‘Lessons of History’ Lecture Highlights Women, Children Activists

CAPE MAY – About 90 people gathered Oct. 7 to better understand the historical roots and future implications of women and children, two segments often marginalized in American political discourse who are now leading nationwide conversations about gun control and sexual violence.
Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, an associate professor of history at the New School in New York City, and an expert in 20th-century American politics and culture, shared her insights of why women and young people have historically been grouped together, how their activism historically has crossed political and ideological lines, and what it could mean for the future.
Her presentation, “Women & Children First?: #MeToo, #NeverAgain and the New Faces of American Activism” was given at the Seventh Annual Lessons of History Distinguished Lecture Series, co-sponsored by Martel & Associates, of Gulfstream, Fla., and the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities (MAC) of Cape May. Petrzela is also an author, a founding host of the Past Present history podcast, and regularly comments on the modern United States in popular venues.
From the ousting of sexual predators in the workplace, whereby the #MeToo movement has moved from Hollywood to sexual harassment, to the outpouring of support for gun control by the survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., behind #NeverAgain, Petrzela explained that “American activism has powerful new voices and faces that are overwhelmingly young and female.
“Historically, women and young people have been grouped together as needful of protection and as less than full citizens,” she said. “Our current moment witnesses a new era in which they are rightfully recognized as autonomous political actors shaping the national discourse.”
Pushing back on how the media portrays today’s activism as “unprecedented and new,” Petrzela traced historical examples to show how women and youth have fought for their rights through the centuries.
She explained that the term “women and children first” appeared in literature in 1860 as a phrase in which “women and children were thought of as vulnerable and in need of protection.”
The phrase garnered an expanded meaning when the Titanic sank, and men who survived were “thought to be cowards, because people wondered if they pushed women and children out of the lifeboats. There now was an aspect that someone was going to lose something if they didn’t protect women and children. This led to the formulation that women and children were defined in relation to men, who were their protectors because they were vulnerable.
Women and children are still grouped together today, and this new generation is questioning that premise, she noted.
During the early 19th century, the historian said womanhood was defined in terms of women being in the privacy of their homes, taking on the important roles of homemaking and raising children, albeit a separate role from their husbands.
The Temperance Movement against the consumption of alcoholic beverages was undertaken by women “who wanted to make the world a better, safer place.” Efforts to reform mental health institutions tried to make institutions more “home-like.”
Abolitionists wanted to end slavery because it broke up the family unit. All of these movements were in the context of how womanhood was defined at the time, she said.
“An argument used by the suffrage movement was that women were more moral than men, and we like peace; so, if we vote, we won’t go to war,” Petrzela said.
Children were seen as “useless” until they could produce for the family, and therefore, “needed to be protected.” Adolescence wasn’t recognized as a period in a child’s life until 1904, she noted, so any activism on behalf of children was seen as adults protecting children.
Then there was a change in American society with the establishment of school systems and children going to high school and college and two world wars, the advent of radio and television, to pop culture, race relations and Nickelodeon. “The 1960s and 1970s was the era when the world split open,” she said.
She recounted how supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) protested the lack of women’s rights while conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly rallied supporters against the ERA, demonstrating activism by groups with a different ideology.
The 1960-70s also saw a “redefining of youth, shucking off the vulnerability cover.” Petrzela cited a number of lawsuits, many heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, recognizing rights for youth.
“The laws recognized youth having rights as citizens,” she said. “You may remember boys wanting to wear long hair as a sign of their freedom of expression and a protest against the Vietnam War. The argument was ‘we wouldn’t be able to tell the boys from the girls.'”
Student walkouts during this time were often minority students protesting to have their culture represented in education.
Church or faith-based groups also were active. “In 1979, women organized in Times Square protesting pornography,” Petrzela said. “Conservative, family-values women were joining in the protests, showing different ideologies joining forces.
“Some issues can bring groups together with different ideals,” she pointed out, citing the formation of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which led to the formation of Students Against Drunk Driving, which has transformed into Students Against Destructive Decisions. Those groups led to President Ronald Reagan raising the drinking age and President Bill Clinton lowering the blood-alcohol levels indicating intoxication.
“We’re rejecting that belief that women and children are vulnerable and need to be submissive,” the historian said about today’s activism. “I think they (women and children) will continue to gain steam, but I’m not so optimistic of how we’ll cross ideological lines.
“I think there is a problem in trying to simplify everything into one category and saying all women will do this, or all youth will do that.
“But I analyze the past,” she added, “not predict the future.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.