Patriarchy between the pages

How modern feminist are working to rectify patriarchal influence in archival documents

In his analysis of archival silences, Carter notes a particular silence that is growing louder and louder in its desire to be heard. It is often said that history was written from the perspective of man, and through this man dominated perception of history the stories of women are often silenced for the sake of their male counterparts. Carter notes this phenomenon in noting the view that archives are rooted in patriarchy (or the partriarchieve) in stating that “This view of the archive identifies them as institutions that have traditionally favoured textual documents of government, industry, the Church, and other male-controlled enterprises to the denigration of all other records.” (Carter, 13). In noting this theory Carter identifies, I found a desire to see what work modern feminist are doing to reclaim the history of women previously marginalized for the sake of the male meta-narrative. To my delight I found a plethora of like minded modern feminists doing work through social media and online blogs to make this correction and fill this silence. In my search I found many great blogs that can act as great resources for those who want to seek counter histories from the voice of women. Women’s History Network Blog is a blog with the purpose of illuminating individual women and important events in women history, all while contributing to the state of historical knowledge, filling the silence of other archives lacking the voice and stories of women. Furthermore the blog Partiarchieve is a personal blog of a single women, who uses her blog to discuss the subjects of gender influence within our archival system. It is through the work of ordinary women such as these that can help the undoing of the patriarchal tone of traditional told history and archives. In noting the silence, these women are turning an absence into substance and are slowly, but not without avail, filling the gapping hole in history that the patriarchy has dug. 

Carter, Rodney GS. “Of things said and unsaid: power, archival silences, and power in silence.” Archivaria 61.61 (2006).