Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History Analysis

For my essay, I propose for myself to compare and contrast Malcolm X’s text “Literacy Behind Bars” with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s essay “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History”. Due to the suffocating norms of mid-1900s society, the potential of many groups of people was smothered. Women and African-Americans began to seek a way to prove themselves as equals. They turned to writing: a method of communication they could be sure would reach the oppressive white males. Although some - namely, the women - had the luxury of education, African American males such as Malcolm X had nothing but time and a dictionary in order to become literate. Although both showcased a similar message of equality, they made use of differing rhetorical devices in order

Throughout this course, we learned that women’s studies originated as a concern at the time that “women and men noticed the absence, misrepresentation, and trivialization of women [in addition to] the ways women were systematically excluded from many positions of power and authority” (Shaw, Lee 1). In the past, men had more privileges than women. Women have battled for centuries against certain patterns of inadequacy that all women experience. Every culture and customs has divergent female

Initially, Ulrich focuses on three famous women throughout her essay. Starting with Mae West, a Hollywood actress whose on-screen misbehavior ultimately led to her fame. At the time of her popularity, her behavior allowed her audience to experience what was not normally seen on screens. Known for her provocative nature on camera, West became the star of various movies and therefore added herself into history. After Mae West, Ulrich mentions Rosa Parks, who is most famously known for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Ulrich states, “A first-year student at California university told me that to make history, people need to do the unexpected. She offered the example of civil rights activist Rosa Parks...I like her emphasis

This book is about a woman who forever changed the course of women's role in American history. Eleanor Roosevelt was an extremely important figure in the history of the United States, especially during the twentieth century. The way the author uses the book to help the reader to feel included in Eleanor's life, makes the reader feel as if he knows Mrs. Roosevelt.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” This is a quote that was taken from a scholarly article written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. The article for this assignment discusses how this single line ignited a fire within the female population across the nation. Ulrich published her article that was titled with this line in 1976. From there, it was used in 1995, when journalist Kay Mills used it as an epigraph for her informal history of American women, From Pocahontas to Power Suits.

After studying women and gender history in early America for the past semester, my views about American history have changed tremendously. Having very little prior experience with history, I had many assumptions and preconceived notions from high school history classes. Women were never even mentioned in my previous learning about U.S. history, so I assumed they took on unimportant roles and had little, if any, impact on shaping our country’s history. However, after this semester of delving deeply into the women of early America, I could not have been more incorrect. Although they were not typically in the public realm, we cannot fully understand history without studying women. The following readings uncovered the roles of women in the private sphere and were crucial to my new understanding of the importance of women in American history by bringing women to the forefront.

In Joan Scott’s article Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, she analyzes the root of gender and its relation to power. Gender is assumed to be directly linked with sex, but Scott asserts that sex and gender are quite distinct; while sex is a biological phenomenon, gender is a socially constructed power hierarchy and it is not biologically predetermined. Gender is used to create and enforce hierarchical relations of power between men and women, and as a result, women become subordinate to men. The hierarchies tend to be accepted as natural, but in actuality, they are socially determined relations that have no relation with sexuality. For Scott (1986), there are four important components of defining gender: 1) culturally common

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

What is history? History is women following behind... with a bucket.” Her way of teaching is traditional, and she is a realistic woman.

The role of women in American history has evolved a great deal over the past few centuries. In less than a hundred years, the role of women has moved from housewife to highly paid corporate executive to political leader. As events in history have shaped the present world, one can find hidden in such moments, pivotal points that catapult destiny into an unforeseen direction. This paper will examine one such pivotal moment, fashioned from the fictitious character known as ‘Rosie the Riveter’ who represented the powerful working class women during World War II and how her personification has helped shape the future lives of women.

In American history there have been many truly extraordinary women. These women range from all different time periods, races and other backgrounds. Over the years women have participate or become involved in multiple different themes including: politics, midwives or physicians, inventors, literary or arts figures, feminists, suffrage or equal rights activist, wealthy women, academics, fighters- physical or metaphorical etc. This paper will exemplify three special women, all the while providing background, some life achievements and details of their last years. These women are Ida Wells, Isabella Baumfree (A.K.A Sojourner Truth) and Harriet Tubman. All African American abolitionist who fought endlessly for the civil rights owed to them as Americans, free citizens and humans.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, an author and professor of history at Harvard University, introduced the phrase in a 1976 journal article about the characterization of women in Puritan funeral sermons. Ulrich more recently wrote a book, based on the phrase, that explores how women in the past have challenged the ways history was written. In her essay “Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History,” Ulrich discusses the history of the phrase, how it was coined, and how it has taken on a life of its own. The phrase is now commonly seen on everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs, and has been featured in magazine articles and even advertising campaigns. She reflects on how her “accidental fame” has given her new insights into her historical studies.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in a scholarly article written in 1976, wrote that “well-behaved women seldom make history” (Ulrich XIII). Over time, that phrase has became a slogan for feminists around the world. It appears on many products and media, like shirts, jewelry, and even wine glasses. At the time she wrote it, she meant for it to mean that women who are well-behaved do not get their stories told, even if they did something extraordinary or heroic, though now, people interpret it in many different ways.

Virginia Woolf saw it the same way; in how women of a time before the eighteenth century had little to no history of prominent women as literary artists or in general. In her essay, Woolf states that there is very little mention in history of women, and if mentioned they usually happen to be a royal lady such as an Elizabeth or Mary. A middle-class woman could never participate in such a movement of acknowledgment, even if she had brains and character to dispense. No average Elizabethan woman ever just wrote her story, regardless of the circumstance of the era, because she would have been “snubbed, slapped, lectured, and exhorted”(Jacobus 702). It was proven that there are just few exceptions in evidence, such as women’s letters (Jacobus 695-696).

1. Women's lives have changed enormously this century and the actions of women themselves have played a vital role in the transformation. Putting women back into history is about giving individual women their history, but it should also be about making some collective sense out of women's divergent experiences.