Women's history: the perpetual amnesia
Sorry for the radio silence this week. I was traveling. Had an interesting encounter on the road with women's history...
In San Diego, I found myself in a model train museum, in front of a display about women working in railyards. It was a typical photomontage about how women had to fight, and sue, their way into these "male" fields, starting in the early 20th century. It had all sorts of inspiring photos of women in coveralls and engineer caps, doing hard physical work and, seemingly, having a lot of fun.
What struck me was that as a woman in my thirties, raised in a feminist liberal environment, I still felt awe and grief looking at these photos. I still feel cut off from that sort of world. I know that my experience is not everybody's, but I think it may still be typical for many women to feel Other, Not Good Enough, Second Best, and not free to pursue - and be respected - in non-traditional fields. I know that's what I feel.
That same day I randomly stumbled upon the May 16th, 1999 edition of the New York Times Magazine, and really enjoyed an essay within: "The Future is Ours to Lose," by Naomi Wolf. I love her passionate reminder that women need to know our history, to keep the stories alive of the paths we have already worn, and the places we have already fought to get - lest the next generation not know that it has happened, or at what cost. My experience in the train museum was just today's manifestation of how little I know of what women have already fought for. How little I have internalized of what we should already be able to have completed.
A second resource (and I know the list could be very long) that I have found useful in the struggle to learn of the history of women is Manifesta. The first chapter of this book was very eye-opening for me as a young feminist. It lists how things were for women in 1970, as compared to in the 90s, when it was written and when I read it. The differences were astounding.
So why don't we know these things? Why don't I viscerally know these things? Why did the photo of the women changing a track signal with a two-foot long wrench make me feel so sad? Why was I surprised, years ago, to read that the classified ads for lawyers were listed as "men's jobs only" as recently as 1970?
As a cynic, I already knew what Naomi Wolf is saying: society fights for us to not hear these stories, to numb us, and to sedate young women into thinking that we are "post-feminist."
I need to read more women's history, and I need to read it every day. We need to tell these stories every day. To ourselves, and to everyone else, of all genders.
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As to Naomi Wolf's article: I haven't been able to find a copy online so I can't link to it, but there seems to be a copy of it in this Columbia Press book, The Columbia Documentary History of American Women Since 1941.