Henrietta Hay's Column

Women's History. Another oxymoron. Women's History Month is really hard to write about, because there is so little of it. In reading the history books, one wonders whether women existed in the years before the 20th century. We are fairly sure they did, since the supply of men for wars seems to have been adequate. But whatever their non-biological achievements may have been, the women remain pretty much unrecorded and unheralded.

"History," as we know, is not always exactly what happened, but what the historians - almost always male - think happened or wish had happened.

Women did figure prominently in Greek and Roman mythology. There were lots of Goddesses, but not many mortal women. There were a few pretty ferocious females in those days, however. Antigone made the literature books, because she bravely went into the battlefield to retrieve the body of her brother. For her trouble she was condemned to be buried alive, which was an early example of what has often happened to "pushy women" ever since. Joan of Arc, the witches of Salem, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger and Hillary Clinton come to mind. I did name one of my Siamese cats after Antigone and she lived to a ripe old age.

The middle ages were more or less dominated by the Church, and women had no place there. Of course, Henry VIII put six women into the history books, but they didn't fare very well.

When we get into American history, Abigail Adams had something important to say. She wrote to her husband, John, who was attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, "In the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire that you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited powers into the hands of the Husbands . . . .If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion."

John's reply was a portent of things to come. "Depend upon it. We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems."

Actually it took over a hundred years, but we finally did win the vote, fifty years after the slaves were enfranchised. Abigail would probably say, "What took you so long?"

Women have moved slowly into the history books in the 20th century. Politically, we have had heads of state, including Indira Gandhi in India, Golda Meir in Israel and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain.

One woman who will live in the history books longer than most is Anne Frank, who never reached womanhood at all, but died in a concentration camp at the age of 15. Her diary, however, will never let us forget the horrors of war or the strength of the human spirit.

In this country progress has been slow. Americans have had trouble getting used to the idea of female power. We tend to be less threatened by powerful women who are either maternal or masculine. Since most American women do not fit into the mold of warm, grandmotherly Golda or Ice Maiden Margaret, American women have had a tough battle.

Meanwhile, in the real world of everyday living, women are getting into books, even though they may not be history books. My favorite literary genre, the mystery story, is being taken over by female detectives. My personal list of women authors of mysteries has reached 91 and counting. The third Star Trek series, Voyager, has a fierce female captain, and a real live female astronaut piloted a recent spacecraft into outer space. That will at least make the World Almanac.

They will never land in a history book, but in our sports-crazed land, that great Colorado University women's basketball team will surely rate a footnote. Over the anguished cries of male coaches, women' sports have come of age, and the Buffs are showing what the women can do.

Who knows what "history" will tell of the women of the 20th century? I have to believe that people celebrating "Women's History Month in 2195 will be able to find more research material than we have today. I just hope they don't find the recent remark by presidential hopeful Phil Gramm when asked whether he'd choose a woman as his running mate. His statesmanlike answer, "Sophia Loren is not a citizen." Abigail and Antigone would not think it funny. Neither do I.