Well Behaved Women Historian Ulrich

In 1976, American historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich coined the phrase “well behaved women seldom make history” in a scholarly article about Puritan funeral services. She used the line to argue that historians largely ignored ordinary, virtuous women and should pay more attention to their lives and work. Over the next decades, the quote escaped academia and began appearing on T-shirts, mugs, greeting cards, and bumper stickers as a popular slogan. Ulrich later returned to the idea in her book Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History, which explores how women have shaped history in ways traditional narratives often overlook.

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