Teaching About Women in World History

Abstract

This article addresses the subject of teaching about women in world history in K–12 schools and in programs of social studies teacher education. It includes a review of the place of gender in teaching about world history to current and future teachers at Teachers College, Columbia University. This informal research serves as the platform for a set of recommendations concerning necessary steps for “gender-balancing” the world history curriculum in social studies teacher education.

Keywords:

• women
• world history
• teacher education
• multiculturalism
• history

Notes

1. The Web sites are as follows: Women in World History (http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/), the Women in World History curriculum (http://www.womeninworldhis-tory.com/), and 100 Most Important Women in World History (http://womenshistory.about.com/od/biographies/a/top_100_world.htm). I also reviewed a number of key print resources in this vein, such as “Ten Essential Women for a World History Class” (Bingham 2007) and volumes 1, 2, and 3 of Women's History in Global Perspective, edited by Bonnie G. Smith (2004).

2. My thanks to Dr. Jean Marc Oppenheim for laying out in such detail the many ways in which he incorporates gender into this course.