Why Women's History Matters: Leigh Ann Wheeler at TEDxBinghamtonUniversity

Leigh Ann Wheeler is an associate professor of History at Binghamton University and co-editor of the Journal of Women's History, the premier scholarly journal in the international field of women's history. Her first book, Against Obscenity: Reform and the Politics of Womanhood in America, 1873-1934, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2004, and her second, How Sex Became a Civil Liberty, will be published by Oxford University Press later this year. She loves to teach women's history in addition to courses in the history of sexuality, and finds the Modern U.S. History survey course particularly enjoyable when she can teach it with her husband, who is also an historian. Their eight-year-old son, whether in self-defense or out of genetic inclination, is also a fan of history and a stern critic of whatever strikes him as sexist.
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[@kgttaylor8760]

the whole point is to shine light on what isn’t already brought attention to.Mens doings are already celebrated all the time u have every other month.Unless ur a male person of color then you’ve always had rights in this country.Yalls good deeds have already been seen not saying their not important but we already recognize them but women’s doings haven’t always been recognized so we have one month out of the whole year to recognize the women who did great thing because they haven’t been recognized before. So no u don’t have a month u have all year!

[@bebeysmael1.]

Nice

[@davidsimon9185]

That's awesome How are you doing?

[@jamescottrell8578]

And yet, every year no one mention Native American history month. Which is November.

[@pineapplepen540]

Is she supposed to mention everything under the sun? This is TED-X, just pay money and get your own talk

[@etienneleclerc3492]

Didn't really give enough analysis for me. Her summary said it pretty well: "I believe that women's history can change the world, I know it changed mine,". I think this video fails to answer the question "Why should I care about women's history?" She gave some cool facts, but I'm not sold that more stress in history classes should be placed on historic women than it is now. History class is about important events that shape where we are today, and the fact is that throughout history most of the important things were done by men. In the future I hope that history classes will look back and admire those who do important things in a society that does not hinder anybody's passion based on sex, but in the present history is dominated by men for the most part.

[@ainatari]

Etienne. Maybe the history that you watch on pbs is about "important events" but i can assure you that that is not what the discipline of studying and writing history is about. That way of looking at history is rather old and antiquated. And the "important events" is in any case subjective and have , because of women only recently been able to become historians, been rather blind to womens contributions to the history of the world. If you are more interested i suggest you pick up a book about the subject. I can certainly give you some ideas if you want.

[@etienneleclerc3492]

Hmm, so are you saying that historians should look further into women of the past because until now this hasn't been done? That's certainly an interesting thought that I can get behind. By all means, if women have made important, overlooked contributions to history this should be amended. I don't have time to read a book, can you give me examples? "That way of looking at history is rather old and antiquated" -- not really an argument, Newton's laws are pretty old and they're still pretty relevant. Important events may be subjective to some, but I'd say that the general consensus is that important historical events are pretty well agreed on. Things like why white people now inhabit North America, the struggle for and against human rights including everything from the magna carta to john locke and the declaration of independence, to authoritarianism in the 20th century. These events (and many more if you'd like more examples) are important, world shaping, completely male-dominated events that have implications in the present, the most important one I can think of being a suspicion of powerful governments. But for the sake of argument, even assuming important events are subjective, who gets to choose what is taught in history class?

[@Ifeelpain1997]

Maybe you should care because women are half the population

[@kgttaylor8760]

Jules G the whole point is to shine light on what isn’t already brought attention to.Mens doings are already celebrated all the time u have every other month.Unless ur a male person of color then you’ve always had rights in this country.Yalls good deeds have already been seen not saying their not important but we already recognize them but women’s doings haven’t always been recognized so we have one month out of the whole year to recognize the women who did great thing because they haven’t been recognized before. So no u don’t have a month u have all year!

[@elchefe7701]

at 1:44 min Mrs. Wheeler, you do know that the "History Channel" is a privately owned and run tv station that is supposed to generate profit? Don't make all professors look bad for not knowing how the world outside the university works. The History Channel is not run by a curriculum of academics that want to make the world a better place (for woman), without any care of what Mr. Nielsen has to say.

[@swordofdamocles5733]

A so called reputable university professor " quoting the history channel and popular females in current societies.... SIGH ALL HISTORY is important, regardless what field it is focused on. If we have a womens month then we need to have the following: mens month, white month, black month, native american month ( for those in the US), etc you can go so far as to switch to days because there are so many labels and counties and people etc that you cant "honor" them all in a year... But i guess this is some American thing. As a historian she appropriate things and events from the past and puts them in modern day settings which is NOT THE WAY AN ACADEMIC IS SUPPOSED TO ACT! Yet another "professor" that isnt doing it for educational purposes but to just further her aganda and making sure she will get some gendered research grant or more gendered work thrown at her from the "patriarchy". Conclusion: HORRIBLE biased source materials, and then there is this "I believe that ...." THAT is an opinion ,and like armpits everyones got them and they all stink.

[@ryanpostman5829]

This lecture went nowhere and taught nothing...shocked!

[@davidsimon9185]

Hello....how are you doing today?

[@hellogoodbye4061]

Thomas Edison invents electricity, woman changes lightbulb ... according to this woman, both should receive equal treatment in history books,

[@hellogoodbye4061]

Couldn't "women in history" be covered in a hour or so?

[@ianwilliams6042]

Men's history is more important, surely, as they are the one's who have shaped and created the world.

[@Crybbusagi]

lol...

Once Woman learn their own History, they will reshape the World.

[@Ifeelpain1997]

that is not true

[@pineapplepen540]

Women kept society running on the home front. If not for the nuclear family being being kept intact by women (who didn't usually have much choice) while men studied and made discoveries, well, we'd be living in grass huts. Show your ancestoresses a little gratitude, eh?

[@kgttaylor8760]

lmao this is the exact reason we need a month a lot of what women have done so much in history but we have been written out of history.We were oppressed and looked as less than and were brought down by men by being told we couldn’t do things so women didn’t get the chance to show what they can do but some women stood up and did do a lot but sadly they aren’t shown because they were women yes we definelty need a month and your comment is a prime example.