When the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, millions of Native American women still could not vote. The U.S. government did not recognize them as citizens. And if U.S. citizenship required renouncing tribal sovereignty, many Native women didn’t want it. But early-twentieth-century writer, composer, and activist Zitkála-Šá was determined to fight for both. [Read more…] about Layered Citizenship: Amended Podcast’s Final Episode
womens history
Salons: American Rebels, French Etiquette and Lesbian History
When Benjamin Franklin traveled to Paris in 1776 seeking support for the Revolution, the old charmer became a popular guest at the city’s glittering salons. His successor Thomas Jefferson continued his PR work and established contacts with the city’s most prominent salonnières. Thomas Paine too was a visitor of various salons. Thanks to their socio-diplomatic involvement, the American Revolution became a central topic of discussion at such gatherings. [Read more…] about Salons: American Rebels, French Etiquette and Lesbian History
Author Asks: What Was The Suffrage Movement Really Like?
Marguerite Kearns started asking questions about her suffragist grandmother Edna Buckman Kearns when she was ten years old. She couldn’t understand why no photos of Edna were displayed in the home where she was raised. She realized later that family members hadn’t processed the grief of Edna’s death in 1934. They loved her, and reminders of family history, including photos, made the matter worse. [Read more…] about Author Asks: What Was The Suffrage Movement Really Like?
Manhattan ‘Flash’ Culture: Madams and Sporting Men
Throughout the nineteenth century, prostitution was rife in American cities. In 1820 there were an estimated two hundred brothels in New York, growing to more than six hundred after the Civil War. By the early 1840s the city was the nation’s whoring capital, its own Gomorrah.
Most houses of assignation before the Civil War were owned and controlled by women. Some madams made spectacular careers, nobody more so than Fanny White whose Mercer Street brothel was, from 1851 onward, a meeting place for Congressmen, dignitaries and diplomats – a Manhattan whoreocracy. [Read more…] about Manhattan ‘Flash’ Culture: Madams and Sporting Men
Trailblazing Women: Geraldine Ferraro
Geraldine Ferraro, born in Newburgh and later of the South Bronx, would make history as the first female Vice Presidential nominee for a major party. In 1984, Democratic Presidential nominee Walter Mondale announced that Congresswoman of New York would be his running mate. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Geraldine Ferraro
Trailblazing Women: Peace Activist Tracy Mygatt
As we celebrate Women’s History Month it is only fitting that we call attention to the contributions one native New Yorker made to the cause of world peace and social justice.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 12th, 1885, Tracy Mygatt was inspired by her New England ancestors’ religious convictions and translated those spiritual roots into radical social change, one that was highlighted by her own political determination.
After her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 1908, she devoted her life to a number of reform causes, which included child labor and unemployment, world peace through her association with peace organizations and calls for world government, and an economic system based on democratic-socialist principles. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Peace Activist Tracy Mygatt
Trailblazing Women: Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison became the first African American woman accepted into NASA’s space training program on June 4th, 1987. Five years later, on September 12th, 1992, she became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Mae Jemison
Trailblazing Women: Jeannette Rankin
After helping to secure women the right to vote in Montana in 1914, Jeanette Rankin was the first woman to be sworn into Congress in April 1917. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Jeannette Rankin
Trailblazing Women: Amelia Earhart
In 1922, Amelia Earhart set a record for reaching the highest altitude for a woman pilot, flying to 14,000 feet. Six years later, Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
In the following 10 years, Earhart continued to set aviation records for speed and distance. She also helped create a women’s aviation club, the Ninety-Nines, and was elected the first president. The organization still exists today and works to promote female pilots. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Amelia Earhart
Women Spies for the French Resistance
This week on The Historians Podcast the guest is Sarah Patten, author of The Measure of Gold (Ashland Press, 2020) a historical novel set in Europe in the Second World War with a focus on French Resistance women spies. Patten discusses the lives of actual spies including Virginia Hall, an American woman who later served with the CIA. [Read more…] about Women Spies for the French Resistance