Gender, History and Culture Coursework Submission Form
Student number: _24371756_______________________
Module title & code: __HHU13002-
202425 _________________________
Module coordinator: ____Gillian Frank__________________________
Assignment/essay title: ___Final essay_____________________
Word count (excluding footnotes, bibliography &
appendices):_2287___
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Date : >11/04
The History of the world is but the biography of great men- Thomas Carlyle
This quote comes from Thomas Carlyle’s On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in
History, published in 1841. It was later attributed to be the starting point of theories about the
making of history being only made by great men. This suggests that while great individuals have
shaped history, half of the world’s population, women, have been excluded from this narrative, as if
women were not as great, if not at all. As if the mere fact of being female prevented them from
greatness.
This idea that only great men have influenced history can be because of the way history is written,
remembered, recounted. If men only write about men, then of course it would be difficult to recount
a more gender-neutral narrative, it would recount only part of the human experience. 1 Therefore
historical interpretations have often excluded, misrepresented women’s role. If the biographies of
great men have shaped history, these same men have also shaped the narratives of women’s history.
Women’s history has been shaped and controlled by men’s perspectives.
If Thomas Carlyle’s statement holds some truth it is not because women have not shaped history,
but because history has largely been written by men. My essay will examine how male-dominated
narratives have shaped women’s history and how modern reinterpretations and points of views can
challenge Carlyle’s perspective.
I. The Male-Dominated Construction of Historical narratives and the Gendered Nature of Historical
Sources.
When studying history, some of the most important sources are the primary sources. They
give insight into the perspectives of writers contemporary to their time. Obviously, men have
written a lot about their societies and others, their thoughts and opinions, even critics. In ancient
history, these sources are particularly important, yet many have not survived the test of time. But
these sources are written by men, leading to biased portrayals of women who were not able to
express their own opinion of their condition. And because of that, history has been unsuspectingly
1 Gherardi S., Poggio B. (2007) pp. 7
biased, women being less present as authors of primary sources, it means that a text about women in
the past is not going to be so reliable. Living in a society is obviously a very personal experience,
and living in a society restricting them, not being able to write about it is not the same insight as
describing the role of women seen by men.
Also the views of an author on women can impact the re-telling, and ancient authors are not known
for their impartiality as they often convey their views rather than do an accurate description of their
period. And men being the dominant part of society in western history, they are the focal point of
societal re-counters. To illustrate this point we can take the case study of ancient Sparta for the
written sources about spartan women, archaeological sources and art historical evidences is scarce. 2
Since Spartans did not record their own history, the surviving accounts come from external male
authors, drawing their knowledge from secondhand or outdated sources 3. We have to read the
description carefully, the authors like Plutarch or Xenophon desire to contrast Sparta with their own
societies. They exaggerate the difference between their city and the Spartans. 4 Also their views
about women are shaped by their agenda, trying to compare their women with others, in hope of
preaching some moral principals.5 In this sense, modern scholars have to rely on sources produced
by other Greek city-states. It can almost be seen as secondary sources as they are not a proper
account of spartan societies. Athenian authors were particularly intrigued by the role of women in
this 'alien' society, exaggerating the differences to emphasize their own views of Sparta, further
digging the ditch separating the two city-states.
History, and especially women’s history is intersperse by silence and absence. There is not doubt
some women must have been incredible and contributed to their community’s history, but sources
fail to tell us about their lives. This selective recording of history is, in a sense, erasing and
downplaying women’s contribution.
2 Fantham E., Peet Foley H., Boymel Kampen N., Pomeroy S. B., Shapiro H. A., (1994) pp.56-57
3 Ibid pp. 57
4 Ibid pp. 63
5 Ibid pp. 66
II. Gender Control Throughout History.
It would be the biggest lie to try to imply that women cannot be great when in reality they
are being controlled. For example, in Luther’s reformation, one of the key aspect was to educate
women accordingly. We need to think about gender identity, and see the reformation as a new wave
of patriarchal control, telling women what to think and how to behave. There is a clear
reorganization of masculinity in the image of Luther, as a model for the chief of his ideal family to
serve as opposition to the Pope’s illegitimate family. The place of men and women in societies is
one of the subject evoked by Luther in the Table Talks dealing with unconventional topic such as
doctrine, politics, observations on men’s and women’s bodies, recorded by his student, carrying on
his ideas.6 The wife is submitted to her husband, through marriage laws, which restrict their
autonomy. The biography of women in the reformation is overshadowed by their husband. Katerina
Luther is a perfect vehicle for patriarchal values, offering a model to women in a new culture, and a
conservative social movement. Men are reassuring themselves that they are in still in control of
society, this religious shift influenced women’s right and education.
Another type of oppression can be seen through the case of the unmarried mothers in Ireland, and
the Magdalene Laundries. Again, like in the reformation, this oppression is driven by religious
belief and conservatism.7 It created an idea of shale around the story of these women, needing to
hide. Only, this time, this part of history is not written down and shut secret because of self inflicted
shame felt by the girls and women due to the Free State conservative ideas.8
Even if in the report of 2013 Senator Martin McAleese acknowledged the involvement of the state
in the act committed against the women in the Magdalene Laundries 9, there are still no
acknowledgment of the physical and psychological abuse against those women, even if the
6 Roper (2010) pp. 367
7 Luddy (2011) pp. 112
8 Ibid pp. 117
9 Department of Justice and Equality (2013) pp. V, XI
Committee of the report drove an examination based on testimonies. But Maureen Sullivan, in
Gregg Gerry’s documentary Ireland’s Dirty Laundry, testify that the nuns would stick their crucifix
in the girls’ and women’s ribs to work faster. Instead the choice of word in the report to talk about
their treatment is stated as : «with a rigid and uncompromising regime of physically demanding
work and prayer, with many instances of verbal censure, scoldings or even humiliating put-
downs.»10 The institutions are known to have given new names to these women, with the excuse of
protecting their identity, but it results in erasing the individual and her story, making her unable to
tell it. In the report, in the article 14, it is declared about this practice : “The Congregations have
expressed to the Committee their regret that women who were in their care hold this or other painful
memories.”11 Which seems like it is undermining the literal trauma of the victims, diminished as
memories.
Because it is a state report, which acknowledge the involvement of the nation of Ireland, it is
important that the choice of words reflect the version of this story that will be taught later, but even
the first article of the introduction states : “There is no single or simple story of the Magdalene
Laundries”,12 it does not mean that NO women have experienced violence in these institutions.
III. Rediscovery of powerful female-figure, or their re-invention?
10 Ibid pp. VIII
11 Ibid pp. V
12 Ibid pp. I
Of course, even if oppression can restrain women from telling their stories, surely since the
end of the 20th century, research have tried to bring light on them. More and more we are
appreciating the contribution of women into history. This is what Judy Chicago did in her piece
“The Dinner Party”(Fig. 1), a large-scale piece celebrating historical and mythical women drawn
from Western civilizations using the symbolic setting of a dinner party. The table is laid for thirty-
Figure 1: The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago (1979),
Photo by Donald Woodman Figure 2: The 'Snake Goddess'
Drawing from Frontispiece: The
Palace of Minos at KnossosVol. 1
(1921)
nine women. In addition, the names of 999 more women are written in gilded letters on the Heritage
Floor. For her piece, Chicago chose needle work and ceramic painting as medium to resonate with
trades branded as feminine.13 The first Wing of the art piece starts in prehistory with the Primordial
Goddess and progresses chronologically through the development of Judaism; it then transitions to
early Greek cultures and the Roman Empire, signaling the downfall of women's influence,
symbolised by Hypatia of Alexandria’s setting. Wing Two illustrates early Christianity through the
Reformation, showcasing women who represent early movements for equal rights, ranging from
Marcella to Anna van Schurman. Wing Three starts with Anne Hutchinson and explores the
13 Chicago The Dinner Party (1974–79)
American Revolution, the Suffragettes, and progresses toward the movement of women’s increased
individual creative expression.14
If this art exhibition is an important milestone for the representation of role of women in history
through art, some of the figures represented raises questions. In particular, the Minoan Snake
Goddess and the Primordial Goddess. The idea of the Snake Goddess is taken from a Minoan
faience figurine representing a woman holding snakes (Fig. 2). She was found in the Palace of
Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans in 1903.15 The became influential in his research and the establishment
of the idea of matriarchal societies in Bronze-Age Europe. Unfortunately, even if Evans dedicated
his life to the study of Minoans, little is known about their religious beliefs, and interpreting the
figurine as ‘Goddess’ based on little to no evidence. Also, her exposed chest implanted in Evans’
head an idea linked to motherhood, and fertility. This is a narrative created throughout the 19 th
century, relating great goddess to the idea of motherhood and fertility, determined by their sexual
attributes and not the actions they could have perpetrated. Every female deities discovered has been
at some point assimilated to the Mother-Goddess, or fecundity deity, erasing the possibility that they
could represent women of power without drawing this power from their sexual attributes desired by
men. This narrative is extremely persistent, and continue deep into the 1950’s-70’s scholarly
researches. For some scholars it seemed evident that the voluptuous forms of the so called ‘Venus’
figurines "were made, touched, carved, and fondled by men" because "clearly no other group would
have had such an interest in the female form" as stated by Collins and Onians in 1978. 16, once again
drawing a western eye deeply rooted into our patriarchal society, and imposing on a woman
represented naked made by a society from 30 000 years ago that we have no evidence of a cognitive
insight on.17 It would be cruel to give a sexual, or fertility undertone to a women, stripping her from
14 Brooklyn Museum website.
15 in Morris C. E. powerpoint, on 18/02/2025
16 From McDermott, 1996, citing Collins and Onians 1978 pp. 233
17 Ibid pp. 243.
any other context, just because of the way our society would think about a naked woman. The
concept of the Mother-Goddess and Fertility deity reflect a contemporary gender struggle to search
for the history and image of women illustrated by the researches led by feminist scholars.18
IV. How the reinvention induced a false narrative, the case of the Mother-Goddess.
This narrative, taken from the 19th century’s , is essentializing women and reducing them to
their role of mothers. This narrative can be seen in Judy Chicago’s piece. In the First Wing is using
myths created by men’s narrative even if she tries to draw light on the women by choosing to
represent them with vulva. And considering the other wings, would a woman activist want to be
represented with her sexual attributes rather than her accomplishments?
Chicago is not the only one who fell for this trope. Marija Gimbutas is another feminist who fell
into this narrative. This theory of a European Mother-Goddess is used as revisionist history trying to
push an agenda using ‘historical’ evidence. The rewrite the past from an engendered perspective,
like a fictional past trying to use scientific proofs.19
Coming back to the ‘Venus’, they are used alongside the ‘Snake-Goddess’ as a proof of a
matriarchal universal society across Europe, replaced later by the Indo-European patriarchal
invasions.20 Concept of gender in archaeology. Some feminists thinks that the establishment of an
originary myth, based on pseudo-historical facts will help to restore women’s power. But this is an
aspect of feminist archaeology that is sometime not rigorous in methodology, like the researches
published by Gimbutas, in this type of case archaeology based on historical fiction and emotional
narratives, accompanying serious archaeological debates. It need to be separated from reverse-
sexism or it might overshadow serious researches. Feminist researches do not need to prove the
superiority of a Goddess to explore the history of Great women in past or present time.
18 Meskell (1995) pp.74
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid pp. 77
Conclusion.
The statement of Carlyle is partially true, but not because women have not been great, or not
contributed to history, Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party is full of example even if the way of putting
light on these women is debated, but in the sense they have been forbidden to tell their story or to
take them seriously into account. Also, even if I decided to concentrate my essay on the control of
women’s history, this quote from Carlyle raises another critic, and the case of women is an excellent
one. A person does not need to be great to write history. A community is the real writer, if an
individual is able to reach a high level if influence it is because their peer have let them do it. If
individual women have struggled to prove themselves great, entire communities of women have
proven themselves to history. Women have always been part of history, but their exclusion from
dominant narratives has distorted our understanding of, not just their past, but of the whole of man-
kind. Their history has been stripped from them, and recognizing and integrating their contributions
is essential for a more comprehensive historical record.
Bibliography :
- Chicago J. et al, The Dinner Party, mixed media, Brooklyn Museum, (1979)
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/fr-FR/exhibitions/dinner_party [ last consulted on 31/03/2025]
- Fantham E., Peet Foley H., Boymel Kampen N., Pomeroy S. B., Shapiro H. A., Spartan Women :
Women in a Warrior Society, in Women in the Classical world, Oxford University Press, (1994), pp.
56-67.
- Gerry, G, Ireland's Dirty Laundry (2022) [documentary]. RÉT
- Gherardi S., Poggio B., Gendertelling in Organizations : Narratives from Male-dominated
environments, Copenhagen Business School Press, (2007), pp. 7
-Luddy M., Unmarried Mothers in Ireland, 1880–1973, Women's History Review, 20:1, (2011),
pp.109-126
- McDermott L., Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines. Current Anthropology
37:2, (1996), pp. 227-275.
- Meskell L., Goddesses, Gimbutas and New Age Archaeology, Antiquity, 69, (1995) pp. 74-86
-Roper L., Martin Luther's Body: The "Stout Doctor" and His Biographers ,The American
Historical Review,115, (2010) pp. 351-384.
- Unknown artist, Minoan ‘Snake Goddess’, mixed media, Heraklio Museum of Archaeology, (1600
BC) https://heraklionmuseum.gr/en/exhibit/the-snake-goddesses/
