March is Women's History Month. This guide will introduce you to the history, contributions, and resources for exploring more about women's vital role in history.
FACES by Caitlin Pazmino, Oil Paint. P'an Ku, 56.1
WOMEN IN ARTS & LITERATURE
The Future Is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. le Guin by Lisa Yaszek (Editor)Space-opera heroines, gender-bending aliens, post-apocalyptic pregnancies, changeling children, interplanetary battles of the sexes, and much more- a groundbreaking new collection of classic American science fiction by women from the 1920s to the 1960s SF-expert Lisa Yaszek presents the biggest and best survey of the female tradition in American science fiction ever published, a thrilling collection of twenty-five classic tales. From Pulp Era pioneers to New Wave experimentalists, here are over two dozen brilliant writers ripe for discovery and rediscovery, including Leslie F. Stone, Judith Merril, Leigh Brackett, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, James Tiptree Jr., and Ursula K. Le Guin. Imagining strange worlds and unexpected futures, looking into and beyond new technologies and scientific discoveries, in utopian fantasies and tales of cosmic horror, these women created and shaped speculative fiction as surely as their male counterparts. Their provocative, mind-blowing stories combine to form a thrilling multidimensional voyage of literary-feminist exploration and recovery. CONTENTS Introduction by LISA YASZEK CLARE WINGER HARRISThe Miracle of the Lily (1928) LESLIE F. STONEThe Conquest of Gola (1931) C. L. MOOREThe Black God's Kiss (1934) LESLIE PERRISpace Episode (1941) JUDITH MERRILThat Only a Mother (1948) WILMAR H. SHIRASIn Hiding (1948) KATHERINE MACLEANContagion (1950) MARGARET ST. CLAIRThe Inhabited Men (1951) ZENNA HENDERSONArarat (1952) ANDREW NORTHAll Cats Are Gray (1953) ALICE ELEANOR JONESCreated He Them (1955) MILDRED CLINGERMANMr. Sakrison's Halt (1956) LEIGH BRACKETTAll the Colors of the Rainbow (1957) CAROL EMSHWILLERPelt (1958) ROSEL GEORGE BROWNCar Pool (1959) ELISABETH MANN BORGESEFor Sale, Reasonable (1959) DORIS PITKIN BUCKBirth of a Gardner (1961) ALICE GLASERThe Tunnel Ahead (1961) KIT REEDThe New You (1962) JOHN JAY WELLS & MARION ZIMMER BRADLEYAnother Rib (1963) SONYA DORMANWhen I Was Miss Dow (1966) KATE WILHELMBaby, You Were Great (1967) JOANNA RUSSThe Barbarian (1968) JAMES TIPTREE JR.The Last Flight of Dr. Ain (1969) URSULA K. LE GUINNine Lives (1969)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9781598535808
Publication Date: 2018-10-09
Best Actress by Stephen Tapert; Roxane Gay (Foreword by)Ingrid Bergman. Audrey Hepburn. Elizabeth Taylor. Jane Fonda. Meryl Streep. The list of women who have won the coveted and legendary Academy Award for Best Actress is long and varied. Through this illustrious roster we can trace the history of women in Hollywood, from the rise of Mary Pickford in the early 20th century to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements of today, which have galvanized women across the world to speak out for equal pay, respect, power, and opportunity. This lavishly illustrated coffee table book offers a vital examination of the first 75 women to have won the Best Actress Oscar over the span of 90 years. From inaugural recipient Janet Gaynor to Frances McDormand's 2018 acceptance speech that assertively brought women to the forefront, Best Actress: The History of Oscar®-Winning Women serves to promote a new appreciation for the cinematic roles these women won for, as well as the real-life roles many of them played - and still play - in advancing women's rights and equality. Stories range from Bette Davis' groundbreaking battle against the studio system; to the cutting-edge wardrobes of Katharine Hepburn, Diane Keaton and Cher; to the historical significance of Halle Berry's victory; to the awareness raised around sexual violence by the performances of Jodie Foster, Brie Larson, and others. Showcasing a dazzling collection of 200 photographs, many of which have never before been seen or published, Best Actress honors the legacies of these revered and extraordinary women while scrutinizing the roadblocks that they continue to overcome.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 1978808054
Publication Date: 2019-12-10
Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena KellyA brilliant, illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen that makes clear how Austen has been misread for the past two centuries and that shows us how she intended her books to be read, revealing, as well, how subversive and daring--how truly radical--a writer she was. In this fascinating, revelatory work, Helena Kelly--dazzling Jane Austen authority--looks past the grand houses, the pretty young women, past the demure drawing room dramas and witty commentary on the narrow social worlds of her time that became the hallmark of Austen's work to bring to light the serious, ambitious, deeply subversive nature of this beloved writer. Kelly illuminates the radical subjects--slavery, poverty, feminism, the Church, evolution, among them--considered treasonous at the time, that Austen deftly explored in the six novels that have come to embody an age. The author reveals just how in the novels we find the real Jane Austen: a clever, clear-sighted woman "of information," fully aware of what was going on in the world and sure about what she thought of it. We see a writer who understood that the novel--until then seen as mindless "trash"--could be a great art form and who, perhaps more than any other writer up to that time, imbued it with its particular greatness.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9781524732103
Publication Date: 2017-05-02
In Her Voice by Melissa SilversteinIn Her Voice is the first book that takes the words and experiences of a diverse group of celebrated women film directors and puts their voices front and center. This unique volume of interviews presents more than 40 feature and documentary directors from around the world, including Debra Granik (Winter's Bone), Courtney Hunt (Frozen River), Callie Khouri (Mad Money), Sally Potter (Rage), Lone Scherfig (An Education) and Lynn Shelton (Humpday). In Her Voice is a call to arms and a reminder to movie lovers, students and the entertainment industry about the significance of women directors and their growing, integral position in the world of filmmaking. It is also a message for women directors to not give up?--your voice counts. Your vision matters.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 1504024699
Publication Date: 2015-09-01
A Jury of Her Peers by Elaine ShowalterA Jury of Her Peers is an unprecedented literary landmark: the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to 2000. In a narrative of immense scope and fascination, brimming with Elaine Showalter's characteristic wit and incisive opinions, we are introduced to more than 250 female writers. These include not only famous and expected names (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O'Connor, Gwendolyn Brooks, Grace Paley, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult among them), but also many who were once successful and acclaimed yet now are little known, from the early American best-selling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Susan Glaspell. Showalter shows how these writers both the enduring stars and the ones left behind by the canon were connected to one another and to their times. She believes it is high time to fully integrate the contributions of women into our American literary heritage, and she undertakes the task with brilliance and flair, making the case for the unfairly overlooked and putting the overrated firmly in their place. Whether or not readers agree with the book's roster of writers, A Jury of Her Peers is an irresistible invitation to join the debate, to discover long-lost great writers, and to return to familiar titles with a deeper appreciation. Itis a monumental work that will greatly enrich our understanding of American literary history and culture.
Call Number: PS147 .S46 2009
ISBN: 9781400041237
Publication Date: 2009-02-24
Remembered Rapture by Bell HooksDrawing on her experiences as a professor of English and the author of sixteen highly acclaimed books, critic bell hooks presents an insightful collection of essays on the process and politics of writing. Centrally, many of the essays raise provocative questions about the feminist movement and women's writing--the kinds of voices women have established in the wake of the demand for more writing by women, the politics of confession and the type of standards being set for women writers by critics. Several essays explore hooks's personal relationship to publishing, explaining the impact success has had on her work as she highlights her movement from writing in relative isolation to writing in New York City amidst the publishing industry, in a world full of writers. Other essays focus on the dearth of nonfiction writing by Black women, contrasting that with the rise in their published fiction. More general essays focus on writing as healing, raising issues about the function of writing; the extent to which readers inspire writers; and how race, ger, and class can determine one's relationship to words. Remembered Rapture offers a fresh and lively discussion of living with words.
Rosalind Franklin by Tom StreissguthWomen scientists have made key contributions to the pursuit of science and some of the most important discoveries of all time. In Rosalind Franklin, learn how the British biophysicist and X-ray expert chose to pursue a career in science and helped discover the structure of DNA. Features include a timeline, a glossary, essential facts, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9781532110429
Publication Date: 2017-09-01
Hedy's Folly by Richard RhodesWhat do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary invention based on the rapid switching of communications signals among a spread of different frequencies. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today. Only a writer of Richard Rhodes's caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II; she brought with her not only her theatrical talent but also a gift for technical innovation. An introduction to Antheil at a Hollywood dinner table culminated in a U.S. patent for a jam- proof radio guidance system for torpedoes--the unlikely duo's gift to the U.S. war effort. What other book brings together 1920s Paris, player pianos, Nazi weaponry, and digital wireless into one satisfying whole? In its juxtaposition of Hollywood glamour with the reality of a brutal war, Hedy's Folly is a riveting book about unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.
Call Number: PN2287.L24 R54 2011
ISBN: 9780385534383
Publication Date: 2011-11-29
Chien-Shung Wu by Richard HammondBorn in China in 1912, Chien-shiung Wu came to the United States to study physics at the University of California at Berkeley. A meticulous researcher, she joined her former professor, Dr. Oppenheimer, on the Manhattan Project to find ways to produce radioactive uranium for the atomic bomb and improve radioactive detectors. Establishing herself as a world-renowned experimentalist in nuclear physics, Wu was asked by two top theoretical physicists, Tsung-dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, to see if a 'fundamental truth' of physics was wrong. Her confirmation of nonparity in weak forces - that is, that right and left symmetry do not exist when atoms are in a weakened, less stable state - rocked the physics world. Until that point, physicists had assumed that parity - equality between the left and right sides of an atom - existed in all states. Madame Wu, as she was called, was one of the most distinguished women physicists of her time, and served as the first female president of the American Physical Society in the 1970s.
Call Number: QC774.W8 H36 2010
ISBN: 9780816061778
Publication Date: 2009-10-30
The Mercury 13 by Martha Ackmann; Lynn Sherr (Foreword by)In 1961, just as NASA launched its first man into space, a group of women underwent secret testing in the hopes of becoming America’s first female astronauts. They passed the same battery of tests at the legendary Lovelace Foundation as did the Mercury 7 astronauts, but they were summarily dismissed by the boys’ club at NASA and on Capitol Hill. The USSR sent its first woman into space in 1963; the United States did not follow suit for another twenty years. For the first time, Martha Ackmann tells the story of the dramatic events surrounding these thirteen remarkable women, all crackerjack pilots and patriots who sometimes sacrificed jobs and marriages for a chance to participate in America’s space race against the Soviet Union. In addition to talking extensively to these women, Ackmann interviewed Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and others at NASA and in the White House with firsthand knowledge of the program, and includes here never-before-seen photographs of the Mercury 13 passing their Lovelace tests. Despite the crushing disappointment of watching their dreams being derailed, the Mercury 13 went on to extraordinary achievement in their lives: Jerrie Cobb, who began flying when she was so small she had to sit on pillows to see out of the cockpit, dedicated her life to flying solo missions to the Amazon rain forest; Wally Funk, who talked her way into the Lovelace trials, went on to become one of the first female FAA investigators; Janey Hart, mother of eight and, at age forty, the oldest astronaut candidate, had the political savvy to steer the women through congressional hearings and later helped found the National Organization for Women. A provocative tribute to these extraordinary women, The Mercury 13 is an unforgettable story of determination, resilience, and inextinguishable hope. From the Hardcover edition.
Call Number: TL789.85.A1 A28 2003
ISBN: 0375507442
Publication Date: 2003-05-27
Sisters in Science by Duchess Harris JD; Alexis BurlingAuthor Diann Jordan took a journey to find out what inspired and daunted black women in their desire to become scientists in America. Letting 18 prominent black women scientists talk for themselves, Sisters in Science becomes an oral history stretching across decades and disciplines and desires. From Yvonne Clark, the first black woman to be awarded a B.S. in mechanical engineering to Georgia Dunston, a microbiologist who is researching the genetic code for her race, to Shirley Jackson, whose aspiration led to the presidency of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Jordan has created a significant record of women who persevered to become firsts in many of their fields. It all began for Jordan when she was asked to give a presentation on black women scientists. She found little information and little help. After almost nine years of work, the stories of black women scientists can finally be told.
Call Number: Q141 .S556 2006
ISBN: 9781557533869
Publication Date: 2006-03-07
WOMEN IN POLITICS
Beautiful Exile by Carl RollysonMartha Gellhorn reported on wars from Spain in the 1930s to Panama in the 1980s, and was a voice filled with outrage against the perfidy of governments and the posing of phonies. She was married to Hemingway and Colette's stepson.
Call Number: PS3513.E46 Z84 2001
ISBN: 1854107240
Publication Date: 2010-01-16
Upon Her Shoulders by Mary Ann Jacobs (Editor); Cherry Beasley (Editor); Ulrike Wiethaus (Editor)A vivid history of America's biggest, baddest prison system and how it came to lead the nation's punitive revolution In the prison business, all roads lead to Texas. The most locked-down state in the nation has led the way in criminal justice severity, from assembly-line executions to isolation supermaxes, from prison privatization to sentencing juveniles as adults. Texas Tough, a sweeping history of American imprisonment from the days of slavery to the present, shows how a plantation-based penal system once dismissed as barbaric became the national template.Drawing on convict accounts, official records, and interviews with prisoners, guards, and lawmakers, historian Robert Perkinson reveals the Southern roots of our present-day prison colossus. While conventional histories emphasize the North's rehabilitative approach, he shows how the retributive and profit-driven regime of the South ultimately triumphed. Most provocatively, he argues that just as convict leasing and segregation emerged in response to Reconstruction, so today's massincarceration, with its vast racial disparities, must be seen as a backlash against civil rights.Illuminating for the first time the origins of America's prison juggernaut, Texas Tough points toward a more just and humane future.
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9781949467819
Publication Date: 2022-06-07
Jane Addams by Louise W. KnightIn this landmark biography, Jane Addams becomes America's most admiredand most hated woman--and wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a leading statesperson in an era when few imagined such possibilities for women. In this fresh interpretation, the first full biography of Addams in nearly forty years, Louise W. Knight shows Addams's boldness, creativity, and tenacity as she sought ways to put the ideals of democracy into action. Starting in Chicago as a co-founder of the nation's first settlement house, Hull House--a community center where people of all classes and ethnicities could gather--Addams became a grassroots organizer and a partner of trade unionists, women, immigrants, and African Americans seeking social justice. In time she emerged as a progressive political force; an advocate for women's suffrage; an advisor to presidents; a co-founder of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP; and a leader for international peace. Written as a fast-paced narrative, Jane Addams traces how one woman worked with others to make a difference in the world.
Call Number: HV28.A35 K65 2010
ISBN: 9780393071658
Publication Date: 2010-09-06
Women of the U. S. Congress by Isobel V. MorinIncludes Jeannette Rankin, Margaret Chase Smith, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, and Barbara Mikulski.
Call Number: E840.6 .M66 1994
ISBN: 1881508129
Publication Date: 1996-01-01
Elizabeth and Mary by Jane DunnThe first dual biography of two of the world’s most remarkable women—Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots—by one of Britain’s “best biographers” (The Sunday Times). In a rich and riveting narrative, Jane Dunn reveals the extraordinary rivalry between the regal cousins. It is the story of two queens ruling on one island, each with a claim to the throne of England, each embodying dramatically opposing qualities of character, ideals of womanliness (and views of sexuality) and divinely ordained kingship. As regnant queens in an overwhelmingly masculine world, they were deplored for their femaleness, compared unfavorably with each other and courted by the same men. By placing their dynamic and ever-changing relationship at the center of the book, Dunn illuminates their differences. Elizabeth, inheriting a weak, divided country coveted by all the Catholic monarchs of Europe, is revolutionary in her insistence on ruling alone and inspired in her use of celibacy as a political tool—yet also possessed of a deeply feeling nature. Mary is not the romantic victim of history but a courageous adventurer with a reckless heart and a magnetic influence over men and women alike. Vengeful against her enemies and the more ruthless of the two queens, she is untroubled by plotting Elizabeth’s murder. Elizabeth, however, is driven to anguish at finally having to sanction Mary’s death for treason. Working almost exclusively from contemporary letters and writings, Dunn explores their symbiotic, though never face-to-face, relationship and the power struggle that raged between them. A story of sex, power and politics, of a rivalry unparalleled in the pages of English history, of two charismatic women—told in a masterful double biography.
Call Number: DA355 .D86 2004
ISBN: 9780375408984
Publication Date: 2004-01-06
The Lady Queen by Nancy GoldstoneThe riveting history of a beautiful queen, a shocking murder, a papal trial--and a reign as triumphant as any in the Middle A ges. On March 15, 1348, Joanna I , Queen of Naples, stood trial for her life before the Pope and his court in Avignon. She was twenty-two years old. Her cousin and husband, Prince Andrew of Hungary, had recently been murdered, and Joanna was the chief suspect. Determined to defend herself--Joanna won her acquittal against enormous odds. Returning to Naples, she ruled over one of Europe's most prestigious courts for more than thirty years--until she was herself murdered. As courageous as Eleanor of Aquitaine, as astute and determined as Elizabeth I of England, Joanna was the only female monarch in her time to rule in her own name. She was notorious: The taint of her husband's death never quite left her. But she was also widely admired: Dedicated to the welfare of her subjects and realm, she reduced crime, built hospitals and churches, and encouraged the licensing of women physicians. While a procession of the most important artists and writers of her day found patronage at her glittering court, the turmoil of her times swirled around her: war, plague, intrigue, and the treachery that would, ultimately, bring her down. As she did in her acclaimed Four Queens, Nancy Goldstone takes us back to the turbulent and colorful Middle Ages, and with skill and passion brings fully to life one of history's most remarkable women. Her research is impeccable, her eye for detail unerring, and in The Lady Queen she paints a captivating portrait of medieval royalty in all its incandescent complexity.