The secondary school history curriculum, with its emphasis on political history, tends to relegate women to the margins or to interpret their accomplishments according to a patriarchal framework. The author argues that by adapting theoretical developments in the field of women's history, women can be seen as political agents in history, thereby bringing about a more inclusive history in the schools that meets women on their own terms. Using the phase model designed by historians of women and educational researchers, the author shows how existing curriculum and educational research favors political history that either excludes women or overemphasizes the importance of the suffrage movement. Then, using the example of women's clubs and associations prior to the Nineteenth Amendment, she demonstrates how women's political activism influenced public education. Viewing women as political beings who were not merely limited to a private sphere, she argues, will advance the agenda of women's history in the school curriculum. (Contains 1 table and 4 notes.)