Discovering Women’s History In Malta

Discovering Women’s History In Malta

‘When I was a little girl back in the 1970s, we had at home bookshelves full of books (probably because my parents were both teachers and my father a headteacher). These bookshelves included several encyclopaedias of all kinds and I remember many a happy hour going through these books many with wonderful history stories and pictures. I clearly remember the moment when I was struck by the fact that women were missing. There were apparently no explorers, artists, scientists, leaders, in the world who were women. In my parents’ library the books were mostly from the United Kingdom or America and in them, there were only a handful of women who seemed to have participated in humankind’s history. These were all white women like Marie Curie, Queen Elisabeth the First, Bodicia and Florence Nightingale. I distinctly remember, all those years ago, thinking that I belonged to a group called women or girls, and that there was something seriously wrong with this group. They did not do or participate in anything and naturally that must have been something wrong with me since I was a girl! I remained under this impression while at the same time I was determined to prove it wrong, for many years.’

‘Men’s perspective in history has been the dominant way of viewing the past and we should move away from that.’

‘History is after all, an interpretation based on evidence and not the absolute truth, so we should not delude ourselves that once we have women historians we now have the complete and final truth. It is just another interpretation from another point of view. And the more valid interpretations you have from all quarters, the more reliable your understanding becomes. Therefore, while never reaching the absolute truth, you get as close as possible to finding out what Malta’s past when women make up half the population and it’s time to hear their story too.’

By: Yosanne Vella

Format: hardback

No of pages: 156