Committee of women in history - Essay Example

115317 This is an edited book, edited by Chaudhury and Boris, and is a collection of personal narratives by various former officials of Coordinating Council for Women in History. They have taken different routes to become women historians and had faced hard decisions of a family life, professional and of political activists in the earlier part of twentieth century. 20 women, who had been connected with this institution, Coordinating Committee of Women in History, came together to find many similar facts and interconnections in their lives. The social and cultural background of these historians had been totally different from one another, but the problems and difficulties they faced were almost identical and were threads of the same social fabric. The intention of the organization had been to encourage women to enter into the profession of historians and fight any kind of gender, social and cultural inequalities through political or social activities. This organization takes many steps to ensure that women are encouraged to become historians. These 20 historians, who have given autobiographical sketches, are the organizers and initiators of this organization, who had fought through discrimination and various battles in their private, professional and social lives.There are explanations how they launched into a career of professional historians. Most of the contributors are from middle class white society, but there are colored and working class women contributors too. These women pursued a career in a dogged way, breaking centuries of paradigm. They have a common ground other than their professional interest. They are hard working, noted and dedicated scholars. They have the strength and determination to rise above difficulties. They were persistent and braved all stormy weathers. They are slightly aggressive and show a healthy amount of pride and self-gratification. They are the intellectuals that any society would be proud of. They have struggled "to change the profession of history, to change historical scholarship, and to change the direction of our own history," (xiii). They had been working for social causes, women's liberations, and human rights, against racism, for peace etc. throughout, along with their professional careers. Determination to have a married life had its own implications on their intellectual lives. Some of them were raising their families while being dominated by men. The society as well as the profession were male dominated. The autobiographies offer throughout their narrative, many important details and reflective arguments about how they preserved their identities and dealt intelligently with many of them; how they continued playing their female roles of daughter, wife, mother, partner and the at the same time, continued their social role of political activists. Simultaneously, they also marched forward in their own chosen professional careers of teachers and researchers. They did not allow themselves to be marginalized or edged out of the race. They did not allow their creativity to dwindle in any way. They continued their resistance and fight throughout their working lives. The organization to which they belonged also gave them support and it remained their anchor through their struggle. There are diverse accounts about male dominated working places and organizations and the supporting role played by CCWH and other supporting institutions. It is more of a sisterly bonding, trying to understand each other's problems while going through more or less identical problems in life. Some of them talk about international cooperation they have received in the process. In a way these are the tales of triumph of emerging feminism in United States. Even though Western countries are far more advanced in gender equality, it is always not very easy to make much headway in an entirely male dominated society, not to mention profession. These voices are personal, political and professional and at the same time, feminine. The coherence they have achieved is praiseworthy. At the same time, one cannot call it an immense achievement, because the American society does not happen to be awfully discriminatory any more. So, an achievement of this kind in a remote, traditional society belonging to a just developing African or Asian country, with female persecution as their agenda, would have been stupendous. Nevertheless, even in an advanced modern society, struggles basically remain the same, even though their size, color and hue alter slightly. It is all the more impressive because of the way they negotiated their way through problems, while keeping themselves entirely focused. Twenty women recounting their stories itself is a matter of unprecedented occurrence. The editors and authors claim that they are the makers of history. The best insights and observations come from Margaret Strobel, who lived in North Dakota and perhaps she was the most active politically in the entire group. Her endearing mention of her mother, how she made her choices of life, and how she became interested in weaving tales of "little known women" and how she waded through her many problems, a rather aggressive figure in the company of an intrigued, slightly contemptuous male comrades, are all extremely interesting. Renate Bridenthal is one of the authors who deserve particular attention. She came as a refugee from Nazi (later Communist) Germany. The ambition of her mother to make her a brilliant pianist in ruins, she starts working at Time-Warner to finance her University degrees. Barbara Penny Kanner is a kind of child prodigy and performs in "Dolls on Parade". She gets married; but her dream of independent life as a scholar does not desert her. Frances Richardson Keller gives an insight into the life of an American woman in the beginning of 20th century in the exalted New York. There had been a clash between high University education, and sophisticated and cultured life, for a girl. After having four children from her stockbroker husband, she became unhappy and depressed, and as usually done in those days, was treated by Valium. But Keller was clever enough to realize that this created a dependency and ruined her intellectuality. Her description of how she begged William H. McNeill of Chicago University to grant her admission for the History course is touching with its sincerity and poignancy. Not many women, touching fifties, having children and family would have done it, in those difficult days. All the Universities claimed their disregard of gender/age/circumstances inequality; but all the same, practiced them to the hilt. It is not surprising considering that some of them do so secretly even now. It does not sound strange when they say that in spite of high degrees and diplomas, they could not find suitable employment. Most of them, Nupur Chaudhuri, Hilda Smith and Linda Kerber, Karen Offen had doctorates to their credit; but the doctorates did not come to their rescue before a lot of persuasions, meetings, arguments, and some amount of adverse publicity. These portals were manned by men and women were not particularly welcome there. All authors did research and teaching later in their careers. Reviewers of this book have complained often that these women have hardly attached any importance to their teaching life, compared to their research and early, sometimes even later, struggles, which is, quite true. They are passionately committed to history and their particular views and that passion seems to have seen them through many difficult situations. The scholarly squabbles are not exempted either and one such incident comes in the biography of Joan Hoff about the postmodernist theory and how she opposes it. There is no doubt that all the lives depicted here are the products of the social and cultural peculiarities of those decades in United States of America and their struggle against the oppressing forces. It might sound a bit ludicrous now, but even making an attempt to do so, must have looked a giant leap in those days. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Boris, Eileen and Chaudhuri, Nupur, (1999), eds., The Voices of Women Historians, The Personal, the Political, the Professional, Bloomington, Indiana University Press. Read More