Research Guides: Women's History Month 2022: Women's History Month, 2022

Recommended Reading List

Below you will find a small selection of books about women's history in general and this years theme "Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." Check the location to see if the book is available online or in print in the library.

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
Call Number: available online
Publication Date: 2021
1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened--by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So he makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum."
Divine, Demonic, and Disordered: Women Without Men in Song Dynasty China by Hsiao-wen Cheng
Call Number: Stacks - 3rd Floor HQ29 .C43 2021
ISBN: 9780295748320
Publication Date: 2021
...Hsiao-wen Cheng considers accounts of manless women, many of which depict women who suffered from enchantment disorder or who engaged in intercourse with ghosts, conditions with specific symptoms and behavioral patterns. Cheng questions conventional binary gender analyses and shifts attention away from women's reproductive bodies and familial roles.
The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura
Call Number: Stacks - 3rd Floor R692 .N56 2021
Publication Date: 2022
Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician.
Reproduction on the Reservation by Brianna Theobald
Call Number: Stacks - 3rd Floor RG962.5.I6 T44 2019
Publication Date: 2019
This pathbreaking book documents the transformation of reproductive practices and politics on Indian reservations from the late nineteenth century to the present, integrating a localized history of childbearing, motherhood, and activism on the Crow Reservation in Montana with an analysis of trends affecting Indigenous women more broadly.
Medical Bondage by Deirdre Cooper Owens
Call Number: available online
Publication Date: 2017
In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies." Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Call Number: available online
Publication Date: 2019
Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives.
Older Women Who Work by Ellen Cole (Editor); Lisa Hollis-Sawyer (Editor)
Call Number: Stacks - 3rd Floor HD6056 .O385 2021
Publication Date: 2020
...One of the first in-depth examinations of women age 65 and older who have delayed retirement, exploring personal and career identity, social roles, and quality of life concerns.
White Feminism by Koa Beck
Call Number: Stacks - 3rd Floor HQ1233 .B423 2021
Publication Date: 2021
Addressing today's conversation about race, empowerment, and inclusion in America, Koa Beck, writer and former editor-in-chief of Jezebel, boldly examines the history of feminism, from the true mission of the suffragists to the rise of corporate feminism with clear-eyed scrutiny and meticulous detail. She also examines overlooked communities--including Native American, Muslim, transgender, and more--and their ongoing struggles for social change.
Gender: a World History by Susan Kingsley Kent
Call Number: 3rd Floor HQ1075 .K463 2021
Publication Date: 2020
Gender exists in almost every society as a way of organizing its people. Gender is used to assign certain responsibilities, obligations, and privileges to some, and to deny them to others. In Gender: A World History, Susan Kingsley Kent ... critically examines our everyday understandings of women and men, masculinity and femininity, and sexual difference in general. Central to this account is the conviction that gender is neither natural nor innocent.
A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry; Kali Nicole Gross
Call Number: available online
Publication Date: 2020
A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country.

More Resources

There are lots of other options besides books if you would like to learn more about suffrage and women's rights in America. Here are a few selected resources to get you started.

Women's History Month 2022 National Events
Check out events from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the National Endowment of Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Harriet Tubman: Life, Liberty and Legacy
In this "Collection Story," The National Museum of African American History & Culture explores the life of Harriet Tubman through objects in their collection.
Collected Podcast
"Collected is a project of the African American History Curatorial Collective at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Centering stories curated by the Collective’s members, this podcast offers compelling and accessible journeys through topics in African American history that are particularly relevant today.
The topic for the first season of Collected is Black Feminism. Over this six-episode podcast season, listeners will encounter terms and ideas circulating in mainstream society that have their roots in the work of Black feminist writers and activists.
Because of Her Story
To create a more equitable America, the Smithsonian is researching, disseminating, and amplifying the histories of American women through its American Women’s History Initiative in preparation for the future Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
Winning the Vote: A divided movement brought about the Nineteenth Amendment.
In this essay posted on the HNY Blog, historian Lisa Tetrault, author of The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848–1898, takes us beyond uncomplicated commemorations of the suffrage movement to show us the movement’s complicated maneuverings and, arguably, even more complicated legacy.
The Black Women Who Paved the Way for This Moment
Today’s protests build on a long tradition of activism.
How Queer Women Powered the Suffrage Movement
For many suffragists, scholars have found, the freedom to choose whom and how they loved was tied deeply to the idea of voting rights.
And Nothing Less Podcast
"...Throughout the fight for women’s right to vote, generations of diverse activists demanded full access to the ballot box. Hosts Rosario Dawson and Retta guide us through this seven-part series from the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission and PRX, bringing us the stories we didn’t learn in our history books." From the National Park Service