Awesome Stuff Women Did

From Jezebel, “Eight-year-old Stella Ehrhart decides what to wear each day by looking through her book,100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century, and picking a different notable female historical figure.

This weekend I was schmoozing at an event when some guy asked me what kind of history I study. I said “I’m currently researching the role of gender in Jewish emigration out of the Third Reich,” and he replied “oh you just threw gender in there for fun, huh?” and shot me what he clearly thought to be a charming smile.

The reality is that most of our understandings of history revolve around what men were doing. But by paying attention to the other half of humanity our understanding of history can be radically altered.

For example, with Jewish emigration out of the Third Reich it is just kind of assumed that it was a decision made by a man, and the rest of his family just followed him out of danger. But that is completely inaccurate. Women, constrained to the private social sphere to varying extents, were the first to notice the rise in social anti-Semitism in the beginning of Hitler’s rule. They were the ones to notice their friends pulling away and their social networks coming apart. They were the first to sense the danger.

German Jewish men tended to work in industries which were historically heavily Jewish, thus keeping them from directly experiencing this “social death.” These women would warn their husbands and urge them to begin the emigration process, and often their husbands would overlook or undervalue their concerns (“you’re just being hysterical” etc). After the Nuremberg Laws were passed, and after even more so after Kristallnacht, it fell to women to free their husbands from concentration camps, to run businesses, and to wade through the emigration process.

The fact that the Nazis initially focused their efforts on Jewish men meant that it fell to Jewish women to take charge of the family and plan their escape. In one case, a woman had her husband freed from a camp (to do so, she had to present emigration papers which were not easy to procure), and casually informed him that she had arranged their transport to Shanghai. Her husband—so traumatized from the camp—made no argument. Just by looking at what women were doing, our understanding of this era of Jewish history is changed.

I have read an article arguing that the Renaissance only existed for men, and that women did not undergo this cultural change. The writings of female loyalists in the American Revolutionary period add much needed nuance to our understanding of this period. The character of Jewish liberalism in the first half of the twentieth century is a direct result of the education and socialization of Jewish women. I can give you more examples, but I think you get the point.

So, you wanna understand history? Then you gotta remember the ladies (and not just the privileged ones).

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was an Italian mathematician who wrote the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus. She was also an honorary member of the faculty at the University of Bologna.

Maria was born in Milan to a wealthy family. She was recognized early as a child prodigy. When she was 9 years old, she composed and delivered an hour-long speech in Latin to some of the most distinguished intellectuals of the day. By her thirteenth birthday she had acquired Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Latin, and was referred to as the “Walking Polyglot”. Maria was shy by nature and did not like all these public meetings. Around 15, she devoted her study to differential and integral calculus and avoided all social interactions. She also taught her siblings. 

She wrote the book Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana, published in 1748. The first volume discusses the analysis of finite quantities and the second of the analysis of infinitesimals. 

and names them after scientists who were part of the Manhattan Project

WHERE IS THE “HOWARD STARK” CAT SHELDON

Loads of women scientists were involved in the Manhattan Project.  Read more about them here!

It is funny, how erasure of women from history can be a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, it would be nice to think that women were not tangled up in such a destructive project.  But they were there, and we owe it to them and future generations to remember them.  

I think we all know who was on Howard Stark's security detail, though:

SUPPORT TEEN VOICES

Teen Voices isthe only alternative print magazine created by and for girls in the country. Their local Boston program has a national, and even international, impact through the print and online magazines that reach hundreds of thousands of girls worldwide, and now it’s in danger. 

Teen Voices is more than just a magazine; it’s a community institution: 

87 Boston teen girlstake part in SHOUT!(Sisters Helping Other Unheard Teens) and work as Teen Editors and writers for the print and online versions ofTeen Voices.”  Girls come from the Boston neighborhoods of Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, West Roxbury, and Brighton.

Their teen constituents are 14 to 18 years of age; 82% come primarily from low-income families and 93% are girls of color (70% African descent, 18% Latina, 5% Asian), and 7% are Caucasian

110 Boston neighborhood teen girls participate in Poetically Speaking, a forum in the Boston Girls Writing Community.

6 Peer Leaders run programs and public forums.

35 college women and recent college graduates are trained to mentor the teen editors in their production of Teen Voices’ print and online magazines.

Like many girls, participants in Teen Voices are dealing with serious issues at home and in their communities. The issues range from racism, sexism, elitism, hunger, violence, depression, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual identity exploration, and unplanned pregnancy. For many, schools are not institutions that support their ability to address these issues, or their self-confidence. They need safe spaces to talk—with adults as well as peers—so that they can feel validated, supported, and informed. Some girls have support at home with parents, grandparents, teachers, or religious leaders; for others, Teen Voices offers a rare source of consistent, supportive adults.

As a Bostonian, I am particularly proud that the magazine gives girls of color and lower income of my city a chance to feel that they matter too.  With all the wealth and universities concentrated in the Boston-Cambridge area, it would be all too easy for people of our low-income neighborhoods to fall through the cracks.  Institutions like Teen Voices need to exist and continue to encourage young people of all backgrounds that they as much of a voice as Harvard professors and Bank of America executives.

“16-Year-Old Egyptian Scientist Finds Way to Turn Plastic Waste Into $78 Million of Biofuel!”

Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly scale French Alps

from a post by Reclusive Leftist on women’s erasure in history. 

her comments relate specifically to an article by the NYT thanking “the men” who invented modern technology, but pick absolutely any academic field of study, and women’s contributions are minimized, if not outright ignored.

literature has been a huge part of my life for a long time, and i grew up reading the classics—which, of course, are typically books written by white men, depicting their experiences. i was taught that the first “modern novel” was Don Quixote, written in the early 1600s by a guy (Cervantes). i don’t think i know of a word to accurately describe my mixture of outrage, shock, and pride, when i discovered later that actually, the first modern novel was written 600 years earlier—by a woman! (it’s The Tale of Genji, written by a Japanese lady-in-waiting who was known as Murasaki Shikibu.)

this might not seem important, but if you’re a woman you know just how vital this knowledge is. even now, when women are being told that we can do anything we set our minds to, the historical, literary, and scientific figures we learn about are all men. it’s a much more insidious way to discourage women from aiming high—because what’s the point in putting in so much hard work if it’s not even going to be remembered after you’re dead?

(via sendforbromina)

They're not all saints, they're not all geniuses, but they do deserve remembering.

Bette Davis, the original HBIC. Happy Birthday Bette! (via sexisbeautiful)

BOSSED UP