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谈到家务劳动,除非你不这样做,否则没有人注意到它。1976 年,劳雷尔·撒切尔·乌尔里希在《美国季刊》上发表了一篇题为 “发现良性女性:新英格兰部长文献,1688-1735 年” 的文章。乌尔里希写道:“棉花马瑟称他们为 '隐藏的'。他们从来没有宣讲过或坐在执事的长凳上。他们也没有投票或参加哈佛。他们也没有质疑上帝或治安法官,因为她们是善良的女性。他们偷偷祈祷,每年至少阅读一次圣经,甚至在下雪的时候也会听到部长的讲道。希望永恒的王冠,他们从来没有要求在地球上被记住。而且他们还没去过。表现良好的女性很少创造历史。”殖民地美洲学术史学家乌尔里希表示:“我的目标不是哀悼他们的压迫,而是给他们一个历史。”乌尔里希关于行为良好女性的引述自己生活,从贴纸到衬衫甚至抗议标志等许多物品上都很明显。几年前,我在家居商品上找到了一个标语牌,上面有报价。记者凯·米尔斯(Kay Mills)在她的一书《从 Pocahontas 到 Power Santes》中,将这句话改为 “行为良好的女性很少创造历史”,但报价背后的想法仍然有力。过去很难找到普通日常人的消息来源。只有当他们超出规定的行为界限时,我们往往找到人的来源,特别是女性的来源。

根据乌尔里希,“'行为良好的女性' 引用是因为它引起了长期以来关于女性隐形和天生礼仪的陈规定型观念。许多人认为,女性在历史上不如男性那么明显,因为她们的身体迫使她们进行培育。他们的任务是绑定伤口,搅拌汤,抚养那些以打击战争、统治国家和定义宇宙为使命的人的孩子。”但并非所有提出这些论点的人都认为女性无关紧要。事实上,许多人崇拜作为妻子、照顾者和母亲的女性所做的贡献。但是,他们也假设承担这些家务角色的女性没有历史,假设几个世纪以来家务角色的恒定性。“如果女性占据固定的生活中心,如果将历史视为公共事件的线性进展,那么战争和王国的变化全貌,那么只有那些通过残暴行为、神圣干预或纯粹天才进入公共后果流的人才才有历史。”这就是为什么我们倾向于只记住那些出于臭名昭著的原因出现在法庭记录或报纸上的女性。乌尔里希的结论是,这一论点的问题在于 “不仅限制了女性。它还限制了历史。”毕竟,优秀的历史学家不仅关心著名人物,还关心人类历史上更大的转变。更多人的小行动也是有效的变革方法。但是历史依赖于书面来源。直到最近,大多数女性(和男性)都是文盲。“因此,他们的活动被记录在其他人的写作中,如果有的话。造成麻烦的人可能会出现在法庭记录、报纸或他们的主人日记中。那些静静地过着生活的人要么被遗忘、远处可以看到,要么被理想化为匿名。即使在今天,宣传也有利于那些制定法律或破章的人。”领导人、振动者和标题制造商将永远在历史记录中看到。但也许我们可以花更多的时间回收普通女性和大多数表现良好的人。

劳雷尔·撒切尔·乌尔里希,表现良好的女性很少创造历史,(纽约:复古书籍,2007 年)。

Rebecca Koerselman

Rebecca Koerselman teaches history at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA.

5 Comments

  • Pam Adams says:

    Rebecca, Many women fortunately realize that history is made by all of us and that women should play a larger part in this transformation of our culture into one that follows our Lord in all things. This involves windows and cooking but it also involves being a good doctor, an excellent novelist, and a professor who guides us all. Thank you Rebecca for being a guider.

  • Beth Jammal says:

    Thank you for bringing to mind the invisible mothers and grandmothers who influence the movers and shakers of this world. God didn’t create all to be leaders outside, but to do His best work, inside the home.

  • RW says:

    Teaching a course in local history on the high school level helped to convince me that we teach history incorrectly. Teaching local will lead to the national and world. Teaching local informs us of the contributions of those everyday, often uneducated people, who built the world we live in. Everyday people invented the garbage dumpster and the machinery that developed whole segments of the agricultural economy that we benefit from today. Reading a novel like So Big by Edna Ferber, which tells the story of the development of South Holland, Illinois, demonstrates the power of hard working, under the radar, women in our world. We need to highlight the work of the everyday people (men and women) who contributed so much to our world and God’s kingdom.

  • Carl Fictorie says:

    Ironically, the blog on Christian Scholars’ Review for today (https://christianscholars.com/encouragement-for-the-class-of-2025/) is a story about a boy who survived a plague and other hurdles to eventually achieve greatness despite his humble and troubled beginnings. The author, a mathematics professor, is using it as an encouragement to his class to strive to be faithful in developing God’s gifts. The boy was Isaac Newton, who certainly taught us all much about the laws of creation. What’s important here is that there is mention that he was so passionate about his work that he would often forget to eat. The author stops short of claiming this is a virtue, but the implication is that it was not bad. What is not mentioned is that someone prepared and brought him that tray of food day after day. Perhaps some historical record notes who this person was. Maybe a housekeeper, perhaps a slave. I don’t know. While academics often credit that they stand on the shoulders of other academics to do their work, they rarely mention the hidden people who make their meals, clean their houses, and do all the mundane things to enable their work. It seems to me that your story gets to the heart of what it means to faithfully develop God’s gifts much better than the story of Isaac Newton.

  • gregory van den berg says:

    Again, another essay without any Scriptural support. Will anyone forget how the line of David begins with a woman, Rahab. Then continues with Ruth. Without these women of faith, there would not be a line of David ergo no Christ. How about Esther? She single handedly with great faith in God saved the Jews from complete annihilation. These are shakers of world. Not mothers or wives of influential men. These men are not part of the true world, the Kingdom of God. Remember mention all the women mentioned in the New Testament. What about the wives of the great men of faith i.e Moses, David, Joseph, Jacob, Abraham etc. Those women were the true shakers of the world. Their faith infused their husbands to changing the world in an eternal sense. The essays in this journal are truly full of sentimental slop. Bring forth the good news of Jesus not what is being written. As Paul wrote all he wanted to know was Christ crucified, risen, and sitting at the right hand of God.

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