The ABC of Women's History: The wacky case of the Letter X #IWD #EmbraceEquity

X is a tough letter in the English language. It’s the third least commonly used letter (behind Q and Z), and most dictionaries include only about 120 words that begin with X. Anyone who’s read a children’s ABC book knows that the entry for X is usually….a stretch. It’s good news for the xenops, the xolo, and uh, xanthan gum, and often people cheat a bit (eXit! Xtra! Xmas!).

So X is for the women whose names we don’t know. The women who will shape our futures aren’t famous yet—because they’re 5, or 15, or 50. We don’t know their names now, but we will, and that is what X is for.

X is for the women

whose names we don’t know.

 It’s for the women we haven’t learned about yet, and the women whose stories we will never read.

X is for the women whose voices weren’t heard.

For the women who aren’t in the history books, or the Halls of Fame, or on the postage stamps and coins.

For the women who didn’t get credit for their ideas and inventions.

Who couldn’t own property or sign their own names.

The women who weren’t taught to read or write but managed to communicate anyway. Who weren’t allowed to work but still supported their families, or who worked all day but weren’t paid as much as the men.

X is for the radical histories that didn’t get recorded.

X is for our mothers, our matriarchs, our ancestors.

The nurses and neighbors and aunties and teachers.

The women who made huge changes and the women who made dinner.

X is for the hands that built and shared and wrote and fought.

The bodies that birthed and worked and strained.

The feet that walked, ran, jumped, and balanced.

The minds that dreamed and desired, the hearts that loved.

X is also for all that’s happening now and all that is still to come.

X is for the women in homes and offices and fields and labs and classrooms,

who invent and transform and build and create.

It’s for you and for me, the girls and boys and men and women and everyone in between helping to make the world safe, compassionate, and healthy.

X is for all we don’t know about the past, but X is also for the future.

X marks the spot where we stand today.

What will you do to make the world rad?

SOURCE

Kate Schatz is the author of Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future! published by City Lights/Sister Spit. She's also the author of Rid of Me: A Story, which is definitely not a kid's book. She directs the Department of Literary Arts at a public arts high school in Oakland, and lives on an island.