Essays on Women
Am I my mother’s daughter?
What a monumentally historic day it was for women when Hillary Clinton accepted the nomination for president at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She said, “Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come. When any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone.”
Blog Posts on Women
Recommended Reading on Women
The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective with Judy Norsigian (Author), 2011, Our Bodies, Ourselves ,Touchstone, New York, NY
In 1973, the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective published this milestone book for the purpose of informing women about their female bodies and how to advocate for their own needs. Since this original edition, OBOS has had many re-issues and has generated an array of other writings reflecting different stages in a woman’s life.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham and Chelsea Clinton, 2019, The Book of Gutsy Women, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY
Profiles of more than one hundred women from all backgrounds, talents, eras, and arenas illustrate women’s courage in challenging accepted practices, policies, and attitudes. Most of these women are familiar to us and others, less well-known, are brought to light in this book.
DeVries, Hendrika, 2019, When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew…, She Writes Press, Berkeley, CA
DeVries adroitly tells the agonizing story of her childhood in World War II Amsterdam when her father had been sent to a German labor camp and she and her mother were left to figure out how to survive on their own. Most poignant are the descriptions of how they stayed alive by eating tulip bulbs.
Diamant, Anita, 2015, The Boston Girl, Scribner, New York, NY
The Boston Girl describes the positive life and progress of a young Jewish immigrant. Although Addie Baum, the protagonist, comes from a humble background, she creates connections that help her get an education, introduce her to a life-style more sophisticated than her own, and give her a step up into a solid future.
Nadell, Pamela, 2019, America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY
Jewish women have been part of American history starting from the seventeenth century. Nadell brilliantly describes this phenomenon through multiple eras. Her section “A new kind of Jewess: Eastern European Jewish Women in America” reflects the background of many current-day Jewish women who remember immigrant grandmothers who arrived here in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A wonderful book!
Seligman, Scott, 2020, The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City, Potomac Books, Lincoln, NE
Thousands of poor, mostly uneducated, orthodox Jewish women gathered to boycott kosher butchers in New York’s lower East Side to protest the increasing cost of meat. These protesters set themselves against powerful politicians, impassive meat producers, and a wholesalers’ syndicate with the simple goal to feed their families according to the ancient, prescribed rules that govern what is permissible for Jews to eat.