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Her Half of History — History
Her Half of History

Women’s history doesn’t have be boring or depressing. I tell the stories of extraordinary women in history, including queens, slaves, spies, scientists, artists, wives, mothers, and more. But most women didn’t leave us enough material for a biography, so I also tell you what it was like to be an ordinary woman, including what they wore, how they did housework, how they worked, and how they played.

In short, what were the women doing all that time while men were writing the standard history books? This podcast will tell you what those history books forgot to mention.

Copyright: © 2023 Her Half of History

Latest Episodes:

Girls at School (ep. 11.9) Nov 30, 2023

Show notes

The underlying question behind educating girls is: Why? Why are you educating them? Throughout history, there have been varying answers to that question, and each answer has produced a wildly different strategies on how to do it. This episode covers the major strategies, from home tutoring to convent schools to governesses to listening in on your brother's lessons. All of these methods continued even as the 18th century saw the rise of boarding schools (of dubious value) and the 19th century saw the rise of public elementary schools that did not become compulsory until into the 20th century.

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The Reading Girl (after 1860) (ep. 11.8) Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

The 1860s blew new life into children's literature, especially for girls. Alice in Wonderland (1865) has been called the first modern children's book, and one in which moral didacticism was replaced by a fantastic and total disregard for the laws of physics. Little Women (1868) pioneered the intimate home life story and is still one of the best examples. On the trashier side, dime novels were also first published in the 1860s (and they were read by girls as well as boys). Children's picture books became real works of art, and periodicals for girls exploded in popularity. By the early 20th century, libraries were welcoming children into their own special sections, and countries all over the world were producing their own native literature about girls. And by the early 21st century, children's lit was split into children's, middle grade, and young adult categories, with mixed results.

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The Reading Girl (up to 1860) (ep. 11.7) Nov 09, 2023

Show notes

Is there anything better than books? Today I’m not talking about the compulsory part of books at school (that’s a later episode in this series), I’m talking about reading for the love it. Reading because as Meg Ryan's character said in You've Got Mail, “When you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”

Most historical girls were illiterate, unfortunately, but even for those who could read, the growth of literature intended for them was slow. Early books tended to be (1) educational or (2) religious or (3) manuals on good manners ("laugh thou not too loud nor yawn thou not too wide").

In the 18th century, publisher John Newbery (later to have a children's book award named after him) began specializing in books for children, and he tried to make them fun. It was a revolutionary idea that would only gain speed in the early 19th century.

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The Clothes Make the Girl (ep. 11.6) Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

Why pink?

And when did girls start dressing in pink, for that matter? (Hint: a lot more recently than you probably imagine.)

This episode also covers whether you actually need baby clothes (probably not, historically speaking) and how long a girls skirts should be, and we also touch on why the boys don't get lace, ruffles, and pink.

I also mention Kelly Chase and the History Detective Podcast which you can find here: https://historydetectivepodcast.com/. Her new book History, Her Story, Our Story is available through that website.

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The Fox Sisters (a haunted history) Oct 26, 2023

Show notes

In 1848, the Fox family prepared to go to bed as usual, but the darkness was punctuated by mysterious rapping noises for which they could find no source. Through hours of terrified questioning, they eventually discovered that it was the ghost of a peddler murdered by a previous resident.

Or so the story goes. . .

Kate, Maggie, and Leah Fox became the most famous mediums of 19th century America, giving rise to the worldwide movement of Spiritualism and leading thousands about thousands of their fellow Victorians to seek comfort and answers from their beloved dead.

Were they really in touch with spirits from the other side? Or were they master deceivers? Or something else? Listen to find out! Happy Halloween!

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From Knucklebones to Bicycles (a history of girls at play) (ep. 11.5) Oct 19, 2023

Show notes

Games and pastimes mostly don’t get a mention in the records that are more concerned with the death of kings and the collection of taxes. If we manage to know about an ancient or medieval game at all, we usually have no idea who played it, and certainly there is no logical reason to think that only one age or gender might enjoy a game. And yet at least in some times and places, gender associations spring up anyway. Today's episode is the history of girls playing with knucklebones, hopscotch, jump rope, footracing, twirling, dress up, play kitchens, needle crafts, and bicycles.

UPDATE: In this episode I mention that some websites attribute the invention of jumprope to Australian aborigines (which is exactly what I read on said websites), but I have since been informed that it would be better to refer to those people as Australian Aboriginal people or First Nations people. I have corrected it in the transcript, and my apologies for my previous ignorance!

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From Venus to Barbie (a history of dolls) (ep. 11.4) Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

Of all the words I did not think I would have to define, doll probably tops the list. We all know what the quintessential girls’ toy is, right? Only it turns out we don't. Separating the dolls from the statues, idols, effigies, puppets, and fertility symbols is a complex (and possibly hopeless) task in the pre-modern world, but we give it a go in this episode with dolls from prehistoric times, plus Egypt, Greece, Rome, Japan, Peru, and that's all before we get to the mass-produced blockbuster dolls of Europe and the US in the 20th century, including the much beloved and much vilified Barbie herself.

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Of Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales (ep. 11.3) Oct 05, 2023

Show notes

Historical mothers did not have a lot of pink and purple merchandise for their baby girls, but they did have words. Lullabies, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales are probably as old as humanity, but they mostly didn't get written down until the 17th to 19th century. This episode ranges from the one (and sadly only one) ancient Roman lullaby we know, to the origins of Little Miss Muffet and her Mother Goose compatriots, to the origins of Disney's favorite princesses like Snow White, Cinderella, and the princess and the frog. I talk about feminist criticism of all of that, but also why the feminist critiques may not be quite on point for what girls of the past actually heard.

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The Discovery of Childhood (ep. 11.2) Sep 28, 2023

Show notes

Childhood doesn't sound like it needs discovering, right? Surely everyone, up to and including a large number of animal species, are aware of children. But the historical record does not really agree with you on that. Ancient biographies tend to start at adulthood. Apparently nothing interesting happened before that, even to very interesting people. Historians have called the ages zero to seven "the silent years" because we have so little information. Today's episode is a look at how we got from there to the obsessively documented kids of today.

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It's a Girl! (the history of being born female) (ep. 11.1) Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

In the days before ultrasounds, expectant mothers still wanted to know if they were having a boy or a girl, and experts from Aristotle to celibate male monks to midwives were eager to help them find out. Methods ranged from dubious to really, really dubious, but if you want to try any of them out, this episode will tell you the most common methods. Assuming you actually were born a girl, then your problem was survival in a world with not just high infant mortality, but adult-assisted infant mortality. Documenting female infanticide is tricky, but there is no doubt that it happened pretty much everywhere.

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