Research Guides: Women's History Month: Women's History Month, 2023 (Women Writers)

Women's History Month, 2023

In honor of Women's History Month, I have gathered together some digital resources within and outside of the library. This year's theme is "Celebrating Women who Tell Our Stories." This includes women writers and women storytellers in all media.

For additional resources having to do with Women's History Month, please see one of the following resources:

American Women: A Guide to Women's History Resources at the Library of Congress
The Library's unique and diverse collections are rich with resources for the study of women's history. This research guide gathers together a collection of topical guides and essays that tell the stories of women in America.
Women's History Month
March is Women's History Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

For help with finding more resources like these contact Prof. Foasberg through her profile below.

Ask any research librarian available for help through our Ask Us research service!

National Women's History Alliance
The National Women's History Alliance is responsible for setting the theme for Women's History Month each year.

Women Telling Our Stories: Feature Films & Theatrical Productions

These are a few of the films the library holds that are written by women or in some way about women writers.

15 Heroines: The Labyrinth
Ovid's series of fictional letters give inspiration to 15 Heroines - a collection of monologues by 15 British playwrights which shed light on the forgotten women of Greek Mythology.
The first instalment, The War tells the untold stories of the Trojan War: Oenone, Hermione, Laodamia, Briseis and Penelope.
The Library also has access to the second installment, The Desert, and the third installment, The Labyrinth.
Funny Girl
Funny Girl is based on the life of Broadway star, film actress and comedienne Fanny Brice (a role made famous by Barbra Streisand) and her tempestuous relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein.
Miss Austen Regrets
Based on Jane Austen's actual letters and diaries, this drama unravels the secrets of this elusive woman. Jane is nearing her forties and has never married. To her niece, Fanny Knight - a young, pretty girl desperate to fall in love - Jane is a favourite aunt who offers the wisdom and knowledge that will help her in her own search for a happy marriage. But surely the woman so capable of writing love on the page must have experienced love herself? Jane surrenders little to her niece, but secrets there are, and Jane is forced to examine afresh the reasons why she has remained single.

Women Telling Our Stories: Documentary Films

Filmmakers on film. 10, Reel women : pioneers of the cinema, 1896 to the present
There were more women working in influential positions behind the scenes in film before 1920 than at any other time in history. Filmmaker, author, nationwide lecturer Ally Acker, takes us on an archival journey of the pioneering female filmmakers who have transformed the way we look at movies from 1896 to the present.
The library also provides access to other films in this series.
For My People: The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker
For My People: The Life and Writing of Margaret Walker gives the long-overdue recognition to one of the seminal figures of American literature. Margaret Walker has been described by scholar Jerry Ward as "a national treasure" and by Nikki Giovanni as the "most famous person nobody knows." Her signature poem, For My People, written when she was 22, set a tone and a level of commitment which African American literature has been responding to ever since.
The Girls in the Band
The award-winning documentary film THE GIRLS IN THE BAND tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, history-making journeys from the late 30s to the present day. The many first-hand accounts of the challenges faced by these talented women provide a glimpse into decades of racism and sexism that have existed in America.
Hansel Mieth: Vagabond Photographer
Hansel Mieth is the compelling tale of a pioneering woman photojournalist who created some of the most indelible images of mid-twentieth century America. Armed with convictions, perseverance, and talent, she carved out a career in the male-dominated world of photojournalism, eventually becoming a celebrated LIFE Magazine staff photographer, only the second woman to occupy that position. The film is narrated by Mieth in her own words.

Women Telling Our Stories: E-Books

Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House by Elizabeth Keckley
ISBN: 9781469602905
Publication Date: 2014-06-24
Behind the Scenes is the life story of Elizabeth Keckley, a shrewd entrepreneur who, while enslaved, raised enough money to purchase freedom for herself and her son. Keckley moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a seamstress and dressmaker for the wives of influential politicians. She eventually became a close confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln. Several years after President Lincoln's assassination, when Mrs. Lincoln's financial situation had worsened, Keckley helped organize an auction of the former first lady's dresses, eliciting strong criticism from members of the Washington elite.
The Dance Claimed Me: a Biography of Pearl Primus by Peggy Schwartz; Murray Schwartz
ISBN: 1283114348
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Pearl Primus (1919-1994) blazed onto the dance scene in 1943 with stunning works that incorporated social and racial protest into their dance aesthetic. In The Dance Claimed Me, Peggy and Murray Schwartz, friends and colleagues of Primus, offer an intimate perspective on her life and explore her influences on American culture, dance, and education.
Playing Smart by Catherine Keyser
ISBN: 9780813551111
Publication Date: 2010-08-12
Smart women, sophisticated ladies, savvy writers . . . Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, Lois Long, Jessie Fauset, Dawn Powell, Mary McCarthy, and others imagined New York as a place where they could claim professional status, define urban independence, and shrug off confining feminine roles.
So Long Been Dreaming by Nalo Hopkinson; Uppinder Mehan
ISBN: 1551523167
Publication Date: 2004-10-01
So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy is an anthology of original new stories by leading African, Asian, South Asian and Aboriginal authors, as well as North American and British writers of color.
Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly
ISBN: 1480443840
Publication Date: 2015-10-27
A courageous female journalist's classic exposé of the horrific treatment of the mentally ill in nineteenth-century America.
Women Making Art by Marsha Meskimmon
ISBN: 9781135130817
Publication Date: 2012-11-12
Women have been making art for centuries, yet their work has been seen as secondary or has gone unrecognized altogether. Women Making Art asks why this is so, and what it would take for us to realize the extent of women's extraordinary contribution to the arts.
Women Telling Nations by Amelia Sanz (Volume Editor); Francesca Scott (Volume Editor); Suzan van Dijk (Volume Editor)
ISBN: 9401211124
Publication Date: 2014-08-15
Women Telling Nations highlights how, from the 16th to the 19th centuries, European women, as readers and writers, contributed to the construction of national identities. It demonstrates the impact of cross-fertilisation of nations: focusing on routes rather than roots.

Web Sources and Primary Source Collections

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 is a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history.
Catalogue Link: OneSearch.

Discovering American Women's History Online (Middle Tennessee State University)
This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.
Early Women in Broadcasting
From the University of Maryland, some biographies of women from the early years of broadcasting.
Women's History Month: Audio and Video
A collection of interesting links including interviews, short documentaries, and more, from the official Women's History Month website.