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Madame Restell

‘Hag of Misery’

The abortionist Madame Restell is central to the story of how American women’s reproductive freedom was dismantled in the second half of the nineteenth century.
by Susan Faludi via New York Review of Books on October 12, 2023
Photo of a woman surfing

How Men Muscled Women Out of Surfing

Why is surfing still stuck in the 1960s when women have always done it?
by Mindy Pennybacker via The Atlantic on September 6, 2023
Two female U.S. Army soldiers relax on an army vehicle in Iraq.

The Iraq War’s Legacies for Women in Combat

The armed forces continue to grapple with integrating women into an institution historically designed for men.
by Kara Dixon Vuic via Process: A Blog for American History on May 25, 2023
Four new Army brassiere designs modeled by servicewomen.
partner

A New Bra Reveals That the Military is Moving Toward Gender Equality

Women’s military uniforms were once about making soldiers look feminine. Now they’re about enhancing performance.
by Tanya L. Roth via Made By History on August 19, 2022
Four women (L7) sit on a bench together wearing jeans and jackets.

The Women Who Built Grunge

Bands like L7 and Heavens to Betsy were instrumental to the birth of the grunge scene, but for decades were treated like novelties and sex objects.
by Lisa Whittington-Hill via Longreads on June 29, 2022
The cover of the book "The Secret of Life"

Heels: A New Account of the Double Helix

How Rosalind Franklin, the crystallographer whose data were crucial to solving the structure of DNA, was written out of the story of scientific discovery.
by Nathaniel Comfort via Los Angeles Review of Books on October 26, 2021
Astronaut John Glenn surrounded by piles of mail

Sexism in the Early Space Program Thwarted the Ambitions of Women

John Glenn's fan mail shows many girls dreamed of the stars.
by Roshanna P. Sylvester via The Conversation on July 13, 2021
Cartoon that shows a man struggling to shake a woman's hand because of her wide skirt.

Lampooning Political Women

For as long as women have battled for equitable political representation in America, those battles have been defined by images.
by Allison K. Lange via Humanities New York on September 15, 2020
Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Grace Hartigan

How New York’s Postwar Female Painters Battled for Recognition

The women of the historic Ninth Street Show had a will of iron and an intense need for their talent to be expressed, no matter the cost.
by Claudia Roth Pierpont via The New Yorker on October 1, 2018

No Girls Allowed

How America's persistent preference for brash boys over "sivilizing" women fueled the candidacy of Donald Trump.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on October 28, 2016
Valium pills
partner

Mother's Little Helper

How feminists transformed Valium from a wonder drug to a symbol of medical sexism.
via BackStory on May 20, 2016
Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull’s Life Contained Rock Music’s Secret History

The harrowing and heroic life of Marianne Faithfull, cheater of a thousand deaths and music history’s true avenging angel.
by Elise Soutar via Paste on February 4, 2025
A large crowd of women marching in New York City for the Women's Strike for Equality in 1970.

When the Personal Was Political

Second-wave feminists meant business—but they had a lot of fun at it, too.
by Jill Filipovic via Democracy Journal on December 17, 2024
A Chinese American woman riveter at work.

Could “Rosie the Riveter” Be Chinese American?

Despite having their citizenship withheld before the war, Chinese American women in the Bay Area made significant contributions to the wartime labor force.
by H. M. A. Leow, Xiaojian Zhao via JSTOR Daily on November 9, 2024

How Woodrow Wilson’s Privileged Southern Upbringing Influenced His Love Life

In Wilson’s chivalric framework, women were required to be submissive precisely so that men could protect the weaker sex.
by Christopher Cox via Literary Hub on November 8, 2024
A drawing of Kamala Harris in a police uniform.

Lipstick on the Pigs

Kamala Harris and the lineage of the female cop.
by Sophie Lewis via The Drift on October 28, 2024
Norman Mailer in front of Brooklyn skyline.

The New York Intellectuals’ Battle of the Sexes

Norman Mailer’s generation learned to “write like men.” But their female contemporaries from Mary McCarthy to Diana Trilling pioneered a more enduring style.
by Michael Kimmage via The New Republic on July 5, 2024
Joni Mitchell.

How Joni Mitchell Pioneered Her Own Form of Artistic Genius

On the long and continuing struggle of women artists for recognition on their own terms.
by Ann Powers via Literary Hub on June 17, 2024
Hazel Ying Lee (right) and fellow pilot Virginia Wong (left).

This Chinese American Aviatrix Overcame Racism to Fly for the U.S. During World War II

A second-generation immigrant, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to receive her pilot's license.
by Susan Tate Ankeny via Smithsonian on April 23, 2024
Women's suffrage march

When Feminism Was ‘Sexist’—and Anti-Suffrage

The women who opposed their own enfranchisement in the Victorian era have little in common with the “Repeal the 19th” fringe of today.
by Mary Harrington via The American Conservative on April 15, 2024
Women march for free abortion on demand.

Abortion On Demand

The surprising history of a politically charged phrase.
by Gillian Frank via The Revealer on April 4, 2024
A Black woman swearing the oath to join the Navy.

A New ERA for Women in the Navy

Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr, z-grams, and the all-volunteer force.
by Heather M. Haley via U.S. Navy History on March 28, 2024
Regina King as Shirley Chisholm in "Shirley," a new film.

The True History Behind Netflix's 'Shirley' Movie

A new film dramatizes Shirley Chisholm's history-making bid to become the first Black woman president in 1972.
by Ellen Wexler via Smithsonian on March 22, 2024
Three women standing in front of a 1915 automobile with a suffragist banner hanging on the side.

How Women Used Cars To Fuel Female Empowerment

From a 1915 suffragist road trip to the “First Lady of Drag Racing.”
by Nancy A. Nichols via Atlas Obscura on March 20, 2024
Book cover of: 'Through a Grid, Darkly: On Anna Shechtman’s “The Riddles of the Sphinx,”' in red lettering

Through a Grid, Darkly

The feminist history of the crossword puzzle: some of the form's early champions were women working for little to no pay.
by Adrienne Raphel via Los Angeles Review of Books on March 14, 2024
Maria P. Williams, 1916.

The First Black Woman to Write, Produce, and Act in Her Own Film

Maria P. Williams pioneered filmmaking for African American women, but her life is even more thrilling than her sole film.
by Jennie Knuppel via The Saturday Evening Post on February 29, 2024
Mary A. Hallern sitting in her military uniform.

The Little Colonel That Could: Mary Hallaren and the Fight for Women in the Military

After World War II ended, government and military leaders were ready to return women to their domestic roles. But one woman had other ideas.
by Tanya L. Roth via The Saturday Evening Post on February 18, 2024
Nellie Bly.

How Nellie Bly and Other Trailblazing Women Wrote Creative Nonfiction Before It Was a Thing

On the early origins of a very American kind of writing.
by Lee Gutkind via Literary Hub on January 23, 2024
Virginia Kraft holding a hunting rifle, sitting on a dead elephant.

Sports Illustrated's Forgotten Pioneer

In the Mad Men era of magazine journalism, Virginia Kraft was a globe-trotting writer and a deadly shot with a rifle. Why hasn't anyone heard of her?
by Emily Sohn via Long Lead on January 14, 2024
Collage of women's profiles, CIA reports, and Osama bin Laden, by Joan Wong.

The Women Who Saw 9/11 Coming

Many of the CIA analysts who spotted the earliest signs of al-Qaeda’s rise were female. They had trouble getting their warnings heard.
by Liza Mundy via The Atlantic on November 18, 2023
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