Write-ing wrong of women's history.

(From New Straits Times (Malaysia))

Byline: Johan Jaaffar

WOMEN have been complaining that "history" is nothing more than "his story". This is one discipline that has been grossly unfair to them. In fact "history" should have been "herstory" - the "misogyny" in the discourse discarded.

Women have been rendered "second class citizens" in the reading of history; in many instances, excluded totally from "the story of mankind".

The women believe in their history, just like their sisters in academia "reclaiming" literature of their own.

Since the 1960s, they have had an impact on the disciplines of literary criticism, philosophy and discourses as obscure as philology and archaeology. History, naturally comes into the picture, as women are more aware of their "version" of events.

One of the most interesting and provocative books on the subject is The Underside of History: A View of Women Through Time by Elise Boulding. It comes …