Feminist History: Turning "Difficult Conversations" into Action

Many of today’s female college students feel disconnected from the feminist label not because they are concerned with being seen as anti-male or a rabble rouser, but rather because they feel constrained by the historical narrative that feminism is limited to a white middle class women’s movement.  While attempts to complicate this narrative have been made, these have not trickled down (or up) to the students engaged in feminist theory, activism, and yes, history.

Therefore, for the purpose of this paper, I am most interested in Judith Bennett’s conclusion around the question, “For whom are we doing feminist history?”  I take this further and ask, how can we teach feminist history in ways that students (and readers) can learn to apply these lessons into practical applicable ways of making (feminist) changes to the world?  History is narrative, and as Bennett has pointed out, sometimes the feminist historical narrative doesn’t fit into the more traditional narratives that gird our teachings and research.  In what ways must feminist historians challenge, reconstruct, and create feminist historical narratives that provoke “difficult conversations” about patriarchy and other systems of power?  How can we turn these difficult conversations into action?