Ione Quinby, Chicago’s Underappreciated “Girl Reporter”
She started off as a "stunt" journalist and moved into covering stories about women and crime in the Roaring Twenties.
The Forgotten Craze of Women’s Endurance Walking
Hardy athletes called pedestriennes wowed the sporting world of the nineteenth century. They also shocked guardians of propriety.
What Does It Mean to Be a Matriarchy?
Using the definition that European theorists invented in the nineteenth century may not work for every society, like the Khasi.
How Scientists Became Advocates for Birth Control
The fight to gain scientists' support for the birth control movement proved a turning point in contraceptive science—and led to a research revolution.
Harriet Taylor Mill, At Last
When you're married to John Stuart Mill, whatever you do or say may be held against you. And so it was.
Diane di Prima
The Italian American poet and artist's “willingness to speak” about what was culturally unspeakable was a liberation.
The Poem That Inspired Radical Black Women to Organize
Beah Richards is best known as an actor, but in 1951 she wrote a sweeping poem that influenced the Civil Rights Movement.
The Woman Teacher Documents a Feminist Labor Union’s Victory
The UK’s National Union of Women Teachers went from splinter group to union in its own right, winning on equal pay—as The Woman Teacher shows first-hand.
At First, the Guitar Was a “Women’s Instrument”
The history of the guitar shows that musical instruments have been gendered—but just how changes over time.
A Brief History of the Women’s KKK
The Women’s KKK, an affiliated-but-separate racist organization for white Protestant women, courted members through an insincere “empowerment feminism.”