Women’s History – Peaceful Reader

Collective Wisdom

March is known for several holidays like St. Patrick’s Day and Lent, Spring Break in some places but I appreciate March for Women’s History. Collective Wisdom; Lessons, Inspiration, and Advice from women over 50 by Grace Bonney. My friend Verda gifted this to me on my birthday last year and I’ve still not made it through the whole collection. What I love most is to browse through and read the quotes from all the profiles.

Like Betty Reid Soskin, 100-year-old from California and the oldest National Park Ranger in the U.S. who says:

“I have been many women. They come and they go, and some of them I would have loved to have stayed with me longer, but the fact that I have been all those things has made life, for me, very rich.”

and JoAni Johnson, a 69-year-old model from New York, NY who says: “When you’ve been around the sun so many times and have a variety of experiences and you’re able to stay standing – that’s resilience.”

or Julia Alvarez, a 71-year-old Dominican American poet and author: “I feel that I’m a bead in the necklace of the generations.”

or Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a 63-year-old Iranian journalist who shares this:

“One of the most amazing things in our lives, regardless of how we describe our sexuality or gender identity, is the power of motherhood. And by that, I mean the power of nurturing: nurturing other humans, I think everyone has the ability to do this in some form, and it can be so empowering. To care for others and use our strengh to lift up others.”

I am inspired every time I open up the pages of this book and find something new to read. I connect with the women, their journeys, and message. We know and herald our famous women but many of these profiles are about women making a difference in their families and communities. I am someone who is always open to ideas and am in constant motion to learn more. Whether you have this book or not, find an inspiring story to read about Seneca Falls, or any part of women’s history to help us bridge the gap of what we are dealing with today. We need more brave souls like Lucy Stone.

Year of the woman

For February and March I’ve shared important women and POC like Bessie Coleman, Harriet Tubman, Mae Jamison, and Rosa Parks with all my library students. We’ve read books like The Oldest Student; How Mary Walker learned to read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora and Counting on Katherine; how Katherine Johnson saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker. We’ve discussed men such as Thurgood Marshall, George Washington Carver, John Lewis, Sammy Lee, and Henry “Box” Brown.

Invariably one of my older students will ask why isn’t there a men’s month? My answer sounds something like … Well we live in a a patriarchal system and white males predominate in every field available except perhaps education and you’ve studied American history from a white lens. You learned about our white “founding fathers”, explorers, scientists, and inventors in school using a text book that generally gives an age old slice of approved information and it’s up to you to seek out a more well-rounded view on everything. And it’s my job to help you see things in new ways through research and exploration.

It’s hard to know how far to take it; I don’t want to overwhelm my students yet I want to push them enough to look outside their predominantly white community at the larger world and see others with compassion, as humans.

Other resources to explore: The Black History Channel and the History.com’s Women’s History

With our first female vice president it is more important than every to help all our students understand how important these achievements are and we need to keep pushing for more.

Celebrating Eleanor Roosevelt on International Women's Day

It’s wonderful to have a day to celebrate women and won’t it be great when we can celebrate accomplishments like equal pay. It seems crazy to me that this is still an issue. Why don’t women get paid more when we DO more? It’s not enough that we hold down full-time jobs and do them amazingly and then go home and throw together a healthy dinner that appeals to all members of the the family. My family. It’s not easy. We have to worry about sick kids, paying bills, staying safe, and making people happy.

It’s a lot to accomplish.

Eleanor Roosevelt, one of my female heroes, is someone who accomplished a lot and was always a beacon for women’s issues. She was born in NYC, the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, who lost both of her parent’s at a young age. She was sent to England for schooling and it seemed to cure her shyness. She married her distant cousin Franklin and they had six children. She was a busy housewife but she made time during WWI to work for the Red Cross.

Franklin contracted polio in 1921 and Eleanor stepped up and assisted him with his political career. She changed the role of First Lady as she fully involved herself in press conferences, spoke out for human rights, women’s issues, and children’s causes. She had her own newspaper column and worked with The League of Women Voter’s. All through Franklin’s presidency she worked for change. Upon her husband’s death she said she was done but went on to work for the United Nations. She helped to craft the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which she considered to be her greatest achievement. She died of cancer in 1962-the year I was born.

We’ve had amazing advocates like Eleanor so what’s the hold-up on women’s issues? My answer is too many men making laws/rules.

Celebrate Women's History Month

Did you know that March is women’s history month! We have a whole month to celebrate. My son would be shocked by this as March means basketball! Crazy. I could put together a bracket for him with important women he should know-he might absorb the information better that way.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I will be featured at Kidlit’s blog, which has featured a variety of inspiring posts about women. I chose to write about Joan of Arc as I had been recently inspired by this movie starring Leelee Sobieski. Joan was an amazing young women and accomplished much in her short life. Tough having your life cut short by 44 men looking for a reason to get rid of you. Sadly women in today’s world continue to be mistreated based on what we wear and how we act.

My husband, a peaceful man, says it’s part of man’s nature to be a conqueror and that some men just can’t grasp woman as a person instead of an object. Maybe a drug could be invented to make men more docile and thus able to work and understand women without objectifying them. Would it work? Please click to Kidlit and read my post and all the others who’ve been featured this month. A heartfelt thank you to Margo and Lisa for all the work that goes into each post.

I recently finished up I don’t know how she does it by Allison Pearson, which delves into the work force mentality because Kate spends her days working at breakneck speed as a Hedge fund manager surrounded by men who cast disparaging comments around like bait, hoping to either further their career or at least to demean the woman sitting next to them. Look forward to my upcoming review of this still-timely book but in the meantime go read about Joan of Arc, a young woman juggling kings, priests, angels, her family and a sword.

Happy Friday! (oh, Spring Break, where have you gone…)

January Recap

Not a blowout month of reading but I’m good with it (seven total books) but several were breathtakingly beautiful. I started and ended the month off with fantastic books. I’ve only reviewed three of my Jan. books and I have to work on this. I don’t have to write about every book I read~I really only want to share the amazing book-the books I want you to read or the books to stay away from.

I do plan to write reviews still for Sing You Home (Dec.), The Book of Three (great fantasy) and Claire Marvel, which was as amazing as The History of Love.

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu. 312 pages. 2011.
emma and me by Elizabeth Flock. 292 pages. 2004.
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult. 466 pages. 2011
Bigger Than a Bread Basket by Laurel Snyder.
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. 1964.
The Geranium Farm Cookbook by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz. 2002.

One book, emma and me, counted for my TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader and of course, the cookbook, counts toward my 2012 Foodie Challenge hosted by Joyfully Retired.

Exciting News Flash: I was asked by Lisa and Margo to participate in Kidlit Celebrates Women’s History Month for March. I am writing about one of the very first feminist, Joan of Arc, for a March 17th post. I was honored and thrilled to be asked to participate in this jubilee of special women!

My laptop is on it’s last leg but as long as I stay plugged in I seem to be okay. I started off January blogging every day and couldn’t continue when a bug crept in damaging major parts of my only 3-year-old laptop. Sad how things don’t last even a medium amount of time. We truly are a “throw-away” society, which makes me want to throw up a little.

Happy Reading.