When I was in school, I never knew quite what to do for womens history month. It was a pretty progressive school, you see, and womens history was pretty important. We would definitely spend the whole month on it, and in some ways it was quite exciting. The women's suffrage movement, radical feminism, women's liberation – all of it was interesting stuff to learn about. I was a dyed in the wool history buff, you see, and I couldn't get enough of the women's history timeline.
Nonetheless, there was something else to womens history that I didn't know my place in. Everyone would get so excited about it, you see, and want to celebrate it. As a man, I was never quite sure what I was expected to do. Was I supposed to join in and show my support and solidarity, or was I supposed to sit on the outside, acknowledging that this wasn't my festival? I didn't want to downplay the importance of women in history, but at the same time I didn't want to feel like I was taking over someone else's celebration.
With issues like women's rights history, and feminism, you are often in a precarious situation as a man. Basically, you can be criticized no matter what you do. A lot of women like to see men take an active role in the feminist movement, but others are quite put off by it. They are so used to most of the leadership roles in society being taken over by men, after all, that they feel like males should not participate in the movement. Once I was out of school, I realized something. I could do what I wanted to do. I was interested in womens history and women's rights, and so I could study them and support them when I felt like it. At the same time, I knew that it wasn't my movement and I didn't have to feel guilty about not participating fully all the time.
Ultimately, history isn't about what group you are in. Whether you are a man, a woman, black, white, Christian, Muslim, or part of some other group, it is good to know your history. It isn't just about actively changing the world, but about making sure that we don't make the same mistakes of the past again. You don't have to apologize to anyone for who you are born as, but you do have the duty to learn what your society has done wrong and what it has done right.
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