Lessons in Herstory 9+

The developers have done a fantastic job of creating a tool that helps us imagine women on different points of history. The potrait tracking is awesome and the knowledge shared of each woman is an awesome bonus. I've shown this to everyone I know!

As an African American woman I was grossly disappointed with this app. Except for one or two, every Black woman included in this app was a slave. While escaping slavery is a remarkable feat, it would be great if you included Black women who contributed to American society in over ways: ie doctors, politicians, activists, artists. It’s not super useful. I also wish you took the time to introduce girls to more women who aren’t in the history books. The big names are more likely to be there so why not include predominantly new names? If you don’t already have a Black person on your staff please get one ASAP. This app could be great but it’s severely lacking as it stands.

There are almost no Asian women in this app. What about activists like Grace Lee Boggs or Yuri Kochiyama? Or scientists like Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu? Architects like Maya Lin? Political leaders like Patsy Tokemoto Mink? Or leaders for Asian migrant worker rights Sue Ko Lee or Ai-Jen Poo? How were Asian women impacted by the Page Act and Exclusion Acts? And by Japanese Internment? What are the stories of resistance and fighting back? Focusing on stories of heroism doesn’t always do a good job of understanding the forces that cause invisibility. If this app seeks to make women more visible in history / Herstory, it needs to reconsider how invisibilization happens, and how to tell the stories of resistance without falling into the easy tropes of what a hero / shero looks like.