Opinion | Why we need Women’s History
If I got a dollar for every time I’ve heard a man say, “Women are equal in the United States. Why are you complaining?” I’d be a rich woman. First, I’m not complaining, I’m advocating. Learn the difference. And secondly, women are not equal in this country. We aren’t legally equal, societally equal, and worst of all, we aren’t perceived as equal by many of our male counterparts. And although I know lots of men who don’t actively belittle the women in their lives, their gender in and of itself gives them a leg up that women have never experienced.
As a history major, one of the biggest components of my life is studying the lives of the past and examining how they can impact our present and future. I love my academic program. But one of the hardest things about studying history is the fact that large swaths of it are still so largely dominated by men and their narratives, as women’s stories only make up 0.5 percent of recorded history, according to the New York Times.
Women’s history has only very recently become a thread of academia that is being pursued and while many professors I’ve had at Chapman have made it a priority to spend at least some time studying women of the Medieval Age, women during Apartheid, etc., female narratives are not the dominant field of study. And this has only reaffirmed to me that the women, their stories, their aspirations and their narratives, are not nearly as societally important and worst of all, are not being presented as such.
If women of the past aren’t being studied as equal to their male counterparts, then women of the present are certainly not being seen as such. Not to mention the fact that women are not guaranteed equal pay for equal work, women pay more for household and care products than men, women are not equally represented in government, women are still looked to for household work, the list goes on.
This doesn’t even get into the horrific realities for women of color, who experience drastic amounts of pay inequality – to which I could spend far more than 400 words on. Women are the minority in the tech sector, in executive roles, as CEOs, and to top it off, we still have yet to see a woman as President or Vice President. And now that all female candidates have dropped out of the 2020 race (except for Tulsi Gabbard, who does not have a realistic chance to snag the nomination,) that infamous glass ceiling seemingly feels further away.
This year, we need Women’s History Month more than ever, because if we don’t keep fighting and advocating and pushing for change, we won’t see it. I hope that one day, women’s history will be just as equally valued in our society as men’s. I hope that many more women will run for office and win. I hope that women see the value in themselves and others. And I hope, more than anything, that I can tell my future daughter that I voted for the first female President of the United States.