A date that is commemorated every year in Canada is that of the massacre of 14 women at a Canadian university in Montreal on Dec 6, 1989. Those women were studying engineering. The killer called them feminists. He separated the class into men and women, told the men to leave (which they did), and then began shooting.
Jana Pruden, a feature writer for The Globe and Mail, wrote about that mass shooting recently. Her words made me cry. Let me share a few with you, before getting on to the historical fiction angle.
“It’s now been 35 years since that Montreal massacre … But rather than thinking about the progress we’ve made, I find myself afraid.
We are waiting for a man to become the president of the United States [remember Jana is Canadian] who has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by dozens of women who allege unwanted kissing, groping, and rape. This year, juries found he sexually assaulted one of those women, E. Jean Carroll, and ordered he pay millions for both the assault, and for defamation for calling her a liar.
His own words and actions – and the words and actions of those around him – hearken a dangerous new time for women.“
In that same article, Pruden also wrote: “This is not only an American problem. This mood, these movements, this treatment of some has no borders … It feels fragile right now. Like we could quickly lose the gains our mothers and aunts and grandmothers and great-grandmothers fought so hard for.“
What does historical fiction tell us about the lives and lived experience of women? How does this genre illuminate both past and present, both struggles and triumphs?
Historical fiction is full of stories about women, the roles they’ve played that are frequently unacknowledged, the achievements they’ve made that are often not recognized. Often, historical fiction fills in the gaps of the historical record to show the heroic, leadership roles of women.
Marie Benedict has written several novels celebrating women’s accomplishments such as Her Hidden Genius which is about Rosalind Franklin who discovered the double helix structure of DNA for which three men took credit. Benedict also wrote The Other Einstein about Albert Einstein’s Wife who was a brilliant physicist in her own right and likely contributed to the theory of relativity, but whose genius was lost in Einstein’s shadow as well as in prevailing attitudes about women.
Impossible Saints by Clarissa Harwood features Lilia Brooke who finds her calling advocating for the vote, free unions, and contraception. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier is a story of two women who become involved in the women’s suffrage movement in England and challenge their families’ (and society’s) beliefs of what it means to be a woman.
Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie co-authored My Dear Hamilton the story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s wife, who, working with her husband, became a “founding mother” to the nation (see my interview with Stephanie Dray). This year I read Forty Autumns by Nina Willner which chronicles the courageous story of a family separated for forty years by the division of east and west Germany after WWII.
There are novels of women who built business empires such as Gill Paul’s novel A Beautiful Rival featuring Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden and Alison Pataki’s The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. There are many novels that celebrate the courage of women during war (both fictional characters and those based on real people) who became spies or members of the resistance during WWII plus novels of women who played important roles during WWI. My own novels – Paris In Ruins, Lies Told in Silence, and Unravelled feature everyday women contributing to the war effort.
Searching further back in history, authors imagine the inner worlds and outer actions of influential women like Cleopatra (Michelle Moran and Margaret George), Eleanor of Aquitaine (Elizabeth Chadwick and Alison Weir), Elizabeth I (Margaret George (see my review) and Philippa Gregory), Josephine Bonaparte (Sandra Gulland and Heather Webb), and many others. Such novels give readers new insight into the pressures, ambitions, and struggles these women faced in their time. According to Elysian Magazine, “In many ways, historical fiction is helping to correct the record, allowing readers to see how women, even in restrictive eras, exercised power and influence in creative and sometimes subversive ways.”
Becoming Mrs. Lewis (see my review) by Patti Callahan Henry illuminates the life and struggles of poet and writer Joy Davidman. A few others to consider Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin, The Women by Kristin Hannah (see my review), By Her Own Design by Piper Huguley (see my review) The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn, Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson, Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmine Darznik, Radar Girls by Sara Ackerman, The Women’s March by Jennifer Chiaverini. And the list goes on.
These are just a few of the many novels about famous women from history and about the lives and circumstances and accomplishments – both real and imagined – of everyday women who lived in the past. Collectively, historical fiction is an enormous resource for those of us who might be discouraged at this point in time.
From such novels – and many contemporary novels as well – we can appreciate others who have taken bold steps, carved a new path, withstood tyranny, and claimed rights for themselves and others. I encourage you to seek out such stories as inspiration for what we – both women and men – can do going forward.
FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page.
M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.
4 Responses
It’s known as the Matilda Effect (a lá the DNA helix discovery). We’ll go backward only if we allow it. Women comprise 50%+ of the population in the U.S. We could put this down real quick, but we don’t have an issue or a leader yet. 100 years ago we did, and we got the vote. We ushered in Prohibition. We can do it again. But we need to wait to see how the goon squad mistreats our sovereignty (IMO)
Thanks for this, Sheila. Where do you think such leadership will come from?
It is frightening – especially when the majority of people will vote for a man who has proven to be unreliable, deeming him the best ruler of the USA. I shudder to think what reforms and backward steps may happen from now on – I’m in Australia and we too see these reversals of all the gains made. I do fear that the younger women have taken all these gains for granted (as they should) but have not perhaps understood the significance of losing them because they have always had them in their lives.
Hi Diane .. many thanks for your comment. I share your concerns. Women need to organize – perhaps even internationally. It will be interesting to see where the leadership might come from.