Well-Behaved Women: Where Have They All Gone?

In a 1976 article ("Virtuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735") for the publicly obscure and academic American Quarterly, noted academician, teacher, and historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich included the observation "well-behaved women seldom make history."

In context, it appeared as:

"Cotton Mather called them 'the hidden ones.' They never preached or sat in a deacon's bench. Nor did they vote or attend Harvard. Neither, because they were virtuous women, did they question God or the magistrates. They prayed secretly, read the Bible through at least once a year, and went to hear the minister preach even when it snowed. Hoping for an eternal crown, they never asked to be remembered on earth. And they haven't been. WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY." [emphasis, mine]

It was not until an October, 2007 Deseret Morning News interview when Dr. Ulrich happened to say the same thing, that "well-behaved women seldom make history" exploded through the global consciousness, both socially and commercially. It was picked up, internalized and internationalized, and is now emblazoned on t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee cups, et al. Its adoption as a motto infamous throughout popular culture prompted Ulrich to write Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: a book examining the ways selected women have shaped American and world history.

Whether a function of rising assertiveness or released angst - or plain old capitalism, Ulrich's utterance has morphed into ever more atavistic tones. For example: "Well-behaved women RARELY [emphasis mine] make history" and "Well-behaved women NEVER [emphasis mine] make history."

Mormon and Feminist, Dr. Ulrich has made and is "making history."

Making history, by either gender, doesn't mean being confrontational, contentious, antagonistic, aggressive, or, necessarily, even assertive. It means possessing and holding to values and principles and being willing and able to articulate, propagate, and defend them.

Other notable quotes about women, I find instructive, include:

* "To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all." ..Helen Rowland

* "How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being." ..Oscar Wilde

* "The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything." ..Friedrich Nietzsche

I say: "In lumine tuo videbimus lumen" - In your light, we see the light. I also say "well-behaved women do it with justice and (are, often) extra-ordinary good." (SIC)