Women’s Clubs and the “Lost Cause”
Women's clubs were popular after the Civil War among white and Black women. But white clubwomen used their influence to ingrain racist curriculum in schools.
Is Childcare a Right?
Feminists supported universal childcare as a means of allowing women to advance in the workforce. But did this argument focus mostly on white women?
World War I Austerity Couldn’t Stop the Fashion Show
To the designer Lucile, luxury consumerism was a virtue as wartime economies struggled.
Meet Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective
Fictional detectives usually reflect conservative values. But the first "lady detective" story written by a woman broke boundaries.
Bella Abzug Began Her Career as an Anti-Racist Lawyer
As an outspoken lawyer, the future congresswoman defended a Black man accused of raping a white woman.
How Trading Card Collectors Have Fought Stereotypes
By making what may have been unseen visible, trading cards have often provided an opening into larger conversations on race, gender, and representation.
Fake Stone and the Georgian Ladies Who Made It
Coade stone was all the rage in late eighteenth-century architecture, and a mother-and-daughter team was behind it all.
15 Black Women Who Should Be (More) Famous
Honoring the scientists, poets, activists, doctors, and librarians--those we know and those we don't.
The Exploding Women of Early 20th Century “Trick Films”
In “trick films,” women were shown literally exploding over kitchen accidents—the early 1900s way of mining humor out of human tragedies.
The History of Mourning in Public
After a massive factory fire in 1911, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to stage a "symbolic funeral."