Sara Sheridan reflects on attitudes to female achievement and sexism while raising a glass to CAMRA’s recent banning of beers with sexist names
‘The value in history isn’t in looking backwards – it’s that history gives you the skill to understand where you are and to see where you are going.’
My particular interest is in women’s history – not because I’m more fascinated by women’s stories than I am by men’s, but because in the stories we tell about ourselves, women’s history is missing. Many people assume that the paucity of female history in our archive and print culture is down to the lack of impact women have had on society. I would argue that it is because we have been conditioned not to memorialize female achievement. Consider this: there are more statues to commemorate animals than women in the capital city of Scotland, the birthplace of the Enlightenment