The assertion about girls’s conduct and their historic influence is often attributed to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian. Her 1976 scholarly article, “Vertuous Ladies Discovered…,” about Puritan funeral companies, contained the phrase “well-behaved girls seldom make historical past.” This phrase, initially concerning the shortage of documented data on atypical girls within the historic report, advanced into a preferred, albeit typically misinterpreted, feminist slogan.
The expression’s resonance lies in its difficult of conventional societal expectations for girls. It highlights the historic neglect of girls who didn’t conform to prescribed norms. It additionally means that impactful social and political change typically necessitates breaking with established conventions. The quote gained additional prominence via Ulrich’s later ebook, “A Midwife’s Story,” which gained the Pulitzer Prize for Historical past in 1991. This recognition cemented the phrase’s place in fashionable tradition and scholarly discussions about girls’s roles all through historical past.
