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Well-behaved women seldom make history.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, American Quarterly, 1976

History

The story behind the card

The line is often credited to Marilyn Monroe or Eleanor Roosevelt, but it comes from a 1976 scholarly article by the American historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, then a graduate student, about funeral sermons for Puritan women in New England. She meant it as an observation, not a rallying cry: quiet, dutiful women had rarely drawn historians' attention. After the phrase spread onto mugs and T-shirts, she explained it in a 2007 book with the same title. Her earlier book A Midwife's Tale won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Türkçe oku
Uslu kadınlar tarihe pek geçmez.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, American Quarterly, 1976

Söz çoğu zaman Marilyn Monroe'ya ya da Eleanor Roosevelt'e mal edilir; oysa Amerikalı tarihçi Laurel Thatcher Ulrich'in 1976'da, henüz doktora öğrencisiyken yayımladığı akademik bir makaleden gelir. Makale, New England'daki Püriten kadınlar için verilen cenaze vaazlarını inceliyordu. Ulrich cümleyi bir çağrı olarak değil, bir tespit olarak yazmıştı: Sessiz, görevine bağlı kadınlar tarihçilerin pek ilgisini çekmemişti. Söz kupalara, tişörtlere yayılınca Ulrich ne demek istediğini 2007'de aynı adı taşıyan bir kitapta anlattı. Daha önce yazdığı A Midwife's Tale, 1991'de Pulitzer Tarih Ödülü'nü kazanmıştı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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