# "Well behaved women rarely make history" --examples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550 "2001-09-03T18:31:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/1 "2001-09-03T18:31:23Z")
I have a friend who’s trying to put together a list of some historical women who fit the above quotation. Does anyone have any suggestions for people we could look up? ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/2 "2001-09-03T19:27:11Z")
What woman of note **does** behave herself? Women’s history is loaded with examples. For example, there’s Victoria Claflin Woodhull who was the first woman presidential candidate and with her sister, Tennessee, raised more than a few eyebrows. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in the 1872 presidential election. Margaret Sanger was a nurse who was indicted and sent to jail for daring to distribute information on birth control. She went on to found Planned Parenthood. I’m not going to deprive your friend of the joy of doing the research on this topic, but suffice it to say, there’s more than enough information out there. [The National Women’s History Project](http://www.nwhp.org/) is a good start. ::MsRobyn sings a rousing chorus of “I Am Woman”:: Robin ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/3 "2001-09-03T19:38:13Z")
Eve. Of _Adam & Eve_ fame. Not the SDMB Eve. On the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/4 "2001-09-03T21:12:47Z")
[Eleanor of Aquitaine](http://www.chilton.k12.wi.us/eighth/ferg/eleanor.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/5 "2001-09-03T21:47:57Z")
Is your friend looking for examples of well-behaved women who made history, well-behaved women who didn’t make history, misbehaving women who made history or misbehaving women who didn’t make history? ---
**Author:** ![GENE\_STONER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/2bfe46/32.png) [@GENE\_STONER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GENE_STONER)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/6 "2001-09-03T21:51:56Z")
Was’nt Margaret Sanger an early advocate of eugenics? I had always heard that she was a racist who founded Planned Parenthood,and fought to make abortions legal because she wanted to keep down the population of certain groups of people, like blacks, new Irish and Italian immigrants, and others she deemed inferior. Does anyone know if this is true or not? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/7 "2001-09-03T22:14:28Z")
As **Otto** has noted, the goal here is unclear. I don’t recall **Mme. Curie** being notably rowdy. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/8 "2001-09-03T22:35:54Z")
Most of the anti-Sanger articles I’ve seen come from rabid anti-choice organizations, which I hardly consider to be unbiased sources. A number of them talk about her alleged involvement with something called “The Negro Project” but don’t discuss specifics of her involvement. I found [this article](http://www.daily.umn.edu/~online/daily/1996/11/04/news/profil/index.html) which quotes actual scholars on her involvement with the eugenics movement. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/9 "2001-09-03T23:10:17Z")
How about that firebrand, **Rosa Parks** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![light\_strand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@light\_strand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/light_strand)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/10 "2001-09-03T23:32:44Z")
Just off the top of my head: Clara Barton Florence Nightingale Dorthea Dix Madam Curie Jackie Kennedy Grace Kelly Sally Ride Emelia Earhart Sandra Day O’Connor A whole slew of authors, poets and musicians. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/11 "2001-09-04T01:15:13Z")
Betsy Ross Mary (you know, Jesus’ mom) Sakaguia (the Indian woman who is on hte $1 coin) are 3 that come to mind right now. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/12 "2001-09-04T03:30:18Z")
No examples to add (Wait – how about Joan of Arc?), but the quote reminds me of one of my favorite George Brnard Shaw quotes…although his is about men: “The Reasonable Man adapts himself to the world. The Unreasonable Man expects the world to adapt to him. All progress, theefore, depends upon the Unreasonable Man.” Or Woman, I might add. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/13 "2001-09-04T04:35:00Z")
[Emmy Noether](http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Noether_Emmy.html) invented (or discovered) large pieces of abstract algebra. [Rosalind Franklin](http://www.accessexcellence.com/AB/BC/Rosalind_Franklin.html) measured the structure of DNA, but got little credit for it. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/14 "2001-09-04T04:46:21Z")
The French chemist Lise Meitner discovered several chemical elements and recently had an element named for her. ---
**Author:** ![muffinman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@muffinman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muffinman)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/15 "2001-09-04T15:23:21Z")
Would just like to point out that in general, well behaved PEOPLE rarely make history. Future generations are not interested in those individuals who only walked the line and maintained the status quo… they are interested in the ones that broke the mold. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/16 "2001-09-04T16:02:41Z")
**Cal** that is a killer quote! hahaha ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/17 "2001-09-04T16:59:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\*The French chemist Lise Meitner discovered several chemical elements and recently had an element named for her. \*\* She was born in Austria, worked in Berlin for several years, then fled to Sweden before WWII. Later she moved to Great Britain. As far as I know, she never lived in France. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/18 "2001-09-04T17:18:03Z")
For Uppity Women of All Time, I nominate the first and only Queen of India: **Raziyah** , Muslim monarch of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th century. She proved to be a politically astute ruler and a powerful warrior queen. She was eventually defeated on the battlefield by a rebellious governor, captured, and put to death. ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/19 "2001-09-04T18:27:13Z")
Speaking of nationalities…can someone please explain to me why it’s logical to refer to Dr. Marie Sklodowska Curie as “Madame”? Marie Sklodowska was born and raised in Poland. She completed her higher education in France, where she met her future husband, Pierre Curie. So “Madame” is the title of her husband’s country for his wife…which has nothing to do with her nationality, her studies, or any of her work in physics. Of course when referring to her socially, I’m fairly certain she would have been Mme. Curie…but why do professional scientists refer to her as the originator of scientific work that way? Did she seriously request “Oh, don’t call me Doctor…that feels so silly! Call me by my naturalized country’s term for a wife!” I realize that some folks may look at this as revisionist history. However, if we’re going to treat scientists of all races with equal respect today, regardless of what treatment they received in their lifetime, we need to treat scientists of both genders with equal respect. Dr. Curie worked her entire life, and even died, for her studies. She deserves as much respect as Dr. Fermi, Dr. Einstein, and the many other Ph. D. holders we revere. Corr ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550/20 "2001-09-04T18:33:50Z")
**Helena** - I could help, but I need some stuff cleared up. Are you looking for well-behaved women in history, or women who were _not_ well-behaved? Second, what do you define as “well-behaved”? Would Eleanor Roosevelt qualify as “well-behaved” for having been a polite adjunct to FDR, or not because she defied polite society to support integration? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-behaved-women-rarely-make-history-examples/79550.md?page=2)