How should a woman teach women's history?

As historians we are constantly faced with the problem of attempting to teach and instruct students without promoting our own personal biases.  Especially when we focus on subject matters that directly relate to our own personal interests and issues, we must be careful to stay as objective as possible (which can be incredibly hard at times!!!).  Today I am teaching about women's history to my survey level students and while writing the lecture I was contemplating how political I should allow myself to seem.  As a feminist and independent woman of the twenty-first century, I certainly have strong personal views on women's issues and tend to get over-excited when talking about the history of such movements.  However, I want students to come to their own conclusions about the subject without my undue influence.  That does not mean I will not give them clues as to my own opinions, but I would hate to devalue my arguments with unnecessary excitement and opinion.  Thus, when I am speaking about some of my early heroes today (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Margaret Fuller and Susan B. Anthony), I will refrain from personal bias and let the ladies speak for themselves, after all they have amazing stories to tell without my attitudes getting in the mix!

Reading, Writing, and Teaching, Oh My!!

For any historian, male or female, reading, writing and teaching make up the bulk of our day to day work responsibilities.  On my agenda today: finish reading a book on female evangelicals in the nineteenth century, write a book review about, finish reading an article, write three questions and answers about that, and prepare for my class tomorrow.  I cannot complain, however, as I am one of the lucky ones with days off in between these projects.  When I hear college history majors describe their personal loathing for writing papers (usually only 5-10 pages long) I wonder if they should consider switching professional aspirations.  After all, reading and writing is what we do for a living, and you better damn well like it or life is not going to be rosy.  I have been reading and writing since I was a small child, the only thing that has changed is specifically what I was reading or writing about.  Books have always been an important part of my life, after all, nothing relaxes me like a day wandering around the isles of Barnes and Noble and nothing frightens me like the possibility of one day having to order all my books from the internet.  Recently, my mother wrote a book and is in the process of publishing said book right now.  It's called The Gospel According to Mamma and it describes a variety of life lessons she learned from her mother.  The book is fantastic and I am so proud of my mother for achieving this personal and professional goal.  Her book will be sold at amazon, barnes and noble and apple ibooks first as an ebook and then....who knows!!  I certainly wish her the best of luck as she is a wonderful writer!

My mother and boyfriend both have one thing in common that is not my strong suite - editing.  That is not to say that I am incapable of editing papers or books, but research is my strong point and I am also all about completing projects.  I think that is why I find editing so tedious.  After all, it is incredibly time consuming and nit-picky.  However, I am incredibly grateful that two of the people closest to me are masters at editing because they are both more than happy to help me with my papers.  Recently, my boyfriend edited a paper I am presenting at a conference (another requirement of historians) and I must admit, he made it better.  Together he and I are the perfect historian: I love to research projects and have the self-discipline to finish them in a timely fashion and he has the technical skill to make them perfect.  Thus, together we kick some historical butt :)

To begin, to begin, to begin...

To begin with you should know two things about me:  I am a woman and I am a doctoral student in history.  For many years I complained and fretted over my life's lack of direction and purpose, I felt like a wanderer in a sea of endless possibilities and zero passions.  However, with some soul searching and a little help from friends and family, I discovered that I actually had a passion which had been with me since childhood: reading.  My love of pages began before I could actually read them and my mother often reminds me of how gently I turned each page of whatever book I was reading.  As I grew from a girl into a hormonal teenager and eventually a woman, there is one thing that has always remained consistent - the book by my side.  My tastes have changed over the years, but my need to read is unfaltering.  From science fiction as a pre-teen, romance as a teen, and fiction, biography and history through my twenties, the lust has feel for books is insatiable.  And when I say books, I am not referring to something with "e" in the title.  No, I like the smell and feel of an actual book in my hands and my loaded bookshelves and Barnes and Noble receipts could tell you more about that.

A few years ago, at the age of 25, I hit a slight quarter life crisis and had a rebirth of sorts.  I threw off the shackles of my previous life and started over again with new purpose and ambition.  I was going to be a historian I decided and for the first time I made an educational and career choice that was all for me and not influenced by outside forces.  Thus, I applied to graduate school and began my Master's degree in history.  Going back to school after several years out was a little daunting, but I was excited for this new chapter in my life.  I'll never forget my first class, it was "Teaching College History," which I later dropped and took years later, because of the slight panic attack I had when I realized I was in no way prepared for such a course!!!  However, something quite momentous occurred during that class, I made a friend.  This friend (of the male variety) became a cornerstone in my life, and I am proud to say we have been inseparable ever since.  Of course, I no longer call him just a friend, but rather my life, my love, my joy and sappy things of that nature.  Thus, history has given me more than I could have imagined at the time I started.  It has given me purpose, passion, self-motivation and fulfillment, and my soulmate.  You could say history has given me my life.

Well here we are three years later and I have completed my Master's degree and moved on to the Ph.D. variety.  I study prostitution (sexy, I know) and wrote my thesis on their frail sisters who plied their trade around a railroad epicenter during the Wild West days and so forth.  I love what I do! I also now teach history to young freshman just starting their amazing academic journeys.  I had no idea when I began teaching how wonderful and exciting the experience would be.  Anyway, I decided to start this blog in order to share my sometimes interesting life and times as a budding female historian.  I will use this blog to share my love of books and history lessons in addition to insight into the life of an academic.  I'm excited to get this journey started, thanks for tuning in!!