Celebrate Women’s History Month all March with JSTOR Daily. The month-long observance in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia recognizes the contributions of women around the world—and throughout history.
We hope you’ll find the stories below, and the scholarship they include in full, a valuable resource for classroom or leisure reading.
Writing the World
Dispatches From the Beginning of Women’s History
March 11, 2015
The origins of Women's History Month.
Black Women Have Written History for over a Century
February 21, 2021
Barriers of racism and sexism slowed them down, but academia wasn't their only venue.
The Bluestockings
April 4, 2019
Meet the original Bluestockings, a group of women intellectuals. Their name would eventually become a misogynist epithet -- but it didn't start that way.
Julie Enszer: “We Couldn’t Get Them Printed,” So We Learned to Print Them Ourselves
June 19, 2020
The editor of the lesbian feminist magazine Sinister Wisdom talked to us about lesbian print culture, feminist collectives, and revolution.
Jarena Lee, The First Woman African American Autobiographer
December 15, 2018
Jarena Lee was the first female preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1836, she published her autobiography.
The Beaufort Botanist and Her “Innocent Diversion”
March 5, 2019
Despite the twelve volume herbarium she created, this seventeenth-century scientist earned little recognition.
Tsarist Russia’s Feminist Intelligentsia
December 11, 2019
In the context of Russia's patriarchal autocracy, its intelligentsia was surprisingly feminist, as Vera Podorovskaya's life illustrates.
Famous (and Infamous)
The Alpha Suffrage Club and Black Women’s Fight for the Vote
September 8, 2020
Black women's experiences in the suffrage movement show that the Nineteenth Amendment marked one event in the fight for the vote, not an endpoint.
How Sacagawea Became More Than A Footnote
March 6, 2019
A suffragist searching for a heroine found Sacagawea and lifted her out of historical obscurity.
Cheng I Sao, Female Pirate Extraordinaire
July 13, 2017
Learn more about Cheng I Sao, a female pirate who dominated the coast of the Kwangtung Province between 1795-1810.
Ada Lovelace, Pioneer
October 8, 2019
Ada Lovelace wrote extensive notes on the world’s first computer. Her innovations foreshadowed those used in twentieth-century PCs.
La Pelona: The Hispanic-American Flapper
January 13, 2020
Flapperismo was no more appreciated by Hispanic guardians of traditional femininity than it was by Anglo-American ones.
How Judi Bari Tried to Unite Loggers and Environmentalists
February 23, 2020
The radical environmentalist had a background in labor organizing and wanted to end the misogyny of the movement and the logging industry alike.
Rachel Carson’s Critics Called Her a Witch
February 21, 2019
When Silent Spring was published, the response was overtly gendered. Rachel Carson's critics depicted her as hysterical, mystical, and witchy.
Sor Juana, Founding Mother of Mexican Literature
June 28, 2019
How a 17th-century nun wrote poetry, dramas, and comedies that took on the inequities and double standards women faced in society.
Out from the Shadows
How Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression
May 4, 2020
They worked over sixty hours a week but were also insatiable readers.
The Socialist Origins of International Women’s Day
March 8, 2019
Why is International Women's Day on March 8th? The answer is much more complicated than you might think.
The Top-Secret Feminist History of Tea Rooms
March 6, 2019
Nearly all American tea rooms were owned by women. They often opened up rooms in their homes or set up tables in their gardens.
Hair Embroidery as Women’s Buddhist Practice
February 25, 2021
In late imperial China, it was a devotional art using hairs plucked from devotees' own heads.
Pulp Fiction Helped Define American Lesbianism
August 1, 2019
Between 1950 and 1965, steamy novels about lesbian relationships, marketed to men, inadvertently offered closeted women much-needed representation.
Who Was La Malinche?
March 1, 2019
La Malinche was a key figure in the conquest of the Aztecs. But was she a heroine or a traitor? It depends on whom you ask.
Being a Victorian Librarian Was Oh-So-Dangerous
August 7, 2018
In the late 19th century, more women were becoming librarians. Experts like Melvil Dewey predicted they would suffer ill health, strain, and breakdowns.
Two Women of the African Slave Resistance
August 25, 2017
African women, always a minority in the slave trade, often had to find their own ways of rebellion against slavery if they could.
The Tree Huggers Who Saved Indian Forests
March 27, 2019
The Chipko activists of 1970s and ‘80s India saved their forests by calling attention to the deep interdependence between humans and the natural world.
What Dorothy Porter’s Life Meant for Black Studies
August 22, 2018
Dorothy Porter, a Black woman pioneer in library and information science, created an archive that structured a new field.
The Immortal Life of Joice Heth: How P.T. Barnum Used an Elderly Slave To Launch His Career
December 2, 2015
P.T. Barnum's career as a Kentucky show man, began with his ownership and exploitation of African American slave Joice Heth.
We’ll be adding more stories related to Women’s History Month throughout March.
