Explores how race, class, religion, citizenship, marital status, and sexual identity have shaped women’s lives in the United States during the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Voices of American Women’s History illustrates that gender alone has never defined women’s experiences in America. In this volume, Kristine Ashton Gunnell shows that, as much as gender, race, class, religion, citizenship, and sexuality have historically directed the course of women’s lives in the United States for more than 200 years. Women from diverse backgrounds are represented in media and documents that include pamphlets, book excerpts, personal narratives, photographs, advertisements, congressional testimonies, and Supreme Court rulings. Such issues as abortion, marriage equality, domestic violence, and gender parity are shown from historical and contemporary angles, as this collection of primary sources allows readers and students to easily trace how women’s lives and histories have and continue to intersect. With a historical context for each selection, the book also features structured activities to help teachers with class discussion and exams, including suggestions for further reading, document analysis, essay questions, and manageable research assignments.
