Women's Rights by
At the dawn of the 21st century's second decade, the issues women face are just as daunting and complex as ever before, from suffrage and equal representations in government, to educational rights, reproductive rights, and religious leadership roles. Even with recent gains by women in the United States and abroad, women still frequently face discrimination and unequal access to the same rights as men. As such, the fight for complete equality continues. Women's Rights, Second Edition provides a history of women's rights, as well as the movements and people that sought to strengthen them. Case studies of the United States, China, and Afghanistan are presented, and new case studies on the state of women's rights in France (including a discussion of the ban of burqas) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been added to this edition. Updated material on the status of women's rights in the United States includes discussions of such women leaders as Hillary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Coverage of recent legislation such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act has also been added to this invaluable guide.
Women's Rights by
Are women fighting over the same issues and for the same rights all around the world? What are the gains that have been made for women in different cultures over the past 200 years? Students will find answers to these and similar questions in this unique resource of fifteen case studies exploring the problems surrounding the fight for women's rights in different countries, ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe. The history, the public perceptions, contemporary problems, the future of women's rights, and the roles of activists concerning these rights are examined. The detailed explorations provide readers with the opportunity to discover the different cultural attitudes toward women. In order to facilitate comparisons, each chapter follows a similar outcome. The countries were chosen to represent every region of the world and to provide as broad a picture as possible of the issues presented by women's struggles for equality. Each case study asks how national, cultural, class, racial, and religious differences have influenced women's rights. These different views of ways in which women have sought their rights around the world will help students to understand the fight for women's rights in a broad sense as a social issue that affects all of humanity.
A Call to Action by
In the highly acclaimed bestselling A Call to Action, President Jimmy Carter addresses the world's most serious, pervasive, and ignored violation of basic human rights: the ongoing discrimination and violence against women and girls. President Carter was encouraged to write this book by a wide coalition of leaders of all faiths. His urgent report covers a system of discrimination that extends to every nation. Women are deprived of equal opportunity in wealthier nations and "owned" by men in others, forced to suffer servitude, child marriage, and genital cutting. The most vulnerable and their children are trapped in war and violence. A Call to Action addresses the suffering inflicted upon women by a false interpretation of carefully selected religious texts and a growing tolerance of violence and warfare. Key verses are often omitted or quoted out of context by male religious leaders to exalt the status of men and exclude women. And in nations that accept or even glorify violence, this perceived inequality becomes the basis for abuse. Carter draws upon his own experiences and the testimony of courageous women from all regions and all major religions to demonstrate that women around the world, more than half of all human beings, are being denied equal rights. This is an informed and passionate charge about a devastating effect on economic prosperity and unconscionable human suffering. It affects us all.
Women and the National Experience by
Combining classic and unusual sources, this anthology explores the private voices and public lives of women throughout U.S. history.
Suffrage by
Four generations of women fought for the right to vote. This book shows how their grand reform effort overcame resistance from traditionalists fearing social decay, religious leaders citing scriptural prohibitions, and a stodgy political establishment reluctant to share power. What was it like to be among the founders of the women's movement in the middle of the nineteenth century, with no script to follow and self-doubt dogging their every move? This book not only reminds us of the laws that conspired against women's equality in the post-Civil War United States, but it also illustrates--through the eyes of the suffragists themselves--the cultural and religious norms that had held women in second-class status for centuries. Early suffragists grappled with isolation and outright hostility as they lectured around the nation, even as they tried to reassure the public that politicized women would still serve the family. Others espoused outrage by organizing public protests. This book shows how lasting political change comes about through a combination of working from within the system and outside of it, and deftly illustrates the tensions within the movement. Although the vote was finally won in 1920, it was not without tremendous sacrifice. The book lays bare the strategies that led to the single-minded focus on the vote and the consequences of postponing action on so many other issues that remained for later generations to address, including reproductive freedom, labor rights, and equal pay. Shows how women's rights came about not only because suffragists organized--they had been organized for decades to no avail--but also because the concept of womanhood expanded to accommodate a role for women outside the home and church Explains why suffrage came first and most easily in the West, which wanted to attract women settlers and valued their strength and independence, and most reluctantly in the South, where many feared that suffrage would undermine white supremacy Provides a finely nuanced view of sexism within the abolitionist movement and racism within the women's movement Addresses the challenges that early suffragists faced in getting women themselves to think that they deserved the vote
Rethinking American Women's Activism by
In this enthralling narrative, Annelise Orleck chronicles the history of the American women's movement from the nineteenth century to the present. Starting with an incisive introduction that calls for a reconceptualization of American feminist history to encompass multiple streams of women's activism, she weaves the personal with the political, vividly evoking the events and people who participated in our era's most far-reaching social revolutions. In short, thematic chapters, Orleck enables readers to understand the impact of women's activism, and highlights how feminism has flourished through much of the past century within social movements that have too often been treated as completely separate. Showing that women's activism has taken many forms, has intersected with issues of class and race, and has continued during periods of backlash, Rethinking American Women's Activism is a perfect introduction to the subject for anyone interested in women's history and social movements.
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by
A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the world's most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story--and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no superhero has lasted as long or commanded so vast and wildly passionate a following. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she has also has a secret history. Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman's creator. Beginning in his undergraduate years at Harvard, Marston was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, starting with Emmeline Pankhurst, who was banned from speaking on campus in 1911, when Marston was a freshman. In the 1920s, Marston and his wife, Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century. The Marston family story is a tale of drama, intrigue, and irony. In the 1930s, Marston and Byrne wrote a regular column for Family Circle celebrating conventional family life, even as they themselves pursued lives of extraordinary nonconformity. Marston, internationally known as an expert on truth--he invented the lie detector test--lived a life of secrets, only to spill them on the pages of Wonder Woman. The Secret History of Wonder Woman is a tour de force of intellectual and cultural history. Wonder Woman, Lepore argues, is the missing link in the history of the struggle for women's rights--a chain of events that begins with the women's suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.
Supreme Court Decisions and Women′s Rights by
From the Romantic Paternalism of the 19th century to Roe v. Wade and the panoply of hot-button women′s issues before the Supreme Court in our age, Supreme Court Decisions and Women′s Rights limns the cases, the ideas, and the people who have blazed the trail to equality. Co-published by CQ Press and the Supreme Court Historical Society, Supreme Court Decisions and Women′s Rights is the first authoritative, illustrated guide to make Supreme Court cases and issues involving women′s rights and gender understandable and accessible to a wide audience. High school students will find a lively, easy-to-read account that makes complex legal and constitutional issues comprehensible. Academics and interested readers in a host of disciplines will find the book a perfect introduction to the topic, and a valuable tool for directing further research. More than 110 photos, cartoons, and other illustrative material, many of which have never been published, round out the visual presentation of this unique new reference work and enrich the historical context for the cases presented. Starting in the post-Civil War era, the book discusses the concept of Romantic Paternalism and how this belief that the law should provide extra protections to women because they are weaker and gentler than men began to be tested. Readers will find the full story of Susan B. Anthony and the quest for suffrage, but they′ll also find the cases that set the stage for the movement . . . and the cases and movements that continue to this day as a result of it. Supreme Court Decisions and Women′s Rights is organized chronologically and by topic for easy research. The more than 75 cases cover all the important issues and movements regarding the Supreme Court and women′s rights from the earliest days to the present. Here are just a few examples: Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) - women being barred from practicing law. Muller v. Oregon (1908) - regarding the 10-hour working day. Goesart v. Cleary (1948) - are women allowed to be bartenders? Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975) - a father sues for the right to stay home. Kirchberg v. Fienstra (1981) - husband as "head and master" of household." Maher v. Roe (1977) - is abortion funding constitutional? Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989) - not woman enough to make partner? Supreme Court Decisions and Women′s Rights also covers: The "First Ladies" of the Supreme Court The first female law clerks Women in key positions at the Court Profiles of the first female justices: Sandra Day O′Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Cases Covered Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)Minor v. Happersett (1875)Strauder v. West Virginia (1880)Muller v. Oregon, (1908)Adkins v. Children′s Hospital (1923)West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937)Ballard v. United States (1946)Goesaert v. Cleary (1948)Hoyt v. Florida (1961)Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp. (1971)Reed v. Reed (1971)Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)Doe v. Bolton (1973)Frontiero v. Richardson (1973)Roe v. Wade (1973) Corning Glass Works v. Brennan (1974)Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur (1974)Geduldig v. Aiello (1974) Kahn v. Shevin (1974)Schlesinger v. Ballard (1975)Stanton v. Stanton (1975)Taylor v. Louisiana (1975)Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975)Craig v. Boren (1976)General Electric Co. v. Gilbert (1976)Planned Parenthood Assn. of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976)Califano v. Goldfarb (1977)Califano v. Webster (1977)Dothard v. Rawlinson (1977)Maher v. Roe (1977)Nashville Gas Co. v. Satty (1977)Los Angeles Department of Water and Power v. Manhart (1978)Bellotti v. Baird (1979)Califano v. Westcott (1979)Duren v. Missouri (1979)Lehr v. Robertson (1983)Parham v. Hughes (1979)Orr v. Orr (1979)Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney (1979)Stanley v. Illinois (1972), Quilloin v. Walcott (1978)Caban v. Mohammed (1979)Harris v. McRae (1980)Wengler v. Druggists Mutual Ins. Co. (1980)County of Washington v. Gunther (1981) Kirchberg v. Feenstra (1981)Michael M. v. Superior Court of Sonoma County (1981)Rostker v. Goldberg (1981)Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan (1982)Arizona Governing Committee v. Norris (1983) City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983)Newport News Shipbuilding &Dry Dock Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1983)Planned Parenthood Assn. of Kansas City, Mo., Inc. v. Ashcroft (1983)Hishon v. King &Spalding (1984)Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986)Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians &Gynecologists (1986)California Federal S. and L. Ass′n v. Guerra (1987)Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, California (1987) Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989)Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990)Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1990)Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls, Inc. (1991)Rust v. Sullivan (1991)Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools (1992)Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992)Bray v. Alexandria Women′s Health Center (1993)Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., (1993)J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B. (1994)Madsen v. Women′s Health Center, Inc. (1994)National Organization for Women, Inc. v. Scheidler (1994)United States v. Virginia (1996)Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1997)Virginia v. United States (1997)Burlington Industries v. Ellerth (1998)Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (1998)Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District (1998)Lorelyn Penero Miller v. Madeleine K. Albright (1998)Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services (1998)Davis v. Monroe County School Board (1999)
The Agitators by
An LA Times Best Book of the Year, Christopher Award Winner, and Chautauqua Prize Finalist! "Engrossing... examines the major events of the mid 19th century through the lives of three key figures in the abolitionist and women's rights movements." --Smithsonian From the executive editor of The New Yorker, a riveting, provocative, and revelatory history of abolition and women's rights, told through the story of three women--Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright--in the years before, during and after the Civil War. "The Agitators tells the story of America before the Civil War through the lives of three women who advocated for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights as the country split apart. Harriet Tubman, Martha Coffin Wright, and Frances A. Seward are the examples we need right now--another time of divisiveness and dissension over our nation's purpose 'to form a more perfect union.'" --Hillary Rodham Clinton In the 1850s, Harriet Tubman, strategically brilliant and uncannily prescient, rescued some seventy enslaved people from Maryland's Eastern Shore and shepherded them north along the underground railroad. One of her regular stops was Auburn, New York, where she entrusted passengers to Martha Coffin Wright, a Quaker mother of seven, and Frances A. Seward, the wife of William H. Seward, who served over the years as governor, senator, and secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army in South Carolina as a nurse and spy, and took part in a spectacular river raid in which she helped to liberate 750 slaves from several rice plantations. Wright, a "dangerous woman" in the eyes of her neighbors, worked side by side with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to organize women's rights and anti-slavery conventions across New York State, braving hecklers and mobs when she spoke. Frances Seward, the most conventional of the three friends, hid her radicalism in public, while privately acting as a political adviser to her husband, pressing him to persuade President Lincoln to move immediately on emancipation. The Agitators opens in the 1820s, when Tubman is enslaved and Wright and Seward are young homemakers bound by law and tradition, and ends after the war. Many of the most prominent figures of the era--Lincoln, William H. Seward, Frederick Douglass, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison--are seen through the discerning eyes of the protagonists. So are the most explosive political debates: about the civil rights of African Americans and women, about the enlistment of Black troops, and about opposing interpretations of the Constitution. Through richly detailed letters from the time and exhaustive research, Wickenden traces the second American revolution these women fought to bring about, the toll it took on their families, and its lasting effects on the country. Riveting and profoundly relevant to our own time, The Agitators brings a vibrant, original voice to this transformative period in our history.
The Highest Glass Ceiling by
In The Highest Glass Ceiling, best-selling historian Ellen Fitzpatrick tells the story of three remarkable women who set their sights on the American presidency. Victoria Woodhull (1872), Margaret Chase Smith (1964), and Shirley Chisholm (1972) each challenged persistent barriers confronted by women presidential candidates. Their quest illuminates today's political landscape, showing that Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign belongs to a much longer, arduous, and dramatic journey. The tale begins during Reconstruction when the radical Woodhull became the first woman to seek the presidency. Although women could not yet vote, Woodhull boldly staked her claim to the White House, believing she might thereby advance women's equality. Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith came into political office through the "widow's mandate." Among the most admired women in public life when she launched her 1964 campaign, she soon confronted prejudice that she was too old (at 66) and too female to be a creditable presidential candidate. She nonetheless became the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for President by a major party. Democratic Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ignored what some openly described as the twin disqualifications of race and gender in her spirited 1972 presidential campaign. She ran all the way to the Democratic convention, inspiring diverse followers and angering opponents, including members of the Nixon administration who sought to derail her candidacy. As The Highest Glass Ceiling reveals, women's pursuit of the Oval Office, then and now, has involved myriad forms of influence, opposition, and intrigue.
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by
Mary Wollstonecraft's visionary treatise, originally published in 1792, was the first book to present women's rights as an issue of universal human rights. Ideal for coursework and classroom study, this comprehensive edition of Wollstonecraft's groundbreaking feminist argument includes illuminating essays by leading scholars that highlight the author's significant contributions to modern political philosophy, making a powerful case for her as one of the most substantive political thinkers of the Enlightenment era. No other scholarly work to date has examined as closely both the ideological moorings and the enduring legacy of Wollstonecraft's courageous discourse.
The Feminist Revolution by
Explores the global history and contributions of the feminist revolution. The Feminist Revolution offers an overview of women's struggle for equal rights in the late twentieth century. Beginning with the auspicious founding of the National Organization for Women in 1966, at a time when women across the world were mobilizing individually and collectively in the fight to assert their independence and establish their rights in society, the book traces a path through political campaigns, protests, the formation of women's publishing houses and groundbreaking magazines, and other events that shaped women's history. It examines women's determination to free themselves from definition by male culture, wanting not only to "take back the night" but also to reclaim their bodies, their minds, and their cultural identity. It demonstrates as well that the feminist revolution was enacted by women from all backgrounds, of every color, and of all ages and that it took place in the home, in workplaces, and on the streets of every major town and city. This sweeping overview of the key decades in the feminist revolution also brings together for the first time many of these women's own unpublished stories, which together offer tribute to the daring, humor, and creative spirit of its participants.
Wonder Woman by
A remarkable exploration of Wonder Woman's creation, mysterious identity, and evolution-and her extraordinary impact on her legions of fans. For generations, Wonder Woman has been a symbol of equality and female empowerment, her complex saga deeply rooted within the feminist movement. A staple of the comic book industry, she is arguably the best-known female superhero of all time. In Wonder Woman: Warrior, Disrupter, Feminist Icon, Regina Luttrell details this legendary superhero's origins, history, and evolution, from an ambassador of peace and love to the fiercest warrior in the DC Universe. Luttrell reveals how Wonder Woman's journeys are a reflection of each wave within the feminist movement and how her impact on culture and society continues to be felt today. Wonder Woman has become the epitome of technological sophistication, globalization, and modern-day feminism. She is truly a warrior, a disrupter, and a feminist icon. Luttrell's fascinating history includes the perspectives of famed feminist Gloria Steinem in her essay "Wonder Woman," as well as personal interviews with creator William Moulton Marson's surviving family members. Featuring a captivating examination of the oft-overlooked contributions of Marston's life partners and inspirations Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne, Wonder Woman is an incredible, in-depth exploration of this iconic feminist superhero.
Finding Feminism by
The contemporary tactics of millennial feminists who are part of an active movement for social change In 2014, after a young man murdered six students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and then killed himself, the news provoked an eye-opening surge of feminist activism. Fueled by the wide circulation of the killer's hateful manifesto and his desire to exact "revenge" upon young women, feminists online and offline around the world clamored for a halt to such acts of misogyny. Despite the widespread belief that feminism is out-of-style or dead, this mobilization of young women fighting against gender oppression was overwhelming. In Finding Feminism, Alison Dahl Crossley analyzes feminist activists at three different U.S. colleges, revealing that feminism is alive on campuses, but is complex, nuanced, and context-dependent. Young feminists are carrying the torch of the movement, despite a climate that is not always receptive to their claims. These feminists are engaged in social justice organizing in unexpected contexts and spaces, such as multicultural sororities, student government, and online. Sharing personal stories of their everyday experiences with inequality, the young women in Finding Feminism employ both traditional and innovative feminist tactics. They use the Internet and social media as a tool for their activism--what Alison Dahl Crossley calls 'Facebook Feminism.' The university, as an institution, simultaneously aids and constrains their fight for gender equality. Offering a stunning and hopeful portrait of today's young feminist leaders, Finding Feminism provides insight into the contemporary feminist movement in America.
Women's Human Rights by
Women's Human Rights: Seeking Gender Justice in a Globalising Age explores the emergence of transnational, UN-oriented, feminist advocacy for womens human rights, especially over the past three decades. It identifies the main feminist influences that have shaped the movement liberal, radical, third world and cosmopolitan and exposes how the Western, legalist, state-centric, and liberal biases of mainstream human rights discourse impede the realisation of human rights in womens lives everywhere. The book traces the evolution of the womens human rights movement through an examination of its key issues, debates, and practical interventions in international law and policy arenas. This includes efforts to: Develop global gender equality norms via the UN Womens Convention Frame violence against women as a human rights issue Address gender-based crimes in conflict situations, include women in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction, and challenge new forms of militarism Highlight the gendered human rights dimensions of widening inequalities in a context of neo-liberal globalisation Develop human rights responses to anti-feminist fundamentalist movements with a focus on reproductive and sexual rights Ultimately, Women's Human Rights reaffirms a commitment to critically reinterpreted universal human rights principles and demonstrates the vital role that bottom-up, transnational movements play in making them a reality in women's lives.
Women's Rights in the United States by
A comprehensive encyclopedia tracing the history of the women's rights movement in the United States from the American Revolution to the present day. Few realize that the origin of the discussion on women's rights emerged out of the anti-slavery movement of the 19th century, and that suffragists were active in the peace and labor movements long after the right to vote was granted. Thus began the confluence of activism in our country, where the rights of women both followed--and led--the social and political discourse in America. Through 4 volumes and more than 800 entries, editor Tiffany K. Wayne, with advising editor Lois Banner, examine the issues, people, and events of women's activism, from the early period of American history to the present time. This comprehensive reference not only traces the historical evolution of the movement, but also covers current issues affecting women, such as reproductive freedom, political participation, pay equity, violence against women, and gay civil rights. Offers informed, critical insights and perspectives from editor Tiffany K. Wayne; advising editor Lois Banner, noted author, professor, historian, and feminist; and expert contributors Comprises more than 800 entries in four volumes on the people, organizations, events, legislation, and primary documents impacting gender relations in the United States Supplies valuable content for librarians' events and programming for Women's History Month each March Provides listings of U.S. court cases regarding women's rights chronologically organized by major time periods Aligns with high school and college curricula in offering the experiences of American women Includes coverage of current and ongoing issues related to women's civil and political equality in the 21st century
Women and Politics by
The second volume in the New Directions in Political Behavior series, Women and Politics brings two perspectives on equality for women to the forefront: the legal doctrine, emphasizing gender neutrality; and the fairness doctrine, recognizing the differences between men and women. In-depth analysis combined with a clear presentation of theory and history motivates students to think critically about the challenges faced by women, past and present.
Our Bodies, Our Crimes by
Winner of the 2010 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association; Sex and Gender Section 2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title An important work documenting how the criminal justice system polices women's reproductive capacity The intense policing of women's reproductive capacity places women's health and human rights in great peril. Poor women are pressured to undergo sterilization. Women addicted to illicit drugs risk arrest for carrying their pregnancies to term. Courts, child welfare, and law enforcement agencies fail to recognize the efforts of battered and incarcerated women to care for their children. Pregnant inmates are subject to inhumane practices such as shackling during labor and poor prenatal care. And decades after Roe, the criminalization of certain procedures and regulation of abortion providers still obstruct women's access to safe and private abortions. In this important work, Jeanne Flavin looks beyond abortion to document how the law and the criminal justice system police women's rights to conceive, to be pregnant, and to raise their children. Through vivid and disturbing case studies, Flavin shows how the state seeks to establish what a "good woman" and "fit mother" should look like and whose reproduction is valued. With a stirring conclusion that calls for broad-based measures that strengthen women's economic position , choice-making, autonomy, sexual freedom, and health care, Our Bodies, Our Crimes is a battle cry for all women in their fight to be fully recognized as human beings. At its heart, this book is about the right of a woman to be a healthy and valued member of society independent of how or whether she reproduces.
Margaret Sanger by
Undoubtedly the most influential advocate for birth control even before the term existed, Margaret Sanger ignited a movement that has shaped our society to this day. Yet her star has waned. A frequent target of so-called family values activists, she has also been neglected by progressives, who cite her socialist leanings and purported belief in eugenics. In this captivating biography, the renowned feminist historian Jean H. Baker rescues Sanger from such critiques and restores her to the vaunted place in history she once held. Trained as a nurse, Sanger saw the dangers of unplanned pregnancy and pioneered the first family planning clinic, the forerunner to Planned Parenthood. The movement she started spread across the country, eventually becoming a vast international organization with her as its spokeswoman. Baker demonstrates that Sanger's staunch advocacy of women's privacy and freedom extended to her personal life as well: after abandoning the trappings of home and family for a globe-trotting life, she became notorious for the sheer number of her romantic entanglements. That she lived long enough to witness the advent of "free love" and the creation of the birth control pill--which finally made planned pregnancy a reality--is only fitting.
Inferior by
What science has gotten so shamefully wrong about women, and the fight, by both female and male scientists, to rewrite what we thought we knew For hundreds of years it was common sense: women were the inferior sex. Their bodies were weaker, their minds feebler, their role subservient. No less a scientist than Charles Darwin asserted that women were at a lower stage of evolution, and for decades, scientists--most of them male, of course--claimed to find evidence to support this. Whether looking at intelligence or emotion, cognition or behavior, science has continued to tell us that men and women are fundamentally different. Biologists claim that women are better suited to raising families or are, more gently, uniquely empathetic. Men, on the other hand, continue to be described as excelling at tasks that require logic, spatial reasoning, and motor skills. But a huge wave of research is now revealing an alternative version of what we thought we knew. The new woman revealed by this scientific data is as strong, strategic, and smart as anyone else. In Inferior, acclaimed science writer Angela Saini weaves together a fascinating--and sorely necessary--new science of women. As Saini takes readers on a journey to uncover science's failure to understand women, she finds that we're still living with the legacy of an establishment that's just beginning to recover from centuries of entrenched exclusion and prejudice. Sexist assumptions are stubbornly persistent: even in recent years, researchers have insisted that women are choosy and monogamous while men are naturally promiscuous, or that the way men's and women's brains are wired confirms long-discredited gender stereotypes. As Saini reveals, however, groundbreaking research is finally rediscovering women's bodies and minds. Inferior investigates the gender wars in biology, psychology, and anthropology, and delves into cutting-edge scientific studies to uncover a fascinating new portrait of women's brains, bodies, and role in human evolution.
Wheels of Change by
Take a lively look at women's history from aboard a bicycle, which granted women the freedom of mobility and helped empower women's liberation. Through vintage photographs, advertisements, cartoons, and songs, Wheels of Change transports young readers to bygone eras to see how women used the bicycle to improve their lives. Witty in tone and scrapbook-like in presentation, the book deftly covers early (and comical) objections, influence on fashion, and impact on social change inspired by the bicycle, which, according to Susan B. Anthony, "has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." NCSS--Notable Social Studies Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2012 School Library Journal Best Books of 2011 Finalist YALSA Excellence in Non Fiction for Young Adults SLJ's 100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2011 Amelia Bloomer List
Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement by
In a quiet town of Seneca Falls, New York, over the course of two days in July, 1848, a small group of women and men, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, held a convention that would launch the woman's rights movement and change the course of history. The implications of that remarkable convention would be felt around the world and indeed are still being felt today. In Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Woman's Rights Movement, the latest contribution to Oxford's acclaimed Pivotal Moments in American History series, Sally McMillen unpacks, for the first time, the full significance of that revolutionary convention and the enormous changes it produced. The book covers 50 years of women's activism, from 1840-1890, focusing on four extraordinary figures--Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony. McMillen tells the stories of their lives, how they came to take up the cause of women's rights, the astonishing advances they made during their lifetimes, and the lasting and transformative effects of the work they did. At the convention they asserted full equality with men, argued for greater legal rights, greater professional and education opportunities, and the right to vote--ideas considered wildly radical at the time. Indeed, looking back at the convention two years later, Anthony called it "the grandest and greatest reform of all time--and destined to be thus regarded by the future historian." In this lively and warmly written study, Sally McMillen may well be the future historian Anthony was hoping to find. A vibrant portrait of a major turning point in American women's history, and in human history, this book is essential reading for anyone wishing to fully understand the origins of the woman's rights movement.
A House Full of Females by
stunning and sure-to-be controversial book that pieces together, through more than two dozen nineteenth-century diaries, letters, albums, minute-books, and quilts left by first-generation Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, the never-before-told story of the earliest days of the women of Mormon "plural marriage," whose right to vote in the state of Utah was given to them by a Mormon-dominated legislature as an outgrowth of polygamy in 1870, fifty years ahead of the vote nationally ratified by Congress, and who became political actors in spite of, or because of, their marital arrangements. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, writing of this small group of Mormon women who've previously been seen as mere names and dates, has brilliantly reconstructed these textured, complex lives to give us a fulsome portrait of who these women were and of their "sex radicalism"-the idea that a woman should choose when and with whom to bear children.
Social Movements by
2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title From Eleanor Roosevelt to feminist icon Gloria Steinem to HIV/AIDS activist Dazon Dixon Diallo, women have assumed leadership roles in struggles for social justice. How did these remarkable women ascend to positions of influence? And once in power, what leadership strategies did they use to deal with various challenges? Junctures in Women's Leadership: Social Movements explores these questions by introducing twelve women who have spearheaded a wide array of social movements that span the 1940s to the present, working for indigenous peoples' rights, gender equality, reproductive rights, labor advocacy, environmental justice, and other causes. The women profiled here work in a variety of arenas across the globe: Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, New York City labor organizer Bhairavi Desai, women's rights leader Charlotte Bunch, feminist poet Audre Lorde, civil rights activists Daisy Bates and Aileen Clarke Hernandez, Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai, Nicaraguan revolutionary Mirna Cunningham, and South African public prosecutor Thuli Madonsela. What unites them all is the way these women made sacrifices, asked critical questions, challenged injustice, and exhibited the will to act in the face of often-harsh criticism and violence. The case studies in Junctures in Women's Leadership: Social Movements demonstrate the diversity of ways that women around the world have practiced leadership, in many instances overcoming rigid cultural expectations about gender. Moreover, the cases provide a unique window into the ways that women leaders make decisions at moments of struggle and historical change.
How to Win at Feminism by
Feminism is all about demanding equality and learning to love yourself. But not too much - men hate that! From the writers of Reductress, the subversive, satirical women's magazine read by over 2.5 million visitors a month, comes HOW TO WIN AT FEMINISM: The Definitive Guide to Having It All--And Then Some! This ultimate guide to winning feminism--filled with four-color illustrations, bold graphics, and hilarious photos--teaches readers how to battle the patriarchy better than everybody else. From the herstory of feminism to how to apologize for having it all, readers will learn how to be a feminist at work and at home with tips that include: How to Do More with 33 Cents Less How to Be Sex-Positive Even When You're Bloated How to Love Your Body Even Though Hers Is Better The 9 Circles of Hell for Women Who Don't Help Other Women Designer Handbags to Hold All Your Feminism How to Get Catcalled For Your Personality HOW TO WIN AT FEMINISM is a fresh take on women's rights through the lens of the funniest women in comedy today. With this book as your wo-manual, you'll shatter that glass ceiling once and for all (but you'll still need to clean up the mess).
The Riot Grrrl Collection by
For the past two decades, young women (and men) have found their way to feminism through Riot Grrrl - more than a genre, but a movement in its own right. Against the backdrop of the culture wars and before the rise of the Internet or desktop publishing, the 'zine and music culture of the Riot Grrrl movement empowered young women to speak out against sexism and oppression. The movement created a powerful new force of liberation and unity within and outside of the women's movement. This is a collection of the original material of the Riot Grrrl movement.