Weaving women’s voices into history

By Margot Camp, ‘23

“It’s not just like add women and stir, it’s like, let’s rethink the recipe of what we put into it.” Maureen Reed

Since 1987, the month of March has been dedicated to recognizing women’s contributions to history. While the celebration initially began as a week of recognition in 1981, it soon became the whole month, by Presidential Proclamation.

Women’s voices and stories have been consistently absent from the narrative of the history of humanity, specifically in the curriculum we teach to our youth. While sexism is recognized as a systematic problem globally, we don’t often reflect on how it is represented in our education system.

Although the contributions of women to history are equally as significant as the contributions of males, we have significantly fewer records of these contributions. Historically, women have less access to education, resources for recording stories, and places to share their stories.

History courses are a core part of traditional high school education, usually centered around certain parts of history which are seen as most valuable and essential for learning. Maureen Reed, Upper School English and American Studies teacher, and Writing Coach at Catlin Gabel School (CGS), shared that certain parts of history are commonly viewed as more important than others.

“There’s a tendency still to think that there are, so-called important kinds of history, that have to be taught. Often, those are aspects of political history or military history that tend not to emphasize women’s history. And when textbooks, for example, introduce women’s history, it’s like, well here’s this other story to add on.”

Including women’s contributions to history is critical in students’ ability to engage with the curriculum because students can connect more with the material they can connect with, explained Reed. She emphasized that she has heard from many students that they are immediately more interested when women’s voices are included in the narrative that they are being taught.

When specific courses are taught, such as American Studies or United States History, there are particular topics that the course should cover to prepare students for college. State standards (which independent schools aren’t required to adhere to) dictate that students be taught basic civic and government studies, among other things. Students are fed all of this information in class and are told, “this is what’s important, with a capital I,” according to Reed.

Reed pointed to the example of the United States Constitution. Although it is an important document to be taught in order to be prepared for college, there are ways to be thoughtful and inventive when teaching about it. Not only should the voices of women be uplifted, but also the voices of everyone who is not commonly heard.

Reed further explained that there is intersectionality between the faults in the way women’s history is taught and how the history of people of color and people who have historically not been in positions of power are taught. These are not just problems within the teaching of history but in every different curriculum, including math, sciences, arts, etc.

“Sometimes it involves thinking creatively about sources,” said Reed. “It would be simple to say, oh, the sources just aren’t there, but that’s just a cop-out. There’s so much you can do with that material.”

Reed strives to broaden how she teaches and reflects on when she first started thinking about marginalized voices in history. “When history really came alive to me was when I started thinking about it from the perspective of the voices that aren’t often in textbooks.”

Now, she can design her own curriculum based on things that she and her students are interested in and find meaningful, unlike the education she received.

“I was definitely raised in a system that was like, here are the ten important things to know about U.S. history, and they were mostly related to politics,” she shared before explaining how women’s voices could be woven into the curriculum.

“You can start by adding material, you know, making sure we have more voices and experiences of women in the classroom, but then, the next step is how can what we learn from women’s history reshape how we think about history more generally…it’s not just like add women and stir, it’s like, let’s rethink the recipe of what we put into it.”

Reed stressed that it’s important to include women and other marginalized people in the story rather than thinking of their stories as add-ons to the narrative. Even though there are fewer records of oppressed voices, it is vital that we strive to find these voices and illuminate their stories. In order to move forward, these stories need to be rooted in the history we teach. “I want it to be a deep part of the curriculum,” Reed concluded.