Women’s history is human history.

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on unsplash.com 

The majority of the education systems in Europe often overlook or completely leave out the role of women within human history. Recently, research conducted by the English group End Sexism in Schools (ESIS) discovered that, during the first three years of secondary education in England, women were “largely absent from history”.

According to this research, 29% of history classes at key stage 3 mentioned women’s role in the given topic; however, 59% of them didn’t acknowledge women at all. Moreover, when women are mentioned in class, they often have the role of the victims, rather than protagonists, “with the women murdered by Jack the Ripper more likely to be taught in lessons than the female code breakers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War”. 

It isn’t just a matter of fairness or stretching the past to make it fit for today’s values, as highlighted by Debbie Brazil, founder of End Sexism in Schools; it is about historical accuracy: by ignoring the roles played by women in the past, we are teaching an inaccurate version of the latter. 

By dismissing the role of women within human history as writers, philosophers, scientists, artists, and more, we provide legitimate grounds for new generations to perpetuate the same perception that sees women as passive spectators in the past. 

Indeed, ESIS affirms that, as a result of this issue, girls cannot relate to what is covered in class, and boys also miss the opportunity to look up to women as role models; consequentially, the whole society develops a distorted perception about the overall relevance of women, and this “plays into the epidemic of misogyny that blights the lives of young people”. 

The whole debate falls under the gender equality issue, which several international organisations have been trying to tackle for several years, above all, the United Nations. Indeed, the former recognizes gender equality as a fundamental human right, in addition to being an essential factor in achieving peaceful societies. 

Despite this recognition and the efforts put forth, we still face “a long way to go to achieve full equality of rights and opportunities between men and women”. Moreover, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals elaborated by the UN include many targets that view women’s equality and empowerment not only as the objective, but also as the solution. 

written by Alice Scotti