Discovering women's history in Malta

Abstract

When I was a little girl back in the 1970s, we had at home bookshelves full of books (probably because my parents were both teachers and my father a headteacher). These bookshelves included several encyclopaedias of all kinds and I remember many a happy hour going through these books many with wonderful history stories and pictures. I clearly remember the moment when I was struck by the fact that women were missing. There were apparently no explorers, artists, scientists, leaders, in the world who were women. In my parents' library the books were mostly from the United Kingdom or America and in them, there were only a handful of women who seemed to have participated in humankind's history. These were all white women like Marie Curie, Queen Elisabeth the First, Bodicia and Florence Nightingale. I distinctly remember, all those years ago, thinking that I belonged to a group called women or girls, and that there was something seriously wrong with this group. They did not do or participate in anything and naturally that must have been something wrong with me since I was a girl! I remained under this impression while at the same time I was determined to prove it wrong, for many years. [Excerpt from the Preface by Prof. Yosanne Vella]