history

from the Greek historia meaning "inquiry/knowing/learning," the word "history" is not male-based. However, the word "ahistoricity" has been coined to denote the ways in which the exclusion of women from history, as viewed and written by men, has been not just another exclusion, but women's most debilitating cultural deprivation (Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness ). More than any other factor, the absence of a usable past explains why the subordination of women has persisted for so long; "Women, ignorant of their history," says Lerner, "had to reinvent the wheel over and over again." See also herstory.