Why the Equal Rights Amendment Hasn’t Been Ratified Yet
Suffragist Alice Paul proposed the ERA in 1923. Congress approved it in the 1970s. So why isn't the amendment part of the Constitution?
The Women Who Tried to Prevent the Trail of Tears
In the 1830s, American women, including Catherine Beecher, worked to fight Andrew Jackson’s genocidal Indian Removal campaign.
How Global Colonialism Shaped Segregation
One of the first U.S. municipal laws demanding residential segregation, passed in 1910 in Baltimore, has roots in European colonial policies.
When Reading Inspired Women to Change History
The "Friday Night" group was a cohort of prominent nineteenth century Baltimore women who met each week to read, write, and debate social issues.
Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines
America’s favorite piece of workout equipment was developed as a device for forced labor in British prisons. It was banned as cruel and inhumane by 1900.
The Complicated Reality of “Sex Trafficking”
Anthropologist Jennifer Musto looked at how the rise in concern about sex trafficking, particularly in regard to the domestic trafficking of underage girls, actually plays out in policing.
The Forgotten Gender Nonconformists of the Old West
In the Old West, cross-dressing was sometimes a disguise for criminals on the lam. But, one historian argues, in many cases these “cross-dressers” were probably people who we would identify as transgender today.
Alaska’s Unique Civil Rights Struggle
A generation before Rosa Parks, a young Alaska Native woman was arrested for sitting in the "whites only" section of a Nome, Alaska movie theater.
How Frontier Nuns Challenged Gender Norms
Scholars Carol K. Coburn and Martha Smith write that nuns were an important part of westward expansion—and in Colorado, nuns quickly learned how to use their gender to their advantage.
How Prohibition Encouraged Women to Drink
During Prohibition, American women “made, sold, and drank liquor in unprecedented fashion,” writes historian Mary Murphy.