women's history: casahistoria recommends these sites for general interest - not just history   

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Browse down the page or just click one of these sections....
 
1. General Sites
2. Researching Women's History
3. Ancient & medieval
Ancient & Classical | Medieval Women
4. Pre Industrial Society
16th & 17th century | Men's views on women
Witches and witchcraft
5. 19th century:
     (a) Great Britain
Social position | Work
Emancipation movements
     (b) USA
Work | Emancipation movements
Men's views on women
     (c) African-american women
6. 20th century:
     (a) Women's Suffrage
     (b) Women in Totalitarian Regimes
     (c) Women & Modern War
     (d) Men discussing women
7. Women in Art & Science
8. Women's Issues
Girls and Education
9. Women in the Developing World
 
  other related casahistoria sites
Women's History ·
Women's Suffrage ·
Suffrage in Gt Britain · Suffrage in the USA · 
Women in Totalitarian States:
Stalin's Russia | Nazi Germany | Fascist Italy |
Communist China |
 

 Site Map - Women's History microsite
 

 

 

see what we are reading! 

casahistoria is recommended by:
BBC Radio 4 History Channel 4 History
BBC radio,
UK		 Channel 4 TV, UK Birmingham GRID for Learning, UK UK joint university database Argentina's national paper
SBC Education
Blue Ribbon HOT site, USA
 SovLit, Harvard Univ, USA


 

 

 

1. General Sites to Women's History                                                    go to top of page

 

  • Biographies of Notable Women  On this site: a growing collection of biographies of notable women: both some who are well-known, and others you might want to learn about.
  • Women in world history straightforward and useful series of lessons for schools on key aspects of women's history. Well supported by documents, activities.
  • Distinguished Women of Past and Present Comprehensive listing of women in history.  
  • Emancipation of Women and Women's Suffrage from the Spartacus educational Site. Excellent information 
  • Internet Women's History Sourcebook A massive site telling the story of women's History through the ages. Use the index and choose a time to read about!
  • Women's History Encyclopedia The Encyclopedia of Women's History needs you! If you've got something to say about women's history -- about an individual, a topic, an event, a famous first -- you can add it to this large online project easily. Learn more here. Easy to use.
  • Women in uniform US site looking at the role women have played in the US armed forces from the war of Independence to Iraq.

 

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2. Researching Women's History      go to top of page                                                                              

  • Genesis is a mapping initiative, funded by the UK Research Support Libraries Programme to identify and develop access to women's history sources in the British Isles. The database holds descriptions of women's history collections from libraries, archives and museums from around the British Isles. Use it to search the Genesis database by using a search box on the opening page.
  • A-Z facility of the Genesis site. This is an excellent listing of sites relating to women's history held in the Genesis database.
  • H-Women Discussion Group Scholarly discussion to communicate current research and teaching interests, to test new ideas and to share comments on current historiography.
  • WWW Virtual Library of Women's History This virtual library contains a very comprehensive list of women's history in institutions and organizations
  • Uncovering Women's History in Archival Collections  Maintained by the Archives for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Texas at San Antonio, this list is the most comprehensive source of information about Internet sites related to women's archival collections. Over 70 collections are identified and listed geographically. A massive, serious, list arranged geographically, this is the place for one-stop shopping
  • Library Collections Library collections of original sources (letters, diaries, papers, etc.) on the topic of women's history.  From about.com
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Documents

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3. Ancient & medieval        go to top of page

 

Medieval Women
  • Unknown fresco ... as yet!What was a medieval woman? Selection of documentary extracts set out in a clear question & answer format.
  • Dominion and Domination of the Gentle Sex Lives of Medieval women with historical information and biographies. Site includes many links on Medieval times and women.
  • Edith (Eadgyth) of England Daughter of King Edward the Elder of England, she was married off to the Emperor Otto I as his first wife.
  • Margaret Douglas Countess of Lennox A biographical profile of Margaret Douglas, grandmother of James VI of Scotland who became James I of England, and granddaughter of Tudor King Henry VII.
  • Huneberc Eighth century C.E. English woman writer, with translations, background and bibliography.
  • Julian of Norwich Website Despite the name, this website includes essays on many medieval religious women, in addition to rich resources on Julian herself. rather strange in its polemic layout. Available also in Latin, Italian, Portuguese; Spanish; French
  • Early English Costume: Women/Girls Source: Calthrop, Dion Clayton. English Costume: I. Early English. London, 1906  Includes colour plates and line drawings as well as detailed articles about historical English fashion. the origin of ladybird pictures?????
  • Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index An academic site which covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.
  • The Ducking Stool BBC audio report (about 10mins). The middle ages were not kind when it came to punishments. The ducking stool was reserved for women who could be publicly humiliated for simply speaking their minds - or, as it was put at the time, being a nag or a scold. One of the few ducking stools still remaining is in the 13th century Priory Church in Leominster. Jane Gething-Lewis is taken on a guided tour by the historian, Eric Turton. 

 

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4. Pre Industrial Society         go to top of page

 

16th & 17th century

  • witches hanged in 1678Radical Women in the English Revolution Seventeenth century original source documents providing evidence of women's influence during the years of revolution
  • Astell, Mary: Some Reflections Upon Marriage  Full text of a 1700 essay on marriage, including reflections on inequality and the submission of wives to husbands.
  • The Journeys of Celia Fiennes Three hundred years ago, a remarkable woman travelled alone through every county in England. Today, her journal provides us with a glimpse of 17th-century England. By Jean Ducey for British Heritage Magazine
  • Women's Fashions of the 17th Century Drawings by Wenceslaus Hollar, published in the middle of the 17th century, are invaluable resources for what women were wearing at that time. This about.com resource includes many of Hollar's illustrations in thumbnail images, clickable for much larger versions.
  • Aphra Behn (1640 - 1689), the first known English woman to earn her living by the pen
for more on women in 17th century England go to the casahistoria Civil War site

 

Men's views on women

Witches and witchcraft

  • Witchcraft Documents (15th Century) From Medieval Sourcebook. If you need a quick read of excerpts from the basic documents, here's where to start.
  • Online reproduction of Malleus Maleficarum  One of the most famous medieval treatises on witches. Written by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, first published in Germany in 1487. Its main purpose was to challenge all arguments against the existence of witchcraft and to instruct magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and convict witches. For a transcription see Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger Malleus Maleficarum, from George L. Burr, ed., The Witch Persecutions in Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, 1898-1912)
  • The Witch-Cult in Western Europe Margaret Alice Murray's 1921 interpretation of the witch trials of Europe. She quotes extensively from European witch trials, and takes the evidence quite literally. See God of the Witches in this set of links for another of Murray's books.
  • Witchcraft before Salem Concise, but well laid out survey by Douglas Linder
  • The European Witch-Hunts, c. 1450-1750 An analysis of the evidence from gendercide.watch about the witch craze of Europe, 15th through 18th century, with special attention to the question: was this "gendercide"? Were women especially targeted by male patriarchy? Well argued and linked to other sources and essays. Much is made of :
  • Medieval WitchCraft in Scotland An illustrated history of incidents of witchcraft accusations in Scotland, mostly 16th and 17th century.
  • Recent Developments in the Study of The Great European Witch Hunt Jenny Gibbons' analysis which ties the European witch-hunts to other "panics" in early modern Europe.
  • Who burned the witches? For years, feminist scholars have argued that witch hunts were inspired by a reactionary, misogynistic church. But new scholarship, like Lyndal Roper's "Witch Craze," reveals that the real villains were the neighbours. By Laura Miller in Salon.
  • New Light on Witchcraft Joseph McCabe's sceptical approach to the history of witchcraft and the evolving definition of "witch," part of a larger critique of Christianity.
  • Witchcraft & Medicine (1484-1793) Useful pdf of an essay produced in 1974 by Jaroslac Nemec for the US National Library of Medicine. Clear, relatively concise and well illustrated.
  • Depictions of witches during persecutions selection of 16th century woodcuts with brief descriptions
  • Costume Discounters. Despite the somewhat improbable name this page has clear brief outlines and many links to the more ephemeral aspects of witchcraft.  It has also been the origin of several of the more academic links quoted in this section.
  • Salem Witch Trials:
    • Witchcraft in Salem Village Original documents, maps and transcriptions from the Salem Trials of 1692, presented in a clear, well set out site by the Peabody Institute Library and the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia.
    • Salem Witch trials of 1682. Well set out. Good access to documents. By Douglas Linder
    • Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project Collection of primary source documents on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and related material. Sources include court records, complete texts of contemporary books (dating 1690s-1800s), record books, historical maps of Salem, images of the original court documents from various archival institutions, and other images. Very useful site from The Women's Studies Section (WSS) of the Association of College & Research Libraries
    • Rebecca Nurse Homestead Site guide for visitors to building. Good background & visuals
    • Giles Corey Brief history by Heather Synder of Giles Corey, one of the six men to be executed during the Salem witch trials of 1692.
    • Images of the Salem Witch Trials Selection of secondary images, painted some time after the event.

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5. 19th century: (a) Great Britain    go to top of page

Social position

Work

  • Young cotton worker (unknown source)Social and Economic Status: Class and Occupation  Links to an interesting, and rare, collection of sites to do with female employment/occupations. From Spartacus. Outlines and documentary support: Schooling  | Marriage  | Birth Control  | Industrial Work  | University Education | Careers & Professions
  • Woman, Economic Instability and Poverty a study by Ann Marie Huysman (1998), exploring the relationship between gender and poverty.
    • Modern History Source Book This article is posted as an example of a very good student term paper
  • The Plight of Women's Work Early Industrial Revolution in England and Wales Part of the Classroom lesson series from womeninworldhistory. Concise but with good witness support - includes testimony to Parliamentary commissions, illustrations, workforce chart.
  • Women's Work By Professor Pat Hudson who argues that sometimes the earning power of women contributed to their independence and to their profile in the public arena, but most often it merely added to their already heavy domestic burdens.
  • Women Miners in the English Coal Pits An 1842 Parliamentary Paper describing women's work in the coal mines of Yorkshire. Includes testimony of two women miners. From Modern History SourceBook
  • Match Girls BBC audio report (about 10mins)  "Pale, thin, undersized" and "ragged", the match girls were unlikely heroines of labour militancy. In 1888, a group of women workers went on strike and sparked the birth of the modern trade union movement.
  • The Greenwich Time Lady BBC audio report (about 10mins). In 1892 Ruth Belville took over the role of the Greenwich Time Lady from her mother. Each week she would visit the Royal Observatory with her Arnold chronometer to have it checked and would then go to businesses around London so they could set their clocks. Kristen Lippincott and David Rooney from the Royal Observatory talk about The Greenwich Time Lady – her life and how, despite opposition, she managed to continue her service into the 1930s.

Emancipation Movements

Go to casahistoria Women's Suffrage page for extensive links to suffrage campaigns in Great Britain

 

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   19th century: (b) United States of America   go to top of page   

   

European Immigration into the USA See also this casahistoria page for links to the life of immigrant woman at this time

Work

  • Mr. and Mrs Issac Newton Phelps Stokes by John Singer Sargent Women and Work in Early America From the late colonial period through the American Revolution, women's work usually centred on the home, but romanticizing this role as the Domestic Sphere came in the early 19th century. An article by Jone Johnson Lewis, Women's History Guide
  • Women in America: Occupations Travellers to America in 1820-1842 describe women's occupations, providing insight into the status and roles of women.
  • Women and Finance in the Early National U.S. An extensive survey by Robert E. Wright, U. of Virginia, on women as business owners, loan recipients, investors or otherwise involved in financial issues and the workforce in the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
  • Woman's right to labor, or, Low wages and hard work Caroline Wells Healey Dall's 1859 lectures on women and work. Graphic original facsimile format for the pages. Requires patience to load!
  • Hearth A novel site with much of domestic interest . This is a core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines. Titles published between 1850 and 1950 were selected and ranked by teams of scholars for their great historical importance. The first phase of this project focused on books published between 1850 and 1925 and a small number of journals.

Women and the frontier Click to go to casahistoria section in European Immigration into the USA

 

Early Political Emancipation Movements

Go to casahistoria Women's Suffrage page for extensive links to suffrage campaigns in USA

 

19th century men on women

  • John James Audubon and  Charles Dickens Their (separate) observations of women in America in the early 19th century (1808-1826). Useful excerpts from their writings.
  • Channing and Others, by Fuller Margaret Fuller, in Woman in the Nineteenth Century, writes of male voices who, in her view, were supportive of women. The essay is a reproduction, modified and expanded, of an article published in "The Dial," Boston, July, 1843, under the title of "The Great Lawsuit.--Man versus Men ; Woman versus Women."  This article excited a good deal of sympathy, and still more interest.
  • Frederick Douglass: Women's Rights Illustrated exhibit, includes words from Douglass supporting women's rights and details of his long commitment to women's suffrage.
  • Hegel: Feminist Critique  Antoinette M. Stafford's article on Hegel's views on women and the family
  • Jefferson and His Daughters The story of Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his daughters illustrates 19th century American attitudes towards and education of women.
  • Mill: On the Subjection of Women Classic essay by John Stuart Mill (1869) in support of women's rights. Click here for Notes to help with the essay by Andrew Roberts
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  • Mark Twain: "The Ladies" An 1872 humorous speech by Mark Twain looking at women in history - but many pop-ups!
  • Uncivil Liberty (1873): "An Essay to Show the Injustice and Impolicy of Ruling Woman Without Her Consent." Ezra H. Heywood attacks the legal inequality in the US of men over women.

 

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     19th century: (c) African-american women         go to top of page

 

Slavery

  • The black woman of the South : her neglects and her needs by Dr Alexander Crummell. Crummell, pastor of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, from 1879-1898, spoke out for black liberation, and founded the Negro Academy. This speech focuses on the status of African American women in slavery, which Crummell says was worse than for men because women were more isolated. To improve the lot of black women within the present generation, Crummell proposes that "sisterhoods" be sent into the rural South to train and teach black women and that industrial schools be established for them in the South as well.

Individuals

  • Ex-Slave Mary Fields in Montana Story of the life of "Black Mary," African American ex-slave who settled in Montana after the Civil War and earned the respect and devotion of most of the residents of the pioneer community of Cascade, Montana, before she died in 1914. By George Everett for Wild West Magazine
  • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Left Legacy Worth Celebrating Once you can find this article amongst the many ads, read about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper who represented many causes and constituencies during an 85-year life. She was an activist for black empowerment, voting rights, feminism, spirituality, plus moral and ethical living. §
  • Elizabeth Johnson Harris Elizabeth Harris was born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1867, to parents who had been slaves. She married Jacob Walker Harris in 1883 at the age of 15 and was the mother of nine children. She lived until 1942, surviving her husband and two of her children. She was a deeply religious woman who spent much of her life in service to her church. She clearly valued education, both for herself and her children. She had several of her poems and vignettes published in various newspapers during her lifetime. She included these in the manuscript of her life story, which she started writing at the age of 55 in 1923. This is the scanned writings of Harris, here in both images and text. They give insight into the life of an African American woman in the late 19th - early 20th century.
  • Charlotte Ray (1850-1911) First African American woman lawyer in the US and first woman admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia. An about.com profile.
  • Susan Baker King Taylor: Reminiscences of Life with the 33d  An article by Kimberly J. Largent about Susan Baker King Taylor who was secretly schooled in her young years, who became a laundress while her husband enlisted in the Union army. She also served as a nurse, cleaned guns, and generally helped with the "colored" regiment's business, short of actual fighting.
  • Sojourner Truth from About Guide to Women's History. Concise bio with many links to other sites.
  • Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People Fugitive slave, Underground Railroad conductor, Civil War nurse and soldier, women's rights advocate and social reformer An four-part in-depth biography by Jone Johnson Lewis, Women's History Guide. See also More about Harriet Tubman for many more links to Harriet Tubman sites.

 

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6. 20th century: (a) Women's Suffrage        go to top of page

 

Go to casahistoria Women's Suffrage page for extensive links to suffrage campaigns:

Great Britain

USA

Worldwide

 

 

    (b) Women in Totalitarian Regimes      go to top of page

 

Go to casahistoria Women in Totalitarian States page for extensive links:

Zhou Yuwe, 1986: "Carry out family planning. Implement the basic national policy." China has a strict policy concerning birth control. Here the One Child policy is represented as the road to a modern, Western looking world. Even the woman and child themselves have un-Chinese features. Stalin's Russia
 Nazi Germany
Fascist Italy
 Communist China

                  

 

     (c) Women & Modern War         go to top of page
  • Rape of women during wartime Interesting, well linked site by by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Looks at the question in general, with large specific sections on international law, world war II and later conflicts.
  • Sexual violence as a weapon of war UNICEF report on prevalence in modern warfare
  • When women are the spoils of war UNESCO article by Valerie Oosterveld, Canadian jurist who writes that sexual violence is only now coming to be recognized as a crime against humanity.
Japanese invasion of China World War II
  • A Woman in Berlin. Excellent review of the 1945 (anonymous) diary by Linda Grant who played a role in publicising the mass rapes of Croatian and Bosnian women by Serb militias in the 1990's. The review gives many examples from the book of the dehumanising process of the initial Red Army occupation as well as placing the effect on Berlin's women in the context of modern war. Finally it looks at the question of the evidence - how trustworthy is it (the familiar question to students .......) and comes up with an uneasy parallel.
  • The continuum of sexual violence in occupied Germany, 1945-49 By Hsu-Ming Teo, University of Sydney, Australia. Difficult & lengthy article from Women’s History Review, 1996, presenting a historical explanation for the male sexual violence against German women in Occupied Germany, 1945-49. Thanks to the publishers this is a free access article, but you need to enter the full title into the search engine to access (no registration needed). Abstract

 

  click me to read the list!!
Anonymous: A Woman in Berlin
This diary, written by a Berlin woman in her 30's during the fall of Berlin illustrates clearly and forcefully the real meaning of defeat. Interesting asides on the nature of the Russian conquerors: raised in a society where they received but could not choose they had little concept of "value", even of booty. Most of all it reveals the commonplace nature & acceptance of rape or of attaching oneself to an Ivan lover - for protection and survival. A very human diary of survival in year zero.

 
Comfort Women Balkan Wars, 1990's This section focuses on the impact of war on non-combatant women. For the influence of war on combatants see the relevant casahistoria sections:

 Women & World War I
Spanish Civil War
World War II ( see Russian Great Patriotic War)
Women in the Vietnam War

 

 

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    (d) Mens views on 20th century Women

Suffrage

 

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7. Women in Arts & Science        go to top of page

 

  • Women's Voices: Quotations by Women  Looking for an inspiring quote by a woman? Browse through more than these quotations by more than 250 women.
  • Poems by Women  How did women portray their emotions in poetry -- and thereby describe their lives? A collection of more than 350 poems by women, arranged by author. Most were written before 1920.
  • Women in Science  Biographies of notable women in science and medicine, plus links to even more information
  • Women in Space by Gisela Telis. Clear and concise outline from the 60's onwards. see also for a full picture list of all female astro/cosmonauts
  • Women in Space. NPR talk with one of the first six women accepted into NASA's astronaut corps, and about the 13 who tried in the 1960s -- the Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees.
  • The Mercury 13. Story of the the first 13 women who trained as part  of the Mercury programme.
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8. Women's Issues         go to top of page

 

  Body Image Issues
Eldercare
Equal Opportunity
Feminism
Relationships
Religion & Spirituality
Reproductive Rights		 Violence Against Women
Women's Health
Women & Money
Women in Politics
Women at Work
  • Women's Issues News A weekly summary of women's news and daily information.
  • Barbie Fixation  Playing up the sex appeal of female technology executives is an old game for business magazines looking for newsstand sales, and one that dismisses the real achievements of women in favor of their looks.
  • Beauty and the Geeks  One common complaint of prominent women in Silicon Valley is that, while they are trying to develop and promote exciting new technologies, the media remains obsessively and single-mindedly focused on their looks and their gender.
  • Case Study: Female Infanticide Focus: (1) India (2) China Detailed article from Gendercide Watch (For more on China, click the casahistoria site on women in China)
  • Women of Color: Fight for Change through literature Extensive Readings and (for teachers) suggested lesson plans, from Phillis Wheatley, Alice Walker, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hainsberry, Nikki Giovanni, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou and Paule Marshall.
  • Women of Color Email Lists Joan Korenman's extensive list of email discussions on issues related to women of color: from literature to business issues to Muslim women.
Girls and Education                       

 

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9. Women in the Developing World      go to top of page

 

  • Click to go to articleWomen World Leaders 1945-2005  many small developed, developing and Third World countries have been pioneers in the issue. This is a well referenced series of lists of such women leaders.
  • Women in the developing world Article from wateraid highlighting the difficulties presented to women in particular of lack of water
Middle East/Asia Latin America

Native American Women  

 

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  v07.11

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