Where are the women in history? (Big Questions 5/8) | VPRO Documentary

Where are the women in history? Writer and researcher Nadine Akkerman investigates the role of women in history. The discoveries she makes paint a very different picture than we know.

Akkerman shows original letters from the 17th century in the National Archives, which she consults for her research. And she visits historian Nathalie Zemon Davis, a great source of inspiration for Akkerman, and Jana Dambrogio.

She researches folding techniques of letters and thus discovered that many female spies worked in the 17th century. Former head of the British intelligence service MI5, lady Stella Rimington, was the model for the character M in the James Bond films. She knows better than anyone what it is like to be a female spy.

Part of 'Big Questions', a series in which science journalist Rob van Hattum takes a journey through science with eight Dutch researchers who are at the top of their field. Their 'big questions' are central. They tell about their heroes, visit special places and talk about the breakthroughs in their field.

Originally broadcasted in September 2020.

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[petergray]

Here we go again...
Let's take a list of a tiny minority of powerful men and complain on the fate of poor oppressed women while completely dismissing the vast majority of men who lived miserable lives.

[lampyrisnoctiluca]

But why is there only history of politics taught in schools? Why is the history of the "ordinary" people seen as less important. I think it is the opposite. Not just because there is more of us than polititians, but because we influence them more than they influence us. We are all the makers of history. Every tiny decision we make changes something, it changes history. I think we would understand the past much better if we accepted this. Everybody is the part of history. Rullers are rulled by it. Each of their decisions is made by taking into account how civilians would react to it. Would they stay in office? They must think about that a lot. They had to even before the people could vote. There is also the history of everything, from arts and sciences, to the ways how everything is done. It is nice historians are finnnally realising this.
sorry for bad English, it is my third language.