Motherhood on the Wisconsin Frontier
Krueger, Lillian
Madison: State Historical Society 1951
Women in early Wisconsin.
Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life
Labarge, Margaret Wade
Beacon 1986
Describes the daily life of noblewomen, nuns, and peasants in feudal England and Europe. Looks at the treatment of lepers, beggars, prostitutes, and criminals, and offers brief profiles of prominent medieval women. Women in Medieval history. Women in the Middle Ages.
Contents: Ch. 1. The Precursors — Ch. 2. The Mould for Medieval Women — Ch. 3. Women who Ruled: Queens — Ch. 4. Women who Ruled: Noble Ladies — Ch. 5. Women who Prayed: Nuns and Beguines — Ch. 6. Women who Prayed: Recluses and Mystics — Ch. 7. Women who Toiled: Townswomen and Peasants — Ch. 8. Women as Healers and Nurses — Ch. 9. Women on the Fringe — Ch. 10. Women’s Contributions to Medieval Culture.
I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women who Changed America
Lanker, Brian and Summers, Barbara
Stewart, Tabori & Chang 1989
Featuring a foreword by Maya Angelou, a newly revised and updated tenth anniversary edition celebrates the achievements of an extraordinary group of African-American women who have had an ongoing effect on our world, from Septima Clark and Barbara Jordan to Clara McBride and Betty Shabazz.
Contents: Rosa Parks — Janet Collins — Eva Jessye — Bertha Knox Gilkey — Alice Walker — Cicely Tyson — Katherine Dunham — Barbara Jordan — Toni Morrison — Althea T.L. Simmons — Maxine Waters — Johnnetta Betsch Cole — Norma Merrick Sklarek — Gwendolyn Brooks — Leontyne Price — Althea Gibson — Ernestine Anderson — Unita Blackwell — Jewel Plummer Cobb — Clara McBride Hale — Ellen Stewart — Beah Richards — Carrie Saxon Perry — Charlayne Hunter-Gault — Constance Baker Motley — Oprah Winfrey — Sonia Sanchez — Georgia Montgomery Davis Powers — Daisy Bates — Marva Nettles Collins — Lena Horne — Willie Mae Ford Smith — Coretta Scott King — Jewell Jackson McCabe — Mary Frances Berry — Ruby Middleton Forsythe — Jean Blackwell Hutson — Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Johnnie Tillmon — Myrlie Evers — Faye Wattleton — Angela Yvonne Davis — Betty Shabazz — Queen Mother Audley Moore — Harriet Elizabeth Byrd — Shirley Chisholm — Wyomia Tyus — Ruby Dee — Leontine T.C. Kelly — Margaret Walker Alexander — Rachel Robinson — Gloria Dean Randle Scott — Marian Wright Edelman — Elizaeth Catlett — Jackie Torrence — Autherine Lucy — Alexa Canady — Yvonne Brathwaite Burke — Dorothy Irene Height — Sarah Vaughan — Josephine Riley Matthews — Niara Sudarkasa — Wilma Rudolph — Odetta — Cora Lee Johnson — Eleanor Holmes Norton — Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell — Sherian Grace Cadoria — Priscilla L. Williams — Leah Chase — Elizabeth Cotten — Marian Anderson — Winson and Dovie Hudson — Maya Angelou — Septima Poinsette Clark.
All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies
Leonard, Elizabeth D.
Norton 1999
Historian Elizabeth Leonard has combed archives, memoirs, and histories to unearth the stories of the hidden and forgotten women who risked their lives for the blue or the gray. These women spied for their cause, remained on the front lines as daughters of the regiments, and even dressed as men and enlisted under aliases to take up arms and fight as soldiers. Here are the stories of Belle Boyd, a proud Confederate loyalist and key player in Stonewall Jackson’s struggle to hold the Shenandoah Valley; army woman Annie Etheridge, whose four long years of courageous work on the field earned her a Kearney Cross for bravery; Sarah Emma Edmonds, who enlisted as “Franklin Thompson,” remained with her regiment as a much-respected soldier for two years, fighting at Fredricksburg and elsewhere; and many other courageous women.
Leonard investigates why these women chose unconventional ways to help their cause. In doing so, she gives us a striking portrait of the lives women led in the nineteenth century and of their ability to break through the traditional barriers of Victorian womanhood.
Young Medieval Women
Lewis, Katherine J. et al., eds.
St. Martin’s 1999
This study is based on the premise that the category of woman is too broad and needs to be broken down. It is only when other variables are introduced, refining the field of enquiry, that the historian is able to gain a real insight into the lives and experiences of medieval people.
Eight essays. Primarily looking at the 14th and 15th centuries in England, the studies cover prostitution, Joan of Arc, the representation of young women in the Malterer Embroidery, rape in medieval literature, queen-making during the Wars of the Roses, female wardship, virgin martyrs, and maidenhood as the “perfect age of a woman’s life.”
The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History – Free Books about Women’s History PDF
Mankiller, Wilma P.
Houghton Mifflin 1998
“The most inclusive book to date on U.S. women’s collective history! A landmark work, The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History, gathers together more than 400 articles to offer a diverse, rich, and often neglected panorama of the nation’s past. Written by more than 300 contributors, drawn from various areas of expertise, these narrative and interpretive entries “effectively cover five centuries of women’s experiences” (Bloomsbury Review). Here are articles on cowgirls and child care, on the daily lives of single women and the changing notions of motherhood, on the artistic contributions of women of color and the history of Jewish feminism. Wide-ranging in scope and wonderfully accessible, this unique resource reexamines with fresh clarity and brio the issues and concerns that color the lives of all women. Articles and their contributors include: African American Women, Darlene Clark Hine; Cult of Domesticity, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg; Fashion and Style, Lynn Yaeger; Jazz and Blues, Daphne Duval Harrison; Lesbians, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy; Native American Cultures, Clara Sue Kidwell; Picture Brides, Judy Yung; Salem Witchcraft Trials, Mary Beth Norton; Vietnam Era, Sara M. Evans.” -Publisher.
Articles Collection – Articles from 100 Years Ago on History
American Women’s History: A Student Companion
Matthews, Glenna
Oxford 2000
An encyclopedia of American women’s history, this comprehensive reference book features in-depth articles on trends (e.g. birthrates, suburban growth), social movements (civil rights, feminism), ideas and concepts (domesticity, consciousness-raising), institutions (Children’s Bureau, women in Congress), organizations (Girl Scouts of America, League of Women Voters), events (American Revolution), issues (abortion, Equal Rights Amendment), key legal cases (Roe v Wade, Muller v Oregon), laws and constitutional amendments, documents and publications (Ramona, Declaration of Sentiments), ethnic and social groups (African American women, Latinas), overviews (women’s health, women in music and literature), and biographies of notable American women. This Companion is a perfect supplement to The Young Oxford History of Women in the United States.
Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier
Peavy, Linda S. and Smith, Ursula
Smithmark 1996
“Pioneer Women provides a rare look at frontier life through the eyes of the pioneer women who settled the American West. Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith vividly describe the hardships such women endured journeying west and making homes and communities on the frontier. Their hopes and fears and, most of all, their courage in the face of adversity are revealed in excerpts from journals, letters, and oral histories. Illustrated with a fascinating collection of seldom-seen photographs, Pioneer Women reveals the faces as well as the voices of women who lived on the frontier.” -Publisher.
See our Newsweek PDF Back Issues 1933-2008
Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850
Pinchbeck, Ivy
1981
Part 1: The Employment Of Women In Agriculture – I Women In Agriculture In The Eighteenth Century – II The Agrarian Revolution – III The Appearance Of Women Day Labourers – IV Agricultural Depression And The Poor Law – V Rural Conditions In The Mid-Nineteenth Century.
Part II: Women In Industry And Trade – VI Textile Industries—The Domestic System – VII Textile Industries—The Spinners – VIII Textile Industries—The Handloom Weavers – IX Textile Industries—Factory Workers – X The Smaller Domestic Industries – XI Women’s Work In Mines And Metal Trades – XII Craftswomen And Business Women – XIII Conclusion – Appendix: Occupations Of Women In 1841.
Women in Ancient Egypt
Robins, Gay
Harvard University 1993
An idealized version of women appears everywhere in the art of ancient Egypt, but the true nature of these women’s lives has long remained hidden. Gay Robins’s book, gracefully written and copiously illustrated, cuts through the obscurity of the ages to show us what the archaeological riches of Egypt really say about how these women lived, both in the public eye and within the family.
The art and written records of the time present a fascinating puzzle. But how often has the evidence been interpreted, consciously or otherwise, from a male viewpoint? Robins conducts us through these sources with an archaeologist’s relish, stripping away layer after interpretive layer to expose the reality beneath. Here we see the everyday lives of women in the economic, legal, or domestic sphere, from the Early Dynastic Period almost 5,000 years ago to the conquest of Alexander in 332 BC. Within this kingdom ruled and run by men, women could still wield influence indirectly–and in some cases directly, when a woman took the position of king. The exceptional few who assumed real power appear here in colorful detail, alongside their more traditional counterparts. Robins examines the queens’ reputed divinity and takes a frank look at the practice of incest within Egypt’s dynasties. She shows us the special role of women in religious rites and offices, and assesses their depiction in Egyptian art as it portrays their position in society.
By drawing women back into the picture we have of ancient Egypt, this book opens a whole new perspective on one of world history’s most exotic and familiar cultures.
Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History – Free Books about Women’s History PDF
Rosenthal, Joel T., ed.
University of Georgia 1990
“Because the records of medieval society were written largely by men and about men, scholars have often assumed that the means for recovering a full picture of the women of that society are simply not available. As this book makes clear, however, the collections of medieval source material contain much more than initially meets the eye. The fifteen essays assembled in ‘Medieval Women and the Sources of Medieval History’ show that familiar sources can be read in new ways to uncover previously obscured information about the status and roles of women in the social, political, economic, and religious life of medieval Europe.” -Publisher.
Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient World
Salisbury, Joyce E.
ABC-CLIO 2001
Salisbury tells the stories of 150 women from the ancient world, ranging from the very famous, such as Cleopatra VII, immortalized by Hollywood, to the barely remembered, such as the Roman poet Nossis. Writing for a general audience, Salisbury begins by painting each woman into her historical context, then recounts each woman’s story, describing the choices she made as she looked for happiness, wealth, power, or well-being for herself and her family–stories much like our own.
Women, Work, and Family
Scott, Joan W. and Louse A. Tilly
1978
“First published in 1978, ‘Women, Work and Family’ became a classic of women’s history and is still the only synthetic text on the history of women’s work in England and France. It provides an excellent introduction to the changing roles and status of women in England and France from 1750 to the present. A large and interesting body of material (census lists, biographical and autobiographical material) is masterfully integrated to tell the story of women’s working lives and family relationships in pre-industrial, industrializing, and industrialized economies.” – Book cover.
Changing Lives: Women in European History since 1700
Smith, Bonnie G.
1989
“Unmatched in breadth and scope, Changing Lives is an exciting chronological narrative of women’s experience in Britain and continental Europe from the eighteenth century to the present. This comprehensive and authoritative book fills a great void by synthesizing the historical contributions of both ordinary and famous women—writers, artists, and social and political leaders. The author skillfully details women’s participation in major artistic, cultural, and scientific movements of the times as she integrates women’s experience into the broader currents of modern European social, economic, political, and intellectual history.” – Book cover.
Women of the French Revolution
Streissguth, Thomas
2005
A world overthrown : women of the aristocracy — The radical urban vanguard : laborers and market women of Paris — Women of the societies — Women writers — Peasants and villagers — Women and religion — Women soldiers.
Spirited Women: Gender, Religion, & Cultural Identity in the Nepal Himalaya – Women in History
Watkins, Joanne C.
Columbia University 1996
In the Himalayan highlands of northern Nepal, the small group of Tibetan Buddhists known as the Nyeshangte have maintained a gender egalitarian social organization over many years. Nyeshangte women own land, control household money, and have the right to initiate divorce. Most important, they participate equally with men in central social institutions: international trade and Buddhist ritual practice.
Spirited Women explores how the traditional culture of the Nyeshangte has confronted the changes brought about by modernization and the transition to a market economy, as the community has experienced a diaspora extending from the Himalayan highlands to such urban areas as Kathmandu, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Vintage and Audio Books
VINTAGE BOOKS – Women’s History
Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories – Books on Women in American History
Hospital Sketches
Alcott, Louisa May
Boston: Roberts 1885 Dewey Dec. 973.7
“Several years before Louisa May Alcott created “Little Women” (1868), her most well- known novel, she worked as a nurse at a soldiers’ hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. Drawing on that experience, Alcott wrote ‘Hospital Sketches’ (1863), a vivid account that offers rich insights into women’s wartime roles, the shocking conditions in soldiers’ hospitals, the lives of the soldiers themselves, and the racial prejudice of the time. Alice Fahs’s introduction supplies biographical, literary, and historical context for Alcott’s work.” -Publisher.
The Women of the South in War Times – Free Books about Women’s History PDF
Andrews, Matthew Page, comp.
Baltimore: Norman, Remington 1920
“The following pages depict the life of the southern people within the lines of the Confederacy during the four years of its storm-tossed existence. The greater part of the material is given in the words of those who were a part of the times in which they lived …[Editorial notes were added that] bar upon related events of larger historical import…” -Author’s Preface.
A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865; being a record of the actual experiences of the wife of a Confederate officer
Avary, Myrta Lockett, ed.
NY: Appleton 1903
The author tells of her many travels across the war-torn South, her capture behind enemy lines, her encounter with the famous Belle Boyd, her friendship with the dashing general J E B Stuart, and the devastation suffered by the citizens of Richmond in the last days of the Confederacy.
An English wife in Berlin; A Private Memoir of Events, Politics, and Daily Life in Germany Throughout the War and the Social Revolution of 1918
Blücher von Wahlstatt, Evelyn Mary Stapleton-Bretherton
1920
Selected Articles on Mothers’ Pensions – Free Books about Women’s History PDF
Bullock, Edna D., comp.
H. W. Wilson 1915
In the first decades of the 20th century publisher H.W. Wilson produced many volumes in its Debaters’ Handbook Series on social and political issues that were under discussion at the time. Each book contains the full text of selected articles and documents representing opposing views on the issue, along with a substantial bibliography of books and articles. Women and history, books on women’s history.
Most of the books mentioned in these guides are likely to be freely available online. Search by title; first at the Internet Archive (archive.org), then at HathiTrust.org. Referenced magazine articles may also be available online at the same sites, with HathiTrust the preferred site for magazines.
Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century
Clark, Alice
1919
Introductory – Capitalists – Agriculture – Textiles – Crafts And Trades – Professions – Conclusion.
The Congress of Women Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition …
Chicago, U.S.A. 1893, with portraits, biographies and addresses
Eagle, Mary Kavanaugh Oldham, ed.
Conkey 1894
“As a part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition … there was a daily gathering of women, who, in a great building devoted to their uses, expressed their ideas regarding the social, business and political affairs of humankind and all that pertains to making a greater future for the human race. This book reproduces the ideas advanced by these women, who represented the civilized world.” – from the Publishers’ Preface.
This large volume contains over 150 papers by representatives of many states and countries that were given as addresses in the Woman’s Building during the exposition. There are brief biographies for each author, and portraits of most.
For works on the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, see: Illinois Cultural History
Pioneer Women of the West
Ellet, E F.
New York: Scribner 1852
“In this interesting volume, we have 59 extended biographical sketches of wives and mothers who ventured into the western wilds, and bore their part in the struggles and labors of the early pioneers. Most of the biographies were prepared from private records, and are authentic in every respect; none had appeared previous to their publication in this work.”
– Peter G. Thomson, A Bibliography of the State of Ohio (1880).
Some Eminent Women of our Times: Short Biographical Sketches
Some Eminent Women of our Times: Short Biographical Sketches
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett
London: Macmillan 1889
Written by Millicent Garrett, a noted British feminist, suffragist and intellectual writer, this volume is comprised of short biographical sketches of 23 influential women. Elizabeth Fry.–Mary Carpenter.–Caroline Herschel.–Sarah Martin.–Mary Somerville.–Queen Victoria.–Harriet Martineau.–Florence Nightingale.–Mary Lamb.–Agnes Elizabeth Jones.–Charlotte and Emily Brontë.–Elizabeth Barrett Browning.–Lady Sale and her fellow-hostages in Afghanistan.–Elizabeth Gilbert.–Jane Austen.–Maria Edgeworth.–Queen Louisa of Prussia.–Dorothy Wordsworth.–Sister Dora.–Mrs. Barbauld.–Joanna Baillie.–Hannah More.–The American abolitionists: Prudence Crandall and Lucretia Mott.
Woman on the American Frontier; a valuable and authentic history of the heroism …
Woman on the American Frontier – Audio Book Women’s History
adventures, privations, captivities, trials, and noble lives and deaths of the “pioneer mothers of the Republic”.
Fowler, William W.
Williamstown, Mass: Corner House 1878
Numerous brief stories of heroism and hardship on many frontiers throughout American history.
Life in Dixie during the War; 1861-1862-1863-1864-1865 – Free Books about Women’s History PDF
Gay, Mary Ann Harris
Atlanta: Byrd 1897
Life in Dixie During the War, first published in 1892, ranks among the best first-person accounts of the American Civil War. Mary A. H. Gay eloquently recounts her wartime experiences in Georgia and bears witness to the “suffering and struggle, defeat and despair, triumph and hope that is human history”. While her book reads like a novel, it continues to be praised by modern scholars as an honest report of American history.
The Heroines of History
The Heroines of History
Jenkins, John S.
Alden & Beardsley, 1853
A look at some of the famous women in European history. Includes biographies on Cleopatra; Isabella of Castile; Joan of Arc; Maria Theresa; Josephine; Elizabeth of England; Mary of Scotland; Catherine of Russia; Marie Antoinette; and Madame Roland.
The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman’s Work
Penny, Virginia
Boston: Walker, Wise 1863
In the preface the author wrote, “the few employments that have been open to women are more than full. To withdraw a number from the few markets of female labor already crowded to excess, by directing them to avenues where they are wanted, would thereby benefit both parties.”
Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535
Power, Eileen
Cambridge University 1922 Dewey Dec. 940.1
Excerpt: “The monastic ideal and the development of the monastic rule and orders have been studied in many admirable books. The purpose of the present work is not to describe and analyse once again that ideal, but to give a general picture of English nunnery life during a definite period, the three centuries before the Dissolution.
The Modern Woman’s Rights Movement
Schirmacher, Kathe
1909
A history of the international woman’s rights movements originally published in 1905 and updated in 1909. A lot has been written about the woman’s suffrage movements in the United States and England, but this book is unique in that it includes, in addition, chapters on the international woman’s rights efforts in countries across North American, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Women in Industry
Trent, Ray S.
Bloomington: Indiana University 1918
The author was a professor of Economics and Sociology in Indiana University. The study applies to working women nation-wide, but one of the author’s stated goals was to influence applicable laws in Indiana.
Testimony of Working Women, 1914
Wisconsin Legislature. Committee on White Slave Traffic and Kindred Subjects
Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society
“In 1913, the Wisconsin Legislature established a committee to investigate the causes of prostitution and other vice in Wisconsin….” “In the 1914 testimony, working women from around the state answered questions at hearings held in Green Bay, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, and Superior. Committee members asked the women questions about their wages, their working and living conditions, and why they chose to work in a given job, all in an effort to understand what “leads young girls astray” in the words of one investigator.”
– Wisconsin Historical Society, “Turning Points in Wisconsin History” website.
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