Best Women's Studies History

In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade. Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to keep the baby," says Joyce, in a story typical of the birth mothers, mostly white and middle-class, who vent here about being forced to give up their babies for adoption from the 1950s through the early '70s. They recall callous parents obsessed with what their neighbors would say; maternity homes run by unfeeling nuns who sowed the seeds of lifelong guilt and shame; and social workers who treated unwed mothers like incubators for married couples.

It provides verification that a better future is possible—and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting dramas of what happened in our past. -- Isabelle Allende , author of The House of the Spirits Women played leading roles in the first Christian communities; Jesus' teachings had a feminist bent; ancient Hebrews worshipped the prehistoric goddess-mother well into monarchic times; and Nazis, with their system of male dominance, were a direct throwback to the Indo-European or Aryan invaders whom they crudely imitated. In her scenario, as womenonce veneratedwere degraded to pawns controlled by men, social cooperation gave way to reliance on violence, hierarchy and authoritarianism.

In Charleston, South Carolina, the summer of 1964, Ida Trueluck moves into her son’s house after losing her beloved husband of 40 years. If you like funny, heart-warming southern stories, you’ll love the unforgettable characters in this captivating novel by Amazon #1 bestselling author Susan Gabriel about the courage friends and family inspire in each other and the risks and rewards of trying to make the world a better place. As a girl raised in the south in the 1960's I appreciate the history and emotions that were portrayed perfectly. Susan Gabriel is the acclaimed southern author of Amazon #1 bestselling novels The Secret Sense of Wildflower (named a Best Book of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews) and Temple Secrets.

Why is it that men, and not women, have always had power, wealth, and fame? Woolf, a major modernist writer and critic, takes us on an erudite yet conversational--and completely entertaining--walk around the history of women in writing, smoothly comparing the architecture of sentences by the likes of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen , all the while lampooning the chauvinistic state of university education in the England of her day.

She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Adichie, celebrated author of the acclaimed Americanah (Knopf, 2013), offers a more inclusive definition of feminism, one that strives to highlight and embrace a wide range of people and experiences. Her focus on women of color is also an aspect of the movement that hasn't always been given its due, and Adichie works in her own experience and life as a feminist within a more conservative Nigerian culture in an organic and eye-opening way.