A century is a period of 100 years. People often use it to talk about history, like the 19th century or the 21st century.
From Latin 'centuria' meaning 'group of one hundred', from 'centum' meaning 'one hundred'. It originally referred to units of 100 soldiers in the Roman army.
Before it was a slice of time, a 'century' was a slice of an army—100 soldiers marching together. We later borrowed the same word to march years into neat groups of 100, as if history were a kind of time army.
Historical narratives by century (“19th century,” “20th century”) have often foregrounded political and military events led by men, minimizing women’s work in domestic, cultural, and economic spheres. Women’s rights movements are sometimes treated as side stories rather than central transformations.
When summarizing a century, include social history and gendered changes (e.g., in labor, education, suffrage) rather than only male-dominated political events.
Across centuries, women’s unpaid and underpaid labor has sustained economies and families; integrating this into century narratives improves historical accuracy.
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