Well-Behaved Women Can Make History Too

Teaching our daughters to be strong can often lead to lionizing women throughout history who broke the rules. We may even celebrate the famous quote by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” We shower our girls with books about rule-breaking women like: Women Who Dared, Bygone Badass Broads, Bad Girls Throughout History, Girls Who Rocked the World, Rad American Women A–Z, or Chelsea Clinton’s She Persisted. Vashti Harrison’s Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History and Rachel Ignotofsky’s two collections of “fearless” women in first science and then sports offer a more specialized take.

On this quest to celebrate women who challenge the status quo, well-behaved women who changed the world might be overlooked. And this is a shame. Collaboration, community, and collective action has led to important historical achievements, and women have played prominent roles. If we take the time to consider women who have challenged traditional expectations from within, we see a more thorough picture of women's roles throughout history. Biographies about Rosa Parks, Sandra Day O'Conner, Oprah Winfrey, Simone Biles, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Catherine the Great, Aung San Suu Kyi, andBarbara Bush are important and belong on the shelves with the rebel books.

Women make changes to the world in many ways. Let us give our daughters countless options and let them harness their power to dominate and improve our world however they see fit. One size rarely fits all.