I just stumbled upon a letter to the Austin Community College I had written. Supposedly March is Womens History Month. Celebrate by raising hell. Well-behaved Women Rarely Make History Julie Bernett Last March was Women’s History Month and Austin Community College celebrated International Woman’s Day (March 8) by having an information fair and free book raffle, all of which I missed because I read Accent too late. I think a better way for ACC to celebrate womens history is by offering womens history classes and reviving the defunct Womens Studies department. A friend shared her frustration at having difficulty finding a women’s history book. She finally discovered a good one, AMERICAS WOMEN: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines, by Gail Collins, which I have just read and highly recommend. I wonder why I never learned about these women throughout my education. I am now 46 years old and when I was growing up, history was always a bore to me because it focused solely on wars, battles, and other mens power issues. I recall in about the third grade becoming somewhat interested in the pilgrims because women and children were depicted in the textbook illustrations. But somehow reading “the women were brought to America to help keep the men’s shirts clean and white” did not sit well in my little psyche and I tuned history out and wondered why females rarely made history. I suffered through two semesters of required American History at a university back in the late 1970s. I earned a C and a D and could hardly keep my eyes off the clock as the professor paced back and forth and lectured about those beloved wars and generals and fights over territory. I just don’t seem to recall many women being mentioned, save the infamous Salem witches. Maybe todays history classes are more inclusive of women. I hope so. When ACC offers a Womens History course and classes in Womens Studies again, I will celebrate and be happy to enroll in them.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:26:06 +0000
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