Women’s History Month presents an opportunity to recognize the contributions of women to American history and culture. Below, GW Today rounds up a few of the many books by George Washington University women authors exploring women’s lives, history and impact.
“Thicker Than Water”
Kerry Washington, B.A. ’98, HON ’13
Emmy-winning actor, director, producer, activist: Monumental Alumna Kerry Washington’s resumé is stacked. But her critically-acclaimed autobiography explores her life away from the spotlight, her relationship with her family and her commitment to art that uplifts women and people of color.
“Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920-1963”
Rebecca DeWolf, B.A. ’04, M.A. ’08
The proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which would amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee legal equality on the basis of sex, has remained in limbo for more than a century. DeWolf’s book is the first comprehensive, full-length history of the early struggle over the proposed amendment, grappling not only with the battle over women’s constitutional status but also with “the more than 40-year mission to articulate the boundaries of what it means to be an American citizen.”
“Season to Taste: Rewriting Kitchen Space in Contemporary Women’s Food Memoirs”
Caroline J. Smith, associate professor of writing
As women have asserted the right to escape the physical and metaphorical space of the kitchen, they have also expanded what it means to be there. By exploring women’s writing about the kitchen from “Better Homes and Gardens” articles in the 1960s to powerhouse contemporary writers like Ruth Reichl and Julie Powell, Smith “documents how the kitchen has been reframed from a gender prison to a stage for self-discovery.”
“Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder that Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit”
Robin Bernstein, M.A. ‘99
From GW Magazine: In the early 19th century, three men in Auburn, N.Y., landed on the idea of a prison as a means of enriching themselves and their nascent village. They believed a prison was a way to attract state funds, grow commerce and employment, and—with repercussions that have lasted for two centuries and counting—manufacture goods with free labor. What came to be known as the “Auburn System” prioritized profit over redemption or justice. Prisoners toiled all day every day in factories on the premises. Infractions real or perceived were met with extreme violence.
When William Freeman, a Black man serving time for a charge of horse theft he denied, demanded payment for his work, the violence that ensued—including multiple murders—shocked the community and resonate to this day. Bernstein, the Dillon Professor of American History at Harvard University, brings to painful and vivid life the origins of a system that continues to serve as a model for for-profit prisons everywhere.
“Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America”
Dayna Bowen Matthew, GW Law Dean
In the United States, a patient’s race may still affect the care (or lack thereof) that they receive. “Just Health” is Matthew’s latest on the intersection of public health and structural racism, offering solutions for healing an unjust healthcare system.