to know that regardless of what has been “pounded” into their heads over the years, there is great pride and hope to be found in the past, present, and future of women that they can be part of.
Great idea and strategy! I think another good place could be public libraries. I like the idea of a website to help people create lessons. Parents could even use it to teach their young children at home.
Question: What is the next step toward getting a national holiday? Maybe we should get our plan together and make the pitch this March. Use the media to spread the idea.
As much as Susan B. Anthony has to offer as a symbol for women, I think the downside is that we don’t have any of her historic speeches. I believe MLK was able to become such an icon because his I have a Dream speech is able to transcend his time and appeal to people decades later. Like it or not, we’re a media based culture and we need to find a charismatic, orator who will touch the majority of women today and for decades in the future.
Anna Belle,
Thank you so much for this timely and well written post. So many of our members seem interested in reaching out to girls – be it through education or empowerment.
This is a worthy objective for The New Agenda!
Good question, mamabroad. We need a sponsor and a bill. Hillary Clinton would be a natural choice for sponsor, but I’m sure we could get several women in Congress to sign on, as well as some men. Barbara Boxer would be friendly to the idea, probably. Certainly Carolyn Maloney in the House would be receptive. She definitely understands the urgency of changing the narrative now. Once we get a bill, we can collectively lobby a sponsor or sponsors for it.
If someone has law or policy experience, they could draft the bill. The bill that resulted in the MLK holiday took over a decade to pass. Efforts began shortly after his death, and the law was passed in 1983. It took even more time to get the country as a whole on board.
I am going to pass this idea around and see if we can get someone to sponsor it.
Good point, Denise. Alice Paul is the fieriest orator we’ve had, and goodness, was she a pistol. Almost all of her words survive today, and they are very powerful. That particular narrative, the one of events surrounding passage of the 19th Amendment is, I think, some of the most powerful imagery we have as women. Silent Sentinels, Occoquan workhouse, force-feedings, violence, the Night of Terror, the political structure yielding, the War of the Roses, a young Tennessee son and a telegram from his mother. It’s got it all. Read more about it here: http://annabellep.wordpress.co.....amendment/
You’re welcome, Amy. Thank YOU for creating this space where we can dream and plan out loud with each other. I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life.
Just read your blog post on Alice Paul. That’s definitely got the drama and heroism we need!
I volunteer at my kids school and I’ll definitely ask now about what they plan for March.
I think we also should start plans for 2020…the 100th anniversary of suffrage. Maybe the national holiday could be drafted and we could aim for its passage by 2020? Or even have a Suffrage holiday and also the holiday for the particular historical women’s hero as Anna Belle noted.
I love the idea of plays. I also was thinking we need a series of books to supplement the history textbooks. Could we interest a publisher in doing a “New Agenda” series on women in history?
Maybe Annabelle could choose the women we should start with and those of us who can write for children each choose one. Think American Girl series….nonfiction publishers especially love series. I’ve already been going through the current Children’s Writers market book marking off publishers I thought would be interested because I thought this must be done.
And if there are any New Agenda writers who also have journalistic credits I have an immediate concept regarding this election that would appeal to children. It would require a bit of media presence and I would like to back channel this one.
I’m enthusiastic about a national Women’s Day, but not sure about the need to single out one particular woman, e.g. Susan B. Anthony vs. Alice Paul, to memorialize on her birthday (or death day). There have been SO many great women to celebrate. Instead I wonder about celebrating the day that Women’s Suffrage was won as a national holiday? That would bring up both the history of the women’s movement (including the fact that women got the vote decades after black men did) as well as the opportunity to reflect on where the USA still needs to go, i.e. elect a woman President.
Hah, Karen! GMTA. We just posted the same thing simultaneously…except why not go for both….Women’s Suffrage and a holiday for a particular woman?
Oh….I forgot…Women’s Suffrage was ratified in August. No good for school celebrations.
Here’s an idea for someone with computer skills. Could we have a “mandex” page where we rate magazines, textbooks, tv news shows, etc., on their ratio of men vs. women.
It might help to have graphic representations of inequality. Each network on the number of men vs. women pundits, men vs. women “guest experts” and so on. We could rate Slate’s new endeavor, the number of male vs. female poets in the New Yorker, each movie studio by number of male vs. female directors.
That way we could not only put pressure on individual media outlets, but also each industry as a whole. Educate and shame them toward progress!
As Denise mentioned, we’re a media-based society. We need to shine the light there as well as in schools.
Oh, oh, oh! I LOVE the idea for a national women’s suffrage holiday! That’s even better than singling someone out. It singles out the salient event, THE event that above all others has led to real progress. Paul & Burn were right in that regard–immediate suffrage was necessary to carry any agenda forward. It’s also a great way to include all kinds of women, because it wasn’t just white women that got the vote that day, but all women. We were the first constituency to pursue the right for all of our kind, not just some.
I think the goal of having Women’s Suffrage Day become a national holiday before it’s 100th anniversary is a wonderful idea. I think we should sponsor a national writing contest for school children about why it’s important. See if we could get the winning essays read into the congressional record along with the bill.
Yes, I agree about Alice Paul. There’s also a wonderful movie, Iron Jawed Angels, featuring Hillary Swank as Alice Paul. There’s something sexy and compelling about that movie…. I think it could draw in young women, this story, this fierce struggle.
Not that this is fair, but the image of Susan B. is a bit old lady. Sorry! Is that sexist of me to say? Probably, but I’m just thinking about what will draw in youth. I don’t think grey haired Frederick Douglas would have drawn in our country – we needed someone younger, someone easier to relate to. MLK is a perfect icon. And yes, the audio…. this makes a difference with the new youth culture.
I am a teacher and I remember each year in March trying to find appropriate curriculum, materials, books, visuals. It wasn’t easy – there isn’t a lot of stuff out there and what is out there, as someone already wrote, requires hours of additional effort/ research/ planning to put together in a usable way. I remember feeling really frustrated with the lackluster women’s history curriculums out there. They were hardly curriculums.
I did put together one really successful activity for a group of adult ESL students in a welfare-to-work program. It is a pretty simple project-based research project that is easy to do and would be appropriate for K-8 classrooms as well as adult education. If anyone is interested I can write it up.
Ali,
I also work in Adult Ed and would appreciate more info on your research project. Thank you.
Hi Monarch,
Sure, I’ll try and put something simple together tonight or tomorrow. Then I’ll post it here.
I think the free poster idea is an excellent one. Perhaps a simple mailer could be: one beautiful poster of Alice Palmer or Inez Milholland on that gorgeous white horse. A simple 1 – 5 day lesson plan with handouts, detailed instructions, etc. And one extension research activity. Question – money for publishing posters and what not?
Anna Belle,
This is the website where our PTA got posters and bios for Women’s History Month:
http://www.nwhp.org/
Great forum. A Women’s Suffrage holiday would be fantastic, a good rallying point. May I suggest that you, if you are unfamiliar with it, get acquainted with The National Women’s History Museum, which is in negotiation for a site in DC near the Smithsonian. They have information on what is available in literature and videos, etc.
I, too, thank you Anna Belle. Education is incredibly important, and it’s something that women have underutilized.
I intend to start with my granddaughters, aged 12 and 13, and a weekly email– news stories, bios, historical info, etc. I may learn something doing the research–
Thanks, mamabroad, for mentioning public libraries. I work at a library, and I can tell you that librarians love “(fill in the blank) months”. Most libraries are always looking for ways to circulate more books and provide educational information, and any assistance they can get is greatly appreciated. More women frequent public libraries than men, and kids are the second largest group of patrons. They will take flyers, program ideas & work with local schools on a joint effort.
I think the goal of having Women’s Suffrage Day become a national holiday before it’s 100th anniversary is a wonderful idea. I think we should sponsor a national writing contest for school children about why it’s important.
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Oo, samantha’smom! Great way to tie in the schools!
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momofthenycblue, that is sad…the Women’s History Museum is still in negotiation?
When I first saw Iron Jawed Angels I did a search and found that there’s also a statue to our women heros…in storage.
We need these things open to the public!!
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