Who needs to study women's history? Take this quiz and find out.

[prolesunited]

Yesterday I asked about the necessity of having a specially designated Women's History Month. Here's a quiz that might point out the real need for learning more. I certainly hope you do better than I did.

http://www.nwhp.org/tlp/quiz/quiz.html

Some questions to ponder:

Why is so little of this taught in school? Or, is it being incorporated into the curriculum more these days?

Do you think history books are slanted, discounting women's contributions?

What can we do change this?

[southerngirlwriter]

1. I scored 13 out of 15, but I have a huge advantage.

I do not own a television, so I have, if statistics are anywhere near correct, 3 and a half to 4 extra hours a day, above and beyond what my fellow Americans have.

And I spend it reading. :shrug:

Yes, history books are slanted, but I don't think it's an Evil White Male Conspiracy to Discount Women. (No, you didn't say that it was. Lots of people think it is, though.)

It's pretty simple. History is a story. We all tell the stories we see.

Blindfold ten of your closest friends and march them into a room.

Put them in different places -- one in each corner, one kneeling in the center, one lying flat on the floor, etc.

Have them take off the blindfolds but not move or turn around.

Ask each one what the room looks like.

You will get ten VERY different answers.

We all tell the stories that we see.

What can we do about it?

Well, I can tell you that, largely because of me, the little girl assigned to me in Big Brothers/Big Sisters could have scored 10 out of 15 on that quiz. Maybe she'll grow up and write history textbooks. I hope so. :)

[pmbryant]

2. Here's someone who should have been included in that quiz

Prudence Crandall, schoolteacher, and hero of pre-Civil War America for her efforts to educate blacks against the violent will of her community. She deserves to be much more widely known.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAScrandall.htm

Prudence Crandall was born in Rhode Island on 3rd September, 1803. After being educated at a Society of Friends school in Plainfield, Connecticut, Crandall established her own private academy for girls at Canterbury.

The school was a great success until she decided to admit a black girl. When Crandall, a committed Quaker, refused to change her policy of educating black and white students together, parents began taking their children away from the school. With the support of William Lloyd Garrison and the Anti-Slavery Society, in March 1833, Crandall opened a school for black girls in Canterbury.

Local people were furious at Crandall's actions and attempts were made to prevent the school receiving essential supplies. The school continued and began to attract girls from Boston and Philadelphia. The local authorities then began using a vagrancy law against these students. These girls could now be given ten lashes of the whip for attending the school.

In 1834 Connecticut passed a law making it illegal to provide a free education for black students. When Crandall refused to obey the law she was arrested and imprisoned. Crandall was convicted but won the case on appeal. When news of the court decision reached Canterbury, a white mob attacked the school and threatened the lives of Crandall and her students. Afraid that the children would be killed or badly injured, Crandall decided to close her school down.

Here's a link to the Prudence Crandall Museum in Connecticut.

--Peter

[pmbryant]

3. And someone else: Frances Willard

Frances Willard, head of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which jump-started the movement towards woman's suffrage, and one of the most famous women in the US in the late 19th century.

She seems largely forgotten today.

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello/FLVA/voices/839/voices/willard/

The date was September 28,1839. The place was Churcville, New York. The name? Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (in Quick Time or AVI). At that time no one would ever guessed that this second child of a teacher-mother and a store-manager-father would became a world leader for social reform.

(snip)

Despite of her popular enjoyable academician life Frances resigned in 1874 to join and worked with National Women's Christian Temperance Union. Her argument that the only way to have a successful temperance was through women's right to vote made her known as a suffragist. Women suffrage was not an issue yet at that time; in fact, not until 1880 that the WCTU declared the movement, though they had to wait 40 years before women could vote in national affairs.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union

The temperance movement has began since the 1840s, but was not much heard yet until the end of Civil War in 1865. The movement was triggered by some religious female activists who tried to outlaw, or at least, limit the use of liquor. They believed that alcohol is the source of many problems in life, especially in a developing nation. After much demonstrations and rallies, finally in 1874 some female reformers decided to form an organization which was called the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Temperance was considerd 'tamed' and much more women's issue rather than suffrage that it drew many women to join the organization. For that reason, when the first time Frances Willard brought up the idea of women's suffrage, they opposed it. However, Willard argued that by having a say in decision-making women would be able to protect their homes and families. In the nineteenth century WCTU was considered the largest and most powerful American women's organization.

(snip)

[pmbryant]

10. And yet another: Frances Perkins, first female cabinet member (FDR)

FDR's Secretary of Labor for his entire administration: 1933 to 1945.

http://www.dol.gov/opa/frances/frances.htm

The Life and Work of Frances Perkins

by Gordon Berg

A prim woman, her tricorn hat pinned tightly to her hair, sat amidst the boxes and trunks cluttering the halls of her former employer's home on East 65th Street in New York City and studied the words she had written on a scrap of paper. She knew her old boss was going to Washington to do an important job and would probably ask her to work for him there. Before she accepted, she had to know if he would support the ideas she had written down. Those ideas, hastily scribbled on a cold February night in 1933, have forever changed and improved the life of every person in the United States. Every American is indebted to that woman, whose intelligence and strength of character helped make those ideas a reality.

Before Frances Perkins would accept the Cabinet appointment as Secretary of Labor, she told President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "I don't want to say yes to you unless you know what I'd like to do and are willing to have me go ahead and try."

She then read Roosevelt her list. It contained much of what would become the New Deal's most important social welfare and labor legislation: direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief, public works, maximum hours, minimum wages, child labor laws, unemployment insurance, social security, and revitalized public employment service. "Are you sure you want these thing done?" She asked. "Because you don't want me for Secretary of Labor if you don't."

Roosevelt never hesitated. He was convinced that the capable and strong minded woman in his study was the most qualified person for the job. "Yes," he said. "I'll back you." With that, Perkins immediately accepted the post and served as Secretary of Labor the entire 12 years of the Roosevelt Administration. She was the first woman ever to serve as a Cabinet member and she served longer than any other Secretary of Labor.

(snip)

[Mairead]

17. And yet another: Dr Mary Walker, the only woman Medal of Honor laureate

[pmbryant]

20. Here's a link about Mary Walker

http://ngeorgia.com/people/walker.html

Mary Edwards Walker
a North Georgia Notable

Born: November 26, 1832, Oswego, New York
Died: February 21, 1919, Oswego, New York


Medal of Honor Awardee, Surgeon, Spy

(snip)

On a number of occasions Dr. Walker would cross enemy lines to assist Georgians whose lives had been destroyed by the Civil War. Women and children lived in swamps and low ground near water, frequently sick or near death. Dr. Walker would treat these victims with supplies taken from Federal stores.

On April 10, 1864, dressed in full uniform, she accidentally walked into a group of Rebel soldiers just south of the Georgia-Tennessee border. Their commanding officer, General Daniel Harvey Hill, ordered her sent to Richmond as a prisoner. She was released in time to help during the battle for Atlanta as a surgeon in Louisville, Kentucky. Walker was greatly pleased that she had been traded "man for man," for a Confederate Officer.

After the Civil War Walker was recommended for the medal by Generals William T. Sherman and George Thomas, which she received in January, 1866. During the purge of 1917, the federal government tried to clean up many of the errors that had been made in issuing medals. Mary Walker's medal was revoked for "unusual circumstances" two years before she died. She refused to turn the Medal of Honor back to the Army as requested and according to friends wore it proudly every day until her death in 1919.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of her granddaughter, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill in 1977 reinstating her medal.

(snip)

[prolesunited]

21. Thanks again, Peter!

I've learned more today from YOUR posts than I did from my own. :-)

:hi:

[Snow]

22. Odd selection - where's Sojourner Truth? "Ain't I a woman?"

Lucretia Mott?
and anyway, while knowing the names etc is a part of knowing history, I'm always a bit skeptical of trivia quizzes. Quick, now! When did Japan occupy Korea last, and who resisted until assassinated?

- Korea was offically annexed in 1910, but efforts had been going on for some decades - stymied in good part by a woman who was supposed to be a meek, quiet, pliant puppet from an impoverished family, Myungsong Min. She was married to a very young king, Kojong, selected by the king's father as being a likely figurehead. She turned out very much otherwise, not only having a backbone herself but helping her husband grow one as well. Together they treid every trick in the book to stave off the invasion, calling on China, trying some appeasement, getting the king's father (who was secretly backing the Japanese takeover since he'd been promised rulership) exiled to the countryside, dealing with Russia (who lost the Russo-japanese war and a lot of eastern territory). She used her wits and will to the utmost, protecting her country with every tool at her disposal, and was forced several times to flee into hiding, at least once disguised as a farm woman. In the end, she was ambushed early in the morning, October of 1895, when out in her garden with her attendants, by ninjas sent by the Japanese ambassador/governor. They weren't sure which was the Queen, so all were killed, and the Queen's body crudely burned. She was 45 years old. The king had to go into hiding at a foreign embassy, and the downfall of the country wasn't long in coming. She was the last ruling queen.

[pmbryant]

23. I assume you're referring to the quiz

Yes, it was an odd selection of people. Some crucial figures (e.g., Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Jane Addams, etc), but some very minor ones as well (e.g, the physicist, the ballerina, and a few others).

That's why I've been trying to add some more important women's histories to this thread.

Thanks for the note about the Korean queen. We all know little enough about American history, much less Korean. :-)

Peter

[Snow]

26. Yes, although Maria Tallchief was one of the few I knew....

the Korean history overlaps our history, of course - Teddy Roosevelt encouraged the japanese takeover because king kojong had the audacity to refuse admission to US gunboats - even fired on them!

[lapislzi]

4. Thank you, and a kick

I just sent this out to my writer's group.

Shame on me for only knowing 2 of the answers.

:kick:

[AZCat]

5. Ow. 4/15

I don't think I'll be mentioning my score to my mother or grandmother- I'd be due a (well-deserved) tongue-lashing.

[pmbryant]

6. I wouldn't be too embarrassed

I recently finished reading a book dedicated to the history of women in America ("America's Women", by Gail Collins) and I only knew 8 of the 15 answers (by a generous scoring).

Some are extremely obscure. The physicist, for example. I'm a former scientist and even I had never heard of that person. No one knows any scientists these days, male or female.

Also, I'm not sure why a ballerina was included in that list.

:shrug:

Peter

[AZCat]

7. Where is this generation's Richard Feynman?

I agree with your comment that, "No one knows any scientists these days, male or female." There are a few that are in the news occasionally but I don't know of any (other than social scientists like Paul Krugman) that are vocal public figures.

I wonder- why is this?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mairead]

16. er, Hawking? And how about Chomsky, the linguist?

[pmbryant]

19. Hawking is one, yes.

Being a linguist isn't really the same as being a scientist, so we can't really count Chomsky.

And to respond to the other poster above (distortionmarshall), physics got "hard" long before Feynman. Thermodynamics, electromagnetism, General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics (among much else) all pre-date Feynman.

:-)

Peter


edit: put comments on Chomsky inside post rather than in subject

[catzies]

8. I did OK, but thanks for the link. I'm printing it out to include it

in a packet as part of a presentation I'm giving Saturday afternoon to facilitate women getting involved in politics. :)

[salin]

9. just over half

*hanging head*

[prolesunited]

12. You did better than I did

hanging my head even lower.

:hi:

[Kathy in Cambridge]

11. kick

[BiggJawn]

14. 8 for 15, and Women's Studies was NOT my major.

But I lived within walking distance of the Walker Theatre, named after madame C. J., who was also one of the first women of ANY colour in Indianapolis to drive her own car (shocking!)

How'd you do?

[Mairead]

15. I got 12 of tghe 15

[catzies]

18. Hope this displays clearly. I love this poster.

[noiretextatique]

24. wow...i need to take some classes

and i've been wanting to study something worthwhile...so women's studies it is :thumbsup: thanks...most enlightening.

[stepnw1f]

25. I do

Thanks for the link.