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Women in History Still Ignored in US Schools

Wmc features Elsie Robinson The Bancroft Library University of California Berkeley 092122
Elsie Robinson, whose newspaper column reached more than 20 million people per day (Photo by The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)

For more than 30 years, from 1924 to 1956, Elsie Robinson was the most famous woman newspaper writer in America. Her blistering “Listen, World!” column examined the uncomfortable and urgent — gender inequality, capital punishment, and war — and reached 20 million people a day and millions more through a massive syndication network. Robinson also reported breaking news, and her boss, William Randolph Hearst, insisted that she get top placement in all his papers.

“This article should be used on first page,” he instructed his editors across the country on July 31, 1932. Hearst paid her more than any other woman writer, and he’d just sent her to cover the Bonus March in Washington, D.C., a peaceful protest that turned deadly.

To put this kind of fame into perspective, consider this: Robinson’s writing reached double the number of current subscribers to the New York Times, and most days of the week, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today show, and CBS Mornings attract approximately 9 million viewers combined.

Sexism in education

This bubbles up an inevitable question: Why has Elsie Robinson been forgotten? One reason is sexism in education.

When it comes to learning history in American public schools, a study by the National Women’s History Museum found that less than one quarter, or 24 percent, of all the historical figures studied from kindergarten through 12th grade are women.

Alexander Cuenca, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at Indiana University and a board member of the National Council for the Social Studies, has argued that this pushing aside of women in the classroom is because curriculum standards are “doggedly masculine.” The widespread focus on political, economic, and military history diminishes the areas where women have had the most impact, Cuenca has posited, including civil and labor rights, the arts, and, yes, journalism.

Strategies for teaching more women’s histories

To counter the deficit of women’s histories being taught in schools, the National Women’s History Museum is working with educators to create “classroom-ready” resources that simultaneously support state standards and are more inclusive of women’s history. These online resources include detailed lesson plans on such luminaries as Angela Davis, Ida B. Wells, and Wilma Mankiller.

Diversify Our Narrative, a grassroots organization of high school and college students, pushes local school boards and administrators to be more inclusive of people of color. The group was founded in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and aligns itself with all marginalized groups that are overlooked in schools. It has developed videos to help students become better advocates and offers its own lesson plans, such as “The History of Jewish American Women’s Activism” to help teachers to incorporate more expansive resources.

“To learn new histories, we have to discover new histories,” explained Martha S. Jones, author of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, during last year’s National Women’s History Museum’s “Where Are the Women? Summit.” “To teach new histories, we must also write new histories,” she stated.

The National Women’s History Alliance asserts that the work of learning, discovering, teaching, and writing women’s histories is largely dependent on amplifying the voices of women who are choosing to share women’s histories. Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director and co-founder of the Alliance, says the 2023 Women’s History Theme is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.” “We will honor writers, journalists, podcasters, and poets,” she says. But not just professional storytellers. “Preserving and sharing women’s histories must also include the work women do to share these histories within their own neighborhoods, communities, and families.”

Lessons for women today

Despite the role that gender-skewed education has played in Robinson’s erasure from history, Robinson herself is not free of blame. She could have chosen to hand over her papers to a university, library, or historical society. But she didn’t. Instead, as my co-author Julia Scheeres and I discovered researching Listen, World!, our new — and the first — biography of Robinson, details of her life and career are hidden within the archival records of her bosses, the men (and they were all men) who wrote her paychecks, including Hearst.

There are several key takeaways, though — lessons we might learn to ensure our professional contributions aren’t forgotten. The first is to reach out to collections that you may already have a connection to — either by geography (the repository is located where you grew up or where you live now), schooling (your high school or college), or how you earn a living (your sphere of work or expertise).

While archives ultimately decide the array of materials to collect, the Society of American Archivists offers a list of the types of documents usually considered. These include letters and email; diaries and blogs; scrapbooks and photo albums; speeches and lectures; and articles and essays. Photographs and videos may also be of interest. The Society offers a searchable database of consultants to help with the process.

Elsie Robinson’s legacy

A feature story published in the Cleveland News on July 27, 1938, proclaimed Robinson “one of the most interesting women in the world,” and when Robinson died on September 8, 1956, the news made headlines everywhere, covered by the Associated Press, Time magazine, and The New York Times. The goal of Listen, World! is to resurrect the remarkable legacy of Robinson, a trailblazer who nearly 100 years ago asked of men and women, “Will they never be equal?”

A gratifying next step would be for Robinson — and many other women — to be added to social studies curriculums around the country. That would go a long way to make the teaching of women’s history a bit more equal in the classroom. Listen, World!

Note: Allison Gilbert will be discussing Listen World! and the life and work of Elsie Robinson in conversation with novelist Christina Baker Kline at a virtual book launch event sponsored by Books & Books in Key West on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. For more information, go to https://booksandbookskw.com/events/gilbert/.



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