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Women's History and Middle School Education
North Carolina essential standard 8.C.1.3 states that middle school students should be able "to summarize the contributions of particular groups to the development of North Carolina and the United States" (NC Essential Standards).This includes the contributions of groups such as women.
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The Issue
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History books and other history materials have long favored the perspective and contributions of men. Meanwhile, Women’s History is often relegated to one month per year, March.
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Recommendations from the Association for Middle Level Educators:
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Education for young adolescents must be empowering and "provide all students with the knowledge and skills they need to take responsiblity for their lives" (AMLE, 2010)
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Curriculum should be relevant to the lives of young adolescents. "Curriculum is relevant when it allows students to pursue questions they have about themselves" (AMLE, 2010).
The Big Question:
How does the imbalance of women's perspectives and contributions to history affect middle school students?
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This practice:
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May make it difficult for female students to find connections to their own lives.
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May affect the empowerment of female students.
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May affect how male students view female students.
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May affect how female students view themselves.
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The Facts:
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The limited mentions of women in history texts imply that women have held very few leadership roles. However, Joyce Delaney, author of "Voices Not Heard: Women in History Textbooks," notes that there have been many women leaders including European queens and19th century reformer leaders. However, mentions of these women are often limited to praise for taking on the roles of men.
In her text, Delaney also discussed a study completed by Myra and David Sadker, in which high school seniors were asked to name noteworthy women. The average student in the survey was only able to list four or five historical women. The Sadkers also reviewed history textbooks to identify how often women were mentioned. In one textbook with 819 pages, references to women were only enough to fill up one page. Another textbook with 1,000 pages devoted less than 3% of the text to women. The Sadkers also analyzed the illusrations in the 1,000 page textbook and found four out of five illustrations were of men.
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These facts show that women are not only underrepresented in historical texts, they are also represented from the viewpoint of the male ideal. This is why it is vital to encourage the teaching of women's history and women's perspectives in social studies classrooms.
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