by Michael Mercadante

Created on: April 23, 2009   Last Updated: April 24, 2009

There is an age-old saying that "history is written by the victors". This is usually attributed to military conflicts (wars, crusades, et cetera) to indicate that the "truth" of the history of such events may (and usually is) colored by the fact that it is the victor who has created the history. Therefore, to understand history, one must understand who has written that history.

In order to best consider the historical relationship between men and women within Western society, one must first understand that this relationship is the result of a war that has been fought since the beginning of civilization, and continues to this day. Males have perpetually maintained a forced, artificial dominance over females, perpetuating it first with physical strength, and later with laws, religions, and customs which take root within a population and serve to justify this inequality. The historical record has been written by males, and therefore concentrates on the deeds of men, often ignoring, or at least marginalizing, the contributions of women. This bias is understood when history is studied with an emphasis on the roles of gender within the society. Race, class, and religion are other filters that should be used when considering the historical record.

Traditionally, our Western history has been written by upper-class white Christian males, and is skewed from that perspective both because it reflects those who have created it, and also because such a skewing creates a culture which reinforces the dominance of this group. If all major historical events have pivoted around this small group, then it must be assumed that this group has always held the power with the society. Those belonging to this group can therefore maintain themselves as the ranking members of the society in perpetuity, the highest echelon of the cultural hierarchy. Everyone else, then, is placed in inferior ranks along this same hierarchy. Groups can be marginalized in the historical record because they are not male, not Christian, not wealthy, or not white.

In theory, those of the population who fit none of the criteria of the highest rank of this hierarchy necessarily fill the lowest possible rank. But these wealthy, white, Christian males do not form the majority of the population. Rather, as a small minority, their power is reinforced solely by the historical continuity of this hierarchy.

Therefore, understanding the historical record with a recognition of the differences among people as categorized by race, gender, class, and religion, allows the history to be re-interpreted over time to include more of the various types of people who likely played roles throughout, thereby minimizing the roles of the white, wealthy, Christian males and, in effect, minimizing their base of power and creating more of a balanced, egalitarian, rather than strictly hierarchical, society. This should be the goal of any serious student of history.

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