In Victorian times, syphilis was believed to arise spontaneously in a prostitute’s body, a result of ‘immorality’. But as medical knowledge advanced, early feminists began to challenge the law that detained and punished women for their illness. By Anna Faherty / 07.20.2017 Associate Lecturer University of the Arts London Fitzrovia, 1875. A woman recorded only as “A[…]
Rosina Bulwer Lytton, from A Blighted Life, 1880 / Wellcome Collection, Creative Commons The life of Rosina Bulwer Lytton provides a fascinating insight into the attitudes towards women and mental health in the 19th century. By Julia Nurse / 09.18.2015 Collections Researcher Wellcome Library Dismissed for years as the mad wife of the novelist and[…]
Woking Convict Invalid Prison: a woman prisoner in solitary confinement / Wellcome Collection, Creative Commons Prison officers tried to regulate women’s minds and bodies, and maintain a new disciplinary routine in the second half of the 1800s. Many female inmates resisted. By (left-to-right) Dr. Rachel Bennett, Dr. Catherine Cox, and Dr. Hilary Marland /[…]
Two 18th-century women, Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler, are famous for their romantic friendship, which was then a concept helpful for lesbian couples hoping to avoid a scandal. By Sarah Bentley / 03.12.2018 Visitor Experience Assistant Wellcome Collection In her book, ‘The Ladies of Llangollen: A study in romantic friendship’, author Elizabeth Mavor sends the[…]
Outside the Woman’s Building, 1975. The Getty Research Institute, 2018.M.16. Photo: Maria Karras. Gift of Maria Karras. © Maria Karras, BFA, RBP, MA Several feminist art archives to be preserved and accessible thanks to new grant. By Andra Darlington / 11.01.2018 Head of Special Collections Management Getty Research Institute In 1973, artist Judy Chicago, designer[…]
Women suffragists picketing in front of the White house. The first picket line – College day in the picket line line, 1917 / Wikimedia Commons Washington suffragists supported the national crusade until the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. By Dr. Mildred Andrews / 02.26.2004 Social Historian Introduction ashington women won[…]
Investigating potential correlations between Roosevelt’s and Pos’ ideas on women’s rights and intercultural understanding. By Dr. Babs Boter Professor of Literature Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Note: Images not included in original publication. Abstract Mary Pos, self-proclaimed first female travel journalist from the Netherlands, met Eleanor Roosevelt first in 1937 during a women-only press conference at the[…]
Júlia Lopes de Almeida was a founding member in the creation of the Brazilian Academy of Letters but was left out because she was a woman. | Image: National Library Foundation. Public Archives. She helped create the Brazilian Academy of Letters—only to be excluded by the institution for being a woman. By Fabíola Hauch / 10.12.2018 Júlia[…]
Discussing Ancient Greek women and their relationship to the visual arts solely on the evidence of the extant monuments. By Dr. Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway Professor Emeriti of Archaeology Bryn Mawr College Abstract Ancient Greek women and their relationship to the visual arts are here discussed solely on the evidence of the extant monuments, rather than on[…]
Rose Schneiderman, an unsung forerunner of the #MeToo movement, organized women to fight for laws to protect them from, among other exploitation, sexual harassment and assault by higher-ranking men in their work spaces. / Photo by Bettmann, Getty Images An unsung shero of the early 20th century, Rose Schneiderman organized women to fight for laws[…]
(Left-to-right) Carrie Clyde Holly, Clara Cresshingham and Frances Klock They had to convince a majority of men in the state, not just legislators, that they should share political power with women. By Dr. Jennifer Frost / 10.14.2018 Associate Professor of History University of Auckland “Western Women Wild With Joy Over Colorado’s Election,” journalist and suffragist Caroline[…]
Young Women in the Garden, 1939, by Nguyễn Gia Trí / Heidelberg University, Creative Commons As early as two-thousand years ago, Vietnam was a matriarchal society. By Tao Babe / 07.05.2017 Vietnamese Women Rule. OK, so maybe not at this time, but in the past we did…kinda, sorta, in a way. Even as early as[…]
Egyptian hieroglyphics depict the pouring out of beer / Wikimedia Commons Women held many important and influential positions in Ancient Egypt and typically enjoyed many of the legal and economic rights given to the men within their respective social class. By (left-to-right) Radwa Khalil, Dr. Ahmed A. Moustafa, Dr. Marie Z. Moftah,[…]
Early agrarian women—like these murdered in what is now western France some 6500 years ago—may have been critical manual laborers in their societies. Didier Descouens/Wikimedia Commons Prehistoric women shouldered a major share of the hoeing, digging, and hauling in early agricultural societies. By Michael Price / 11.29.2017 Forget about emotional labor. Women living 7000 years ago[…]
14th-century theological compendium / University of California Berkeley Special Collections Examining depictions of penance and confession in late medieval “Sisterbooks”. By Dr. Rabi Gregory / 08.06.2012 Associate Professor of Religious Studies University of Missouri Introduction This article argues that depictions of penance and confession in late medieval “Sisterbooks,” which were written by women religious for[…]
Tracing the sad medieval history of the siren and trying to understand where it all went wrong. By Dr. Anna Dorofeeva / 05.15.2014 Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of Dublin Ah, sirens. Fishy ladies with nice voices who like to eat Greek sailors, or the strident sound and strobe of emergency services: two associations that are[…]
Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, tempera and oil on oak panel, 82.2 x 60 cm (National Gallery, London), photo: Dr. Steven Zucker CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Women lived and died in a culture that expected near-constant pregnancy. By Lane Eagles / 08.26.2018 PhD Candidate in Art History University of Washington Is She Really Pregnant? Jan[…]
Artwork page for ‘The Cholmondeley Ladies’, Unknown artist, Britain, c.1600-10 / Tate Britain In the Middle Ages, the power of blood-images was immediate and valuable. By Dr. Laura Kalas Williams / 01.04.2017 Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing Swansea University Images and stories of bloodshed have been ubiquitous of late. Bloodied and wounded children[…]
Emmeline Pankhurst addressing a crowd in Trafalgar Square in 1908 / Public Domain History is messy. And so are politics. By Dr. John Buescher Historian Introduction History is messy. And so are politics. A good historian resists the urge to reduce the many causes or meanings of an event to a single one. One of[…]
Women suffragists marching on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., March 3, 1913 Demanding the right to vote under Wilson. By Dr. Kimberly A. Hamlin / 01.18.2017 Associate Professor of History and Global and Intercultural Studies Miami University Ohio On March 3, 1913, the day before President-elect Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, more than 5,000 women—young and old,[…]
Wikimedia Commons Exploring how women’s lives changed during the Russian Revolution, tracing the history of female revolutionaries in Russia and the different ways women documented and participated in events. By Katie McElvanney AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Candidate Queen Mary University What was life like for women before the Russian Revolution? The life experiences of women in the Russian[…]
EPB/35960/A: François Mauriceau, The accomplisht midwife, treating of the diseases of women with child, and in child-bed (London: J. Darby for B. Billingsley, 1673), first folding plate. Wellcome Images L0014457. By Rebecca Whiteley / 08.11.2016 PhD Student in History of Art University College London Looking through copies of ‘The diseases of women with child and[…]
By Jessica Jacolbe / 06.14.2018 Today in Brooklyn Heights John A. Roebling, the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge, is the namesake of many streets, bars, and restaurants. “Roebling” usually refers to John Roebling or his son, Washington Roebling, who became the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge after his father’s death. Emily Warren Roebling, however,[…]
By Dr. Robert Davis / 02.15.2018 Professor Emeritus of History The Ohio State University Beauty and self-care has always been in conversation with contemporary politics, especially regarding race, gender, class, and privilege. While the concept of “self-care” has taken a prominent place in American society since the 2016 election, in the late 19th century, an explosion of cheap, readily[…]
By Brad Bowman / 05.17.2018 Sosland Family Graduate Fellow in the History of Science Harvard University In the waning years of 1940, Mary Jane Cook began work in the Health Physics department of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, named for the dusty Manhattan Project boomtown that hosted it. One of her primary responsibilities was to collect[…]
The head of the suffragist parade in Washington, 1913. (Wikimedia Commons) They fought for the right to vote, but also advanced the causes for birth control, civil rights and economic equality. By Lorraine Boissoneault / 01.21.2017 ollowing on the heels of President Donald Trump’s inauguration this Friday, at least 3.3 million Americans gathered for marches around the country, rallying[…]
She’s the Schneiderman who championed women’s rights in the 20th century. By Dr. Jennifer Scanlon Associate Professor and Director of Women’s Studies Bowdoin College Surname: Schneiderman. Jewish. Raised in New York City. Progressive politician. Ally to women. Ally to working people. Ally to immigrants and people of color. Enemy of sexual harassment and assault. Fiery[…]
During the war, the poster on the left, painted by J. Howard Miller, was only on display for only two weeks. Norman Rockwell’s, on the other hand, was seen by millions. Nick Lehr/The Conversation During the war, few Americans actually saw the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ poster that’s become acultural icon. By Dr. Sarah Myers and Dr. G. Kurt Piehler / 05.25.2018 Myers: Assistant Professor of History,[…]
Florence Kelley (center) / Public Domain By Dr. Miriam Forman-Brunell Professor of History, Women, and Gender University of Missouri-Kansas City Missing Stories The central story in many textbooks is one of tireless reformers committed to protecting the poor and helping vulnerable children by eliminating child labor and expanding education. Working on all levels, reformers expanded[…]
By Kimberly J. Largent Editor Charge the Cannons Publishing The Early Years Mary Todd Lincoln, the most criticized and misunderstood first lady, experienced more than her share of tragedy during her lifetime. From the time she was six, her life took a melancholy turn from which she never recovered. She suffered from depressive episodes and migraine[…]