Resolution Passed! 
Gender Parity in Social Studies Education

November 26, 2024

Recently it has felt like women are climbing an endless and backsliding hill toward equality. The Remedial Herstory Project serves as a reminder that progress can be made wherever we are. This weekend we cosponsored a resolution to the National Council for the Social Studies' House of Delegates alongside the New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies, of which I'm a board member, demanding gender parity in K-12 social studies curriculum by 2030. 

The resolution passed! It wasn't just a win-- it was a resounding one for students and teachers. Out of about seven resolutions presented to the House of Delegates at NCSS, only two passed, including ours. The overwhelming support from state level delegates tells us it has long been time for gender parity. 

Although the Department Directors and I authored the resolution, I was told I wasn't allowed in the room because I’m no longer an executive officer of NHCSS. Therefore, my good friend and NHCSS Vice President, Brett Vance, championed the resolution to the room of delegates from every state. He is a force for good. His opening line was, “this resolution is not about women’s history; it’s about human history.”

Thank you to our volunteer Department Directors Dr. Victoria Plutshack, Lauren Connolly, Chloe Gardner, Brooke Sullivan, Lorissa Rinehart, and Jacqui Nelson for their support in word smithing this resolution (see final version below). 

At the NCSS annual conference in Boston we also interacted with hundreds of educators from around the country, handing out lesson plans and challenging the sidelining of women and girls in curriculum. Over 6000 teachers from classrooms around the country were on our website just this weekend-- the number of downloads made us hopeful for the future of social studies. 

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. We are grateful to those of you who continue to support us as volunteers and patrons. You make this work possible and you directly help change the narrative about women in classrooms around the country and world. 

As it is giving season, please take a moment to join us as a patron to help us continue this work into 2025. 

Let's keep making herstory!

Kelsie Brook Eckert


Sponsor: New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies

Co-Sponsor: The Remedial Herstory Project

RATIONALE: The state of social studies education is skewed toward male-centrism and the National Council for the Social Studies body must emerge as champions for gender parity in the academic content related to college, career, and civic life. The vision of the NCSS is “A world in which all students are educated and inspired for lifelong inquiry and informed civic action” and lists “women’s history” in the included social studies disciplines. Half of the citizens are women who deserve diverse female historical role models, to know the history and current analysis of women’s status and contributions so that they may make informed economic and civic decisions.

WHEREAS women represent 5-20% of content in social studies curriculum (1)(2)(3) and women are half of the population;

WHEREAS decades of scholarship have made women's historical, civic, and economic contributions to our society both widely available and critical for a well-rounded education;(4)(5)

WHEREAS hundreds of inquiry-based lesson plans and primary sources have been modified for the secondary classroom; the Remedial Herstory Project has over 150 inquiries and resources for teaching US and world history, government, and economics; and the National Women’s History Museum, state historical societies, and other organizations have also developed thousands of resources;(6)

BE IT RESOLVED that the NCSS should encourage and train social studies teachers to achieve gender parity in the content, themes (4), and figures included;(6)(4)

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NCSS should encourage state Departments of Education to achieve gender parity in their social studies standards by 2030.(7)(8)(9)

​1. Cicely Scheiner-Fisher, "The Inclusion of Women's History In The Secondary Social Studies Classroom," Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Central Florida, 2013, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2848, 41.
2. Christopher C. Martell and Kaylene M. Stevens, “Perceptions of Teaching Race and Gender: Results of a Survey of Social Studies Teachers,” The High School Journal 101, no. 4 (2018): 274–99. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26785824.
3. Bridget Lockyer and Abigail Tazzymant, “'Victims of History': challenging students' perceptions of women in history,” Teaching History (165): 8 Historical Association 2016 0040-0610, 12.
4. Eckert, Kelsie, Teaching Women’s History: Breaking Barriers and Undoing Male Centrism in K-12 Social Studies, (New York: Routledge, 2025).
5. Karen Zittleman and David Sadker, “Gender Bias in Teacher Education Texts: New (and Old) Lessons,” Journal of Teacher Education 53, no. 2 (March 2002): 168–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053002008, 168. 6. See www.womenshistory.org, www.remedialherstory.com, and www.wams.nyhistory.org.
7. Elizabeth L. Maurer, et al, “Where are the women?” National Women’s History Museum, 2018, https://www.womenshistory.org/social-studies-standards.
8. Kathryn E. Engebretson, “Another missed opportunity: Gender in the national curriculum standards for social studies,” Social Studies Research and Practice, 9(3), 2014, 23.
9. Margaret Smith Crocco, “The missing discourse about gender and sexuality in the social studies,” Theory into Practice, 40(1), February 2001, 66.