WOMAN’S HISTORY OF WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 97, 19 January 1924, Page 15

WOMAN’S HISTORY OF WOMEN

EFFECT ON CIVILISATION A woman’s history of the achievements of women will shortly appear to challenge all histories from the pens of men. The work, now in the course ot preparation, is that of Mrs. Elizabeth Murray Shepherd, an American, who, having won distinction in history in American has set herself the mission of searching into the past and bringing before the world the influence of women on the progress of civilisation. Financially assisted by a Boston millionaire', and by publishers, Mrs. Shepherd has spent the past eleven months in a consistent tour of the world in search of data, and is now in London, where she is working at the museums and libraries. In an interview with the “Westminster Gazette” Mrs. Shepherd said: “Mr. Wells has abolished the idea of super-class, and I am going to abolish the idea of a super-sex. . “There is no question but that the woman’s history is long overdue. There are no world histories of women; there are no comprehensive, philosophical histories of women—individually or as part of a class or period. “AVomen have had to create life, and guide and guard it. It has bred in them a spirit of constructiveness and preservation. “Other things Jiave been elevated to a false position of supremacy, such, as material power, wars, personalities, so that now the world is torn with rivalries and jealousies, as l the direct and inevitable product of man’s theory of life. “AVomen’s higher ethical code must again prevail if we are not to perish in the abyss. The failure of the leaders of the world to adopt this higher ethical code has led to the disasters which have shaken the world since the armistice, and held it back from recuperation.” The history will go back to the beginning of the world, and will extol the virtues of famous women, rather than those of men, and show how women as a sex have done much towards humanising the world.