Swift positions herself in a long history of women accused of ‘behaving badly’ while revealing the importance of revisiting our understanding of the past based on shifting evidence.
Educator Mary McLeod Bethune regularly wrote of her travels abroad.
Robert Abbott Sengstacke via Getty Images
By compiling stories about the accomplishments of women, Christine set out to build an allegorical city where women and their achievements would be safe from sexist insults and slander.
Betty Smith’s novel sold millions of copies in the 1940s.
Weegee/International Center of Photography via Getty Images
No other 20th-century American novel did quite so much to burnish Brooklyn’s reputation. But Smith rarely saw her hometown through rose-colored glasses − and even grew to resent it.
Women’s wills and last testaments provide a more nuanced picture of life in the Middle Ages than medieval stereotypes allow, such as that depicted in “Death and the Prostitute” by Master of Philippe of Guelders.
Gallica/Bibliothèque nationale de France/Feminae
European women’s rights expanded in early medieval cities, though they were still limited. Last wills and testaments were some of the few documents women could dictate themselves.
If you’ve watched many period dramas, you’ve probably seen a mantua. It was worn over a pair of stays (corset) and an often contrasting petticoat. The draping fabric created a front-opening gown.
Baden H Mullaney, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Kittrell’s legacy shows that home economics was always about more than cooking and sewing. It’s also a reminder that issues that affect families are simultaneously local and global.
Image credits: State Library of Western Australia.
Historically, women’s contributions to the agricultural sector often occurred outside of professional roles. ‘Lady’ Maud Williams, who discovered the Lady Williams apple, is one of those women.