New York Adds More Women to History Curriculum After Backlash

Earlier this year, New York State’s Regents released outline of required knowledge for 9th and 10th grade World History students that contained the names of 35 male historical figures and only one woman. Unsurprisingly, this did not go over well.

But unlike other bureaucracies, the Regents are amenable to change, and after we reported the kind of shitty underrepresentation of women in the updated Frameworks, they’ve changed their tune, according to Jessica Bakerman at Capital New York. Last week, the Regents released a memo clarifying the 9th and 10th grade standards that read, in part,

In response to concerns about gender representation in grades 9 and 10, revisions were made to make explicit several women who had previously been referred to in the Framework, such as Theodora of the Byzantine Empire, Elizabeth I, Isabella of Spain, Catherine the Great, Empress Dowager Cixi, Mother Theresa, Aung San Sui Kyi, and Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. In addition, the Framework incorporates topics such as gender roles (9.2b), women’s rights (10.2b), women’s perspective on imperialism (10.4a), and contemporary issues of gender (10.8b). Although the underlying Social Standards remain unmodified by this Framework, the upcoming release of the Field Guide can be used by schools and district when finalizing local curriculum and instruction decisions.