User:Gracemurk/Herstory

Herstory is a term for history written from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of women, or told from a woman's point of view. It is a neologism coined as a pun with the word "history", as part of a feminist critique of conventional historiography, which in their opinion is traditionally written as "his story", i.e., from the masculine point of view. (The word "history"&#x2014;from the Ancient Greek ἱστορία, or historia, meaning "knowledge obtained by inquiry"&#x2014;is etymologically unrelated to the possessive pronoun his. ) The term Herstory gave women the chance to stand up against issues they faced throughout history such as, pay inequality, domestic violence, reproductive rights, and abortion.

Usage
Robin Morgan, in a book of her selected writings states that the debut of the word "herstory" was in the byline of her article Goodbye to All That, in early 1970, in the first issue of the "underground" New Left newspaper Rat after it was overtaken by women to clean it of sexism. She writes that she identified herself as a member of W.I.T.C.H., decoding the acronym as "Women Inspired to Commit Herstory".

In 1968 the women's movement was the start of change in history.

During the 1970s and 1980s, second-wave feminists saw the study of history as a male-dominated intellectual enterprise and presented "herstory" as a means of compensation. The term, intended to be both serious and comic, became a rallying cry used on T-shirts and buttons as well as in academia.

In 2017, Hridith Sudev, an inventor, environmentalist and social activist associated with various youth movements, launched 'The Herstory Movement'; an online platform to "celebrate lesser known great persons; female, queer or otherwise marginalized, who helped shape the modern World History". It is intended as an academic platform to feature stories of female historic persons and thus help facilitate more widespread knowledge about 'Great Women' History.

Non-profit organizations Global G.L.O.W and LitWorld created a joint initiative called the "HerStory Campaign." This campaign works with 25 other countries to share girl's lives and stories. They encourage others to join the campaign and to 'raise our voices on behalf of all world's girls.'

The herstory movement has spawned women-centered presses, such as Virago Press in 1973, which publishes fiction and non-fiction by noted women authors like Janet Frame and Sarah Dunant. These movement have led to an increase in activity in other female-centric disciplines such as femistry and galgebra.