The history of women has been silenced, alongside the history of LGBTQ+ voices. Depending on where we are geographically in history, we can include minorities (Black voices in Europe, Muslims, Jews, Gypsies, Indigenous persons). These histories have been silenced by mainly those in control, cis-men, and usually white men if we are talking about the West. Many people believe that just because these marginalized voices were and are silenced, that means that these individuals never actually did anything. The truth is women wrote, women did art, women taught, women fought in battles, women were lesbians, women were trans, women were saints, women were religious, women were spiritual, women were witches, women were doctors, women were killers, and the list can go on.
Before I continue and give examples of great women, I want to explain that just because women did things, this does not mean women were treated equally or had rights. Compared to 2021, women at any time in history had it worse off than women today. Yet we’ve come to believe that men just enjoyed running around beating and burning women throughout history, the truth is far more mundane. A woman’s power did depend on her social status, and her status often protected her from men. The punishment for rape, for instance, varied from punishing the woman to castration, execution, or just a fine for the man.
Women in history were far from powerless, helpless beings. In Europe during the Middle Ages, women joined guilds, ran inns, governed the land, brewed beers, farmed, made and sold textiles, cooked, cleaned, and wet-nursed. We also have a few cases of women being blacksmiths, artists, poets, and even traveling bards. For poor women, life was full of manual labor, but even wealthy women weren’t free of labor. During the 1800s and onward, women’s place in society was more solidified. I will actually share a video for you guys by Karolina Żebrowska titled ” Common Women’s History Myths We Need To Let Go .” This video (found here) helps dispel some myths about women during the 1800s and early 1900s.
It is quite tiring when people assume women didn’t start writing until the 1800s and onward. It’s almost like we don’t think women existed until the 1800s. The only women discussed are women, like Elizabeth I, whom people can’t work around and ignore. That’s the truth. The only women that ARE discussed in history classes are women that men can’t workaround.
Trota of Salerno, who wrote medical treatises on wound treatments to gynecology. Rufaida Al-Aslamia was the first Islamic medical and social worker and the first female Muslim nurse and surgeon in 620 AD. As medical fields became, professional and elitist, women were pushed out. In Egypt, for example, during the 1800s, the British actually closed the first Medical University for Egyptian women and then told Egyptians they were abusive to their women.
Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughter Marie de Champagne were responsible for the Courtly Love movement in Europe and helped bring about the Arthurian stories we love today. Murasaki Shikibu brought us the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, and the first poet ever recorded was a Sumerian priestess. Women were responsible worldwide for writing and participating in works of literature, poetry, and oral traditions. While men dominated the written tradition, scholars believe women dominated by passing on oral traditions to children and others. Marie de France gave us books of lais (chivalric poems), fables, and even a Saint Patrick story.
Women were well aware that they weren’t treated fairly and did demand better treatments. Christine de Pizan, for instance, wrote an extensive defense of women called The Book of the City of Ladies In response to the misogynistic poems in The Romance of the Rose. Another European woman named Hrostvitha of Gandersheim rewrote the ancient comic Terence’s plays to make the female characters more heroic and virtuous. Some women even wrote lesbian stories and maiden warrior tales. It isn’t just European women who challenged the roles of women in society. Fatima and Maryam Al-Fihri spent their inheritance money building the University of al-Karaouine (Fatima) before Oxford was founded and an Andalusian mosque that held 20,000 worshippers (Maryam). The University had some great scholars come to visit. Pope Sylvester II studied at this very university. Sutayta Al-Mahamali was an authority of algebra and inheritance math. The female companions of the Prophet spoke up about women not being mentioned in the Quran.
Of course, women have been warriors, generals, and queens. We have Queen Amina of Zaria who ruled for 34 years in the 1500s in Husaland. Women also were saints, mystics, and leaders in the church. Saint Theresa of Avila wrote Christian mystical writings. We also have Jahanara princess of the Mughal Empire who wrote a book on Sufism. (there are countless others!)
I am, of course, leaving out the thousands of other women we know of in history in this short article. There are, of course, billions of women who weren’t documented but broke the mold. No one cares about the woman who inherited her father’s business or her mother’s. No one cares about the many different women who were thrown out onto the streets and managed to survive. No one cares about the women who lived through abusive relationships and, despite that, still managed to hold important societal meetings. We don’t look at the slave women who rose in power, stayed strong, suffered, kept their families together, etc. Average women weren’t passive in the “damsel in distress” sort of way. Women broke barriers in Lima, Peru; for example, all the women stopped work of kinds to protest anti-veiling laws in the 1700s and 1800s.
When we act like only men did things with a handful of rich women making history, then we do a disservice to all the women who made something of themselves. Women should write and should continue on the path that we are on now but let us not forget all the amazing women that came before. I find it fascinating that the first novel, poem, and bank were all done by women!
Teaching children that women did things besides just raising babies helps children understand that women’s roles in society. Much of our modern issues with gender norms come from the Victorians. Do you really think your ancestor living in a village in the 1300s just sat in her thatched hut in England (China, Bangladesh, France, on Ojibwa land, etc.) stuck inside raising babies? Do you really think wealthy women did nothing all day besides staring out the window? Here is the thing. Teaching about women’s lives also helps dispel the myth that men were evil beings!