A passionate scholar, philosopher, and educator, bell hooks is the critically acclaimed author of books on racism, feminism, education, class, and culture. A listing of just some of her titles shows the breadth and depth of thought and concerns: Critical Thinking, Teaching to Transgress, Sisters of the Yam, Teaching Community: The Politics of Hope, Art …
Jane Addams on Democracy
Jane Addams [1860-1935] is well-known for her work at Hull House helping the indigent. She is lesser known for her crusade for women's suffrage and world peace, and her philosophical writings. In 1931 she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams had three ethical principles we would do well to hold today. Teach by …
A Writer On Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day, Authors All writers are mothers. Our story germinates in the womb of our imaginations. It starts as a tug and a pull of invisible words and actions and visions that tear us away from what we should be doing and turn us inward. The premise sucks from our life stream to grow …
Virginia Penny On Women’s Employment
To write her book The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Women’s Work (1863) Viginia Penny interviewed hundreds of women across the country. In the book she listed five hundred possible occupations for women, railed against the artificial barriers that prevented women from entering certain fields of works, and critiqued the wage differential between men and women. When …
Jeanne Bouza Rose On Resiliency
Jeanne Bouza Rose has over thirty years of experience in education having taught first, second, third, fourth graders and designed an enrichment program for an entire school population of seven hundred. Having had a life changing Fulbright teaching exchange in Scotland, and having found rewarding artistic inspiration in photos taken during visits to the Orkney Islands over …
Lucretia Mott on Truth
The Quaker minister, Lucretia Mott, lived from 1793 to 1880. During that time she fought to reform society in every way she could. She believed that forming organized groups and taking action against social injustice was the way to bring about change. She founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (1833), was the impetus behind the …
Gila Green on Beginning
Gila Green grew up in Ottawa, Canada and moved to Israel in 1994. Her short story collection White Zion was a finalist for the Doris Bakwin Literary Award (Carolina Wren Press). Her writing has been nominated for seven awards including The Best New Writing Eric Hoffer Award, Walrus Literary Award, TenTen Fiction Contest and Haaretz Short Fiction …
Tara Fox Hall on Getting Published
Tara Fox Hall’s writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. She also coauthored the essay “The Allure of the Serial Killer,” published in Serial Killers - Philosophy for Everyone: Being and Killing (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). Her first e-novella, Surrender to Me, was published in September 2011. Her first full-length novel, …
Mary Wollstonecraft on Reason
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) was an educator and writer. She is considered the first major feminist. Inspired by Thomas Paine and his group of ‘Radicals’ she took the doctrine of inalienable human rights that was sparking a revolution in America and applied it to women. Her writings inspired women and inflamed men. She was called “a …
Charlotte Forten on Books
Charlotte Forten was born in 1838 to a wealthy black family in Philadelphia. All her life she was a lover of books and a vociferous opponent of prejudice based on skin color. When she was twenty-two she became ill and had to give up her job as a teacher in Salem, Massachusetts. Unable to be active, …
Women & Words & Wisdom
Letters, diaries, recipe books, novels, tweets, articles, histories, poetry, e-mails, songs… What haven’t women written over the ages? The purpose of this blog is to celebrate women’s writings, mine included. Women’s words will be selected from the gamut of literature from all times and all places. The selection process will be simple. I will not …
Women, Words, and Wisdom 