Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

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MaryLynn

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History is the title of a book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, written in 1976. Since that time the slogan has become bumper stickers, pins, placards, t-shirts, and many other memorabilia. It has become the cry of feminists and is a truism throughout history. When a woman, or group of women, affected society, it was usually by stepping outside the norm.

I have not yet, but intend to read the book. Meanwhile, we would like to share some quotes from the book and how they have fit in with some of our own ancestors or women in history whom we admire.  Follow this link to quotes and see if you are inspired about someone in your history.

 Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History Quotes by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (goodreads.com)

While you are at that page, click on the Open Preview button to read some back story by the author.  I think you will find it very entertaining.

Quotes:

“Some history-making is intentional; much of it is accidental. People make history when they scale a mountain, ignite a bomb, or refuse to move to the back of the bus. But they also make history by keeping diaries, writing letters, or embroidering initials on linen sheets. 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. People make history by passing on gossip, saving old records, and by naming rivers, mountains, and children. Some people leave only their bones, though bones too make a history when someone notices.” 

― Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

Valorie

While I have not yet read the book the above quote is from, the second sentence, "...they also make history by keeping diaries, writing letters, or embroidering initials on linen sheets," reminds me of the women in my mother's family, Anna Baysinger McBee's daughters. Anna was a writer who began early in her life submitting news articles to her local newspaper, which were published without her name attached, earning "pin money" as it was called then. 

Anna Virgil Baysinger

Later, when her husband sold their house in Indianola, Iowa and moved them to Alberta, Canada, she began writing stories about real or imagined characters to Canadian papers. These stories were credited to her and I hope she was paid for them too. I found a story by Anna Baysinger McBee "written specially" for the Calgary Herald, 30 May 1942, called "How to Cope with Witchcraft." She wrote another in June for the same paper, "Pete's Charm is in a Black Chicken: He'll Catch Hitler When He Finds It." However, her life, difficult already after being deserted by her husband Harvey McBee, darkened dramatically with the death of her youngest son, who spent his days at "school" - really an orphanage - while his siblings were at school and she was working in a chicken processing plant. Sidney died 18 July 1944, only 4 years old. By 13 March 1945 she had divorced Harvey McBee, Anna died 12 February 1956 in  Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is buried there. 

Anna's oldest daughter Kathleen began writing a diary at age 11, the year my mother was born. My mother Lola McBee was the seventh of eleven children eventually born to Harvey and Anna and Kathleen was like a second mother to her. One of Kathleen's teachers gave her a diary or notebook as a Christmas gift, and fortunately kept and transcribed that diary as an adult, and sent me a copy! Along with her story of the "Iowa Years" about those early years and the beginning of their life in Alberta, Canada, Kathleen's writing is one of the foundations of the story about my mother, here in our blog as well as on Wikitree. 

Kathleen also began submitting letters, poetry and stories to many newspapers in Canada. She moved to Washington state to attend school and sent some pieces to US papers before her marriage. She also wrote to my mother after assisting both she and sister Joanne to return to the US so that they could attend high school and college in Seattle. 

While I've not found the other McBee sisters writing for the newspapers, they were letter-writers and I'm lucky enough to have inherited some of those letters. After their father deserted the family, which resulted in the scattering of the siblings, these women wrote letters and helped to keep the family together as much as they could. Thank you, aunties!

“If well-behaved women seldom make history, it is not only because gender norms have constrained the range of female activity but because history hasn't been very good at capturing the lives of those whose contributions have been local and domestic. For centuries, women have sustained local communities, raising food, caring for the sick, and picking up the pieces after wars." 

MaryLynn

I think all of us can name dozens of women in our own histories who made the difference in the health and welfare of their families. Try to name one or two in your history.

"But like other well-behaved women they chose to obey God rather than men.”

Two women in our colonial history dared to defy authority and follow their hearts and spirits for the better of their families, friends and communities. Anne Marbury Hutchinson was a midwife in the Boston settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While waiting for the child to be born, Anne would teach about scripture, especially the relationship between each individual and God. This was not well received by the authorities in the Puritan church who were also the governors of the colony. Anne was tried for disobedience and then tried for heresy, excommunicated and banned from the colony. She moved with her family to the Rhode Island Colony and helped Roger Williams establish that colony.

When Anne walked out of the congregation in Boston after her excommunication, her friend Mary Barrett Dyer walked out with her. Mary and her husband William Dyer moved with their young family to Rhode Island as well. William became prominent in the development of Rhode Island, second only to Roger Williams.  

During a return of the Dyers to England to straighten out some colonial affairs, Mary became a Quaker, staying in England for some time after William returned to Rhode Island. When Mary and some other Quakers returned to the colonies, they were immediately arrested and put in jail in Boston. The Puritan leaders had passed laws forbidding any other religion, especially Quaker. It was several months before word got to William that Mary was in jail in Boston.

When William went to Boston, Mary was immediately released in his custody and he took her home to Rhode Island where she regained her health. But Mary could not abandon her friends in the Boston jail and she returned to be with them. Wherever she went, she spoke of the freedom of people to worship God according to their own conscience.  

She, along with two men, was tried for civil disobedience, convicted and sentenced to be hanged. The men were hanged and she was on the scaffold with her hands and ankles bound when she was reprieved at the last minute. Again, she was returned to Rhode Island where she remained for a few months. But, she went back to Boston, was again tried and on 1 June, 1660, was hanged for civil disobedience.

When Charles II gained the throne after the Puritan Revolution, he admonished the Boston clergy for their intolerance. In Rhode Island Colony, William was helping to draft the charter and assured that it would contain religious tolerance. One hundred twenty years later, when the new United States was drawing up its constitution, it included "freedom to worship, or not worship, according to one's conscience" as the first amendment.