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“Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives” @ the Library

March 09, 2015

The Library provides an abundance of materials and resources for your use during Women’s History Month in March, including print books, DVDs, streaming videos, and government documents.

The theme of this year’s Women’s History Month celebration in March is “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives.”

“Accounts of the lives of individual women are critically important because they reveal exceptionally strong role models who share a more expansive vision of what a woman can do. The stories of women’s lives, and the choices they made, encourage girls and young women to think larger and bolder, and give boys and men a fuller understanding of the female experience. Knowing women’s achievements challenges stereotypes and upends social assumptions about who women are and what women can accomplish today.

“There is a real power in hearing women’s stories, both personally and in a larger context. Remembering and recounting tales of our ancestors’ talents, sacrifices, and commitments inspires today’s generations and opens the way to the future.” (from National Women’s History Project, 2015 Theme web page: http://www.nwhp.org/womens-history-month/theme/)

As in other such monthly “celebrations” the Library has materials of all kinds for your viewing and reading pleasure. Some examples can be found below.

 Streaming Videos

From Ambrose Digital comes A History of women’s achievement in America. This 8-part series examines the 400-year history of American women’s inspiring accomplishments and victories. The episodes are

Some additional streaming videos from Films on Demand include the following:

Founding Mothers sheds light on female contributions to the American Revolution. Women from a diverse range of backgrounds are spotlighted, including First Lady Abigail Adams; Deborah Sampson, who fought in the Continental Army under her dead brother’s name; and Elizabeth Freeman, formerly a slave called Mum Bett who in suing for freedom set a precedent that led to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts.

Funny Ladies, an episode of Pioneers of Television, features the first standup comediennes to appear on television—legends such as Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers. It also looks at Lucille Ball’s breakthrough on “I Love Lucy” and the sitcom stars who followed, including Mary Tyler Moore, Betty White and Marla Gibbs. The program covers television’s most enduring variety star, Carol Burnett, and features interviews with contemporary actresses including Tina Fey and Margaret Cho.

A Woman’s World, an episode of “Time to Remember,” from the BBC, offers an insight into the ways women’s roles in society changed through the first five decades of the 20th century. The archive footage features suffragette protests, including Emily Davison at the 1913 Derby; working women during the First World War; Suzanne Lenglen playing tennis; and a sample of 1920s and 30s fashions.

Women First & Foremost offers shining examples of how generations of women have achieved their deserved place at the forefront of history.

 DVD

In the Media collection you will find this Ron Howard production, from the “Unsung Heroes” series: The story of America’s female patriots (Media: DVD 5246). The film is an inspirational story of women who, despite the hardships of military service, are proud of their long-standing commitment to the patriotic ideals of the United States. Through rare photos, archival materials, personal memorabilia and interviews, viewers will see the accomplishments and sacrifices of female patriots who have previously been ignored.

One way to find biographies of women is to search RamCat using the Advanced search tab and the terms “women” and “biography” as Subjects. (On March 4, this search retrieved 1,334 titles, including those below.) You will find biographies of women in politics (Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Condoleezza Rice, Sarah Palin, Gabrielle Giffords, Nancy Pelosi, Margaret Thatcher, and, from Texas history, “Ma” Ferguson), Supreme Court justices (Sonia Sotomayor), comedians (Tina Fey), Nobel Prize winners (Malala Yousafzai), journalists (Molly Ivins), and so many more.

The following books, ebooks, and government documents are examples of “collective biography” – they include entries on multiple women – found in the Library’s collections.

 Books

After the vote was won : the later achievements of fifteen suffragists (Stacks: JK1898.5 .A33 2010)

 

Between the sheets : the literary liaisons of nine 20th century women writers (Stacks: PN471 .M385 2012) 

 

 

 

 

Chicanas in charge : Texas women in the public arena (Stacks: HQ1236.5.U6 G88 2007)

 

Divas on screen : Black women in American film (Stacks: PN1995.9.N4 M327 2009)

 

 

Extraordinary Texas women (Stacks: CT3262.T4 A45 2008)

 

 

Flappers : six women of a dangerous generation (Stacks: HQ1412 .M1633 2014)

 

Ladies of liberty : the women who shaped our nation (Stacks: E302.5 .R64 2008)

Letter to the world : seven women who shaped the American century (Stacks: CT3235 .W36 2000)

Paths to discovery : autobiographies from Chicanas with careers in science, mathematics, and engineering (Stacks: Q141 .P3746 2008)

Portraits of women in the American West (Stacks: CT3262.W37 P67 2005)

“Scribbling women” : true tales from astonishing lives (Stacks: PN6069.W65 J63 2011)

 

Women’s letters : America from the Revolutionary War to the present (Stacks: HQ1410 .W6845 2008)

 

 

 eBooks

Amazing American women : 40 fascinating 5-minute reads

The door in the dream : conversations with eminent women in science

An encyclopedic dictionary of women in early American films, 1895-1930

Rachel Carson and her sisters : extraordinary women who have shaped America’s environment

Texas women who dared to be first

Government Documents

The quiet heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theater : an oral history of the men and women of CBB and FRUMEL (United States. National Security Agency/Central Security Service. Center for Cryptologic History) (online)

Voice of America interviews with eight American women of achievement : Grace Hopper, Betty Friedan, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Mary Calderone, Helen Thomas, Julia Montgomery Walsh, Maya Angelou, Nancy Clark Reynolds. (US Documents: IA 1.2:V 87/8)

Women in American foreign affairs (United States. Department of State) (US Documents: S 1.2:W 84)

Women in the United States Navy (Naval History & Heritage Command) (online)