Herstory Writing Ideas

Write a poem about the woman you feel most strongly about. You could begin each line with the word "Because. . . "Tell us about what she did, why she was important, why you chose her, and how you relate to her.

Example: Because she cared so much about women. . .

Write a story or poem as if you were her. Tell us what it felt like to do what you did. You can write down how you would imagine she felt.

Example: "I felt nervous speaking in front of so many people, but I knew I was doing the right thing. . ."

Pretend she is coming to visit you in your life now. Write her to prepare her for what life is like now. What is different, better, or worse for people today?

Example: Dear Mary Ann Shadd, I'm glad you can come to visit. I think you will be happy to see that some things have changed for the better I think it will upset you to know . . . "

Write a thank-you letter to one woman from history. Thank her for some- thing she did or tried to do. Tell her the difference it made to your life.

Example:

Date ________________

Dear _____________________,

I just wanted to say thank you for ______________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Write a Herstory Haiku. Find some traditional Haiku and read them out loud to get a feeling for them. Now write your own. Use a woman's name for the first line. For the second line say what she was trying to do. In the third line say something about how she makes you feel.

For example:

Mary Ann Shadd
Working hard to make freedom count
Proud to be a black woman.

Find out the birthday of your favorite woman from history. On her birthday talk or write about the things she did and why you admire her.

Do a collage of the things she did, or the times she lived in. You could photocopy pictures from books. Write in some key words to describe her life.

Have a herstory party. In our group we spent a day dressed as women from history. We read as much as we could find on each of our women and agreed to dress up as the woman we chose on the same day. We had tea together and told the group about what she did in her life. Then we read the writing we did about her out loud. Here is a picture of us. It was fun!

left to right: Bela Banerjee as Indira Ghandi, Bonnie Ford as Agnes MacPhail, Shirley Almack as Joan of Arc, Annette Priest as Laura Secord