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Teaching Women's History: I Offered Social History, They Took Away Heroes
Author(s) -
Swedberg Sarah
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00124.x
Subject(s) - social history (medicine) , elite , phenomenon , psychology , gender studies , field (mathematics) , sexual history , history , sociology , medicine , political science , politics , epistemology , law , philosophy , family medicine , pure mathematics , surgery , mathematics
When the field of women's history emerged, it almost entirely focused on the stories of elite, exceptional women rather than the story of ordinary people. Women's historians who are also social historians have attempted to move women's history toward history from below, focusing on the masses rather than one or two women worthies. When bringing women's history into the classroom as social history, students sometimes reject the lessons of social history and, instead, take away heroes. This article examines and attempts to explain this phenomenon.