Female Historians

Paper Summary:

The writer of this paper discusses the lack of females in the field of American history, up until the 1960s. This paper cites various male historians such as Arthur Schlesinger who stated that historians' silence about women made it seem that half of the U.S. population had not had any impact whatsoever on the country's history. It was in the 1930s when Schlesinger made his statement, a time that had been slanted by male historians. The writer contends and explains that, although there were a number of women during this time that impacted the social, economic and political happenings in the country, they had not been discussed in most history books. This paper examines the events, in the 1960s, that led to the emergence of women who finally took to writing about historical events. This paper also delves into the accomplishments of various female historians, such as Lucy Maynard Salmon, whose work wasn't appreciated till long after her death.

From the Paper:

"There were women writing about this period. However, their work was hardly acknowledged. Woloch notes that several middle-class women, such as Elizabeth Butler and Mary Van Kleeck, "conducted scholarly inquiries into conditions of women's wage earning in various industries." Also, Vassar historian Lucy Maynard Salmon extensively questioned servants and employers for a major study of domestic employment. Such women gained a much better idea of the women's involvement in the labor movement than many of their male counterparts because they worked undercover to learn what was occurring in the real world. Kleeck studied New York City's female factory workers and child laborers. For decades she served as director of the Russell Sage Foundation's department of industrial studies, where her work helped bring about legislative reform by providing valuable information on the conditions in various trades."

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