Springfield - Women Becoming Visible

Created on January 24, 2024, 6:26 pm

Last Updated May 29, 2024, 6:16 pm

When a group of people has been made invisible, their achievements, dreams, and needs tend to be undervalued or ignored. Since the dawn of time, women--especially women of color, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, and women who are old, disabled, or poor--have frequently been rendered invisible and have been denied equal access to financial, political, and social power. Now women are breaking through these barriers to be seen, heard, and accorded respect. Learn more about women becoming fully visible by reading these books. Last updated March 2021.

1) Hood feminism: notes from the women that a movement forgot

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"A collection of essays taking aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women"--Provided by publisher. "Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods,...

2) Invisible no more: police violence against black women and women of color

Author

Ritchie, Andrea J

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

“A passionate, incisive critique of the many ways in which women and girls of color are systematically erased or marginalized in discussions of police violence.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
Invisible No More is a timely examination of how Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color experience racial profiling, police brutality, and immigration enforcement. By placing the individual...

3) In our prime: how older women are reinventing the road ahead

Author

Douglas, Susan J

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"With a sharp sense of justice and humor, Susan J. Douglas confronts ageism against women in media, work, and politics. In the 1970s, baby boom women began to redefine women's lives and opportunities. Now, that they are the largest American female generation over fifty, Susan J. Douglas argues that these feminist boomers are again challenging outdated stereotypes, and reinventing what it means to be older and female. This is a demographic revolution,...

4) The pretty one: on life, pop culture, disability, and other reasons to fall in love with me

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"From the disability rights advocate and creator of the #DisabledAndCute viral campaign, a thoughtful, inspiring, and charming collection of essays exploring what it means to be black and disabled in a mostly able-bodied white America. Keah Brown loves herself, but that hadn't always been the case. Born with cerebral palsy, her greatest desire used to be normalcy and refuge from the steady stream of self-hate society strengthened inside her. But after...

5) Hell and other destinations: a 21st-century memoir

Author

Albright, Madeleine Korbel

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, Large Print

Description

In 2001, when Madeleine Albright was leaving office as America's first female secretary of state, interviewers asked her how she wished to be remembered. 'I don't want to be remembered,' she answered. 'I am still here and have much more I intend to do. As difficult as it might seem, I want every stage of my life to be more exciting than the last.' In that time of transition, the former Secretary considered the possibilities: she could write, teach,...

6) Sister outsider: essays and speeches

Author

Series

Crossing Press Feminist

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook

Description

Sister Outsider presents essential writings of black poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, an influential voice in 20th century literature. In this varied collection of essays, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, offering a message of struggle but also of hope. This commemorative edition is, in Lorde's own...

7) Red comet: the short life and blazing art of Sylvia Plath

Author

Clark, Heather L

Description

"An engrossing new biography of Sylvia Plath focuses on her remarkable literary and intellectual growth and achievement, restoring the vivid creative woman behind the longtime Plath myths perpetuated by a pathology-based approach to her life and art. With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark here brings to life the brilliant daughter of Wellesley, MA who had poetic ambition from a very young age, and was an accomplished, published...

8) Proud: my fight for an unlikely American dream

Author

Muhammad, Ibtihaj

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook

Description

Ibtihaj Muhammad's path to Olympic greatness has been marked with opposition and near-debilitating challenges because of her race, religion, and gender. As the only woman of color and the only religious minority on the U.S. women's saber team, she had to push past sterotypes, misconceptions, and negativity to find her own path to success and Olympic Glory. Her reflection provides an unflinching and honest portrayal of how she managed to stay true...

9) Invisible: how young women with serious health issues navigate work, relationships, and the pressure to seem just fine

Author

Hirsch, Michele Lent

Description

Lent Hirsch weaves her own harrowing experiences together with stories from other women, perspectives from sociologists on structural inequality, and insights from neuroscientists on misogyny in health research. She shows how health issues and disabilities amplify what women in general already confront: warped beauty standards, workplace sexism, worries about romantic partners, and mistrust of their own bodies. By shining a light on this hidden demographic,...

10) Maid: hard work, low pay, and a mother's will to survive

Author

Land, Stephanie

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print, Playaway

Description

"At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and, with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree,...

11) Surpassing certainty: what my twenties taught me

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"Riveting, rousing, and utterly real, Surpassing Certainty is a portrait of a young woman searching for her purpose and place in the world--without a road map to guide her. The journey begins a few months before her twentieth birthday. Janet Mock is adjusting to her days as a first-generation college student at the University of Hawaii and her nights as a dancer at a strip club. Finally content in her body, she vacillates between flaunting and concealing...

12) Uchenit͡sa: predatʹ, chtoby obresti sebi͡a

Author

Description

The author recounts her life growing up with her survivalist Mormon family in Idaho. She lacked any formal education, but began to educate herself and taught herself enough to be admitted to Brigham Young University and then Cambridge.

13) Una educación

Author

Series

Description

Cómo una educación puede salvar una vida. "Podéis llamarlo transformación. Metamorfosis. Falsedad. Traición. Yo lo llamo una educación." Nacida en las montañas de Idaho, Tara Westover ha crecido en armonía con una naturaleza grandiosa y doblegada a las leyes que establece su padre, un mormón fundamentalista convencido de que el final del mundo es inminente. Ni Tara ni sus hermanos van a la escuela o acuden al médico cuando enferman. Todos...

14) Educated: a memoir

Author

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

"Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag." In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure...

15) Pollination problems: the battle to save bees and other vital animals

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Series

Protecting the Earth's Animals

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Description

Explores the importance of pollinators to the environment and how people are working to make sure these animals survive. "From whales to chimps, from cats and dogs to sharks and coral, the animals of the world are under threat. Human influence on their habitats and on world climate, along with direct attacks by poachers, are creating crisis after crisis. This series looks at some of the most pressing problems in animal conservation and describes...