March 13, 2024

The Subtle Art of Messaging:

How Far-Right Women Use Social Media to Shape Public Opinion

Eviane Leidig

Eviane Leidig demonstrate that far-right women have been at the forefront of legitimizing and normalizing extremist ideas for mainstream appeal.

March 8, 2024

International Women’s Day:

Remembering Mary C. McCall Jr. and the Unfinished Battle for Women’s Rights

J. E. Smyth

It’s International Women’s Day, and women’s rights are being rolled back all over the world, perhaps, mostly notably, in the country that hosted the first International Women’s Day in 1909—the United States. Globally, women still make less money per hour...

March 1, 2024

Wendy Steiner on The Beauty of Choice

In The Beauty of Choice, the renowned cultural critic Wendy Steiner offers a dazzling new account of aesthetics grounded in female agency. Through a series of linked meditations on canonical and contemporary literature and art, she casts women’s taste as...

February 28, 2024

Lucy Diggs Slowe on Black Women, the Role of the University, and Democracy

Amy Yeboah Quarkume

Lucy Diggs Slowe (1885–1937) was one of the most remarkable and accomplished figures in Black women’s higher education. Her story is one of resilience, activism, and relentless determination to overcome barriers. She defied societal limitations to become a pioneering educator...

February 14, 2024

Beyond the Famous Few:

Five Women Who Shaped Black History and Literature

Courtney Thorsson

One Sunday afternoon in February 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan’s Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne, and talk about their work. Calling themselves “The Sisterhood,” the group—which...

November 15, 2023

Q&A: Giving Voice and Data to the Gender Gap in Science

Lisa M. P. Munoz

For more than twenty years, Lisa M. P. Munoz has interviewed hundreds of different scientists about their work in psychology, neuroscience, the geosciences, biotechnology, and immunology, among other disciplines. Time and time again, she heard about the unique struggles facing women...

October 11, 2023

How On-Screen Women Scientists Can Reduce Sexism in Science

Lisa M. P. Munoz

When I was an engineering student at Cornell University, one of my first assignments in a science communications class was to analyze scientists in films to better understand public perception of science. Jurassic Park, Contact, Armageddon, Back to the Future—there...

March 7, 2023

How Women Steered Early Cancer Awareness Campaigns

Elaine Schattner

Elaine Schattner, author of From Whispers to Shouts, discusses how women laid the groundwork for modern cancer awareness through grassroots efforts, fundraising, disseminating vital information, and challenging the stigma surrounding the disease. She also highlights the role of organizations like the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC).

March 6, 2023

Susan J. Wolfson on Mary Wollstonecraft and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

It was so exciting, so interesting, so educational, so sobering, so exhilarating to plan, research, and write On Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Sobering because my grandmother, born in the 1890s, was a suffragist; sobering because...

March 3, 2023

Married Women’s Property Rights and Enslavement in the Pre–Civil War South

Sara Chatfield

When we think about women’s history, the suffrage movement is often one of the first topics that comes to mind. But individual states, largely before women had the right to vote, enacted reforms that significantly expanded the economic rights of...

March 2, 2023

Narrative Activism

#MeToo from Harriet Jacobs to Tarana Burke

Leigh Gilmore

Especially in its early months in 2017, #MeToo was often described as unprecedented. Social media received credit for bringing a new level of public awareness to the scale of sexual abuse and, as a result, generating consequences for abusers. Certainly,...

March 1, 2023

Twenty Books to Read for Women’s History Month 2023

Join us in celebrating the cultural, social, and leadership contributions women have played throughout history. From their critical roles in politics and advocacy to the fight against sexual violence, the underrepresentation of women in the workplace and scholarship to unsung...