New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-11-25
Woman the Anonymous Sex in History,
Says RebelIiOuS Woman Historian
Ihereupon Mrs. Mary
Beard Institutes Move
ment TO Change
Histories.
By KATHARINE ANTHONY.

wv oa Anonymous mo s ssa Tho To be Prt th'
dent of the United States
has written a history Of the American
people in five large volumes. A visitor
from Mars reading It would imagine
that there had been no women in this
part of the universe from the coming
Of the Pilgrims to the present day, for
scarcely a mention of women can be
found in all the hundreds of pages.
Apparently George has done it ALL"
This is what Mrs. Mary r. Beard, a
suffrage leader, thinks Of history as it
is written Mrs Beard is herself stu
dent of civics and history, being CO.
author with her husband, Charles A.
Beard, associate professor of politics
In Columbia University, of book on
american Citizenship" intended for
use in high schools and colleges. Mrs.
Beard and her husband are now en-
gagged in the preparation Of another
book, a volume of American history,
which aims TO render some account of
women's work in Americas past. At
least this is the determination Ct the
authors, although they find themselves
bafled at every step by the silence of
man-made sources as to woman's part
in the making Of our country.
first heard from Mrs Beard Of her
plans for revising history for women
as we sat together last summer on the
broad porch of her country home. And
then again the other day, at her winter
quarters in a New York apartment
house, Mrs. Beard willingly resumed
her favorte theme.
From the windows Of her Morning
side apartment we looked out over a
vast plain of city roofs, covering thou
sands of closely packed homes in
which an army of mothers we're doing
their daily chores.
Housekeeper Unjustly Has No Place in
History.
"Yet who chronicles the history this
domestic army is making?" says Mrs.
Beard. I'm the ordinary history and
civics books the housekeeper has just
as little place as the farmers wife and
the factory woman.
"The knell of this sort of history has
been rung. Women are now studying
history for themselves. They know
that women were among the first
makers of our country.
"Now that they are learning facts
like these, women are 10 longer con-
tent with history writing which ignores
their existence We grant, however,
that we shall have to supply the data
i'm all probability, and so the silent
partner is acquiring a speaking voice.
"The quiet consciousness OF consid-
cradle achievement and larger plans
for the future might we'll be preser' eI
in a golden silence if the effects of ST.
lence were not so bad. These effects
penetrate to the schoolroom and inhu-
ence the formative years of thought
and feeling. Men have made the world;
boys strut in consequence.
Girls Refuge Is Powder Puff.
women have done nothing but bear
sons: girls therefore smirk and take
refuge in powder puifs so as TO be busy
at something. If a controversy arises
as 20 the achievements OF the unre-
corded sex there are no available data
for the teacher or the girl to bring to
bear upon the question.
at is an anomalous fact that this
exclusively masculine point OF view
dominates the schoolroom, even though
the vast majority OF our teachers are
women. But in the upper reaches of
our educational hierarchy, the teachers
in the normal schools, the professors
in the colleges and universities, the
writer's of the school textbooks, prin-
cipals, superintendents, school boards
and college trustees, women have
very small representation. Behind
every woman, no matter how important
her position, stands a man with still
more important position. And even be-
fore she steps into her position as
teacher she has been supplied with a
ready-made body of knowledge which
ignores the work of women in the
world and is addressed to boys alone.
Civics for Girls.
"In many high schools girls are re-
CURED or invited to study civics from
a book which is written almost wholly
from A masculine point of view and APP
neaIs only 10 bows destined 10 be voters.
As a matter of fact, If civics concerns
onlv potential voters the subject should
be confined TO boys except IN those
states in which women are enfran-
chised. In truth, civics concerns the
whole community and women consti-
tute half of that community.
The Modern Woman's Battle of New
Orleans.
In years gone by women would have
stood at the tub or faucet and thanked
bountiful Providence for any water at
all but now as they stand there their
minds reach out over the long chain OF
circumstances that connect the faucet
with the gentlemen who sit in alder