“Providing high school students across the country with more opportunities to learn about the critical contributions and historical impact of women is inspiring, and the commitment shown by Serene Williams, Kristen Kelly, and their team of students to raise support for the development of an AP course in the field of Women’s Studies is exciting.”
–The College Board
“I think it would be amazing. I would love that for students, I would have loved that for myself. Now is the time to get these kinds of messages out there to give students these opportunities to learn about topics and thinkers who are pushing against the grain and against mainstream ideas. That’s what I think liberal education is about; it’s about exposing people to ideas they wouldn’t hear otherwise. I also think it would be great for young women, LGBQ folks, non-binary kids in a way to think in ways I myself did not have the opportunity to when I was a teen. I hope it comes to fruition.”
–Dr. Tiffany Ball, Professor at the University of Michigan
“Oh gosh, yes [I support AP Women’s History]! I grew up in a different time where everything I learned about was white men. So even when I was thinking about art, I was thinking about white male playwrights being the standard, you know, of all of these things. So, anything that expands your idea and makes more spaces for more voices, different paths, creativity, bravery, and can recognize community and the power of it is important. Because otherwise it gets absorbed and erased into the larger story and you lose your stories. We have to hold on to them because not only are they our history and our legacy, they’re the things that we stand on. So if you don’t even know about them, it’s like you’re starting over from scratch, right? There’s so many people who have built so much of our community.”
–Jennifer Weir, musician and filmmaker
“I think it’s really important…I do support [AP Women’s History]. I think it’s really important for students to understand the history of gender and the history of women is not just a sideshow, to the “real story” of the American past. Arguably, you can’t understand the American past without understanding the history of gender and the history of women. I think there’s a real advantage to focusing on women in a class like that because it opens up space for more intersectional thinking and more gendered lenses of analysis. It also invites what is now 50+ years of historical scholarship centered on women’s history as a field squarely into the AP process.”
–Professor Don Romesburg
“Of course I support [an AP Women’s History course]…We’re missing. We’re missing. We’re missing. And it should be…just as much as general American studies courses and general courses, basic methodology courses, are there because they’re such…failure to bring women and women’s stories to the forefront...A lot of people don’t want to hear that, they don’t wanna hear that, “Don’t want my kid to learn whatever.” You know, they’re burning books and banning books and acting like idiots in the town square. I still feel like there’s much more information that people need to learn, and they need to be getting this information earlier.”
–Dr. Michele Daniel Jones, executive director of Constructing Our Future
“I think it would be wonderful for high school students and I do support it. And not only women high school students but also guys. I think it would be really important for everyone to see the agency, the historical work that women have done and build some respect for that. And how that has shaped this country. I don’t think there’s a snowball chance in hell of doing it while Trump is in the White House. It’s awful what they’re doing to education right now. So I think you have to wait a few years before his regime ends. I do think the principle of it is very, very good and very beneficial. I would emphasize that the curriculum is interracial and multicultural. It’s not a history of white women in the United States but the history of women including Black, brown, Native American women, immigrant women and so on. It should have that dynamic force to it.”
–Professor Bettina Aptheker, co-founder of the Free Speech Movement and a longtime leader in the women’s rights movement
“I completely support [an AP Women’s History course]. I think it’s really important. History is so important. At a time right now when people have forgotten history or reimagine it in a false way, it’s really important to study history.”
–Professor Linda Villarosa, City University of New York
“Learning about Women’s History is empowering for both young women and boys. I have taught a women’s History course, and the students were inspired and thrilled to be learning whose shoulders they stand on!”
–Filmmaker Martha Wheelock
“I think that an AP Women’s History curriculum would be very valuable for a college bound student because it has the potential to get at one of the most important values of studying history which is change over time. If you can understand something as big and basic as what it means to be a man or a woman, how society is organized according to assumptions about gender, and also the basic plot of history in the increasing struggle for freedom and equality. Women’s history or gender history, an interesting question of what would be preferable, would be a really valuable addition to the choices that students have of AP courses. And it would also be valuable because it would be getting advanced placement for college and would allow people to take advanced courses in women’s history. People who are interested in that as a subject of study, would be smack dab in the most dynamic and important part of the history profession.”
–Historian Rick Perlstein
“I applaud [the WAPUSH team] for working to get an AP Women’s History class. I think it is long overdue and I would hope that not only young women, but also young men, boys as well as girls, would take the course to understand that it is about men and women working for equality. That is what women’s history is all about! It is about equal partnership for women and for men. That was the slogan of NOW. Equal partnership for women and truly equal partnership with men. I think the course would prepare them for many other scholarship activities in their lives. It would certainly prepare them for their college lives as well. I applaud you and hope you will succeed in getting an AP course for women’s history.”
–Muriel Fox, co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW)
“I think an AP history course would get a student very well qualified to do well in those courses, to even do advanced work in those courses rather than simply a general education course, but upper division courses. I think it’s crucial for women students particularly, but not just women students, male students too, to understand what women have done to make America the country that it is. I think in a women’s studies course, an advanced women’s studies course, the students are best prepared to make those arguments and share them. Yes, I think it would be wonderful if there was an AP women’s studies course.”
–Professor Lillian Faderman
“At the Alice Paul Institute, we know that recognizing women’s contributions is not only a matter of historical accuracy, but also an imperative step towards fostering inclusivity, equality, and empowering future generations. We overwhelmingly support the work of Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams in their fight for the creation of an AP U.S. Women’s History course which would effectively validate women’s experiences and accomplishments in helping to shape this nation.”
–Alice Paul Center for Gender Justice
“The consideration of a proposal for an advanced placement text in U.S. Women’s History is a wonderful development. It is important to realize that women’s history is not separate but an avenue into U.S. history in all its variety and change. This was the principle with which myself and my co-authors have written Through Women’s Eyes, which is subtitled An American History with Documents. As this suggests it is also designed to give students hands-on experience with doing history, by reading, interpreting and contextualizing visual and literary documents coming directly from the past. Stimulating young students’ interest in our nation’s past is crucial to the development of their citizenship.”
—Historian Ellen DuBois
“On behalf of the National Women’s History Alliance, I am writing to express our enthusiastic support for your campaign to establish an Advanced Placement U.S. Women’s History course. Your initiative to broaden the scope of historical education in high schools is both commendable and essential…This initiative aligns perfectly with the mission of the National Women’s History Alliance to recognize and celebrate the diverse and profound achievements of women throughout history. The momentum you have gained, including media attention and encouragement from the College Board, speaks volumes about the importance and timeliness of this course. By incorporating U.S. Women’s History into the AP curriculum, you are not only fostering historical accuracy but also promoting inclusivity and equality, which are critical for empowering future generations.”
—National Women’s History Alliance
In addition to support above, this campaign is supported by thousands of people including historians Dr. Wendy Rouse, Dr. Bonnie Morris, Dr. Mary Ziegler and Dr. Estelle Freedman