March is Women's History Month

March is Women’s History Month and this year, MacPhaidin Library staff asked several faculty members to list some of the most prominent female scholars in their disciplines – women whose work has influenced them and helped shape their fields of study. The resultant list contains the names of well-known historical figures and lesser-known individuals – all of whom deserve recognition as we celebrate the contributions and achievements of women and many who represent the 2024 Women’s History Month Theme – “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.” 

• Religious Studies – Prof. Mary Joan Leith
  Dame Kathleen Kenyon 1906-1978. Prof. Leith describes Dame Kenyon as…” the leading biblical archaeologist of her day – hugely influential and while not the nicest person in the world and not interested in advancing (or discouraging) women, she provided an example to other women in the archaeology of how a woman can succeed in what was then a “man’s profession.” Interested in learning more? MacPhaidin Library’s Collection includes Dame Kenyon’s Royal Cities of the Old Testament.
  
  Zora Neale Hurston (as anthropologist) (1891-1960) – Many students encounter Hurston when they read her classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Many do not know that work stems directly from Hurston’s experiences working as a cultural anthropologist, collecting songs and folklore in Florida and Louisiana. “I just read Gods of the Upper Air and couldn’t put it down – Hurston was amazing,” Prof. Leith wrote. Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century is also available in the library collection.
• Political Science - Bettina Scholz
  Mary Wollstonecraft–Wollstonecraft, whose Vindication on the Rights of Woman helped form the foundation of the Women’s Rights Movement, is on Prof. Scholz’s list. Wollstonecraft died in 1797, shortly after the birth of her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, best known as the author of Frankenstein. For those who want to learn more about both women, Prof Scholz recommends Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley. That work is available as an eBook from the Boston Public Library. Prof Scholz also lists some more contemporary figures, such as Susan Okin, whose work Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? considers whether there is a conflict between commitment to gender equity and respect for customs of minority religions and cultural customs such as genital mutilation, polygamy, forced marriage, and unequal rights; Nancy Rossenblum, a Harvard professor whose On the Side of the Angels is an appreciation of partisanship; Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a Princeton scholar of racial inequality and public policy who, along with Colin Kaepernick and Robin D. G. Kelley, edited Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies; and Jean Bethke Ellshtain, a political philosopher and University of Chicago professor who wrote extensively on “just war,” including in Just War Against Terror : The Burden of American Power in a Violent World.
• Political Science – Anna Ohanyan
  Prof. Ohanyan lists Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Erica Chenoweth at the top of her list of most renowned scholars. Chenoweth studies political violence and its alternatives and directs Harvard’s Nonviolent Action Lab, an innovation hub that provides empirical evidence in support of movement-led political transformation.
• Communication – Prof. Monique Myers
  Prof. Myers lists Brenda Allen and Mary Jane Collier as two communication scholars she admires. Dr. Allen, Professor Emerita at the University of Colorado Denver is an expert in diversity in inclusion in the workplace and organizational communication. Dr. Collier is a pioneer in the field of cultural communication and has written extensively about ethnic identity and culture and how our lives are being transformed by technological, social, and political changes. 

What would become Women’s History Month began in Santa Rose, California when a local task force on the status of women held a “Women’s History Week” Celebration. A variety of women’s groups successfully lobbied to make it a national celebration and in 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation recognizing women’s history week. In 1987, Congress passed a law designating the entire month of March as Women’s History Month. 

In addition to those books mentioned in this article, Librarian Heather O’Leary notes that we have recently added several other works to our collection that might be of particular interest this Women’s History Month. 

• Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women's Words by Jenni Nuttall 
• Ruth Asawa Through Line edited by Edited by Kim Conaty and Edouard Kopp 
• A World History of Women Photographers edited by Luce Lebart and Marie Robert
• The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority and Community in US Islam by Tazeen M. Ali