Book Review: Women’s Liberation! Feminist Writings that Inspired a Revolution & Still Can, Edited by Alix Kates Shulman and Honor Moore, Library of America, 16 February 2021. Thank you to Net Galley for this copy for review.
With Women’s History Month being celebrated in March, this collection seems the most relevant with which to begin this month’s weekly blog. The full review appears in the Book Review page.
An historical novel that also addresses ‘the woman question’ as it began to be described in Victorian times, is also reviewed. The Odd Women, 1893, George Gissing, A Public Domain Book, kindle version.
March is Women’s History Month
Buckingham University Book Launch
Location
Online Event by University of Buckingham, Law School
You are invited you to join the Buckingham Law School – Book Launch: Beauty, Women’s Bodies and the Law: Performances in Plastic by Dr Scutt
Link to book launch – Wednesday 3 March (this Wednesday) 7pm UK time …This is the eventbright for this week’s book launch: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/book-launch-beauty…https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030279974
PALGRAVE.COM Beauty, Women’s Bodies and the Law – Performances in Plastic | Jocelynne A Scutt | Palgrave Macmillan. This book explores plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery and non-surgical interventions from a legal perspective, considering social notions of ‘beauty’, whether these interventions are ‘really’ what women want, and whether the renovation of women’s bodies can even be legal.
About this Event
Guest Speakers:
Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt , Senior Teaching Fellow, University of Buckingham
Anna Kerr, Principal Solicitor, Feminist Legal Clinic Inc.
Samantha Pegg, Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Law School
From the Women’s History Network (UK)
| Celebrating Women’s History Month What better way could there be to celebrate International Women’s Day than attending our first WHN Student Conference on the 8th March – Studying Herstories! Running from 9.20am to 7pm GMT, this exciting day promises to offer innovate perspectives in current studies of women’s history from a range of topics and periods organised around the themes of Culture, Media, Representations; Reading, Writing, and Literary Practices; Knowledge and Professionalism; Gendered State Structures; Activism; Elites, Intellectuals, Networks; ending with an online drinks reception! The programme also includes a keynote from Dr. Lucy Delap, Reader in Modern British and Gender History at the University of Cambridge. Click here for the full programme details. The Conference is free to WHN members, and all sessions are booked individually via the Our WHN Eventbrite page here. Women’s History Month Events |
| To celebrate Women’s History Month in March, WHN are hosting two panel discussions aimed to explore and understand the journey of bringing women’s histories into the public sphere: Presenting Women’s History: In the CommunityWednesday 3rd March 2021, 4pm GMTCommunity-led histories play a major part in unearthing and championing women’s histories. But where to start? An in-depth discussion and introduction into community projects, exploring research resources, available funding, and the incredible legacies borne from community-focussed work. Follow this link to register. Presenting Women’s History: Museums, Galleries, ArchivesWednesday 17th March 2021, 4pm GMTThe 2018 centenary presented a wealth of funding and opportunity for museums, galleries and archives to explore their collections and place women’s history centre stage. Three years on, what are the challenges and what are the opportunities to continue telling these histories?Follow this link to register. |
Behind The News
‘This month is Women’s History Month, where countries around the world, including Australia, celebrate the women who’ve changed the country and the world for the better. We’ve asked four young women to tell us the stories of some Australian female pioneers. Duration: 4min 3secBroadcast: Tue 31 Mar 2020, 12:00am’ (Behind The News, ABC) https://www.abc.net.au/btn/classroom/womens-history-month/12094112?jwsource=cl
Women’s History Month: Books about strong women to read
Posted: Mar 2, 2021 / 10:21 AM EST / Updated: Mar 2, 2021 / 10:21 AM EST
In this file photo, books from the series “Good night stories for rebel girls” by co-authors Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli are on display at the Book Fair in Frankfurt (YANN SCHREIBER/AFP via Getty Images)
In this file photo, books from the series “Good night stories for rebel girls” by co-authors Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli are on display at the Book Fair in Frankfurt (YANN SCHREIBER/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEXSTAR) – As we celebrate Women’s History Month in March, there’s no better excuse to read a book by and about some of the world’s most inspiring women.
From an alternative history of Hillary Clinton’s life to a collection of empowering goodnight stories, these are some of the books you should read in celebration of the month:
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women and Queer Radicals, Saidiya Hartman (2019)
Columbia University professor Saidiya Hartman turns her carefully honed critical lens on the lives of young black women at the turn of the twentieth century in “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments,” which won the 2019 National Books Circle Award in Criticism. The novel unfolds across Philadelphia and New York as the women develop kinships that often transcend the rules of society.
Rodham: A Novel, Curtis Sittenfeld (2020)
A New York Times bestseller, “Rodham” offers an alternative version of history novel in which Hillary Clinton never marries Bill Clinton. Instead, Hillary Clinton pursues her own political career, one not overshadowed by her former president husband.
We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014)
A short, book-length essay by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “We Should All Be Feminists” offers a 21st-century definition for feminism and argues that the label “feminist” should be widely embraced by all.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (I Know This To Be True): On equality, determination and service, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2020)
The late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflects on her many years working in service of the law, as well as her experience with cancer, in her eponymous book. Ginsburg explores everything from gender equality and literature to fitness and the value of hard work.
Kamala Harris’ historic election celebrated in glass portrait (see below)
Bad Feminist: Essays, Roxane Gay (2014)
In “Bad Feminist,” essayist and cultural commentator Roxane Gay explores the divide between identifying as a feminist and enjoying things that seem insurmountable with the ideology. The essays focus on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Gay’s Haitian-American upbringing to the “Sweet Valley High” series.
Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women, Rebel Girls, Francesca Cavallo, Elena Favilli (2016)
A New York Times bestseller, “Rebel Girls” tells 100 stories of exceptional women, from Queen Elizabeth I to Malla Yousafzai, with illustrations from 60 female artists across the world. It’s the first in a two-part series, which were funded — and subsequently broke records — on crowdfunding website Kickstarter.
Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas, Laura Sook Duncombe (2017)
This deep dive into the stories of female buccaneers examines how women in history viewed piracy as a path to personal freedom. In her writing, Sook Duncombe – who is also the daughter of our parent company’s chief executive – explores both history and myth to explain why some female pirates’ stories have stood through the ages while others have faded to distant legend.
Know My Name: A Memoir, Chanel Miller (2019)
In this stirring memoir, the Jane Doe in the People v. Turner sexual assault case, involving Stanford student Brock Turner, picks up the pen and reveals her identity. Chanel Miller writes about her experience with sexual assault and the subsequent court case.
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb (2013)
This autobiography follows the life and challenges of activist Malala Yousafzai, including the assassination attempt on her life and her activism for female education. The book has reportedly been banned in many schools in Pakistan.
(Photo credit : AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)
In this file photo, memoirs of Pakistani child activist Malala Yousafzai are put on display (Photo credit should read AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)
Checking in on Nexstar’s Remarkable Woman of the Year 2020
How Should a Person Be?, Sheila Heti (2013)
Part memoir, part self-help book, “How Should a Person Be?” follows its unreliable narrator as she explores the nature of art, creation and sexuality. Ultimately, she asks: What kind of person should one be?
Voices of Powerful Women: Words of Wisdom from 40 of the World’s Most Inspiring Women, Zoe Sallis (2019)
Zoe Sallis compiles interviews with 40 successful women, including Maya Angelou and Isabelle Allende, and discusses their lives, work and hopes for the future. The book is structured around ten questions, which each interviewee answers in their own unique voice.
Kamala Harris Celebrated in Glass
by: The Associated Press Posted: Feb 4, 2021 / 09:50 AM PST / Updated: Feb 4, 2021 / 09:54 AM PSTjavascript:false
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks after Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman to be vice president , her barrier-breaking career has been memorialized in a portrait that depicts her face emerging from the cracks in a massive sheet of glass.
The 6-by-6 foot (1.8 meter), 350-pound (159 kilogram) portrait, meant to symbolize Harris breaking through a glass ceiling, was unveiled Thursday at the Lincoln Memorial by groups excited by Harris’ historic election as the first woman and person of color to the nation’s second-highest office.
“This will just be a wonderful visual emblem of this moment in time and hopefully people will reflect a little bit on all the barriers that have been broken by her election,” said Holly Hotchner, president and CEO of the National Women’s History Museum, a co-sponsor of the project.
Robin's Room 