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womens history



  • Nikki Haley's Campaign May Capitalize on Gender Stereotypes, but at a Cost to Women

    by Jacqueline Beatty

    The former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador is seeking to separate herself from other conservatives by leaning into certain gendered stereotypes; this reinforces the idea that women leaders are fundamentally different, which has historically kept women from equal political footing. 



  • History of Reproductive Law Shows Women in Power aren't the Solution

    by Lara Friedenfelds

    The end of Roe v. Wade makes difficult pregnancies and miscarriages potentially legaly perilous for women. The history of how the law determines fault in a lost pregnancy shows that women are as capable as men of participating in a regime that punishes other women for the ends of their pregnancies. 



  • The Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

    "It felt like Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hand on me pushed me down on another one. History had me glued to the seat." – Claudette Colvin



  • "If they were White and Insured, Would they have Died?"

    by Udodiri R. Okwandu

    Texas's new maternal mortality report shows that historical patterns of medical racism are continuing, and the state plans to do little but blame Black women for the inadequate care they receive. 



  • Texas's Abortion Ban Can Never be Made Humane

    by Mary Ziegler

    When abortion access depends on establishing that a pregnant woman deserves an exception to a ban, the law will inevitably prevent doctors from serving patients with problem pregnancies. 



  • Former US Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) Dies at 82

    Elected as a Vietnam war opponent in 1972, Schroeder's service on the Armed Services Commitee helped to change the status of women in the military. She also was a reliable source of a biting political quip and a fierce advocate for women in elected office. 


  • The Defiant Woman at the Center of New York's First Abortion Battle

    by Alan J. Singer

    Carolyn Ann Trow Lohman, better known as Madame Restell, defied the authority of the medical establishment and moral crusaders to help women obtain abortions. Justice Alito's misuse of history to justify the Dobbs decision shows the need to remember her. 



  • Ignorance of Its Achievements Contributes to Feminism's Bad Rap

    by Elizabeth Cobbs

    Slanders of American feminism as disruptive and disloyal go back to John Adams. But advances in freedom from education to abolition, suffrage to labor rights, have reflected the work of feminists to claim a public role for women as citizens. 



  • Linda King Newell, 82, Pioneering Feminist Mormon Historian

    Newell was briefly blacklisted by the leadership of the LDS Church for her work on Emma Smith, the first wife of founder Joseph Smith, which portrayed women as influential in the early church before being sidelined by an increasingly patriarchal institution.



  • Margaret Atwood: Go Ahead and Ban My Book

    The novelist responds to the recent banning of "The Handmaid's Tale" by a Virginia county with assurances that forbidden knowledge has never been suppressible. 



  • Originalism Will Kill Women

    by Madiba K. Dennie

    "Originalist ideology glorifies an era of blatant oppression along racial, gender, and class lines, transforming that era’s lowest shortcomings into our highest standards."



  • Femicides are Increasing in America; History Says we Shouldn't be Surprised

    by Kimberly A. Hamlin

    The term "femicide" is rarely used to describe the killing of women by men (often intimate partners), but it's an apt description for the way that gendered and sexual violence have been part of the fabric of the nation's history and constitute a systemic, not a personal, danger to women.


  • Reflecting on Netflix's "Women at War"

    by Walter G. Moss

    The Netflix series focuses on the relationship of several French women to the mass carnage of the opening months of the First World War.