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Review Of Gerda Lerner's The Majority Finds Its Past

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The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History consists of 12 chapters, followed by Autobiographical Notes which explain what inspired Gerda Lerner to write her research. It further explores various themes such as assumptions made in women’s history, problems concerning class and race, and how feminism is considered as a “social and political battle for rights” (Stunkel, 2011, p. 226). One of the themes that comes up frequently is the patriarchy system, which Lerner viewed as a guideline that controlled and restricted women’s role and behavior. Lerner argues that women’s history went through multiple stages, the first being searching outstanding women that were missing from history, as women who made great achievement do not include majority of women and their different experiences (Stunkel, 2011, p. 226). The second stage focused on contributions made by women in a male-dominant society, and the third and final stage is the …show more content…

Lerner first questioned the role of women, when they were excluded from Jewish temple services. Lerner was only a young girl when Adolf Hitler was in power, and Lerner and her family joined a protest but got caught and were forced to leave the country in 1938, and she left to the United States a year after, when she was only 18 ("National Women's History Museum", n.d.). Lerner obtained her bachelor’s degree in 1963 from the New School for Social Research in New York, and subsequently received her Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University in 1966. She is also one of the founders of the National Organisation for Women ("National Women's History Museum", n.d.). Lerner established academic foundation for women’s history by focusing on gender equality, women’s role in the United States, and she passed away in 2013 at the age of 92 ("National Women's History Museum",

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