CWLU Herstory Blog

If you are in the Washington D.C. area on March 24, 2007, don't miss this one.

The Department of U.S. Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. will host a book launch of Jo Freeman's We Will Be Heard: Women's Struggles for Political Power in the United States on Monday, March 24 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

The discussion will be held at:

5th floor conference room
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004-3027

The event is open to the public but you must RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Directions are available here. Please allow extra time for security; a picture ID is required. Admission to the discussion and the reception are free but seating is limited.

Jo Freeman is one of our most perceptive scholars about the role of women in American political history. She will be joined at the discussion by Mary Ellen Curtin, Lecturer in American History, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom, and Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center; A. James Reichley, Author and former Visiting Senior Fellow, Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University.

“While it is commonly assumed that women went into politics after getting the right to vote,” Dr. Jo Freeman writes, in at least some parts of the United States “it was the other way around. Indeed, one could argue that it was regular experience with political women that eventually convinced men that women were capable of and entitled to exercise the franchise.” Moreover, “political women” have been “active participants in the political process and influencers of public policy” at least since the late 1800s, and they ran for public office long before they could vote.

We all know about Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. Who, however, were the dozens of women who ran for president – and the others who ran for Congress – in the twentieth century? Is it true, as Freeman asserts, that Democratic women are “more likely to be elected from safe districts than Republican women”? and that women as a group might have less influence in Congress if their numbers increase to not much more than 30 percent?

 

Join author Paula Giddings for a reading and discussion of her new book Ida: A Sword Among Lions on March 10 at 6 pm at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum.

Ida B. Wells was one of the most fearless crusaders for civil rights and women's rights in United States history. She was a newspaper editor and publisher, investigative journalist, co-founder of the NAACP, political candidate, mother, wife, and the single most powerful leader in the anti-lynching campaign in America.

We learned of the death of Barbara Seaman last week from Jennifer Baumgartner's remembrance on Feministing and we are updating our original blog entry with an announcement of a memorial service in Barbara's honor. If you are in the NYC area, please attend if you can.

A memorial service for Barbara Seaman will be held on Thursday, March 6 at 5:30 pm at the Riverside Memorial Chapel at 180 West 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

Barbara Seaman was one of the leaders of the women's health movement. Way back in the 1960's, she warned us about the dangers of birth control pills in her magazine articles and in her book The Doctor's Case Against the Pill . It was largely due to her efforts that warnings were placed on the pill and people became aware of the dangers of excessive estrogen ingestion.

 

The Our Bodies, Ourselves crew has a new book on women's health out. Our Bodies, Ourselves has been publishing feminist health info since their first cheaply printed and stapled booklet appeared in 1970 and started a revolution in women's health care.

After a two-year gestation, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth has arrived!

The new book addresses the questions and needs of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the "fourth trimester" of early motherhood. It covers a wide range of topics, including:

• Choosing a provider and birth setting
• Making decisions about prenatal testing
• Arranging for continuous labor support
• Exploring options for pain relief
• Recovering from birth
• Adjusting to life as a new mother

The book also provides an overview of maternity care practices in the United States and examines why some aspects of the care most women receive are not based on the most reliable research on what is safe and effective.

Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth is already drawing praise from both mothers, midwives, and physicians:

From Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born:

As a new mother myself, I appreciated all the scientific evidence that was used to back up recommendations or to question standard practices. And yet this book manages to be a smart, readable guide that is not preachy -- a rarity for pregnancy books.

From Timothy RB Johnson, MD FACOG, Bates Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Michigan:

The trusted Boston Women's Health Book Collective has written a comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date book for expectant mothers. It balances important facts, scientific data, and evidence with the voice of the 'wise woman'; and it provides questions to ask, issues to think about, and options to consider and discuss. This is the #1 book I am going to recommend to my patients.

For more info and how to order the book please visit the OBOS website .

Book Launch and Reception

Wednesday, March 12, 20085 p.m. - 7 p.m.

UNITE! HERE

333 S. Ashland, Chicago IL

On the Global Waterfront by Suzan Erem and E. Paul Durrenberger tells the story of the Charleston 5, who became an international labor cause celebre when they were falsely accused of inciting a riot after police attacked a longshore protest in Charleston, South Carolina. The dockworkers were protesting the attempt by a multinational shipping conglomerate to shift to non-union labor.

Suzan Erem is a former Chicago labor organizer who wrote the book Labor Pains about her experiences as a SEIU staffer here in the Windy City. You can meet Suzan and get her autograph on the book by attending the celebration at UNITE! HERE on March 12.

Feminist scholar Jo Freeman has long been one of our most astute observers of the often surreal world of U.S. politics. In her new book We Will Be Heard: Women's Struggles for Political Power in the United States, she collects some of her best essays about women in politics into one volume.

According to the publisher, the book will be hitting the shelves on March 28, 2008. If you order at the prepublication price , you can receive a substantial discount.

From J. Ellen Foster's address to the 1892 Republican Convention to Nancy Pelosi's 2007 election as the first female Speaker of the House, women have worked to influence politics at every level. Well before most could vote, women campaigned for candidates and lobbied to shape public policy. Men welcomed their work, but not their ideas. Even with equal suffrage women faced many barriers to full political participation.

 

The fifteen case studies of women’s struggles for political influence in this book provide the historical context for today’s political events. Starting with an overview of when and why political women have been studied, the three sections of the book look at different ways in which women have broken barriers, practiced politics, and promoted public policy. These engaging and accessible stories are even more important in today’s political climate, when a woman can finally be a front-runner in a presidential race.

Readers of all political stripes will enjoy the history behind modern politics in this story of women struggling to make their voices heard.

Historian This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it is writing a biography. No, not of Betty Friedan the author, but of The Feminine Mystique, a book: its history and influence.

Stephanie Coontz needs your help.If you are willing to talk about this, or can direct her to someone else who might, you can send her your memories directly, or you can correspond informally by e-mail, or she can send you a few survey questions, whichever is easiest. Please address correspondence to her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . And if you have suggestions of other people for her to talk to, all such suggestions would be gratefully received.

She is eager to hear from several different groups of people as described by below:

1. People who read the book when it first came out, or whose mothers or grandmothers read it, and what the impact of that was. Some people have described the impact it had on their own lives; others have described the impact it had on their mothers, or that their mothers’ reactions to it had on them. For many, the effect was truly life-changing. For others, it was frightening or produced deep ambivalence. For still others, it didn't resonate at all. I am interested in hearing all these stories, or if you know people who have such stories, I’d appreciate your putting me in touch with them.
   
   
2. I am also interested in talking to people who read the book some time later, to find out how they came to do so and how it impacted them (or in some cases, disappointed them) then.
   
   
3. I am even interested in talking to people who did not read the book but knew of it, and what their impressions of it were. (I have found a surprising number of women who were young feminists in the 1960s and thought they had read the book, but when they went back to it realized that they had not; it was the title alone that confirmed ideas they had gained elsewhere.)
   

 

Come to Women and Children First Bookstore on Thursday, November 8 to hear Paula Kamen talk about new book, Finding Iris Chang

2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Iris Chang’s landmark book, The Rape of Nanking, which chronicles the Nanking massacre -- the torture and murder of Chinese citizens at the hands of the Japanese. The book brought Chang worldwide fame as a human rights pioneer, yet Chang herself was a mystery.

 

Paula Kamen's bio of writer Iris Chang is due in the bookstores on October 22. Iris Chang committed suicide in November 2004 after a long battle with depression.

Iris Chang's best known book was The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. The book tells the story of the infamous 1937-1938 Nanking massacre which took place during the Sino-Japanese War.

And please remember…your buck stopping here is a two-for-one deal: you get the books you need AND you support an independent feminist, neighborhood bookstore with people, books, and other treasures to be found inside.

Women and Children First hit a financial rough patch earlier this year, but an outpouring of support from WCF loyalists put them back on track.

If you are a tourist in Chicago,