By Kathy A. Megyeri
“Smithsonian’s Women: Our Story,” Penguin Random House, 2019 (originally published for the 100th anniversary of women obtaining the vote)
“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.” Writer Simone de Beauvoir (1949)
How far we women have come even in my lifetime! Massive changes have occurred in women’s rights – I wasn’t allowed to have a credit card or open a checking account in my own name without a co-signer until 1974 when the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed. No bank would give me a loan or mortgage without a male co-signer because even though I had a job, I could get (horrors!) pregnant.
I had to wear dresses, skirts and suits to work with high heels. My husband had to sign off on medical procedures I needed or wanted. Employment ads were divided into help wanted: men vs. women. Women could be fired for being pregnant. Men were often paid more for the same job because they were the “breadwinners.”
We’ve come far, but it took the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, the world’s largest museum, to put the journey of women into perspective. In this gorgeously illustrated coffee table book, women get the starring roles as it highlights moments in history made by women.
The book covers a lot of ground from prehistory in 50,000 DCE, to the Bronze Age, through ancient Egypt where women were both slaves and queens, to ancient Greece when women were both priestesses and courtesans, to ancient Rome when Cato the Elder declared that “If you allow women to achieve equality, they will be the masters.”
The book also contains chapters on Empire to Enlightenment (1500-1800) to the Age of Empowerment (1800-1960) and finally to Smashing the Glass Ceiling (1960 to the present) when most of us experienced the Cold War, apartheid, Civil Rights, feminism, birth control, changes in the family, the fight against femicide, and International Women’s Day.
Related: Book Review: “Unbecoming a Lady,” by Therese Oneill
This is the history we never studied in school but the one in great part that many of us lived through. This is the text I’d like to place in every history curriculum because it covers world history and is a reference guide one can study, browse through, or look for someone specific. There are quotes, time-lines, photos, and artwork to examine women in Western history and civilization as well as in Eastern, African, and Amerindian civilizations.
The book’s sidebars with bios and pull-out quotes on notable women make it a gem and its topics range from childbirth, women in war, motherhood, abolition, politics, science, unionization, nobility, labor, prostitution, fashion, beauty, technology and art.
The book also highlights women’s suffrage, specifically Susan B. Anthony’s 1850 plea to “organize, agitate, and educate. That must be our war cry.” All shine a light on such a timely subject, especially as America’s next female Presidential contender is on the ballot this month. With this in mind, I believe this book’s motto should no doubt be “The Future is Female.”
Find out more about voting in Florida and the races and issues nationwide at www.vote.gov/register/florida.
