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The American New Woman Revisited : A Reader, 1894-1930 In North America between 1894 and 1930, the rise of the "New Woman" sparked controversy on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world. As she demanded a public voice as well as private fulfillment through work, education, and politics, American journalists debated and defined her. Who was she and where did she come from? Was she to be celebrated as the agent of progress or reviled as a traitor to the traditional family? Over time, the dominant version of the American New Woman became typified as white, educated, and middle class: the suffragist, progressive reformer, and bloomer-wearing bicyclist.  By the 1920s, the jazz-dancing flapper epitomized her. Yet she also had many other faces. Bringing together a diverse range of essays from the periodical press of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Martha H. Patterson shows how the New Woman differed according to region, class, politics, race, ethnicity, and historical circumstance. In addition to the New Woman's prevailing incarnations, she appears here as a gun-wielding heroine, imperialist symbol, assimilationist icon, entrepreneur, socialist, anarchist, thief, vamp, and eugenicist. Together, these readings redefine our understanding of the New Woman and her cultural impact.
American Women in World War I : They Also Served Recounts the role of US women in military and relief efforts at home and abroad while the men were fighting to end war. Drawing heavily from interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs, describes service in the Navy, Marines, Signal Corp, Red Cross, Salvation Army, YMCA; and as Army Nurses, reconstruc
American Women of Science since 1900 Covers American women scientists across the sciences throughout the 20th century, providing historical context for understanding their achievements and the way they changed the practice of science.
Aretha Franklin Profiles this remarkable musical pioneer, from her struggles to her successes, and how she continues to influence new generations of singers.
Black Women in Texas History Though often consigned to the footnotes of history, African American women are a significant part of the rich, multiethnic heritage of Texas and the United States. Until now, though, their story has frequently been fragmented and underappreciated. Black Women in Texas History draws together a multi-author narrative of the experiences and impact of black American women from the time of slavery until the recent past. Each chapter, written by an expert on the era, provides a readable survey and overview of the lives and roles of black Texas women during that period. Each provides careful documentation, which, along with the thorough bibliography compiled by the volume editors, will provide a starting point for others wanting to build on this important topic. The authors address significant questions about population demographics, employment patterns, family and social dimensions, legal and political rights, and individual accomplishments. They look not only at how African American women have been shaped by the larger culture but also at how these women have, in turn, affected the culture and history of Texas. This work situates African American women within the context of their times and offers a due appreciation and analysis of their lives and accomplishments. Black Women in Texas History is an important addition to history and sociology curriculums as well as black studies and women’s studies programs. It will provide for interested students, scholars, and general readers a comprehensive survey of the crucial role these women played in shaping the history of the Lone Star State.
Celebrating Women in American History Presents a diverse and panoramic view of women and their accomplishments in American history by bringing their achievements to light and helping them gain the recognition they deserve.
Citizenship and the Origins of Women's History in the United States Women's history emerged as a genre in the waning years of the eighteenth century, a period during which concepts of nationhood and a sense of belonging expanded throughout European nations and the young American republic. Early women's histories had criticized the economic practices, intellectual abilities, and political behavior of women while emphasizing the importance of female domesticity in national development. These histories had created a narrative of exclusion that legitimated the variety of citizenship considered suitable for women, which they argued should be constructed in a very different way from that of men: women's relationship to the nation should be considered in terms of their participation in civil society and the domestic realm. But the throes of the Revolution and the emergence of the first woman's rights movement challenged the dominance of that narrative and complicated the history writers' interpretation of women's history and the idea of domestic citizenship. In Citizenship and the Origins of Women's History in the United States, Teresa Anne Murphy traces the evolution of women's history from the late eighteenth century to the time of the Civil War, demonstrating that competing ideas of women's citizenship had a central role in the ways those histories were constructed. This intellectual history examines the concept of domestic citizenship that was promoted in the popular writing of Sarah Josepha Hale and Elizabeth Ellet and follows the threads that link them to later history writers, such as Lydia Maria Child and Carolyn Dall, who challenged those narratives and laid the groundwork for advancing a more progressive woman's rights agenda. As woman's rights activists recognized, citizenship encompassed activities that ranged far beyond specific legal rights for women to their broader terms of inclusion in society, the economy, and government. Citizenship and the Origins of Women's History in the United States demonstrates that citizenship is at the heart of women's history and, consequently, that women's history is the history of nations.
Clara Barton Featuring detailed sidebars, handy vocabulary boxes, and a visual timeline, DK's Biography series is perfect for book reports or anytime reading. DK Biography: Clara Barton tells the story of the humanitarian, suffragette, civil rights activist, and founder and first president of the American Red Cross including her childhood in Massachusetts, her career as a teacher, her aid work during wartime (especially during the Civil War), and her founding of and work with the American Red Cross. Supports the Common Core State Standards.
Critical Perspectives on Feminism First-wave feminism arrived on the international scene in the nineteenth century, a time when women had very few rights as citizens and were largely controlled by a government with laws that protected and served men. Today, through the work of feminist movements, women have gained the right to vote and work, but the quest for social and economic equality remains. This text gives students insight into the fascinating history of the feminist movement and its leaders while presenting thoughtful analysis of feminist issues to help students think critically about the history and present need for feminism and women's rights today.
Free Hearts and Free Homes: Gender and American Antislavery Politics By exploring the intersection of gender and politics in the antebellum North, Michael Pierson examines how antislavery political parties capitalized on the emerging family practices and ideologies that accompanied the market revolution. From the birth of the Liberty party in 1840 through the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, antislavery parties celebrated the social practices of modernizing northern families. In an era of social transformations, they attacked their Democratic foes as defenders of an older, less egalitarian patriarchal world. In ways rarely before seen in American politics, Pierson says, antebellum voters could choose between parties that articulated different visions of proper family life and gender roles. By exploring the ways John and Jessie Benton Fremont and Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln were presented to voters as prospective First Families, and by examining the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lydia Maria Child, and other antislavery women, Free Hearts and Free Homes rediscovers how crucial gender ideologies were to American politics on the eve of the Civil War.
A History of U. S. Feminisms The History of U.S. Feminism is an introductory text designed to be used as supplementary material for first-year women’s studies students or as a brush-up text for more advanced students. Covering the first, second, and third waves of feminism, The History of U.S. Feminism provides historical context of all the major events and players since the late nineteenth century through today. The chapters cover first-wave feminism, a period of feminist activity during the nineteenth and early twentieth century which focused primarily on gaining women's suffra≥ second-wave feminism, which started in the ’60s and lasted through the ’80s and is best understood as emphasizing the connection between the personal and the political; and third-wave feminism, which started in the early ’90s and arose in part from a backlash against the movements propagated by the second wave.
Opinions Throughout History: Gender Roles & Rights This new series from Grey House offers in-depth, single volumes that follow the debate, or path, to a decision on a controversial topic as it evolved throughout history. Each volume offers a wide range of opinion essays and editorials, speeches, and journal articles and expert analysis.
The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History Gathers together articles to offer a diverse, rich, and often neglected panorama of the nations past.
The Religious History of American Women More than a generation after the rise of women's history alongside the feminist movement, it is still difficult, observes Catherine Brekus, to locate women in histories of American religion. Mary Dyer, a Quaker who was hanged for heresy; Lizzie Robinson, a former slave and laundress who sold Bibles door to door; Sally Priesand, a Reform rabbi; Estela Ruiz, who saw a vision of the Virgin Mary--how do these women's stories change our understanding of American religious history and American women's history? In this provocative collection of twelve essays, contributors explore how considering the religious history of American women can transform our dominant historical narratives. Covering a variety of topics--including Mormonism, the women's rights movement, Judaism, witchcraft trials, the civil rights movement, Catholicism, everyday religious life, Puritanism, African American women's activism, and the Enlightenment--the volume enhances our understanding of both religious history and women's history. Taken together, these essays sound the call for a new, more inclusive history. Contributors: Ann Braude, Harvard Divinity School Catherine A. Brekus, University of Chicago Divinity School Anthea D. Butler, University of Rochester Emily Clark, Tulane University Kathleen Sprows Cummings, University of Notre Dame Amy Koehlinger, Florida State University Janet Moore Lindman, Rowan University Susanna Morrill, Lewis and Clark College Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Augustana College Pamela S. Nadell, American University Elizabeth Reis, University of Oregon Marilyn J. Westerkamp, University of California, Santa Cruz
Sacagawea: A Biography Explores Sacagawea's childhood, her journey with Lewis and Clark, her later life, her explorer son, and the mythology surrounding her death and legacy.
Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement Seneca Falls: Table of Contents. Introduction. 1. Separate Spheres: Law, Faith, Tradition. 2. Fashioning a Better World. 3. Seneca Falls. 4. The Woman's Movement Begins, 1850 - 1860. 5. War, Disillusionment, Division. 6. Friction and Reunification, 1870 - 1890. Epilogue: Make the World Better. Appendices. The 1848 Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Solitude of Self, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Endnotes. Index. Acknowledgments
Sisterhood, Interrupted : From Radical Women to Girls Gone Wild Chronicling the battles that have shaped modern conceptions of feminism across two generations, it illuminates how younger women are reliving, often without realizing it, the battles of the past. Contrary to cliches about the death of feminism, Siegel argues that younger women are not abandoning the movement but reinventing it. Underlying questions remain: after forty years, is feminism today a culture, or a cause? A movement for personal empowerment, or social change? Have women achieved equality, or do we still have a long way to go?
Sisters and Saints : Women and American Religion "Women are the backbone of the church," says an old African-American aphorism. Since the 1660s, women have made up the majority of members in almost all American religious groups. They have provided essential financial and social support and worked tirelessly in the background of church-basedactivities. Throughout American history, women have raised money for churches and synagogues, embroidered altar clothes, taught Sunday school, prepared parish meals, and sung in the choir. They have educated their children in their beliefs and taken them to their places of worship. Yet it isprimarily men who have historically occupied the high rungs of church hierarchy and made the important decisions affecting their congregations. Ann Braude examines the central role of women in American religious history, focusing on their efforts to achieve greater recognition and equal rights,their recent admission to religious leadership, and the emergence of feminist theology in the late 20th century. Colonist Margaret Winthrop, African-American preacher Jarena Lee, Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, and Zionist leader Henrietta Szold are among the women discussed in thesepages who have made major contributions to the spiritual and material growth of religious organizations in America.
True Women and Westward Expansion Expansion was the fever of the early nineteenth century, and women burned with it as surely as men, although in a different way. Subscribing to the "cult of true womanhood," which valued domesticity, piety, and similar "feminine" virtues, women championed expansion for the cause of civilization, even while largely avoiding the masculine world of politics. Adrienne Caughfield mines the diaries and letters of some ninety Texas women to uncover the ideas and enthusiasms they brought to the Western frontier. Although there were a few notable exceptions, most of them drew on their domestic skills and values to establish not only "civilization," but their own security. Caughfield sheds light on women's activism (the flip side of domesticity), attitudes toward race and "civilization," the tie between a vision of a unified continent and a cultivated wilderness, and republican values. She offers a new understanding of not only gender roles in the West but also the impulse for expansionism itself. In Texas, Caughfield demonstrates, "women never stopped arriving with more fuel for the flames [of expansionism] as their families tried to find a place to settle down, some place with a little more room, where national destiny and personal dreams merged into a glorious whole." In doing so, Texas women expanded not only American borders, but their own as well.
The War on Women in the United States: Beliefs, Tactics, and the Best Defenses The book examines gender roles, gender inequity, and the real-world impacts of both unintentional and purposeful efforts to undermine women's equal treatment in the United States, documenting what women have faced in the past and still face living in America today. * Demonstrates how existing cultural roles and historical context in the United States are sufficient to result in gender-based inequality even without the purposeful, direct efforts to undermine women's equal treatment * Covers many different aspects of inequality, both obvious and subtle, such as occupational sex segregation; workplace harassment; gender bias in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education; reproductive rights and health of women; the glass ceiling and glass cliff; intimate partner violence; and sexual violence * Illuminates the multilayered nature of gender inequality to inform a multifaceted approach to dealing with it on a governmental (societal) level and on an individual level
When Women Didn’t Count: The Chronic Mismeasure and Marginalization of American Women in Federal Statistics Erroneous government-generated "data" is more problematic than it would appear. This book demonstrates how women's history has consistently been hidden and distorted by 200 years of official government statistics. * Provides new ways of thinking about the history of women in the United States * Examines the systems used to gather and publish federal statistics, identifying their strengths, weaknesses, and biases * Demonstrates the need for applying critical thinking skills even when examining assumedly trustworthy statistics from official sources * Reveals how details of women's lives in the United States have been erased or disguised in data that is considered authoritative and reliable
Witches, Midwives, & Nurses : A History of Women Healers An essential work on the corruption of the medical establishment and its historic roots in witch hunts. In this new edition, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English have written an entirely new chapter that delves into the current fascination with and controversies about witches, exposing fears and fantasies. They build on their classic expos#65533; of the demonisation of women healers and the political and economic monopolisation of medicine, bringing it up to date with today's changing attitudes to these issues.
Women's Rights: People and Perspectives A lively, accessible collection of essays exploring the history of the struggle for women's rights in the United States from the colonial period to the present. * Primary sources, including the 1692 witchcraft examination of Bridget Bishop; an excerpt from a 1917 National American Woman Suffrage Organization document, "Why Women Should Vote; " and excerpts from "School Days of an Indian Girl by Zitkala-Sa" * Each chapter contains sidebars for more in-depth coverage and an annotated bibliograpy offers information on scholarly works for further research
Women at War : Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Conflicts Wise and Baron relate the compelling war experiences of thirty American female soldiers in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, highlighting their extraordinary display of dedication to their mission and to the soldiers and sailors with whom they served. While the book's focus is on today's women in combat, it also reaches back to Korea, Vietnam and World War II to offer stories of inspiring women who served at the "cusp of the spear" as they fought and died for their country.
Women in the Workplace in America, 1900-2021 Women in the Workplace in America, 1900--2021 is a resource guide that provides historical context and helps people and organizations better understand the challenges women have faced and continue to face in the American workplace, along with opportunities and recently discovered and developing success stories.

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America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people--from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity.The twin threads binding these women together, she argues, are a strong sense of self and a resolute commitment to making the world a better place. Nadell recounts how Jewish women have been at the forefront of causes for centuries, fighting for suffrage, trade unions, civil rights, and feminism, and hoisting banners for Jewish rights around the world. Informed by shared values of America's founding and Jewish identity, these women's lives have left deep footprints in the history of the nation they call home.
America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines America's Women tells the story of more than four centuries of history. It features a stunning array of personalities, from the women peering worriedly over the side of the Mayflower to feminists having a grand old time protesting beauty pageants and bridal fairs. Courageous, silly, funny, and heartbreaking, these women shaped the nation and our vision of what it means to be female in America. By culling the most fascinating characters -- the average as well as the celebrated -- Gail Collins, the editorial page editor at the New York Times, charts a journey that shows how women lived, what they cared about, and how they felt about marriage, sex, and work. She begins with the lost colony of Roanoke and the early southern "tobacco brides" who came looking for a husband and sometimes -- thanks to the stupendously high mortality rate -- wound up marrying their way through three or four. Spanning wars, the pioneering days, the fight for suffrage, the Depression, the era of Rosie the Riveter, the civil rights movement, and the feminist rebellion of the 1970s, America's Women describes the way women's lives were altered by dress fashions, medical advances, rules of hygiene, social theories about sex and courtship, and the ever-changing attitudes toward education, work, and politics. While keeping her eye on the big picture, Collins still notes that corsets and uncomfortable shoes mattered a lot, too. "The history of American women is about the fight for freedom," Collins writes in her introduction, "but it's less a war against oppressive men than a struggle to straighten out the perpetually mixed message about women's roles that was accepted by almost everybody of both genders." Told chronologically through the compelling stories of individual lives that, linked together, provide a complete picture of the American woman's experience, America's Women is both a great read and a landmark work of history.
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet Before Steve Jobs put a personal computer in your hands; before Larry Page and Sergey Brin put any answer at your fingertips; before Mark Zuckerberg connected you to your long-lost friends, female visionaries were at the vanguard of the technology you love (and love to hate). VICEfutures editor and lead singer of the band YACHT Claire Evans presents the first social history of women and the internet. These innovators, concentrating where computers have made our lives better, richer, and more connected, are the unsung heroes of network culture. Join the ranks of women who have pioneered technology, like Ada Lovelace, the tortured, imaginative daughter of Lord Byron, who wrote the first program for a mechanical computer. Grace Hopper, a navy admiral and mathematician created machine-independent programming languages. Stacy Horn ran one of the Internet's earliest social networks, Echo, out of her Greenwich Village apartment in New York City. To say nothing of database poets, desktop thespians, cyber-ingenues, glass ceiling-shattering entrepreneurs, and the self-proclaimed "biggest bitch in Silicon Alley." Evans shines a light on these bright minds whom history forgot, showing us how women have always pushed technology forward and will continue to shape our world in powerful ways that we can no longer ignore.
Busting the Brass Ceiling: How a Heroic Female Cop Changed the Face of Policing Fanchon Blake joined the Los Angeles Police department in 1948, nineteen years later she was promoted to sergeant. When LAPD policy barred her from rising any further and threatened to eliminate women from the department, she filed a discrimination complaint against them with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But Blake's betrayal of the LAPD's codes of silence and loyalty meant that she had to endure verbal abuse and intimidation from her fellow officers. Despite this, she pushed on, and her successful case became one of the county's landmark Title VII cases.
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the American women who secretly served as codebreakers during World War II--a "prodigiously researched and engrossing" (New York Times) book that "shines a light on a hidden chapter of American history" (Denver Post). Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.
Dissenter on the Bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life and Work The life and career of the fiercely principled Supreme Court Justice, now a popular icon, with dramatic accounts of her landmark cases that moved the needle on legal protection of human rights, illustrated with b/w archival photographs. Dramatically narrated case histories from Justice Ginsburg's stellar career are interwoven with an account of RBG's life--childhood, family, beliefs, education, marriage, legal and judicial career, children, and achievements--and her many-faceted personality is captured. The cases described, many involving young people, demonstrate her passionate concern for gender equality, fairness, and our constitutional rights. Notes, bibliography, index.
First: Sandra Day O'Connor NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O'Connor, America's first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O'Connor's archives--by the New York Times bestselling author Evan Thomas. "She's a hero for our time, and this is the biography for our time."--Walter Isaacson NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her law school class in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O'Connor's story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings--doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness. She became the first ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the Court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. Diagnosed with cancer at fifty-eight, and caring for a husband with Alzheimer's, O'Connor endured every difficulty with grit and poise. Women and men who want to be leaders and be first in their own lives--who want to learn when to walk away and when to stand their ground--will be inspired by O'Connor's example. This is a remarkably vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family, who believed in serving her country, and who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for all women. Praise for First "Cinematic . . . poignant . . . illuminating and eminently readable . . . First gives us a real sense of Sandra Day O'Connor the human being. . . . Thomas gives O'Connor the credit she deserves."--The Washington Post "[A] fascinating and revelatory biography . . . a richly detailed picture of [O'Connor's] personal and professional life . . . Evan Thomas's book is not just a biography of a remarkable woman, but an elegy for a worldview that, in law as well as politics, has disappeared from the nation's main stages."--The New York Times Book Review
The Girls Come Marching Home: Stories of Women Warriors Returning From the War in Iraq Home * Deeply personal and emotional accounts of more than a dozen American soldiers returning home from the war in Iraq * Includes women from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard * Inspiring stories of courage while recovering from physical and psychological wounds * The frustrations of navigating the military bureaucracy to get help * How combat affects someone?s entire life, including her family and friends A sought-after speaker on women in the military and a respected advocate for their cause, Kirsten Holmstedt has testified before Congress and appeared on PBS?s NewsHour, BBC?s The World, and C-SPAN, as well as local TV and radio programs across the country. Her previous book, Band of Sisters (978-0-8117-3566-7), received the American Authors Association?s Golden Quill Award and the Military Writers Society of America?s Founder?s Award. Holmstedt lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Great Events from History: Women's History Volumes 1 & 2 This book chronicles significant moments in the history of American women, including legal, political, and cultural milestones. It covers citizenship, access to education, women's suffrage, the ERA, changing sexual and reproductive mores, workplace equality, and the #meToo movement. Includes such landmark events as the Seneca Falls Convention, civil rights activism by Rosa Parks, first birth control clinic, and passage of laws that impact women, such as the Equal Pay Act.
Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II A tribute to the contributions of women during World War II examines how the war transformed traditional women's roles, drawing on letters, diaries, and interviews to describe the experiences of nurses, factory employees, the military's first women soldiers, female prisoners of war, and others. 35,000 first printing.
Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragist's Story From the Jim Crow South A compelling reconstruction of the life of a black suffragist, Adella Hunt Logan, blending family lore, historical research, and literary imagination   Born during the Civil War into a slaveholding family that included black, white, and Cherokee forebears, Adella Hunt Logan dedicated herself to advancing political and educational opportunities for the African American community. She taught at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute but also joined the segregated woman suffrage movement, passing for white in order to fight for the rights of people of color. Her determination--as a wife, mother, scholar, and activist --to challenge the draconian restraints of race and gender generated conflicts that precipitated her tragic demise.   Historian Adele Logan Alexander--Adella Hunt Logan's granddaughter--portrays Adella, her family, and contemporaries such as Booker T. Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Theodore Roosevelt, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Alexander bridges the chasms that frustrate efforts to document the lives of those who traditionally have been silenced, weaving together family lore, historical research, and literary imagination into a riveting, multigenerational family saga.
The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History A BEST BOOK OF 2019 Library Journal and Financial Times From the bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls, the untold, "richly detailed" story of the women of Walt Disney Studios, who shaped the iconic films that have enthralled generations (Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures) From Snow White to Moana, from Pinocchio to Frozen, the animated films of Walt Disney Studios have moved and entertained millions. But few fans know that behind these groundbreaking features was an incredibly influential group of women who fought for respect in an often ruthless male-dominated industry and who have slipped under the radar for decades. In The Queens of Animation, bestselling author Nathalia Holt tells their dramatic stories for the first time, showing how these women infiltrated the boys' club of Disney's story and animation departments and used early technologies to create the rich artwork and unforgettable narratives that have become part of the American canon. As the influence of Walt Disney Studios grew---and while battling sexism, domestic abuse, and workplace intimidation---these women also fought to transform the way female characters are depicted to young audiences. With gripping storytelling, and based on extensive interviews and exclusive access to archival and personal documents, The Queens of Animation reveals the vital contributions these women made to Disney's Golden Age and their continued impact on animated filmmaking, culminating in the record-shattering Frozen, Disney's first female-directed full-length feature film.
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women New York Times, USA Today, andall Street Journalestseller! Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf Bookclub Selection - May/June 2018 "the glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still."--NPR Books The incredible true story of the women who fought America's Undark danger The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive -- until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women's cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come. Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girlsfully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives...
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle. Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle, and how they served as nurses and cooks in the army camps, risked their lives seeking personal freedom from slavery, and served as spies, saboteurs, and warriors. She introduces us to sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington, who sped through the night to rouse the militiamen needed to defend Danbury, Connecticut; to Phillis Wheatley, literary prodigy and Boston slave, who voiced the hopes of African Americans in poems; to Margaret Corbin, crippled for life when she took her husband’s place beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth; to the women who gathered firewood, cooked, cleaned for the troops, nursed the wounded, and risked their lives carrying intelligence and participating in reconnaissance missions. Here, too, are Abigail Adams, Deborah Franklin, Lucy Knox, and Martha Washington, who lived with the daily knowledge that their husbands would be hanged as traitors if the revolution did not succeed. A recapturing of the experiences of ordinary women who lived in extraordinary times, and a fascinating addition to our understanding of the birth of our nation.
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South A bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy   Bridging women's history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave‑owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South's slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave‑owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave‑owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.
When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" (People). When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation. A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research--covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work--When Everything Changed is the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of "Help Wanted--Male" and "Help Wanted--Female" ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way. Picking up where her highly lauded book America's Women left off, When Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New York Times columnist is known. Older readers, men and women alike, will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once were--"Father Knows Best" and "My Little Margie" on TV; daily weigh-ins for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with drama and dreams--some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's imagining.
The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown A revelatory history of the trafficking of young Asian girls that flourished in San Francisco during the first hundred years of Chinese immigration (1848-1943) and an in-depth look at the "safe house" that became a refuge for those seeking their freedom Beginning in 1874, the Occidental Mission Home on the edge of San Francisco's Chinatown served as a gateway to freedom for thousands of enslaved and vulnerable young Chinese women and girls. Run by a courageous group of female abolitionists who fought the slave trade in Chinese women, it survived earthquakes, fire, bubonic plague, and violence directed against its occupants and supporters. With compassion and an investigative historian's sharp eye, Siler tells the story of both the abolitionists who challenged the corrosive anti-Chinese prejudices of the time and the young women who dared to flee their fate. She relates how the women who ran the home defied contemporary convention--even occasionally breaking the law--by physically rescuing children from the brothels where they worked or by snatching them off ships as they were being smuggled in--and how they helped bring the exploiters to justice. She also shares the moving stories of many of the girls and young women who sought refuge at the mission, and she writes about the lives they went on to lead. This is a remarkable chapter in an overlooked part of our history, told with sympathy and vigor.
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII The perfect holiday gift for the World War II history buff, a never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.