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Women Who Changed the World
Marie Curie
Polish Physicist, Chemist & Feminist
Amelia Earhart
American Aviator
Sojourner Truth
American Abolitionist &
Women's Rights Activist
Mother Teresa
Humanitarian
Patsy King
First Woman of Color in Congress
Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz
First Published Female
in the New World
Rosalind Franklin
English Chemist &
X-ray Crystallographer
Katherine Johnson
Astrophysicist, Space Scientist,
& Mathematician
Naomi Parker Fraley
American War Worker
Emmy Noether
German Mathematician
Grace Hopper
Computer Scientist
Celebrating National Women's History Month
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Women Writers of the American West, 1833-1927 by Women Writers of the American West, 1833-1927 recovers the names and works of hundreds of women who wrote about the American West during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some of them long forgotten and others better known novelists, poets, memoirists, and historians such as Willa Cather and Mary Austin Holley. Nina Baym mined literary and cultural histories, anthologies, scholarly essays, catalogs, advertisements, and online resources to debunk critical assumptions that women did not publish about the West as much as they did about other regions. Elucidating a substantial body of nearly 650 books of all kinds by more than 300 writers, Baym reveals how the authors showed women making lives for themselves in the West, how they represented the diverse region, and how they represented themselves. Baym accounts for a wide range of genres and geographies, affirming that the literature of the West was always more than cowboy tales and dime novels. Nor did the West consist of a single landscape, as women living in the expanses of Texas saw a different world from that seen by women in gold rush California. Although many women writers of the American West accepted domestic agendas crucial to the development of families, farms, and businesses, they also found ways to be forceful agents of change, whether by taking on political positions, deriding male arrogance, or, as their voluminous published works show, speaking out when they were expected to be silent.ISBN: 9780252035975Publication Date: 2011-02-22 -
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Fighting Chance by The advocates of woman suffrage and black suffrage came to a bitter falling-out in the midst of Reconstruction, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed the 15th Amendment because it granted the vote to black men but not to women. How did these two causes, so long allied, come to this?Based on extensive research, Fighting Chance is a major contribution to women's history and to 19th-century political history--a story of how idealists descended to racist betrayal and desperate failure.ISBN: 9780199773183Publication Date: 2011-01-01 -
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Legacy of Dissent by A rhetorical analysis of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's feminist jurisprudence Ruth Bader Ginsburg's lifelong effort to reshape the language of American law has had profound consequences: she has shifted the rhetorical boundaries of jurisprudence on a wide range of fundamental issues from equal protection to reproductive rights. Beginning in the early 1970s, Ginsburg led a consequential attack on sexist law in the United States. By directly confronting the patriarchal voice of the law, she pointedly challenged an entrenched genre of legal language that silenced the voices and experiences of American women and undermined their status as equal citizens. On the United States Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg continues to challenge the traditional scripts of legal discourse to insist on a progressive vision of the Constitution and to demand a more inclusive and democratic body of law.ISBN: 9780817391751Publication Date: 2018-03-01 -
Women Kind by Women Kind is an impeccably researched love letter to those who hold up half the sky.' Jamila Rizvi 'Just like #CelebratingWomen, this book is an essential and timely reminder of the collective power of women.' Kate Jenkins, Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Women are rallying together in a massive and unstoppable force to make their voices heard around the world in ways we have never seen before. When Dr Kirstin Ferguson, an Australian company director, decided she was fed up with the vicious online abuse of women, she turned the tables and used social media to create the #CelebratingWomen campaign, profiling two women from anywhere in the world and every walk of life, every day for a year.ISBN: 9781760523848Publication Date: 2018-07-01 -
Frida Kahlo by Behind Frida Kahlo’s portraits, lies the story of both her life and work. It is precisely this combination that draws the reader in. Frida’s work is a record of her life, and rarely can we learn so much about an artist from what she records inside the picture frame. Frida Kahlo truly is Mexico’s gift to the history of art. She was just eighteen years old when a terrible bus accident changed her life forever, leaving her handicapped and burdened with constant physical pain. But her explosive character, raw determination and hard work helped to shape her artistic talent. And although he was an obsessive womanizer, the great painter Diego Rivera was by her side. She won him over with her charm, talent and intelligence, and Kahlo learnt to lean on the success of her companion in order to explore the world, thus creating her own legacy whilst finding herself surrounded by a close-knit group of friends. Her personal life was turbulent, as she frequently left her relationship with Diego to one side whilst she cultivated her own bisexual relationships. Despite this, Frida and Diego managed to save their frayed relationship. The story and the paintings that Frida left us display a courageous account of a woman constantly on a search of self discovery.ISBN: 9781780422923Publication Date: 2011-07-01 -
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Women Who Taught by In an era when women are moving into so many areas of the labour force, we all remember some of the first working women we ever encountered: 'women teachers,' as they were too often known. The impact of women on education has been enourmous throughout the English-speaking world. It has also been ignored, for the most part, by mainstream historians of education. Alison Prentice and Marjorie R. Theobald have addressed this omission by bringing together a wide range of essays by feminist historians on the role of women in education at all levels, in Canada, Australia, Britain, and the United States. All the essays were ground-breaking when first published. Among the subjects they explore are the experience of women in private, or domestic, schooling and the rigours of teaching as single women in remote areas. Other essays discuss the impact on women's working schools in the nineteenth century; the growth of professional teachers' organizations; and the blurring of public and private in the lives of twentieth-century teachers. The editors provide an introduction that traces the growth of the emerging field of the history of women in teaching and identifies new directions currently developing. A bibliography offers further resources.ISBN: 9781442683570Publication Date: 2016-01-29 -
Off-White Hollywood by Off-White Hollywood investigates how the 'ethnicity' of white European-American actresses has played a key role in the mythology of American identity and nation building. Negra focuses on key stars of the silent - Colleen Moore and Pola Negri - classical - Sonja Henie and Hedy Lamarr - and post-classical eras - Marisa Tomei and Cher - to demonstrate how each star illuminates aspects of ethnicity, gender, consumerism, and class at work in American culture.ISBN: 9780203996584Publication Date: 2001-09-20 -
Risk, Courage, and Women by A collection of narratives, essays, and poems that includes an interview with Maya Angelou and pieces by Naomi Shihab Nye, Pat Mora, Rosemary Catacalos, and many others. Each work relates how women have demonstrated courage by taking a risk that has changed their lives.ISBN: 9781574413861Publication Date: 2007-08-15 -
The Rights of My People by The Rights of My People revisits Liliuokalani's first battle for Hawaii - the 1893 coup d?etat and annexation in 1898 - through a new perspective: The harsh remnants of the Civil War, the missionary?s disquieting view of race, and the emerging role of Hawaiian women. Explored for the first time is the second battle - the fate of the Crown lands, a quarter of the Hawaii islands, taken illegally in the 1893 coup d?etat and contested aggressively by Liliuokalani through 1910.ISBN: 9780875867229Publication Date: 2009-01-01 -
American Women and Flight Since 1940 by Women run wind tunnel experiments, direct air traffic, and fabricate airplanes. American women have been involved with flight from the beginning, but until 1940, most people believed women could not fly, that Amelia Earhart was an exception to the rule. World War II changed everything. "It is on the record thatwomen can fly as well as men," stated General Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the Army Air Forces. The question became "Should women fly?" Deborah G. Douglas tells the story of this ongoing debate and its impact on American history. From Jackie Cochran, whose perseverance led to the formation of the Women's Army Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II to the recent achievements of Jeannie Flynn, the Air Force's first woman fighter pilot and Eileen Collins, NASA's first woman shuttle commander, Douglas introduces a host of determined women who overcame prejudice and became military fliers, airline pilots, and air and space engineers. Not forgotten are stories of flight attendants, air traffic controllers, and mechanics. American Women and Flight since 1940 is a revised and expanded edition of a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum reference work. Long considered the single best reference work in the field, this new edition contains extensive new illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography.ISBN: 9780813148298Publication Date: 2014-07-11 -
The Fun of It by Autobiography of the famous flyer which describes her own ambitions to become a pilot and offers advice to others.ISBN: 9780897337854Publication Date: 2014-04-01 -
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth by From slavery to liberation to life as an abolitionist, feminist, orator, and preacher—the autobiography of a woman who refused to be anything but free. Born into slavery in New York around 1797, then sold from master to master, Sojourner Truth spent her formative years witnessing the cruelty inherent in the institution of slavery. Escaping to a friendly household before emancipation, she learned that her young son had been sold illegally and launched a lawsuit that would end with his release—the first time in America that a black woman went to court against a white man and won. But Truth hadn’t even begun her work. She made it her life’s mission to free all those who were considered less than equal—both those in chains and those held down because of their gender—ultimately inspiring her friends and followers with the legendary speech that came to be known as “Ain’t I a Woman?” So great was Truth’s renown and respect that she met with President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. She was later named one of the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time by Smithsonian magazine. Published in 1850, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth was spoken aloud to Truth’s friend and neighbor Olive Gilbert, as she herself was illiterate. Along with The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, it remains one of the most moving and eloquent slave narratives—a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.ISBN: 9781504048217Publication Date: 2017-09-12 -
Women Will Vote by Women Will Vote celebrates the 2017 centenary of women’s right to full suffrage in New York State. Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello highlight the activism of rural, urban, African American, Jewish, immigrant, and European American women, as well as male suffragists, both upstate and downstate, that led to the positive outcome of the 1917 referendum. Goodier and Pastorello argue that the popular nature of the women’s suffrage movement in New York State and the resounding success of the referendum at the polls relaunched suffrage as a national issue. If women had failed to gain the vote in New York, Goodier and Pastorello claim, there is good reason to believe that the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment would have been delayed. Women Will Vote makes clear how actions of New York’s patchwork of suffrage advocates heralded a gigantic political, social, and legal shift in the United States. Readers will discover that although these groups did not always collaborate, by working in their own ways toward the goal of enfranchising women they essentially formed a coalition. Together, they created a diverse social and political movement that did not rely solely on the motivating force of white elites and a leadership based in New York City. Goodier and Pastorello convincingly argue that the agitation and organization that led to New York women’s victory in 1917 changed the course of American history.ISBN: 9781501705557Publication Date: 2017-09-15 -
The Feminine Genius of Catholic Theology by This book introduces Catholic doctrine through the crucible of the women mystics'reception of the gospel.The work of thegreat women theologians of the Church's second millennium has too often beenneglected (or relegated to the category of 'mysticism') in textbooks on Catholic doctrine. This is a shame because their work shows the interior conjunction of liturgical experience(broadly understood), scriptural exegesis, philosophical reflection, anddoctrinal/creedal formulation.Drawingon their work, this book presents the tenets of Catholic faith in a clear and accessible manner, useful for introductory courses as well as for students and scholars interested in the contributions of women to Catholic theology. Women theologians in this book include Catherine of Siena, Theresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Simone Weil, and others.ISBN: 9780567188298Publication Date: 2012-07-26 -
Writing Teresa by Writing Teresa: The Saint from Ávila at the fin-de-siglo examines the Teresa de Jesús “boom” of roughly 1880–1930, and offers an in-depth study of five major Spanish participants in the turn-of-the-twentieth-century explosion of literary treatments of St. Teresa. This historical period’s interest in the Saint from Ávila relates to popularization and nationalization of aspects of Catholicism, technological advances, a modernist fascination with saintly heroes, the search for new Spanish identities, and the evolving role of women writers and intellectuals. Teresa was mysticism in its historical context, energy in a time of doubt, the possibility of reconciling science and spirituality, a new vision for writing, and a maternal figure linked to the religion of the past for those who had lost the faith of their childhood.ISBN: 9781611484076Publication Date: 2011-12-16 -
The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana inés de la Cruz by The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz examines the role of occasional verse in the works of the celebrated colonial Mexican nun. The poems that Sor Juana wrote for special occasions (birthdays, funerals, religious feasts, coronations, and the like) have been considered inconsequential by literary historians; but from a socio-historical perspective, George Antony Thomas argues they hold a particular interest for scholars of colonial Latin American literature. For Thomas, these compositions establish a particular set of rhetorical strategies, which he labels the author's 'political aesthetics.' He demonstrates how this body of the famous nun's writings, previously overlooked by scholars, sheds new light on Sor Juana's interactions with individuals in colonial society and throughout the Spanish Empire."ISBN: 9781409437697Publication Date: 2012-09-10 -
The Madame Curie Complex by The historian and author of Lillian Gilbreth examines the “Great Man” myth of science with profiles of women scientists from Marie Curie to Jane Goodall. Why is science still considered to be predominantly male profession? In The Madame Curie Complex, Julie Des Jardin dismantles the myth of the lone male genius, reframing the history of science with revelations about women’s substantial contributions to the field. She explores the lives of some of the most famous female scientists, including Jane Goodall, the eminent primatologist; Rosalind Franklin, the chemist whose work anticipated the discovery of DNA’s structure; Rosalyn Yalow, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist; and, of course, Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning pioneer whose towering, mythical status has both empowered and stigmatized future generations of women considering a life in science. With lively anecdotes and vivid detail, The Madame Curie Complex reveals how women scientists have changed the course of science—and the role of the scientist—throughout the twentieth century. They often asked different questions, used different methods, and came up with different, groundbreaking explanations for phenomena in the natural world.ISBN: 9781558616554Publication Date: 2010-03-01 -
Women of Vision by In this extraordinary textbook, a new light is cast on the role of circumstance, accomplishments, and personality in the development of various twentieth-century women of vision. This is a brand new "life-course" approach to understanding female leaders and gives valuable insight into the lives of such imminent women as: Isadora Duncan; Georgia O'Keefe; Anna Eleanor Roosevelt; Alice Paul; Ella Fitzgerald; and, Shirley Chisholm. This book furnishes insights into how the social-economic-political milieu and the attitudes and values of the time played a significant role in the lives of these women but also in all our lives.ISBN: 9780826102539Publication Date: 2007-03-01 -
Women in the American West by Twenty years after many Western historians first turned their attention toward women, Women in the American West synthesizes the development of women's history in the region, introduces readers to current thinking on the real experiences of Western women, and explores their influence on the course of expansion and development since the 19th century. Women in the American West offers vivid portrayals of women as pioneers, prostitutes, teachers, disguised soldiers, nurses, entrepreneurs, immigrants, and ordinary citizens caught up in extraordinary times. Organized chronologically, each chapter emphasizes important themes central to gender and women's history, including women's mobility, women at home, wage labor, immigration, marriage, political participation, and involvement in wars at home and abroad. With this revealing volume, readers will see that women had a far more profound effect on the course of history in the Western United States than is commonly thought.ISBN: 9781598840513Publication Date: 2008-04-03 -
Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights by In recent decades, the woman suffrage movement has taken on new significance for women's history. Ellen Carol DuBois has been a central figure in spurring renewed interest in woman suffrage and in realigning the debates which surround it. This volume gathers DuBois' most influential articles on woman suffrage and includes two new essays. The collection traces the trajectory of the suffrage story against the backdrop of changing attitudes to politics, citizenship and gender, and the resultant tensions over such issues as slavery and abolitionism, sexuality and religion, and class and politics. Connecting the essays is DuBois' belief in the continuing importance of political and reform movements as an object of historical inquiry and a force in shaping gender. The book, which includes a highly original reconceptualization of women's rights from Mary Wollstonecraft to contemporary abortion and gay rights activists and a historiographical overview of suffrage scholarship, provides an excellent overview of the movement, including international as well as U.S. suffragism, in the context of women's broader concerns for social and political justice.ISBN: 9780814785409Publication Date: 1998-08-01
