The Tomb of the Red Queen
I was reading yesterday about the Tomb of the Red Queen in Mexico's Palenque National Park (formerly the ancient city of Palenque). This is a tomb discovered...
Kanno Sugako and her anarcha-feminist life
I’m just popping into your inbox today to tell you about KANNO SUGAKO. Kanno Sugako was a “Japanese anarcha-feminist journalist.” Yes! She lived from...
Some Suez Canal business
I don't know if you saw this nonsense, but people were blaming Egypt's first woman ship captain for the Suez Canal blockage. Where was she? Yes, that's...
Marie Curie and women's history links
Did you notice we just skipped all of Women’s History Month? That’s because unlike those POSEUR women’s history newsletters. we talk about women’s history...
Kamala Harris, Shirley Chisholm, and the Color Purple
Yesterday, Vice President Harris wore purple. Michelle Obama wore purple. Hillary Clinton wore purple. And on the eve of the Inauguration, First Lady Dr....
Well now here's someone
Ok so I was reading about playwright Hart Crane because I was reading up on whether Tennessee Williams did, indeed, die choking on a bottle cap (he did), and...
The woman who loved algae
I was trying to find BIPOC zoology authors for the biweekly nonfiction newsletter I run for Book Riot (subscribe here!) and I stumbled across Roger Arliner...
The Meat Boycott of 1902
I was reading White Feminism by Koa Beck (out in January! preorder now, because it is great) and she mentions the 1902 kosher meat boycott. That book has...
Anna Ella Carroll did what now?
I was reading a book recently that casually referenced "Anne [sic] Carroll, who helped devise military strategies for U.S. Grant." As someone who spends a...
Florence Howe changed the landscape (and so can you)
Florence Howe passed away this past week. Had I heard of her before? No. But I follow a LOT of women's history and women's rights accounts, and this was all...
The Astrophysicist We Should Remember
The other day, I was trying to find non-white astronomers for a reading list I was making, and it is HARD. Especially when you’re looking for authors of...
How Margaret Brent saved Maryland
The time! 1600s. The place! Maryland. The woman! Margaret Brent. Brent and three of her twelve siblings (it’s just too many) came to America from England...
Mother Shipton and her weirdly accurate prophecies
It's Harry Potter's birthday, but because of certain people's actions, let's focus on a famous witch from history! Well. Witch may be wrong. But she's...
Suitcase Mary and Her Band of Misfits
Ok, so Mary Bartelme aka Suitcase Mary didn't really have a band of misfits, but I would definitely at least pick up a book with that title. In broad...
Nigar Ahmad and Pakistan
Let’s look at Nigar Ahmad (1945-2017), whose Wikipedia entry is seriously LACKING. Ahmad worked for women’s rights in Pakistan, co-founding an organization...
The 1904 Fort Shaw Indian Girls' Basketball Team
Did you know! That in 1904, a group of seven girls in Montana were the champions of basketball? Probably not, because THE PATRIARCHY, but these young women,...
Mary Guinan is eradicating all your diseases
I looked up “woman epidemiologist,” because that seems relevant for our times, and I found Mary Guinan! Guinan is now 81 and is known for her work with...
Women's History Month's Greatest Hits
It’s Women’s History Month! Again! What a delightful time every year to focus on the history of half the population. I’m gonna be focusing on some fast facts...
Diane Nash is organizing all your protests
Diane Nash. What’d she do. If you’ve watched a documentary on the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s, you’ve probably heard of SNCC: the...
Patsy Mink is gathering a coalition to enforce Title IX
PATSY MINK. Had you heard of her? I had not. Yet another reason we must seek out women in history, as they are pushed to the side by archivists, authors, and...