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
The Contrary Journalist: Lady Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake
October 15, 2022
One of the sharpest female journalists of Britain’s Victorian era, Eastlake considered Jane Eyre an exercise in rudeness and vulgarity.
Was This Book the Original Eat, Pray, Love?
October 2, 2022
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark was arguably the most popular book ever written by Mary Wollstonecraft.
Woman on a Mission
September 21, 2022
For pioneering journalist Bessie Beatty, women’s suffrage and the plight of labor were linked inextricably.
The Unfolding of the Woman’s Page
March 29, 2022
As women became the focus of advertising, newspapers began to broaden their offerings targeted to those areas of interest traditionally associated with them.
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.
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.
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.
Ione Quinby, Chicago’s Underappreciated “Girl Reporter”
December 13, 2020
She started off as a "stunt" journalist and moved into covering stories about women and crime in the Roaring Twenties.
Meet Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective
July 27, 2020
Fictional detectives usually reflect conservative values. But the first "lady detective" story written by a woman broke boundaries.
Famous (and Infamous)
The Rise and Fall of Fanny Cradock
January 20, 2023
Cradock was one of Britain's first celebrity chefs, but in what her viewers called “the Gwen Troake Incident,” she fell from her pedestal—hard.
Julia Morgan, American Architect
January 3, 2023
Morgan, the first licensed woman architect in California, helped bring parity to the built environment, the community, and the profession.
Marie Curie and Polish Resistance
March 26, 2022
The two-time Nobel winner helped preserve her native Polish language, and undertook her education, at a time when these acts were potentially treasonous.
Madame Stephanie St. Clair: Numbers Queen of Harlem
February 23, 2021
The colorful career of a woman who ran a gambling ring, fought police corruption, and challenged white mobsters.
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.
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.
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.
Olive Oatman: The Girl With the Mojave Tattoo
April 3, 2015
The mysterious story of Olive Oatman who returned after years of captivity with the Mojave.
Joanna Koerten’s Scissor-Cut Works Were Compared to Michelangelo
May 27, 2021
And then, snip by snip, she was cut out of the frame of Renaissance art history.
Was Christine Jorgensen the Caitlyn Jenner of the 1950s?
May 12, 2017
“What is femininity anyway?” Jenner writes in her new book, The Secrets of My Life. Perhaps the famous trans woman Christine Jorgensen knew.
Political Figures
Elma Lewis: Boston’s Doyenne of Black Culture
February 8, 2023
An activist and and educator, Lewis created myriad cultural, educational, and social programs to build community and connections for Boston’s Black residents.
HUAC versus Women Strike for Peace
December 7, 2022
American leftists were hamstrung by the Cold War’s domestic clampdown on communism, but in the 1960s, Women Strike for Peace re-wrote the book of dissent.
Women Leaders in Africa: The Case of the Igbo
October 4, 2022
In the precolonial Igbo states of West Africa, power was often wielded by male chiefs or elders, but women had their own forms of authority as well.
Frida Kahlo’s Forgotten Politics
March 3, 2019
Museum exhibitions of Frida Kahlo's work tend to focus on her personal style and persona. But Kahlo was intensely political, as were her paintings.
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 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.
From Enemy to Icon: The Life of Emma Goldman
January 11, 2016
While alive, Emma Goldman was considered an enemy of the state. In death, she became a celebrated American icon.
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.
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 Women (Real and Imagined) Resisting Caudillos
September 27, 2021
In Latin America and the Caribbean, women's groups have acted to oppose military dictatorships. In fiction, their roles are rarely that of protagonist.
Out from the Shadows
The “Trapeze Disrobing Act”
August 24, 2022
Strongwoman Charmion used Thomas Edison’s experiments with moving pictures to encourage women to embrace strength and physical activity.
How an Unrealized Art Show Created an Archive of Black Women’s Art
April 25, 2022
Records from a cancelled exhibition reveal the challenges faced by Black feminist artists and curators in the 1970s.
Finding Krao Farini
January 25, 2023
Public discourse on the bearded lady, a staple of circus sideshow, revealed the racial biases underpinning Darwinian theory.
Defying the Gender Binary in the 1930s
April 1, 2019
In the 1930s, experimental psychologist Agnes Landis interviewed women who identified as "tomboys."
Yes, Women Participated in the Gold Rush
December 19, 2019
“Conventional wisdom tells us that the gold rush was a male undertaking,” writes the historian Glenda Riley. But women were there, too.
How Reading Got Farm Women Through the Depression
May 4, 2020
They worked over sixty hours a week but were also insatiable readers.
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.
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.
When Botany Was for Ladies
October 4, 2019
In nineteenth century America, young women took to studying botany—a conjoining of interest, social acceptance, and readily available schooling.
A Century Ago, Women Played Ice Hockey
January 2, 2020
Ice hockey came to the U.S. from Canada at the end of the nineteenth century. Women started playing immediately, forming their own clubs.
Women at Work
Dressmaking Liberated American Women—Then Came the Men
January 12, 2023
The creation of bespoke clothing offered women a way to escape traditional middle-class expectations and gain unprecedented power, until men took over.
On Your Mark, Get Set… Print!
January 9, 2023
The Boston Typesetting Races of 1886 demonstrated the speed of women compositors, helping to lower the barriers to workplace equity for female “swifts.”
Onna-Bugeisha, the Female Samurai Warriors of Feudal Japan
December 17, 2022
In 1868 a group of female samurai took part in the fierce Battle of Aizu for the very soul of Japan.
Pullman Women at Work: From Gilded Age to Atomic Age
March 30, 2022
Pullman resisted hiring women and did his best to keep attention away from the company’s female employees.
Mussolini’s Motherhood Factories
April 1, 2022
In fascist Italy, childbirth, breastfeeding and motherhood were given a hybrid structure of industrial management and eugenicist biological essentialism.
NOW and the Displaced Homemaker
March 23, 2022
In the 1970s, NOW began to ask hard questions about the women who were no longer "homemakers", displaced from the only role they were thought to need.
We’ll be adding more stories related to Women’s History Month throughout March.
