Best Women’s History Websites and Books
An excellent starting point for finding information about women in United States history is American Women’s History: A Reseach Guide. This website has over 2100 sources of reference for information about women’s history, and was voted one of the Best Free Research Websites in 2004. You can search for information using one of a couple of indexes: there is one that is listed by subject (ie businesswomen or education) and one that is listed by state. You need only to choose your index and topic, and you’ll be presented with a list of sources and overviews, perfect for someone who is doing a research paper.
If you are looking for a bit broader selection, such as women’s history throughout the world, try about.com’s Women’s History section. This site lets you know right off that it is not just about American women, rather it starts out with a side bar filled with many different types of women’s history sites, from biographies to quotes, and narrowed down to areas such as African-American women. There are over 30 categories for you to peruse, and there are many links within the articles to help you get a complete picture of the women profiled.
Sometimes you just want to see things in person instead of on the internet. If you’re more that type of individual, try traveling to the National Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC. This museum is currently more of a traveling exhibit that is set up around different areas in Washington, and there is a cyber museum available for viewing on their site. Once the museum is fully operational, it will definitely be one of our country’s greatest female historical resources.
Finally, there are books. Antiquated as they may seem at times, there are things that haven’t yet made it to the internet and are only found in print. One book that seems very helpful in this area are 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Women’s History by Constance Jones. 1001 Things… starts off in the 10th century BC and just keeps rolling from there. It encompasses many different layers of women’s history and their experiences in medicine, politics and many other arenas. I would recommend reading a book such as this if you are undecided on a topic, perhaps if you are doing a paper, and want to get an overview of many women in history before doing more in depth research. This jumping-off-point book is available at Amazon.
Whether you choose to explore women’s history online or in print, there are definitely plenty of resources out there that allow you to learn about (and marvel at) women’s history.
