HarvardX: Women Making History

We live in a world that is dominated by men and also designed for men. As a woman, I experienced it most of the time in my life. The history that we learned wrote by men. Also, it mentioned only the men. Most women learned about The Suffragette movement years after their history classes. Most of us did not know about the daughters of the biggest Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan. We did not know anything about Baciyan-i Rum or the feminist movement in Ottoman Emperor. Another example, in Shamanism, the first Shamans were women, but nobody knows about them. The men who wrote history hide the women very cleverly.

This first paragraph probably is not gladdening to men and most women. As a feminist woman, sometimes I take the form of feminist rage. The latest news in my country is pushing me for this. I can not stop thinking about all inequalities that I and all my sisters and brothers faced.

I was a fan of online learning before it becomes cool. In the lockdown that we experienced in Turkey for nearly 14 months the best thing I have ever done was enrolling in new courses. In March 2020, I was attending 14 different courses in Coursera and EdX. I was in heaven. Then I realized I did not have that much time. Now, I am trying to discipline myself for only 3 courses in a row.

Anyway, most of these courses are about social sciences. Sometimes I need to talk about them. And that's why we are here on this night, I am writing this because I learned that in this course, every step I took is a message for my future sisters. I am fucking writing history. I will explain this.

First, I want to talk about the general structure of the course. The whole title of the course is Women Making History: Ten Objects, Many Stories. Interesting, isn't it? Every lecture in this course we see an object and start with thinking about it. For the rest of the lecture, we listen to the talk of experts about the owner of this object. By using ten nicely selected objects, at the end of the course we can learn about most of American Women History.

When I completed the first object in the course, I was thinking like that that is the best idea in the world. We need to implement this approach for all countries, we need to reveal the women history of the world. The objects are coming from the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University. That means I have another library to visit.

I couldn't afford the payment of course so I only have audit access. I listened to most of the lectures like a podcast. I learned so many things, I could travel between years with my sisters. It was an awesome experience. I started to think about all women who didn't mention in history books and their name were never called. Maybe most of us are carrying their names. Also, I realized again there are different dimensions of women's freedom and feminism. Feminism is not about only equal pay or abortion. It is about the all.

The bonus content of the course is including information about the library and women history. Lecturers -Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Jane Kamensky- are giving more information about women history. They mentioned about three women: Christine Di Pizan, Elizabeth Candy Stanton and Virginia Woolf.

At this juncture, I want to say that if I became who am I today, I owe this to Virginia Woolf. A Room Of One's Own changed my life and I believe that when a Virginia Woolf book came to me that means my life will change unconditionally and magically.

Anyway, I feel very powerful after completed this course. I enjoyed and learned so many things. So, I decided to write my first English blog post about it. If you are interested in women history, I strongly recommend this course to you. Also, if you want to share your thoughts or talk to me about that, feel free to write to me in English or Turkish. I will be very appreciative if I hear anything from you.

I am trying to plan my schedule, I changed my job and I am trying to marry in a pandemic. I am busy both mentally and physically but I am trying to manage. Thank you for your visit and understanding!

Until the next time, take care!