Uh... who are the Grimke Sisters? (Google says, but... do you have a link or book to recommend?) Obviously I'd never heard of them either.
Mercy Otis Warren wrote plays that helped lead to the American Revolution, and her pamphlets' demands were reflected in the Bill of Rights. But we never heard of her... and at the time she wrote under pseudonyms like A Columbia Patriot. Indeed, one of her influential works was ascribed to a particular man until the 20th century, when a descendant of hers produced letters showing she wrote it.
What enrages me most is that there WERE women all the time making huge contributions, who WERE known to be women at the time... but our history books wrote them out, for the most part. So as a kid, I was left feeling like women had been helpless and hapless victims from year dot until the 1970s.
Which is a horrible, disempowering feeling. Were we oppressed? Hell yes. Were we passive? Hell no.
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Mercy Otis Warren wrote plays that helped lead to the American Revolution, and her pamphlets' demands were reflected in the Bill of Rights. But we never heard of her... and at the time she wrote under pseudonyms like A Columbia Patriot. Indeed, one of her influential works was ascribed to a particular man until the 20th century, when a descendant of hers produced letters showing she wrote it.
What enrages me most is that there WERE women all the time making huge contributions, who WERE known to be women at the time... but our history books wrote them out, for the most part. So as a kid, I was left feeling like women had been helpless and hapless victims from year dot until the 1970s.
Which is a horrible, disempowering feeling. Were we oppressed? Hell yes. Were we passive? Hell no.
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