A Feminine Lens

Susanna here, just back from the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in beautiful British Columbia, where I’ve been privileged to be a presenter the past several years.

It’s always difficult to choose a conference highlight because honestly, there are so many, but this year my highlight has to be the panel session that I shared with Mary Robinette Kowal and Elizabeth Boyle, moderated by our friend Nephele Tempest, in which we discussed viewing history “Through A Feminine Lens”.

We talked about the ways in which women have been largely erased from the historical record, and how those few that remain are put forward as “exceptional”, when in reality women were present—and being successful—in most walks of life. They were shopkeepers, landowners, scientists, artists.

 

Mary Anning and her dog Tray

Mary shared the tale of 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning as an example of how a woman’s legacy can be curated out of the historical record, quite literally, by a museum curator deciding the donated scientific papers of Miss Anning were not valuable or needed, and disposing of them as mere curiosities.

Elizabeth reminded us that women in Wyoming gained the vote in 1869, and were able to keep it in spite of attempts to repeal the law later.

And I told of Peter the Great’s beloved wife, Empress Catherine the First, and how historians continue to dismiss her achievements by sexualizing her friendships with other men, even when contemporary accounts by those who knew her offer no evidence of this.

 

Empress Catherine I, by Heinrich Buchholz

In what was arguably the most fun part of the session, we all share our favourite go-to resources and tips for unearthing the voices of women, from diaries held by small libraries to the online records of the Old Bailey, and we listened with envy as Elizabeth described the scrapbook she had found in which a woman detailed every dress she’d made and worn, including fabric swatches, sketches, and a note of the occasion she had worn it for.

The voices are there, even if they do require some dedicated digging to uncover them. I know I usually find them at the fringes of the letters and the documents I’m reading, in which men speak of their mothers, wives, and sisters, or—as happened in one fortunate discovery—save the notes those women send them.

Are there any women in history you think deserve to be written about? Any voices you’ve stumbled across in your own research/reading?

Comments

[Jeanette]

I'll think more about your question on women in history, but I was struck by the scrapbook Ms. Boyle found. Back in the day, and I do mean back as I'm now 70, Home Economics was a requirement for all girls. We made a notebook/scrapbook of sewing techniques including samples. The ones that come to mind just now are the different kinds of seams. I did use that notebook for a long time. Also back in the day, I made a lot of my own clothes, even those I wore professionally. On another note, my mother was the only woman who worked outside the home in our neighborhood for miles around. I know/remember that some neighbors were aghast and considering how oblivious kids can be to some of that stuff, I must have overheard something that stuck or stung. I know from newspaper clippings that my dad was quite an innovative farmer, but I don't think I have given him enough credit for the fact of Mom working outside the home - she was a teacher. My parents encouraged further education for all their children - to the point it was never considered an option, but I've never really considered what my dad must have faced with a "working" wife as much as I have my mom.

[Teresa Broderick]

Women have always been demonised for being different. Yet it's women who have kept the world turning from day one. A line I love which comes from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding is uttered by the mother: she says ' the man may be head of the house but the woman is the neck and the neck always turns the head. I've thought, how true.
Women are the back bone of the world and we've had some marvelous examples of such over the centuries.

[Nancy]

Barbara Johnson's scrapbook was published some years ago. It is more the size of a legal sheet of paper. The book was fairly expensive even then. Of course, one only has pictures of the materials and fabrics she used. She was late Georgian through the regency though more of her clothes were probably in the late Georgian time. I haven't checked lately to see if any copies are for sale on Amazon or ebay.

Sounds like a wonderful conference. When I took a history of the novel course in graduate school, women were barely mentioned. The Brontes and George Eliot were about the only ones honored by a mentioned and Eliot mostly because of the name. Women poets were mentioned in 19th century poetry.
It is past time for Mary Anning to be recognized. Funny thing, it was Amanda Quick's Ravished that led me to discover more about Mary Anning-- I say discover more but I should say, to learn about her and her achievements.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Jeanette, I'm only 50 but I grew up in a small town where almost none of the moms worked outside the home, and my own mother paused her career to stay home with us until I turned ten. We talked about this on our panel as well, with Mary bringing up the fact that women's wages were made deliberately less than a man's in order to make it difficult for a working woman to support a family, thus discouraging women from remaining in the workforce after the men came home from the War. And Elizabeth shared the story of her grandmother, who kept on working anyway after the men came home. Like your mom, she must have put up with a lot.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Teresa, I love that line from the movie, too! Though in some cases in my historical research it's obvious the woman is also the head of the family, as was definitely the case with the Countess of Erroll in 1708 Scotland, who led her son, the earl, at times, in preparations for that year's rebellion.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Nancy, I like that it was an Amanda Quick novel that kindled your interest in Mary Anning. Historical fiction is one of the best ways to combat the erasure of women's voices from the historical record, I think, by putting them back on the page.

[Karin]

I also first heard of women astronomers during the Regency by reading historical romance, in this case "Lady Elizabeth's Comet" by Sheila Simonson.

[Anne Gracie]

Sounds like a great conference. I'd love to attend it one day. As for extraordinary women -- it's all in the interpretation -- my g-g-something-grandmother was "a housewife" - she ran a farm (that she helped carve out of virgin wilderness) while my g-g-something-grandfather was hauling vegies they grew to sell on the gold fields. He was away six months of the year, and she was alone on the farm with no help —they couldn't afford help -- and a bunch of little kids. She birthed and raised 11 kids, mostly giving birth on her own, and later on, as the district became more settled she became the local midwife, and was hugely respected in the district. But yeah, she was "just a housewife."

[Elizabeth Boyle]

I remember making one of those in home ec--and I used it over and over again, because it was a great reference for home sewing. I have the same now with knitting samples I've done over the years.

[Sue McCormick]

My "inside-the-city small village" had only one professional woman and one caterer who worked outside the house, along with one or tow others who "helped out" from time to time. The coming of WWII changed that. Most of the new working women never went back to being housewives. When my children became students at the same school during the early 1960s over half the mothers were working.

I'm not sure why the change, but I applauded at the time.