How the Patriarchy ruined Friday 13th for Women - what else have they stolen?

[IwantToRetire]

I thought I would start this thread as a bit light hearted, it is after all friday 13th, but also an opportunity to talk about those things that women have created / discovered and been appropriated.

But sadly googling only brings up mystic ramblings and no facts

I thought the lost history of women and 13 was around numbers and calculus and ...

But now it looks like social media has ruined friday 13th for women. :(

But for anyone who has an anecdote about how the work of women has been stolen or ignored.

eg how wise women with herbal knowledge became evil witches and subjected to persecution.

OP you might be interested to read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels.

OP you might be interested to read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels.

Thanks! I've read the easy read version ie without big words and jargon!

But it is interesting how some these men were much more aware of a different structure of the family etc.. I suspect that with the passage of time the current generation are totally cut off from it.

But on the other hand, some how Freud in the same century, totally evaded any notion of women as self governing.

(In the early days of Women's Liberation there were quite a few Marxist Feminist Groups - eg Red Rag - and also, strangely quite a few Freudian Feminist Groups. ie women's liberationists would meet up to talk about and re-examine writings and movement that had had an influence on society, and see if at all it fitted into an analysis that saw life through the eyes of women.)

Introducing Red Rag by Ros Delmar
https://banmarchive.org.uk/red-rag/redrag-introduction/

Just adding a link to the other strand of 70s feminism, ie matriarchy.

There was a Matriarch Study Group which existed for some time and seemed strong and together. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/096673500401200206

And then guess what?

A trans woman joined the group and sortly after the group split into those who thought they should act as a support group for the trans woman, and those who wanted to continue their original purpose.

This was some decades ago, and although many were shocked, everybody thought, well this is a one off, not anything we need to worry about.

Silly us.

Sorry meant to add to the post about the MSG.

The link to the article isn't to say this is a usual article as it was obviously influenced by the writer's own personal beliefs.

There is a web site dedicated to her work and poetry. http://www.asphodel-long.com/

However, the more general point that women's knowledge has been suppressed and mischaracterised as unimportant or sinister, is clearly true.

Definitely! I'm embarrassed to say that I came to feminism relatively late in life, and once you see these things you can't unsee them.

I spent Saturday at a guild meeting. It's an all-female group, and even now I've been surprised how much I've enjoyed being part of the sharing and passing down of knowledge and skills between women of different generations. Although in theory men could join, I find myself quite glad they haven't.

A trans woman joined the group and sortly after the group split into those who thought they should act as a support group for the trans woman, and those who wanted to continue their original purpose.

How infuriating and disappointing.

Happened to see this reviewed. Have no idea if it is any good, but it sort of fits in with the theme of women's lives being hidden.

This happened in medicine too. In the medieval world women had dominated medicine: they could train as doctors, serve apprenticeships in their specialities and then set up as physicians, surgeons, apothecaries and healers. Agnes Medica was working in Huntingdonshire in 1271, her name suggesting she was a doctor, surgeon or apothecary; Matilda le Leche, a “sage femme”, earned a living as a wise woman in Berkshire in 1232; Cecilia of Oxford was “surgeon” to Queen Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III, and paid about 12d a day. But in 1512 a law regulating physicians and surgeons was passed to prevent “sorcery” and “witchcraft” among medical practitioners, and was the start of a campaign to drive women out of the industry.

The College of Physicians, formed in 1518, claimed that any practitioner outside the college was not to be trusted — and women could neither join the college nor attend universities. The College of Physicians undertook 29 prosecutions of women between 1550 and 1600, and issued formal warnings and exclusions to anyone practising surgery or doctoring without one of its licences.

Prejudice against women practitioners meant that England was the last major country in the world to train women doctors. The first school for women physicians opened in London in 1874; there were 17 colleges open to American women around the same time. One of the heroines of the women’s campaign for medical training was Sophia Jex-Blake. Refused admission to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869 on the grounds that they could not make provision for a single lady, Jex-Blake advertised for other women: six joined her and studied for a medical degree despite verbal and physical abuse from male students. Arriving to sit an exam, they were blocked by a mob of 200 men.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-short-surprising-history-of-women-in-britain-by-philippa-gregory-mb5j9pvlg

Behind a paywall but can be read here https://archive.ph/NDbkk