LAUREL THATCHER ULRICH

Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History

A pioneer is not someone who makes her own soap. She is one who takes up her burdens and walks toward the future.

An androgynous mind was not a male mind. It was a mind attuned to the full range of human experience, including the invisible lives of women.

History is a conversation and sometimes a shouting match between present and past, though often the voices we most want to hear are barely audible.

Some history-making is intentional; much of it is accidental.

So what do people see when they read that well-behaved women rarely make history? Do they imagine good-time girls in stiletto heels or do-good girls carrying clipboards and passing petitions? Do they envision an out-of-control hobbyist or a single mother taking down a drunk in a bar? I suspect that it depends on where they stand themselves.

Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History

An androgynous mind was not a male mind. It was a mind attuned to the full range of human experience, including the invisible lives of women.

Some history-making is intentional; much of it is accidental.

A pioneer is not someone who makes her own soap. She is one who takes up her burdens and walks toward the future.

So what do people see when they read that well-behaved women rarely make history? Do they imagine good-time girls in stiletto heels or do-good girls carrying clipboards and passing petitions? Do they envision an out-of-control hobbyist or a single mother taking down a drunk in a bar? I suspect that it depends on where they stand themselves.

History is a conversation and sometimes a shouting match between present and past, though often the voices we most want to hear are barely audible.