“Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

Circulates under Marilyn Monroe

Editorial status

misattributed

The sentence is a title and phrase associated with historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, not Marilyn Monroe. The common version also changes ‘seldom’ to ‘rarely’.

Source-backed author: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Well-behaved women seldom make history.

Earliest traceable appearance in this record: 1976, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, title of a scholarly essay.

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