March is Women’s History Month! A time for commemorating the achievements and contributions of women throughout history. Growing out of the first International Women’s Day on March 8, 1911, Women’s History Month was established when the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress in 1987 to designate March as a month to raise awareness of the full scope of often-overlooked women’s history. If you would like to dig more into women’s history, the Library has an abundance of resources to explore.
Library resources
- Browse Library holdings on women and gender in Virgo.
- Visit Library research guides to Women, Gender, and Sexuality and Primary Sources about Women and find links to many resources on women’s history.
- Watch streaming Video available from the Films on Demand collection.
Book titles of interest in the Library include:
"Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts" by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez
(on reserve in Clemons Library)
A graphic novel illuminating the experiences of two historical Black women rebels on the slave ship The Unity. Carefully tracing centuries-old historical evidence and imaginatively reconstructing likely scenarios where the record is silent, the book is a transformative and transporting work. It brings to three-dimensional life Adono and Alele and their pasts as women warriors, illustrating the humanity of the enslaved, the reality of their lived experiences, and the complexity of the history that has been, till now, so thoroughly erased.
"A Black Women's History of the United States" by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
From the first African women to set foot on land that later became the United States to African American women of today, the authors have foregrounded history that is more often pushed into the shadows by white patriarchy. “A Black Women’s History of the United States” reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law.
"New Women in the Old West: From Settlers to Suffragists, an Untold American Story" by Winifred Gallagher
(available in e-book format)
Little-known history of the first women who fought for and won the right to vote in the United States, and did so decades before the passage of the 19th amendment. Even as they helped dispossess Native and Hispanic people, these persistent women created homes on weather-wracked prairies and built communities out of boom towns and muddy mining camps while playing a vital, unrecognized role in forging America’s Suffragist movement.
"The Secret History of Wonder Woman" by Jill Lepore.
A cultural history of DC comics superhero Wonder Woman traces her creation and enduring popularity, drawing on interviews and archival research to reveal the pivotal role of feminism in shaping her seven-decade story. Created by psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston in 1941, Wonder Woman was born amid a spirit of empowerment among working women during World War II, inspired by Marston's own unconventional relationship with two powerful women in his life.
