Summary Of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Vertuous Women

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“History is not just what happened in the past. It is what later generations choose to remember” (Ulrich 667). These words are extracted from an essay that can be found in the journal article written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich titled, Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735. Ulrich never expected such a phrase to arise in the way that it did, which surprised her tremendously. A quick web search for the slogan, “well behaved women seldom (or rarely) make history” resulted in hundreds of pictures and links to online stores where individuals can purchase articles of clothing, such as t-shirts and sweatshirts, bumper stickers, and posters containing the slogan. For those individuals who purchase these items, the majority will for the purpose to join in the feminist movement that still occurs today. Among all of the pictures of clothing and mugs displaying the slogan, “well behaved women seldom make history”on them, a picture of a notecard containing the slogan displayed by Northern Sun Merchandising. Northern Sun is a company largely known for selling slogan-based items such as t-shirts and stickers that are popular and make meaningful statements in today 's world. The picture contained the slogan along with the photographs of twenty four women who have made …show more content…

Ulrich discusses that this slogan succeeded in today’s world so well because women have always had a specific stereotype. They are only known to be the caretakers to the real laborers, therefore women were easily forgotten. If women were seen out of the home doing something or trying to do a “man 's job”, individuals look poorly upon them ultimately leaving women’s history in the dust. “The problems with this argument is not only that it limits women. It also limits