The Truth About Doing History 📜
It's time to introduce the OG female historians but, first, a lesson in the whats, whys, and hows of doing history.
Hey there 👋🏻 and how’s your Thursday going?
As you already know, I’m spending a lot of my time reading the works of early female historians. Instead of being remembered as pioneers of this discipline, they have been written out of history. OH, THE IRONY.
I cannot wait to introduce them all to you but, first, let’s set the scene by dropping a few truth bombs. OH YES, I’M GOING THERE 💣
So, if you’re sitting comfortably, this class is now in session.
Firstly, let me tell you a secret …
’History’ is not a noun.
That, dear reader, is a lie.
’History’ is really a verb that masquerades as a noun.
Shocking, I know.
But, you see, ‘history’ is an action; it’s a thing that you do.
For example:
You do history by:
Thinking
Writing
Reading
Hypothesising
Researching
Gathering
Engaging
Speaking
Arguing (in a nice way, obvs)
Teaching
Learning
Publishing
When you’re doing any of the above, you’ll probably also do some:
Comparing
Contrasting
Measuring
Analysing
Scrutinising
Creating
See?
This is a NOUN-FREE ZONE.
Now, keep these ‘doing things’ in mind as we now move to the second key point: that history is a privilege.
Now, when I say “history is a privilege,” I don’t mean, “Oh, I’m so honoured to do history. What a GREAT job I have!”
I mean, I *am* honoured. It *is* a great job, obvs.
But what I really mean is that not everyone can do history, and not for academic reasons or anything like that.
The truth is that you have access to certain resources, and these resources are not accessed equitably. They never have been and, by the looks of it, may never be (in our lifetimes, at least).
For example, most historians today are university-trained. Those at the very top of the profession have a Ph.D., significant teaching experience and a big stash of books they have written.
(Fun fact: in the UK, only 26.2% of history professors are women. Only ONE of those is a Black woman - Olivette Otele.
Although a university education is *theoretically* open to everyone in 2022, many barriers prevent people from getting there. They are socio-economic, they are racial, gendered, you name it. Looking back, how on earth a person with dyslexia would cope with a history degree, is absolutely beyond me. I mean, literally NOTHING in place to support that. In schools, I saw kids who LOVED history being siphoned into GCSE Geography because their reading age wasn’t (deemed) high enough for them to access a GCSE History exam paper.
But before I go off on a rant-shaped tangent …
If you’re not employed by a university or institution, then you need access to some other forms of capital, too. For example, I run a business. I get paid to do history consulting. I do private research commissions, talks, teacher training, that sort of thing. I am the jill-of-all-trades, herstorically speaking. Being able to pay my bills means that I can work exclusively in history. I may not have started my life with a lot of privilege but I recognise how much I have now.
I want you to also remember that British women haven’t had access to higher education for that long. We’re talking less than two centuries. And in those early decades, the options were LIMITED, so you can knock another 50 years off as far as I’m concerned.
Think, too, about the barriers that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Could all women access that university education? Like today, that answer is a ‘no.’
I’m not reminding you of these things because I want you to fan-girl and say, “Oh, those OG female historians were AMAZING.” I mean, by all means, do that if you want to. You do you. I’m telling you because I want you to understand that challenges and limitations are part of the all-female narrative of history, just like the male-centric version that we have now. I realised that very, very quickly.
Understanding these challenges and limitations led me to draw two conclusions:
1. Only certain types of women got to do history. They had a lot of privilege and largely came from wealthy and white backgrounds. They also had supportive parents or caregivers who ensured their access to education early in life. As adults, they either had supportive husbands or were widowed. These factors created a sense of psychological safety that enabled them to go and do history.
2. This issue of psychological safety is important. We have to remember that we’re talking about time periods in which women were not welcomed into the public sphere. Often, men took legal action to protect their dominance over that sphere.
So, to sum up:
📜 History is a thing you do, and women weren’t always invited to do that thing.
📜 The OG female historians came from privileged backgrounds. Privilege acted as a psychological and social safety net that made their work possible.
📜 Privilege remains a barrier to doing history. It’s getting better but there is still so much work to be done in making this subject accessible to a wider audience.
Well done for not fidgeting or yawning through this lesson. Please have a gold star ⭐ and I’ll see ye next week.
Until then,
Kaye x
P.S. For an extra history fix:
🖤 Read the story of Violet Gibson, the Irish woman who came oh-so-close to assassinating Benito Mussolini.