Femocracy: How Educators Can Teach Democratic Ideals and Feminism

175 Pages·2021·0.659 MB·English

by  Chris Edwards

F E M O C R A C Y

F E M O C R A C Y
How Educators Can Teach
Democratic Ideals and Feminism
Chris Edwards
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2021 by Chris Edwards
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage
and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Edwards, Chris, 1977– author.
Title: Femocracy : how educators can teach democratic ideals and feminism /
Chris Edwards.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2021] | Includes
bibliographical references. | Summary: “Feminism is world history’s most
significant historical force and should be presented in classrooms as
the central narrative in world history from the Protestant Reformation
to the present. Democratic ideals created both the American Congress and
the feminist movement, but which is more important? This and more is
discussed in Femocracy: How Educators Can Teach Democratic Ideals and
Feminism”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021008879 (print) | LCCN 2021008880 (ebook) | ISBN
9781475860863 (cloth ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9781475860870 (paperback ;
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781475860887 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Women’s studies—United States. | Feminism—United
States—History. | Democracy—Study and teaching—United States. |
Feminism and education—United States.
Classification: LCC HQ1181.U5 E39 2021 (print) | LCC HQ1181.U5
(ebook) | DDC 305.4209—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008879
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008880
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
For my wife, Beth.
The family is lucky you are the one in charge.

CONTENTS
Introduction ix
1 Antecedents to Femocracy 1
2 English History and the English Stage 15
3 The Enlightenment 29
4 Revolution and the Vindication 45
5 Anti-slavery and the Declaration of Sentiments 65
6 Between the Suffragettes and Birth Control 87
7 Higher Education and the Pill 103
8 From The Feminine Mystique to Oprah 121
9 Femocracy in the West: 2011 to the Future 135
Conclusion 153
References 157
vii

INTRODUCTION
Traditional narratives of history operate like a Mercator map of the
world by creating order through distortion. Mercator maps distort the
actual size of landmasses so that a round surface can be represented
on a flat surface in a way that makes everything fit on the right latitude
and longitude. The Mercator map does not claim to be proportionally
accurate, but people unacquainted with cartography might eyeball the
map and think that Greenland is roughly the size of Africa.
Computer cartography has allowed for the creation of some interest-
ing new maps that reflect proportionality better so that one can see that
countries that appear modest on the Mercator map loom rather large in
real space. Countries that appear to sprawl across the Mercator take up
less impressive spaces in proportional maps.
World history lacks a means of measuring the significance of events
and so sometimes an event of no great long-term importance gets
stretched, by acclamation, to fit the established lines while events that
should take up more significant space get shrunk.
The point of this book is that democratic ideals created feminism and
that feminism as a historical topic has been distorted into a constricted
little island when it should take up most of the map. Since the audience
for this book will be primarily made up of educators and academics,
some guidelines for how to teach this new synthesis will be included.
ix