New Life for the Blog, Adjusted Focus...

Hey there!

You arrived here because you heard about the Women's History Project someplace, right? You heard that I'm re-writing the history books to include women, right?

Well, you heard it right. I am collecting women's stories. I want to know who you are, who your mother was and who your grandmothers were. Both of them. These women all had stories.

With the family becoming smaller, we don't live in multi-generational homes, so the stories are being lost and forgotten.

Tell me the basics:
The pertinent dates -- birth and death, marriage date(s), what year was the first, second or fifth kid born? Live or stillbirth? What were the circumstances - home, midwife, in the fields...

How did your women progenitors work or not work? What were/are the patterns of health and wellness? Any special recipes handed down? Quilts? Afgans? Sayings?

Tell the family stories - "Mom was in school, about 9 years old. She had to get home to feed the ducks, but one of the ducks was missing....." Any stories like these... Stories of bullying, accomplishments, pie contests, sack races, whatever...
These stories help put her in context with her times. The Depression, the War Years...

Who was the one who always made folks well? Who was the one who always cooked the cakes/pies? Who was it who made the clothes? Who was it told you about becoming a woman?

Tell the stuff that doesn't seem all that important. You would be surprised what it can mean when taken in context.

For instance, my mom told of having stones thrown after her by kids on the way home from school. It was because of the German foster home she was in - it was 1942... So this insignificant item had a lot of meat to it.

Please tell your friends. Let's get this project going. We need to help our sisters - we need to change the world.

When you've completed your story, there is a submission section on the menu. Use that link to submit your story. It should go to email. Your story will not be shared generally like a comment on a post. If you would like that, you can pick and choose and post your comments...

Thank you one and all for participating in this.

Why Women's History?

Men's history is all around us. Wars, conquests, financial coups, military prowess, sexual conquest, and so on. Women marry and take the man's name for her surname. She moves to the man's home. She is already being cut off from her history.

In a matriarchal society, the man moves to the women's home, often keeping his own name. He may add her name to his in some way. We generally live in patriarchal societies today. The differences are subtle to us, but they are real, and make a major difference in outlook, how children are raised and other things. There are many great websites you can check out that outline and detail matriarchal societies.

So, why would women's history matter? There is a saying that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. I think that is also true of women, not just men and society.

A woman who is abused as a child is less likely to protect her children when they are threatened at about the same age as she was. Not because she is a bad mother, but because she thinks that is just the way things are. But it doesn't have to be that way.

She may be overly protective of her children, not allowing them to experience failure, frustration and pain. Children get a distorted view of life in such a case.

Then, there is the woman who became so damaged by her abuse that she offers her child up like a sacrifice to appease the gods and ease her pain. It doesn't work, but only makes things worse.

If she doesn't know her own history, and her mother's history, how can this chain be broken? She needs to know her mother's history. Why did MOM allow her to be hurt? Did MOM even know? Was MOM also abused?

Until these questions can be answered, a woman has no chance of breaking the cycle of abuse. Whether it's being beaten or raped, or the subtle abuse of a steady stream of verbal abuse causing erosion of her self-esteem.

It makes no difference what form the abuse takes. Abuse is abuse. Ask any survivor.

Then, there is the health issue. If a woman doesn't know that MOM had cancer, how can she learn to be pro-active and test regularly?

What about family histories of writing, art, music, and other talents? How can she know of these two or three generations back? Only by researching her history.

Does her matriarchal history include early marriage? Does that pattern make sense today? What of her attitudes toward money? Does she have ambition? Where do you think that comes from? Does she want to change her life? If a woman wants to change, she needs to who and know what she is, first.

What we inherit from our parents affects us. Women ancestors pass on half of our history. We need to pay attention to that half of our lives.