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"Yes, I am fond of history."
"I wish I were too. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me.  The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all -- it is very tiresome:"
   Catherine Morland, in Northhangar Abbey (1803),
   by Jane Austen

How are historians to remedy the silence about women in many traditional accounts of history? This question has received a number of distinct answers.

The first solution was to locate the great women of the past, following the lead of much popular historiography that focuses on "great men". The problem here is that just as the "great men" approach to history sidelines and ignores the lives of the mass of people, focusing on great women merely replicates the exclusionary historical approaches of the past.

The next solution was to examine and expose the history of oppression of women. This approach had the merit of addressing the life histories of the mass of women, but, since it has proved to be possible to find some degree of oppression  everywhere, it tended to make women merely subjects of forces that they could not control. On the other hand, historians' focus on oppression revealed that investigating the structures of women's lives was crucial.

In recent years, while not denying the history of oppression, historians have begun to focus on the agency of women. All human beings are subject to some degree of social forces that limit freedom, but within those limits people are able to exercise greater or lesser degrees of control over their own lives. This insight applies equally to women even in oppressive societies.

These various approaches to the history of women are not exclusive. This sourcebook attempts to present online documents and secondary discussions which reflect the various ways of looking at the history of women within broadly defined historical periods and areas.

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This page is a subset of texts derived from the three major online Sourcebooks listed below.

• Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook
• Internet Modern History Sourcebook

For help in research, homework, and so forth see

• Ancient History HELP!
• Medieval Studies HELP!
• Modern History HELP!

Notes:	In addition to direct links to documents, links are made to a number of other web resources.
2ND	Link to a secondary article, review or discussion on a given topic.
MEGA	Link to one of the megasites which track web resources.
WEB	Link to a website focused on a specific issue.. These are not links to every site on a given topic, but to sites of serious educational value.

visits since June 28, 1998.
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Contents

• The Historical Study of Women
• Human Origins
• Ancient Egypt
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Gender Construction
• Ancient Mesopotamia
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Gender Construction
• Greece
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Gender Construction
• Rome
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Gender Construction
• Medieval Europe
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• Early Modern Europe
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• Modern Europe
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• North America
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Women Authors
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• Latin America
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• China
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• Japan
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• India
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• South East Asia
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• Australasia
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• Africa
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction
• The Islamic World
  • General
  • Great Women
  • Women's Oppression
  • The Structure of Women's Lives
  • Women's Agency
  • Apologetics
  • Feminism
  • Gender Construction

• Further Resources in Women's History

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The Historical Study of Women

• Linda Gordon: What's New in Womens' History [At Internet Archive, from Virginia]
• Elizabeth Fox-Genovese: Between Individualism and Fragmentation: American Culture and the New Literary Studies of Race and Gender [At Montclair]

Human Origins

• Lawrence Osbourn: The Women Warriors [At Lingua Franca]
• Gerda Lerner: Summary of The Creation of Patriarchy [At Internet Archive, from unshine for Women]
  

Ancient Egypt

General

• See WEB Ancient History Sourcebook and  African History Sourcebook
• WEB Diotima
  A major resource.
• 2ND Status of Women in Egyptian Society, by Peter Piccione [At Internet Archive, from NWU]
• Hathor's Rage and the Destruction of Mankind [At Theology WebSite]
• Isis and Osiris
  • Isis Receives the True and Hidden Name of Re [At Internet Archive, from AOL-Wiccan Site]
  • The Osirian Cycle [At Theology WebSite]

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Warriors

• Birth of Hatshepsut 18th Dynasty [At Internet Archive, from Creighton]

Women's Oppression

•  

The Structure of Women's Lives

• Egyptian Love Poetry, c. 2000 - 1100 BCE [At this Site]
• The Offering of Uha, c. 2400 BCE [At this Site]
  Male and Female Circumcision in Egypt.
• Princess Ahura: The Magic Book, c. 1100 BCE [At this Site]
  On the brother-sister marriage of the two children of the King Merneptah.

Women's Agency

Gender Construction

• WEB People With a History: Near East and Egypt
• Tale of Two Brothers [At Perankh]
• Love Songs of Chester Beatty Papyrus I [At Egyptology.com]
  A homosexual love poem?
  

Ancient Mesopotamia

General

• See WEB Ancient History Sourcebook

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Warriors

• Greek Reports of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria
  Includes Herodotus' accounts of the queens, Semiramis and Nitocris.
• Herodotus (c.490-c.425 BCE): Queen Tomyris of the Massagetai and the Defeat of the Persians under Cyrus [At this Site]
• The Story of King Vahahran & his Queen, c. 300 CE [At this Site]
  From Sassanian Persia.

Women Writers

• Enheduanna's Hymns (c.2280-2200 BCE)[At Angelfire]
  The first writings ascribed to an author were ascribed to this woman, a daughter of Sargon.
• WEB Enheduanna Page [At Anglefire]
• 2ND En hedu'anna, Priestess of the Moon Goddess (c. 2354 BCE)

Goddesses

• Inanna Texts [At CSUN]
• A Collection of Babylonian Prayers, c. 1600 BCE [At this Site]
• Ishtar's Descent into the Underworld [At Piney.com]
• The Descent of Ishtar into the Netherworld [At Eliade]
• The Descent of Anath into the Underworld: [At Theology WebSite]

Women's Oppression

• A Collection of Contracts from Mesopotamia, c. 2300 - 428 BCE
  With texts on marriage and divorce.
• The Code of the Assyrians, c. 1075 BCE
  Excerpts on sex and gender matters.
• The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650-1500 BCE
  Excerpts on sex and gender matters from the Hittites.
• Code of Hammarabi c.1780 BCE [This Site][Full Text, with introductions]
• Greek Reports of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria
  Also includes a account of ritual prostitution and marriage practices.

The Structure of Women's Lives

• The Advice of an Akkadian Father to His Son, c. 2200 BCE
• The Marriage of Nergal and Ereshkigal [At Piney.com]
• Old Assyrian Marriage Contract 19th Cent. BCE [At UPenn]
• Danel's Need for a Son [At Piney.com]
• 2ND Biblical Texts Concerning Kinship and Marriage [At Internet Archive, from Creighton]

Women's Agency

• WEB Lilith Stories [Website-UPenn]

Gender Construction

• Domestication of Enkidu [At Piney.com]
• Enkidu's Dream [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• For Gender variants: See WEB People With a History: Near East and Egypt
• MEGA Diotima's Guide to Biblical Studies [Website-Diotima]
• 2ND Ronald Simkins: Gender Construction in J [At Internet Archive, from Creighton][Modern Text]
• Sex, The Song of Songs
• WEB Song of Songs: History of Interpretation [Website - UPenn]
• WEB Sights and Sounds of the Song of Songs [Website - UPenn]

 

Greece

General

• See WEB Ancient History Sourcebook
• WEB Diotima: Women and Gender in the Ancient World
  Includes an anthology of texts, much of Mary Lefkowitz' and Maureen Fant's Women's Life in Greece and Rome, as well as other sources.

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Warriors

• Herodotus (c.490-c.425 BCE): Artemisia at Salamis, 480 BCE
  Artemesia was rule of Halicarnassus.
• Aspasia
• Olympia
• Arsinoë
• Cleopatra VII

Women Writers and Intellectuals

• Sappho (c.580 BCE): Poems, at [Sappho.com]
• Diogenes Laertius (3rd Cent. BCE): Life of Hipparchia from Lives, Book VI. 96-98 [At Diotima]
• Diogenes Laërtius: The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book VI: The Cynics [Antisthenes, Diogenes, Monimus, Onesicritus, Crates, Metrocles, Hipparchia, Menippus, Menedemus.][At this Site]

Goddesses

• To Earth, Mother of All Homeric Hymn xxx [At Eliade]
• Hymn to Demeter 7th Cent BCE [At Ecole]
  The canonical text of the Mysteries.
• Hymn to Demeter Homeric Hymns: To Demeter,11, 185-299, 7th Cent BCE  [At Eliade]
• The Eleusinian Mysteries: Various Texts [At Eliade]
• Plato (427-347 BCE): On Initiation Phaedo 69 [At Eliade]
• Dionysius and the Bacchae Euripides, The Bacchae, 677-775  [At Eliade]
• Orphic Hymn to Kekate 5th Cent BCE [At Hermetic Fellowship]
• 2ND The Eleusinian Mysteries [At ECOLE][Modern Text, Images]

Women's Oppression

• The Lot of the Hellenic Woman, c. 700-300 BCE [At this Site]
  Collection of comments on women by a number of Greek male writers.
• Aristotle (384-323 BCE): On a Good Wife, from Oikonomikos, c. 330 BCE [At this Site]
• Aristotle: Spartan Women [At this Site]
• Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BCE): On Men and Women, from Oikonomikos, c. 370 BCE [At this Site]
• 2ND Legal Status of Women in Sparta [At Internet Archive, from Reed]

The Structure of Women's Lives

• The Female Figure-Greek Sculpture [At UCCS]
• Theocritus: Fifteenth Idyll, c. 250 BCE [At this Site]

Women's Agency

• Sophocles (496-405/6 BCE)
  The second of the great tragic poets. He wrote over 100 plays, but only seven complete ones survive. The dates here are likely but not certain. The following have female heros.
  • Antigone 442 BCE
    See 2ND Study Guide [At Brooklyn College]
  • Antigone 442 BCE [At Diotima]
    A much more modern translation, with extensive annotation.
• Euripides (c.485-406 BCE)
  • Electra btw. 418-410 BCE
  • Alcestis
  • Andromache
  • The Bacchae won trilogy competition, posthumously, in c.405 BCE
    See 2ND Study Guide [At Brooklyn College]
  • Electra
  • Hecuba
  • Helen
  • The Heracleidae
  • Iphigenia at Aulis won trilogy competition, posthmously, in c.405 BCE
  • Iphigenia In Tauris
  • Medea
    See 2ND Study Guide [At Brooklyn College]
  • The Phoenissae
  • The Trojan Women
• Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE)
  • The Ecclesiazusae (Women in Politics)
  • Lysistrata 411 BCE
  • See 2ND Study Guide [At Brooklyn College]
  • Lysistrata, extracts, [At EAWC]
  • The Thesmophoriazusae 411BCE
• Menander (342/1-293/89 BCE)
• Family Values: Epitrepontes (aka The Arbitrants) [At Warwick][Reconstructed Text]
• Herondas (aka Herodas) (c.300-250 BCE): A Mother and Her Truant Son, from The Third Mime, c. 3rd Cent. BCE

Gender Construction

• Homer: The Iliad trans. Samuel Butler [At Project Gutenberg]
• Homer: The Iliad trans. Sameul Bulter [At MIT][Full Text]
• Homer: The Odyssey [At MIT][Full Text]
• Homer: The Odyssey trans. George Chapman [At Bartleby][Full Text]
• Hesiod: Works and Days [At OMACL]
• Chariton (2nd Cent CE?): Chaireas and Callirhoe [Synopsis of the Plot][At Montclair]
• Lucius Apuleius (c. 123-c. 170 CE): Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass [At Eserver] Latin Text [At Latin Library]
• Thucydides (c.460/-c.399 BCE): On Aristogeiton and Harmodius, (Book 6) [At PWH]
• See WEB People with a History: Greece
• WEB Eroticism in Antiquity [Website]
• Plato (427-347 BCE): The Symposium [At Project Gutenberg][Full Text]
• Plato (427-347 BCE): The Symposium [At PWH][Full Text]
• Aeschines (c.389 - c.322 BCE): Against Timarchus [At PWH][Full Text]
  

Rome

General

• See WEB Ancient History Sourcebook
• WEB Diotima
• WEB Etruscan Women [At Diotima]
• WEB Women in Antiquity [At Cornell]

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Warriors

• Tacitus: (b.56/57-after 117 CE): Boudicca (Annals 14: 29-37) [Athenapub]
• Tacitus (b.56/57-after 117 CE): Murder of Agrippina (Book XIV, 1-16) [At Heliogabby]
• Vopiscus: Aurelian's Conquest of Palmyra, 273 CE [At this Site]
  Ruled by the Queen of the East, Zenobia

Women Writers and Intellectuals

• Sulpicia (Late 1st Cent. CE): Poems [At Diotima] or in Latin [At The Latin Library]
  The only surviving Roman female poet.
• Socrates Scholasticus: The Murder of Hypatia
  A leading female philosopher, Hypatia was murdered by a Christian mob in Alexandria, urged on by St. Cyril.   See also The Hypatia Page. Three historical version's of Hypatia's murder are available, and useful for comparative purposes
  • Damascius: The Life of Hypatia, from the Life of Isidore, reproduced in The Suda, [At cosmopolis.com]
  • Socrates Scholasticus: The Life of Hypatia, [At cosmopolis.com]
  • John of Nikiu: The Life of Hypatia, [At cosmopolis.com]

Goddesses

• Demeter and Eleusis
• Story of Persephone [At Diotima]
• Hymn to Demeter [At Ecole]
  The canonical text of the Mysteries.
• The Eleusinian Mysteries: Various Texts [At Eliade]
• Plutarch  (c.46-c.120 CE): Death and Initiation into the Mysteries, from On the Soul [At Eliade]
• WEB The Eleusinian Mysteries [At ECOLE][Modern Text, Images]WEB Classical Texts on Demeter [AT UVIC]
  Links to Perseus Text
• Cybele
• Lucretius (98-c.55 BCE): The Worship of Cybele, from The Nature of Things,  [This Site]
• Catullus (c.84-c.54 BCE): Carmina 63 [At Aztriad]
  On the self-emasculating Galli.
• Prudentius (348-after 405 - Initiation into the Mysteries of Cybele: The Taurobolium Peristephanon X, 101 1-50 [At Enteract.com]
• Isis
• Lucius Apuleius (c.123-c.170 CE): Isis, Queen of Heaven, from Book 11 of the Golden Ass, [This Site]
• Lucius Apuleius (c.123-c.170 CE): Lucius Prays to Isis Book 11 of the Golden Ass, [At Eserver]
• Lucius Apuleius (c.123-c.170 CE): Initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, from Book 11 of the Golden Ass, [At enteracr.com]

Women's Oppression

• Livy (59 BCE-17 CE): The Rape of Lucretia, from History of Rome, [At Internet Archive, from Clinch Valley College]
• Juvenal (c.55-c.130 CE): Satire 2, excerpts, [At Diotima]
  Sheer misogyny.
• Juvenal (c.55-c.13-): Satire 6, long excerpts, [At this Site]
  More misogyny.
• Juvenal: Satire 6 [On Women][At this Site]
• Early Christian Rulings on Marriage, Family and Related Issues [At Calgary]

The Structure of Women's Lives

• Rules for Administering the "Special Account" of Egypt, c. 150/161 CE, [Berlin pap. 1210] [At Diotima]
  This link contains those regulations (out of 115) pertaining to women and marriage. The document as a whole shows the Roman exploitation of Egypt.
• The Flamen Dialis and his Wife [At Eliade]
• The Family Letters of Pansikos late 3rd/early 4th Cent. Egypt [At U Mich]
• 2ND Jan Zablocki: The image of a Roman family in Noctes Atticae by Aulus Gellius [PDF file][At pomoerium.de][Modern Account]

Women's Agency

• Vibia Perpetua (d. 203 CE): Perpetua's Diary in Prison 203 CE [At PBS]
• Vibia Perpetua (d. 203 CE): The Passion of SS. Perpetua and Felicity, 203, excerpts. 
• 2ND Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza: Summary of In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins [At Sunshine for Women]
• 2ND Ross Shepard Kraemer: Summary of Her Share of the Blessings: Summary of Women's Religions Among the Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World [At Sunshine for Women]

Gender Construction

• Petronius Arbiter (c.27-66 CE): Satyricon c.61 CE
  See 2ND The Satyricon of Petronius [At Southwestern][Modern Account]
  • Trimalchio's Feast [At Internet Archive, from Colorado]
    excerpt from the Satyricon. Has annoying HTML markup!
  • Trimalchio on Astrology [At Anesi.com]
• Priapea (collected 5th Cent CE) in Latin [At IPA]
  Said by the Oxford Classical Dictionary² to be "uniformly obscene".
  

Medieval Europe

General

• See WEB Medieval Sourcebook
• ORB: Medieval Women's Studies [At ORB]

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Warriors

• Procopius: On the Nika Revolt, from The Wars
  The Empress Theodora
• Cartulary of Saint Trond: Richelinde: A Gift of Serfs to Abbey of St. Trond, 938
• Michael Psellus(1018-after 1078): Chronographia, full text.
  The history of the Roman Empire 976-1078 by one of the liveliest writers of the middle ages. During the period 1028-1056, the rulership of the Empire depended on two empresses - Zoe and Theodora.
• Joan, Countess of Flanders: Grant to Weavers of Exemption from the Taille, 1224
• Margaretta, Countess of Flanders & Hainault: A Purchase of Tithes and Remission of a Tax, 1246
• Empress Matilda: To Archbishop Anselm, c. 1100, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
• Peter of Blois: Letter 154, to Queen Eleanor, 1173, trans. M. Markowski [M-Markow@wcslc.edu]
• Johann Nider: on Joan of Arc, (d. 1438) See also Catholic Encyclopedia: ST. JOAN OF ARC
• Joan of Arc: Letter to the King of England, 1429
• Transcript of Trial of Joan of Arc, full text.
• The Trial of Joan of Arc, 1431 [excerpts]
• Sieur Louis de Conte: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc [in fact, a fictional account by Mark Twain]
• Nicolas, Nicholas Harris: The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV   [At R3]
  Nicolas's introductory memoirs of Yorkist royalty, with commentary on the Ricardian controversies of the time; the privy purse expenses of Elizabeth of York. To come: the Wardrobe Accounts. A lengthy series of documents, consisting of 24 interlinked files.

Women Writers

• WEB Bibliography of Works by and About Women Writers of the Middle Ages (Robbins Library)
• Egeria. Description of the Liturgical Year in Jerusalem: Translation [At Oxford]
• Egeria: Travelogue, Translated by M.L. McClure, The Pilgrimage of Etheria, (New York, 1915) [At Yale]
• Saint Brigid of Ireland (ascribed): The Heavenly Banquet [At Eircom]
• Huneberc of Heidenheim: The Hodoeporican of St. Willibald, 8th Century
• Huneberc of Heidenheim. Prologue to the Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald. c. 750-75CE. Alternate trans. by Thomas Head [At ORB]
• Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim  (b.c 930/40-d.c.1002): St. John, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  See also Catholic Enclopedia: Hroswitha
• Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (c.930/40-c.1002): The Plays of Roswitha,
  Including Full texts of Gallicanus and Dulcitius
• Anna Comnena (1083-after 1048): The Alexiad. [Full text]
  The account of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, by Princess Anna Comnena is perhaps the most important historical work by a woman writer written before the modern period.
• Anna Comnena (1083-after 1048): The Alexiad [Books 10 and 11]
  See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Anna Comnena
• Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179): Lyrics,  Latin and English, [At irupert.com].
  See also the Hildegard of Bingen page [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]; and the Catholic Encyclopedia article.
• Constance of Brittany and Gerald of Wales: On Louis VII of France
• Heloise: Letter to Abelard, trans. C.K. Scott Moncrief The text is also available in Latin [At Georgetown]; and French [At Internet Archive]
  See also Photographs of Tomb of Abelard and Heloise, Père-Lachaise (Cemetery : Paris, France); and Jean Vignaud: Abelard and Heloise Surprised by the Abbot Fulbert (1819)
• Hadewijch of Antwerp, d.c. 1260. [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  The page contains links to five of her letters and four of her poems.
• Blessed Cecilia Cesarine, O.S.B. The Legend of St. Dominic
• Marguerite Porète: The Mirror of Simple Souls, (written 1296/1306), trans. Bonnie Duncan and Ellen L Babinsky,   [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  Porète's book, a mystic account of the ascent of the soul, was condemned in 1306, and was burned in her presence!
• Catherine of Siena: Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, 1370, full text now available [At CCEL]. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Catherine of Siena, Saint
• Christine de Pizan (1363-1431): Treasure of the City of Ladies. [At Internet Archive, from Women Writers of the Middle Ages/Millersville]
  • [Book of the City of Ladies]: Whether there was ever a woman who discovered hitherto unknown knowledge [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • How elderly ladies ought to conduct themselves toward young ones, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • How young women ought to conduct themselves towards their elders, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • Of the wives of artisans and how they ought to conduct themselves, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • How ladies and young women who live on their manors ought to manage their households and estates, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
• Julian of Norwich: Shewings [Full Text]. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Juliana of Norwich, and WEB Julian of Norwich Page. [At Luminarim
• The Book of Margery Kempe: The Birth of Her First Child and Her First Vision  [At luminarium.org]
  see the Luminarium: Margery Kempe Page
  • The Book of Margery Kempe: Her Pride and Attempts to Start a Business  [At luminarium.org]
  • The Book of Margery Kempe: Margery and Her Husband Reach a Settlement [At luminarium.org]
  • The Book of Margery Kempe: Pilgrimmage to Jerusalem,   [At luminarium.org]
• Margery Kempe: Treatise of Contemplation, from her Book as reprinted in The Cell of Self-Knowledge [At CCEL],
  For many centuries this was the only well-known part of Margery's writing.
• Margery Kempe (1413-1415): Book of Margery Kempe. (Text--Butler-Bowden translation of Chapter 26-34, 37-41)[At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
• Marie de France: Lays: [At Project Gutenberg]
• Laura Certa: Letter to Bibulus Sempronius, 13 January 1488 [At Internet Archive, from CCNY] 

Religious Women: Saints

• Fourth Book of Maccabees: The Death of the Maccabees circa. 63 BCE-70CE [RSV]
  This book is in an "Appendix" of Greek Orthodox Bibles (although not part of the Latin Church's deuterocanonica). Its account of the persecution the Maccabees influenced later martyrdom accounts in many ways. The Maccabees and their mother were celebrated as saints in Orthodox churches.
• St. Methodius of Olympus: Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On The Day That They Met in The Temple translated in St. Pachomius Library
• Acts of Paul and Thecla translated in St. Pachomius Library
• Vibia Perpetua: The Passion of SS. Perpetua and Felicity. The Latin Original is available [At The Latin Library]. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua; and Peter Dronke's Discussion of Perpetua [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  This text is composed, in part, of Perpetua's own account of her trial, and of her visions. It is thus among the earliest of all texts ascribed to a Christian woman. According to Thomas Heffernan [Sacred Biography, (New York: Oxford UP, 1988), 190] this text also sees the earliest use of the topos of Christ, the Bridegroom of the saint. Perpetua is "the wife (matrona) of Christ, the beloved of God" (17:2)
• Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History: Martyrdom of St. Domnina and Daughters [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
  A text, and a story, which has always been problematic - the saint and her daughters drown themselves rather than submit to rape.
• Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena and Rebecca [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
• Martyrdom of St. Pelagia of Ceasarea translated from Ge'ez, [At St. Pachomius Library]
• Palladius: The Lausiac History [extended excerpts]
  Includes lives of a number of important Late Roman saintly women, such as Melania the Elder and Melania the Younger.
• Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Life of Macrina,  trans. W.K. Lowther Clarke.
  One of the most important lives of a female saint. This is an account of Gregory's strongminded sister, Macrina (c.327-379)
• Gregory of Nyssa  (c.335-d.c.395): Funeral Oration for the Empress Flaccilla, trans Casimir McCambly, [At Nyssa Homepage/Uconn]
• Gregory Nazianzus: Oration: On his Sister Gorgonia
• Life of Matrona of Perge, d.c. 510-515, trans Khalifa Ben Nasser, [full text of Metaphrastic Life: selections from Vita Prima],
  An example of a "transvestite" saint who was also a historical figure.
• Life of Irene, Abbess of the Convent of Chrysobalanton, trans. Jan Olof Rosenqvist.
• Life of St. Mary of Egypt from the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Saint Mary of Egypt
• Life of Mary the Younger, d.c. 903, trans Paul Halsall, [First five chapters, and concluding prayer]
• Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation [At DO] 
  Complete texts of translations of female saints lives. The data in these texts present an opportunity to those who do not read Greek to gain a a massively richer view of Byzantine society than available hitherto. In addition to the political history of Byzantium, which has always been available, the data is now available to address comparative issues in many areas of social and cultural history - religious practice/belief, roles of men and women, variant sexual minorities, ethnic groupings, family history, the cultural history of disease, and so forth.
  The texts are all in PDF form [for which you need the free Acrobat reader, downloadable from the index page]. Although it is possible to read these within the browser with Acrobat as a plugin, that often seems to destabilize a system. I recommend downloading the files onto a hard disk, and then opening them with Acrobat running independantly of the Browser.
  • Front Matter, General Introduction, Acknowledgments, List of Abbreviations / 183 k
  • A. Nuns Disguised as Monks
    • 1. Life of St. Mary/Marinos / translated by Nicholas Constas / 92 k
    • 2. Life of St. Matrona of Perge / Jeffrey Featherstone and April Mango / 305 k
  • B. Female Solitaries
    • 3. Life of St. Mary of Egypt / Maria Kouli / 183 k
    • 4. Life of St. Theoktiste of Lesbos / Angela C. Hero / 153 k
  • C. Cenobitic Nuns
    • 5. Life of St. Elisabeth the Wonderworker / Valerie Karras / 153 k
    • 6. Life of St. Athanasia of Aegina / Lee Francis Sherry / 153 k
    • 7. Life of St. Theodora of Thessalonike / Alice-Mary Talbot / 458 k
• Gregory I (DIALOGOS): Second Dialogue (Life of St. Scholastica)- [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]
• Rudolf of Fulda: Life of Leoba, c. 836
• The Life of Liutberga, 9th Century, trans, Jo Ann McNamara.
• St. Bridget of Sweden (d.1373): Revelations to the Popes, Latin edition by Arne Jönsson, [and Microsoft Word Version],
• Heliga Birgittas uppenbarelser, Revelations of St. Bridget, in Swedish [At Göteborg University]
• The Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa [At CCEL]
  Includes a Life, The Spiritual Dialogue, and Treatise on Purgatory, all from a 1874, 1907 English version. It is unclear from the etext if this Life is a translation of the Libro de la vita mirabile e dottrina santa de la beta Caterinetta da Genoa, or a modern work.
• Catherine of Genoa  (1447-1510): Treatise on Purgatory [At EWTN], Full text
• Thomas de Cantimpré, The Life of Christina Mirabilis, in Latin, [At Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site]
• William Caxton: The Life of Saint Cecilia (1483) trans by Caxton from Jacobus de Voragine: Golden Legend. [At Catholic Forum]
  Cecilia is the Patron saint of music in the west.
• Geoffrey Chaucer: The Life of Saint Cecilia (The Second Nun's Tale), c. 1380, [Modernized English, At Internet Archive, from Virginia Tech]. The original Middle English is also available [At University of Virginia]. Chaucer's account is based on the Golden Legend.
• Jacobus de Voragine (1230-1298): The Golden Legend
  Texts in Voragine's order, numbering following William Ryan, (Princeton: 1993)
  • 4. St. Lucy, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
  • 7. St. Anastasia, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
  • 62. A Virgin of Antioch, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
  • 84. St. Marina, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
  • 96. St. Mary Magdalene, in Latin [At The Latin Library]
• Life of Markella of Chios, (date uncertain), [At Demetrios Greek Orthodox]
  It is unclear if this is a modern or old [how old] life of Markella. The sexual overtones of the text, are, however, intense.
• A Legend of the Austrian Tyrol: St. Kümmernis [At this Site]
  A story of a saint who women grows a beard so she can become a bride of Christ.

Religious Women: Monasticism

• Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents [At DO]
  A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founder's Typika and Testaments. The texts (from 61 monasteries) include a number of texts commissioned by women founders, as well as documents for womens monasteries.
• 2ND Jeffrey Conrad, Egyptian and Syrian Asceticism in Late Antiquity: A Comparative Study of the Ascetic Idea in the Late Roman Empire during the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. [At SFSU]
• 2ND Nonna Harrison, The Feminine Man in Late Antique Ascetic Piety, Union Seminary Quarterly Review 48:3-4, [At Internet Archive, from Columbia U.]
• 2ND Lina Eckenstein, Women Under Monasticism, Chapters on Saint-Lore and Convent Life Between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500. (New York: Russell and Russell, 1963), chaps. 4, 6, 7, 9 [At Yale]
• 2ND Kevin Corrigan, Syncletica and Macrina: Two Early Lives of Women Saints, Vox Benedictina 6/3 (1989) 241-256. [At Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site]
• 2ND Onnie Duvall, Radegund of Poitiers (ca. 518-587), [At ORB]. See also Alex Perkins: Life of Radegund, [At Cambridge]
• 2ND Margot H. King, The Desert Mothers: A Survey of the Feminine Anchoretic Tradition in Western Europe, [At Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site],
• 2ND Margot H. King, The Desert Mothers Revisited: The Mothers of the Diocese of Liège, [At Peregrina Press's Matrologia Latina site]
• 2ND Abby Stoner, Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines [At sfsu.edu]
• 2ND Katherine Gill, Open Monasteries for Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy: Two Roman Examples
  Part of Matrix - A Collection of Resources for the Study of Women's Religious Communities, 500-1600
• Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) : Dialogue 1370 [At CCEL] See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Catherine of Siena, Saint
• Julian of Norwich  (1343-1443): Revelations of Divine Love 1371 [At CCEL] See also Catholic Encyclopedia: JULIANA OF NORWICH
• Rule of the Lady Hospitallers of the Royal Monastery of Sigena, 1188, in Latin, [At Internet Archive, from Kansas]
  The Royal Monastery of Sigena was an institution of Lady Hospitallers and enjoyed a great deal of independence and influence. It would appear that its Rule was the work of Sancha, Queen of Aragon.
• Catherine of Genoa  (1447-1510): Treatise on Purgatory [At EWTN]

The Cult of the Virgin Mary

• Jerome: Against Helvidius- the Perpetual Virginity of the Virgin Mary, [At CCEL]
• John of Damascus: Three Sermons on the Dormition (koimhsiV) of the Virgin, full text,
• Sermon Stories: Tales of The Virgin, 12th-13th Century See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Devotion to Blessed Virgin Mary
• Conrad of Saxony: Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary, [Full text], often ascribed to St. Bonaventure, but now considered the work of Conrad by many scholars. [At Intratext]
• François Villon: Ballade to Our Lady and Epitaph in the form of a Ballade [c.1431-after 1463]

Women's Oppression

Misogyny

• Athanasius: Life of Anthony [From Ante-Nicene and Nicene Fathers Series]. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Anthony or Encyclopedia Britannica (9th ed): Athanasius
  Just as the martyrdom of Polykarp is a model text for many other martyrdom accounts, the Life of Anthony provided a model for accounts of saints - later called confessors whose sanctity was manifested by a holy - usually monastic - life rather than by a heroic death for the faith.
• Sprenger and Kramer: The Malleus Maleficarum [The Hammer of Witches], 1484, [Full Text] [At Sacred Texts]
• Witchcraft Legends, Translated and/or edited by D. L. Ashliman, [At Pitt]
• Ibn Fadlan. Risala, 921 CE [At VikingAnswerLady]
  Ibn Fadlan was an Arab chronicler. In 921 C.E., the Caliph sent Ibn Fadlan with an embassy to the King of the Bulgars of the Middle Volga. Ibn Fadlan wrote an account of his journeys with the embassy, called a Risala. This Risala is of great value as a history. It contains an account of a Viking version of suttee.

Courtly Love

• Andreas Capellanus: The Art of Courtly Love, (btw. 1174-1186),
• Chrétien de Troyes: Lancelot, c. 1170, excerpts.

The Structure of Women's Lives

Marriage

• Selections from the Bible on Marriage   available 10/6/98
• St Augustine: On Marriage and Concupiscence, excerpts.
  A crucial text for understanding why marriage was such a problem for medieval canonists and theologians.
• St Jerome (c. 320-420): On Marriage and Virginity, From Letter XXII to Eustochium and from the treatise Against Jovinian
• St Jerome (c. 320-420): On The Song of Songs, From the treatise Against Jovinian
• Corpus Iuris Civilis: The Digest and Codex on Marriage, See also Catholic Encyclopedia: History of Marriage
• Codex Justinianus: Protection of Freewomen Married to Servile Husbands, c. 530 [Vll.24.i.]
• Codex Justinianus: Children of the Unfree, c. 530 [Xl.48.xxi-li>
• Codex Justinianus: Children of Mixed Marriages, c. 530 [Xl.48.xxiv.]
• The Contract of Marriage, in the Ecloga of Leo III, (726)
• The Ecloga on Sexual Crimes (8th Cent.)
• A Husband's Endowment Of His Future Wife On Their Betrothal - Southern Burgundy, 994
• Council Legislation on Marriage
• Tables of Kindred and Degrees - both Roman and German methods of calculation
• Anglo Saxon Dooms, 560-975,
• Gratian: On Marriage
• Novembre 1169 : Pactes entre Guilhem de Monpellier et Bernard d'Anduze en vue du mariage de leurs enfants respectifs. In Latin
• Innocent III (r.1198-1216): Letters on Marriage, and Women, 1203-1204
• The Law of Brusthem, 1175, on a mixed marriage between a slave and a freewoman.
• Manorial Marriage and Sexual Offense Cases
• The Crow of the Bestiaries
• Sale of Daughter as a Concubine
• Wife Sues to Get Husband Back
• Church Courts Pursue Adulterers, 1289
• Peter of Blois: Letter 154, to Queen Eleanor, 1173,trans. M. Markowski [M-Markow@wcslc.edu]
• Aquinas: On Sex: Summa Theologiae II-II, 153-154
• Synod of Castilian Jews, 1432
  Ordinances from  assembly of the Jews of the kingdom of Castile at Valladolid in 1432 -- includes a discussion on forced marriage.

Everyday Life

• Stephen de Bourbon: De Supersticione: On St Guinefort
  The basis of the film The Sorceress about a sainted dog. Based on the tradition of St. Christopher as being "dog-faced".
• Master Huen's Boke of Gode Cookery
  A compilation of Medieval recipes from period sources, with modern adaptations for the 20th c. kitchen. With diverse facts on food & feasting in the Middle Ages, and many things related historically. [At SCA site: at labs.net]

Everyday Life: Jewish Women

• Reciting the Grace after Meals: The Status of Jewish Women, from Berakhot, chap. 7, trans. Elka Klein
• Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Daughter's Inheritance, 1293, trans. Elka Klein
• Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Jewish Widow and her Daughter, 1261-1262, trans. Elka Klein

Women's Agency

• Tacitus: Germania full text.
• Gregory of Tours: The Conversion of Clovis, from History of the Franks, Book II
• Gregory of Tours: History of the Franks, (6th century)
  Complete text of Earnest Brehaut's 1916 abridged translation.
• Russian Primary Chronicle: The Christianisation of Russia (988), [At Univ.Durham]
• 1135 : Serment de fidélité prêté par Guillem VI, seigneur de Montpellier, au comte et à la comtesse de Melgueil. In Latin
• 12 novembre 1166: Convention et confédération de paix,  concorde et commerce entre les consuls de Gênes et l'archevêque Pons, la vicomtesse Ermengarde et le peuple de Narbonne. In Latin
• 30 avril 1196 : Testament d'Ermengarde, vicomtesse de Narbonne. In Latin
• The Case of Na Prous, a beguine, 1325
• Geoffrey Chaucer: Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, original language.
• Geoffrey Chaucer: Canterbury Tales: Prologue to Wife of Bath's Tale [Modern Text] , (c.1380) [d.1400] or Parallel Text Version, [using HTML Tables]
• 2ND Robert Palmer: Women and the Law [At Houston]
  Glanvill on Law as it applies to women in England, 1188
• Le Menagier [or Goodman] of Paris: on ideal marriage
• Bernardino of Siena: Sermons on Wives and Widows , (1427)
• WEB Matrix: A Collection of Resources for the study of women's religious communities, 500-1600
  This includes a database of 1146 women's communities and a Documents page, with documents from women's communities at Laycock (13th century), San Sisto (13th century), Santa Francesca Romana (15th century).

Feminism

• Christine de Pizan (1363-1431): Treasure of the City of Ladies. [At Internet Archive, from Women Writers of the Middle Ages/Millersville]
  • [Book of the City of Ladies]: Whether there was ever a woman who discovered hitherto unknown knowledge [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • How elderly ladies ought to conduct themselves toward young ones, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • How young women ought to conduct themselves towards their elders, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • Of the wives of artisans and how they ought to conduct themselves, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • How ladies and young women who live on their manors ought to manage their households and estates, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]

Gender Construction

Men's Roles

• To Cry a Joust: Abillement for the Joust, 15th Century,  [At Chronique]
  See Knighthood, Chivalry & Tournaments Resource Library [At Chronique]
• Challenge of John Astley, Squire, to Philip Boyle, Knight of Aragon, On the occasion of his knighting, 1442, [At Chronique]
• A Joust: Pierre de Masse's Challenge, 1438
• Peter Abelard: History of My Calamities [selections]. The full text is also available in English translation by Henry Adams Bellows and in Latin [At Georgetown]; See also Catholic Encyclopedia: PETER ABELARD; and Eric Gans: Chronicles of Love and Resentment - Abelard and Heloise
• Guibert of Nogent (1053-1124): Autobiography, full text, trans. C.C. Swinton Bland
• Guibert of Nogent (1053-1124): On his childhood, Selections from his Autobiography

Sexualities

• People With A History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* History
• Medieval Homoerotic Texts
• Two Versions of the Rite of Adelphopoiia
• Theodore of Studium: Reform Rules [d.826] contains interesting references to adelphopoiia and dangers of monastic friendships.
• Peter Damian: 'The Different Types of Those Who Sin Against Nature', from Liber Gomorrhianus [.c.1048-54]
• Alain of Lille (d. 1203): The Plaint of Nature, extracts. The full text is also available.
• Aquinas: On Unnatural Sex: Summa Theologiae II-II, 154, 10-11,
• The Questioning of John Rykener, A Male Cross-Dressing Prostitute, 1395
  This is the one a a minute number of texts from legal processes on same-sex activities in late medieval England. The document contains a facsimile of the Roll membrane, a Latin transcription, and a translation.
• Robert of Flamborough: Summa Confessorum - on Luxuria
• A Legend of the Austrian Tyrol: St. Kümmernis [At this Site]
  A story of a saint who women grows a beard so she can become a bride of Christ.
  

Early Modern Europe

General

• See WEB Modern History Sourcebook
• Fanny Hill [At Project Gutenberg] [Full Text]

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Political Leaders

• Christopher Columbus: Letter to King and Queen of Spain, prob. 1494 [At Medieval Sourcebook]
• Elizabeth I: Against the Spanish Armada, 1588 [At this Site]
• Queen Elizabeth I of England (b.1533, r. 1558-1603): Selected Writing and Speeches   [At this Site] 
• Catherine the Great of Russia: Various Documents on Enlightenment and Government, excerpts [At this Site]
• The Division of Poland, 1772, 1793, 1795 [At this Site]
  The very different attitudes of Catherine II and Maria Theresa.
• Luise Gottsched: Description of the Empress Maria Theresa, 1749 [At this Site]
• Marie Antoinette: Letter to Her Mother, 1773 [At this Site]
• Madame Campan: Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie Antoinette, 1818 [At this Site]

Women Writers

• Laura Certa, Letter to Bibulus Sempronius, 13 January 1488 [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• Mary Sidney, Countesse of Pembroke (translator): The Tragedie of Antonie by Robert Garnier, 1595 [At Oregon]
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): Selected Prose and Poetry [At Oregon]
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): Prose and Poetry of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, full text, [At UVA]
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): Smallpox Vaccination in Turkey, [At this Site]

Women's Oppression

• Witchcraft Documents [At Medieval Sourcebook] inc. the Papal Bull of 1484, Johannes Nider on witches, and extracts from the Malleus malificaram
• John Knox: The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, 1558 [At SWRB]
• John Knox: Letter to the Queen Dowager- Regent of Scotland (Augmented Version), 1558 [At SWRB]

The Structure of Women's Lives

• Les moeurs villageoises à la fin du XVIe siècle In French
• Un contrat de mariage (1595) In French
• Sister Marianne: Love Letters to Noel Bouton de Chamilly [At Internet Archive, from Letters Magazine]
  A very different Counter-Reformation experience is seen in these letters by a 17th-century Portuguese nun "who wrote these letters to her lover, Noel Bouton de Chamilly, a French officer whom she met in about the year 1663".
• Duc de Saint-Simon: The Court of Louis XIV, from Memoires [At this Site]
• Comte de Saint Simon: Memories of of Louis XIV [At Then Again] [Excerpts]
• The Duchess of Orleans: Versailles Etiquette, 1704 [At this Site]
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78): Emile [Full Text][At Project Gutenberg]
• John Jacques Rousseau (1712-78): Emile, ou l'education, full text, in French and English [At Columbia ILT]
• Daniel Defoe: On The Education of Women, 1719 [At this Site]

Women's Agency

• John Foxe (1516-1587): Book of Martyrs [At CCEL] [Full text]
• St. Teresa of Avila [Information, At CCEL]
  See also Catholic Encyclopedia: ST. TERESA OF JESUS (TERESA OF AVILA)
  • St. Teresa of Avila: THE LIFE [At CCEL]
  • St. Teresa of Avila: Way of Perfection [At CCEL]
  • St. Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle [At CCEL]
• WEB The Wesleys and Their Times [At UMC]
  A site with many orginal texts. Inlcudes texts on the history of women and Methodism.
• Paris Salons in the 18th Century [At this Site]
  On Enlightenment society hostesses.

Feminism

• Statement of the Levellers, 1649 [At WSU]
• Radical Women During the English Revolution, excerpts [At this Site]
• Margaret Fell (1614-1702): Women's Speaking Justified, 1666 or 1667 [At Quaker Historical Texts]

Gender Construction

 

Modern Europe

General

• See WEB Modern History Sourcebook

Great Women

Queens, Noblewomen, Political Leaders

• Margaret Thatcher: Christianity and Wealth, Speech made to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, May 21, 1988 [At this Site] 

Women Writers

• WEB Victorian Women Writers Project Library
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797): Maria, 1795-97 [At Project Gutenberg] [Full Text]
  [The attribution in the text to Mary Shelley must be wrong, since Mary W. died giving birth to Mary Godwin (later Shelley) in 1797.] Mary Shelley (1797-1851): Frankenstein, 1818 [At Project Gutenberg] [Full Text]
• Mary Shelley (1797-1851): The Last Man [At this Site]
• WEB The Gaskell Page [At Nagoya]
  A Comprehensive web page dedicated to the works of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65). It includes ALL of Mrs. Gaskell's writings as etexts, as well as a lot of ancillary material about 19th-century England.
• Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South, 1855, excerpts [At Internet Archive, from Clinch Valley College]
• Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton - A tale of Manchester life [At Project Gutenberg][Full Text]
• Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South [At Project Gutenberg][Full Text]
• Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford [At Project Gutenberg][Full Text]
• Vera Brittain: Testament of Youth, excerpts [At Virginia]

Women Leaders in Professions

• Florence Nightingale (1820-1910): Rural Hygiene [At this Site]
  Life on the farm was not that much of an improvement over a factory. But, eventually, the social activists turned their eyes on the countryside as well.
• WEB Florence Nightingale: Selected Correspondence [At kumc.edu]
• Marie Curie (1867-1934): On the Discovery of Radium [At this Site]

Women's Oppression

The Structure of Women's Lives

• General
  • Anonymous: Confessions of a Young Lady Laudanum-Drinker,  The Journal of Mental Sciences January 1889 [At Drug Library]
• France
  • La loi sur le divorce (9 octobre 1792) In French
• Britain
  • Life of 19th Century Workers In England [At Victorian Web]
  • Women Miners in the English Coal Pits, 1842  [At this Site]
  • Edwin Chadwick (1803-1890): Report on Sanitary Conditions, 1842 [At Victorian Web]
  • Texts on the Physical Effects of Factory Work [At Victorian Web]
  • 2ND Anne Marie Huysman: Women, Economic Instability, and Poverty in London During the Nineteenth Century and MS Word Format, Student paper, [At this site]
• Russia
  • Mary Antin: A Little Jewish Girl in the Russian Pale, 1890 [At this Site]

Women's Agency

• Scottish Immigration to the American Colonies, 1772 [At this Site]
  Includes the reasons why a single women might emigrate.
• Samuel Bamford (1788-1872): Passages in the Life of a Radical-on the Peterloo Massacre, 1819 [At this Site]
  Discusses the part given to women's voices early 19th century English radicalism.
• Ada E Leslie: Letters from a Victorian Governess/Companion, to Royal families written during the period 1883-1894.
• Baroness M. De Packh: On The March to Siberia, c. 1840 [At this Site]
• Anne Maier: Autobiography, 1912, excerpts [At this Site]
• Maria Sukloff: The Story of An Assassination, extracts [At WSU]
• Rosa Luxemburg, "The War and the Workers": The Junius Pamphlet, 1916 [At H-Net]
• Rosa Luxemburg: "The War and the Workers": The Junius Pamphlet, 1916 [At this Site]
• Alexandra Kollontai: The Workers' Opposition 1921 [At Marxists.Org]
• Julie Heifetz: The Confession, based on a speech to a - school class 1982 [At RPI]
• Christa M.: A German witness describes prisoners from Dachau [At Yale]
• Anna W.: A Gypsy survivor describes medical experiments at Ravensbrück [With Multimedia][At Yale] .

Religious Women

• Bernadette Soubirous: My Name is Bernadette, 1858, [At EWTN]
• Bishop's Commission on the - Apparitions of Mary at Lourdes 1858, and Final Report [At Catholic Online]. See also Cult Images of Mary.
• Marian Apparitions Page
  Extremely pious, but complete for Europe.
• Thérèse of Lisieux: Modern Account of Her Life, [At EWTN]
• Thérèse of Lisieux: Extracts from her Writings, [At EWTN]
• Thérèse of Lisieux: Pius XI: Homily at the Canonization of St. Thérèse, 17 May 1925, [At EWTN]
  The file also includes the bull of canonization Vehementer exultamus hodie
• Congregation for the Causes of Saints: Decrees Regarding the Canonization of the servants of God, Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto, 1989 [At EWTN]
  The visionaries at Fatima.
• Jim Forest: Dorothy Day Biography [At Catholic Worker]
• WEB Madame Blavatsky: Works [At Blavatsky.net]
  Large number of texts from the major figure in Theosophy.

Feminism

• Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Women, 1791, excerpts [At this Site]
• Mary Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Women, excerpts [At Internet Archive, from Baylor]
• Mary Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Women [Full Text][At this Site]
• Caroline Norton  (1808-1877): English Laws for Women in the Nineteenth Century, 1854 [At Victorian Women Writers Project]
• Caroline Norton  (1808-1877): A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cranworth's Marriage and Divorce Bill 1855 [At Victorian Women Writers Project]
• John Stuart Mill: The Subjection of Women [At this Site][Full Text]
• Friederich Engels: The origin of the family, private property, and the State, 1884 [At Marxists.org] [Full Text]
• Emmeline Pankhurst: Militant Suffragism, 1913 [At this Site]
• Emmeline Pankhurst: My Own Story, 1914  [At this Site]

Gender Construction

• See WEB People With a History: Online Guide to LGBT History

 

North America

General

• See WEB  Modern History Sourcebook

Great Women

Political Leaders/ Social Activists

• Angelina E. Grimké: Appeal To The Christian Women of the South, 1836, full text [At Furman]
  Text of one of the few abolitionist treatises published by a Southern
  white woman.
• Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887): Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1843 [At USInfo]
  On social reform of prisons and facilities for the mentally ill.
• 2ND Lucy Parsons: Woman of Will [At IWW] [Account of 19th century American woman trade-unionist]
• Emma Goldman: A Guide to Her Life and Documentary Sources [At Berkeley]
• WEB Dorothy Day: Aims and Purposes, 1940 [At Catholic Worker]
  This page has many more texts by Dorothy Day and other Catholic Worker writers.

Women Writers

• Emma Lazarus: "The New Colossus", 1883 [At Virginia]
  The poem on the Statute of Liberty.
• Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings part of Poems  [At Poem Hunter]
• Sylvia Plath  (1932-1963): Poems [At Stanford]
• Adrienne Rich (1929-): Poems [At Poem Hunter]

Women Leaders in Professions

Women's Oppression

• Samuel Green, ed.: Groton - Witchcraft Times, c.1671 [At Hanover]
• Bradwell v. Illinois, 1873 [At USInfo]
  The supreme court agreed that women could be banned from the bar.
• 2ND Patricia Cline Cohen: The Murder of Helen Jewett The Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York, Chapter 1 [At NY Times: you will be asked to "sign up" to access the text]
• William Graham Sumner (1840-1910): The Challenge of Facts, pub. 1914 [At this Site]
  A prominent American social Darwinist mixes social Darwinism with aspects of a Calvinistic work ethic, provides Darwinist explantion of the family, and attacks Socialism.
• Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings part of Poems  [At Poem Hunter]

The Structure of Women's Lives

• General
• Work
  • Harret Robinson: Lowell Mill Girls, 1834-1848 [At this Site]
• Marriage Law
• Fashion
  • Bruce Bliven: "Flapper Jane", from The New Republic, September 9, 1925. [At Pitt State][Added 7/20/98]

Women's Agency

• Anne Bradstreet: A Dialogue Between Old England and New, 1630 [At Hanover]
• Scottish Immigration to the American Colonies, 1772 [At this Site]
  Includes the reasons why a single women might emigrate.
• Elinore Pruitt Stewart: Letters of a Woman Homesteader [At UVA][Full Text]
• DeAnne Blanton: Women Soldiers of the Civil War, Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives Spring 1993, vol. 25, no. 1 [At National Archives][Modern Text]
• WEB The Mary Anne Sadlier Archive [At Virginia]
  Mary Anne Sadlier (1820-1903), an Irish-American immigrant, wrote sixty volumes of work -- from domestic novels to historical romances to children's catechisms.
• WEB Temperance and Prohibition [At Ohio State]
• WEB American Life Histories, Manuscripts from the Federal Writers's Project, 1936-1940 [At Library of Congress]
  Over 2,900 online oral histories from the Depressison era. The site also has image files.

Feminism

• See Library of Congress: National Women's Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921 [At Library of Congress]
  Full texts of 167 books and other documents.
• Seneca Falls Declaration, 1848 [At this Site]
• Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): 'An't I a Woman?', 1851 [At this Site]
  A rough-hewn account.
• Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): 'Ain't I a Woman?', 1851 [At this Site]
  The usual cleaned-up version.
• Oliver Gilbert: Narrative of Sojourner Truth, based on information provided by Sojourner Truth, 1850 [At Project Gutenberg]
• Woman's Rights Petition to the New York Legislature, 1854 [At Furman]
• Report of the Select Committee [On the Women's Rights Petition], In Assembly, March 27, 1854  [At Furman]
• Catherine Booth (1829-1890): Female Ministry: or, Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel, 1859 [At Indiana] [Full Text]
• Susan B. Anthony: On Women's Right to Vote, 1873 [At this Site]
• The Woman's Crusade of 1873-74 [At Schaffer Drug Library]
  A high point of anti-liquor/drugs activity.
• Woman's Christian Temperance Union:  Growth of Membership and of Local, Auxiliary Unions, 1879-1921 [At this Site]
• Richard Hamm: American Prohibitionists and Violence, 1865-1920 [Modern Account][At Schaffer Drug Library]
• Frances E. Willard: Address to Women's National Council, February 22-25, 1891 [At this Site]
• Hearing of the Women Suffrage Association, before the House Committee on the Judiciary, January 18, 1892 [At Hanover]
• Margaret Sanger (1883-1966): Autobiography, excerpts [At this Site]
  On why she became a crusader for birth control.
• Margaret Sanger (1883-1966):Woman and the New Race, 1920 [Full Text][At Project Gutenberg]
  
• Margaret Sanger (1883-1966): The Pivot of Civilization, full text [At Project Gutenberg]
• Jane Addams: Why Women Should Vote, 1915 [At this Site]
• WEB Suffragists Oral History Project [At Berkeley]
• The Passage of the 19th Amendment, Articles from the New York Times, 1919-1920 [At this Site]
• 2ND Dresden Dickie: Margaret Sanger and Eugenics and MS Word Format, Student Paper [At this Site]
• National Organization of Women: Statement of Purpose, 1966 [At Hanover]
• NOW Statement of Purpose, 1966 [At USInfo]
• WEB Our Bodies. Ourselves Reading Room, Articles and Speeches [At Feminist.com]
• WEB The Andrea Dworkin Online Library [At IGC]
  An interesting and generous site which makes many of Dworkin's writings available online.
• Andrea Dworkin: Intercourse, 1987 [At Dworkin Online Library]. Dworkin rejects the argument that she calls all heterosexual intercourse rape. See Interview 1995.
• Are liberation theology, feminism compatible? [At Internet Archive, from UMR]
  On a clash between US Feminist and Liberation theologians.

Gender Construction

• See WEB People With a History: Online Guide to LGBT History
• 2ND Michael La Regina: The Strug-for Gay Rights in America and MS Word Format, Student paper, [At this Site]

 

Latin America

General

• See WEB Modern History Sourcebook
• WEB Latin American Studies [At UTexas]
  Perhaps the main guide on the web.
• WEB The Buried Mirror: Etexts [At Internet Archive]
  A major collection of sources and secondary material on Latin American history.

Great Women

Women Political Leaders/Social Activists

• Eva Duarte de Perón: History of Perónism, excerpts, 1951 [At this Site]
• Eva Duarte de Perón: Speech, 1950, in Spanish [At this Site]
• Rigoberta Menchú Tum: Interview: Five Hundred Years of Sacrifice Before Alien Gods, 1992 [At indians.org]

Women Writers

• Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695): Poems [At Sappho]
• Silvia Fernández: The Needle and the Pen, 1913 [At WSU]
• Gabriela Mistral: Poems, 1922 [At WSU]
• Juana de Ibarbarou: The Hour, 1918 [At WSU]

Women's Oppression

The Structure of Women's Lives

Women's Agency

• WEB Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of May Square)
  The Argentinian group against the "disappeared".

Feminism

• Maria Eugenia Echenique: The Emancipation of Women, 1876 [At WSU] - An Argentinian feminist.

Gender Construction

• See WEB  People With a History: Online Guide to LGBT History

 

China

General

• See WEB East Asia History Sourcebook

Great Women

• The Empress Wu:
• Isaac Taylor Headland,  1859-1942: Court life in China: the capital, its officials and people, (New York, F.H. Revell, c1909), full text
  Contemporary discussion of reform efforts in late imperial China, with a significant discussion of the lives of elite women, and an extended account of the rule of the Empress Dowger.
• Image: People: Cixi Tse hsi The Dowager Empress
• Image: People: Cixi Tse hsi The Dowager Empress

Women's Oppression

• Selections from the Analects, - topically arranged selections from the Confucian classic
• The Analects, complete
• Ben Zhao Pan Chao (45-115? CE) :  Lessons for A Woman:The Views of A Female Confucian (c. 80 CE) 
• Ben Zhao Pan Chao (45-115? CE) :  The Problem of Woman [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• Fu Xuan: Poem on Woman c. 3rd, Century CE
• Marco Polo: On Chinese Women 13th century [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• Chinese Footbinding  [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• Mendez Pinto: The Woman with the Cross, c. 1630
  A Chinese Christian woman.
• Women in China: History and the Present
• Tom Hilditch: A Holocaust of Girls, from the South China Morning Post
• Women in China: Press Reports
• Modern Marriage in China - Two Texts
• WEB Marie Vento: One Thousand Years of Chinese Footbinding: Its Origins, Popularity and Demise or here [An online student paper]

• Image: Custom: Picture of Woman With Feet Unbound
• Image: Custom: Picture of Unbound Feet Close Up
• Image: Custom: Woman with bound feet (shoed)
• Image: Custom: A bound foot - closeup

The Structure of Women's Lives

• The Dream of the Red Chamber. synoposis, [At WSU]

Women's Agency

• The Legend of Miao-Shan
  The divinity with perhaps the most devotion in China is Guan Yin. She began as a male bodhisattva, but has now become the Chinese Goddess of Mercy through assimilation of the Buddhist belief with this old Chinese story.
• The Tale of Mulan, the Maiden Chief, c. 502-556 CE [At this Site]
  A heroic Chinese woman warrior, and a virgin. [Cf. Joan of Arc.]
• Pruitt, Ida, A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman by Ida Pruitt from the Story Told Her by Ning Lao T'ai t'ai, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1945, repr. Stanford CA; Stanford University Press, 1967) Daughter of Han Reading Guide

Feminism

• Statement of the Central Committee of The Chinese Communist Party, February 1, 1947 [At this Site]
  Called for equality of women.
• NY Times Report on Recent UN Women's Conference

Gender Construction

• See WEB  People With a History: Online Guide to LGBT History
• The Homosexual Tradition in China: Selections from Chinese Homosexual Literature
• Four Recent Press Report on Gay Life in China
• Manifesto of First Chinese Tongzhi Conference, 1996 [At HKGAY]
  Tongzhi is being used in Chinese for Gay. This manifesto directly asserts a historical basis for modern Chinese homosexuals and the differences of Chinese Tongzhi movements with western gay movements.
  

Japan

General

• See WEB East Asia History Sourcebook

Great Women

Women's Oppression

The Structure of Women's Lives

• Sir Edwin Arnold: A Japanese Dinner Party, 1890
• Alice M. Bacon: How Japanese Ladies Go Shopping, 1890

Women's Agency

• Sarashina: The Diary of Lady Sarashina, 1009-1059 CE [At Hanover College]
• Kaibara Ekken or Kaibara Token: Greater Learning for Women, 1762 CE [At WSU]
• Diaries of the Court Ladies of Old Japan, trans. Annie Sheply Omori and Kochi Doi, full text, [At Internet Archive, from CMU]

Feminism

Gender Construction

• Tsuentomo Yamamoto: The Way of the Samauri [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
  

India

General

• See WEB Indian History Sourcebook 

Great Women

Women's Oppression

It is important to note that, while I in no way, wish to  minimize the implications of the sati/suttee, a number of the readings here must be understood as western colonialist texts, and be addressed from that perspective.

• Duarte Barbosa: Sati in Narsyngua.[At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• An Account of Sati from Vikrama's Adventures [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• Raja Rammohan Roy: A Second Conference Between an Advocate for, and An Opponent of the Practice of Burning Widows Alive, 1820 [At WSU]
• Sir William Bentinck: On Ritual Murder in India , 1829, excerpts [At this Site]
• Mountstuart Elphinstone: Indian Customs and Manners, 1840 [At this Site]
  Includes graphic account of suttee.

The Structure of Women's Lives

• Kautilya: The Arthashastra - On Gender Issues, c. 250 BCE   [At this Site]

Women's Agency

Feminism

Gender Construction

South East Asia

General

• See WEB East Asia History Sourcebook

Great Women

Women's Oppression

The Structure of Women's Lives

Women's Agency

Feminism

Gender Construction

 

Australasia

General

Great Women

Women's Oppression

The Structure of Women's Lives

Women's Agency

Feminism

Gender Construction

Africa

General

• See WEB African History Sourcebook
• Ibn Battuta: Malian Women, [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
• African Recipes [At Upenn]
• Africa Recipes from Ghana [At Upenn]
• WEB Meanings of Symbols in Adinkara Cloth [At Internet Archive, from Kemet]
• WEB History and Significance of Ghana's Kente Cloth [At Manchester]
  Both the Adinkara and Kente pages are well illustrated.

Great Women

• 2ND Rita Pankhurst: Women of Power in Ethiopian Legend and History [At One World]

Women's Oppression

• The Issue of Female Circumcision [At H-Net]

The Structure of Women's Lives

• WEB African Lives [At Washington Post]
  • Part II: Young Urban Kenyans
  • Part III: Midwives in Ethiopia
  • Part V: AIDS in Kenya
  • Part VI: Families of Abidjan
  • Part VII: Child Brides in Ivory Coast
• 2ND Tara Kneller: Neither Goddesses Nor Doormats: The Role of Women in Nubia [At Historical Text Archive]

Women's Agency

• Lucie Duff Gordon: Letters from the Cape [At Project Gutenberg] Full Text. 
• Josephine Elizabeth Grey Butler (1828-1906): Native Races and the War, 1900 [At Indian: Victorian Women Writers]

Feminism

Gender Construction

Gender and Sexualities in Modern Africa

• Edward Carpenter (1884-1929): Iolaus: An Anthology of Friendship [chapters on Africa]
• Zimbabwe Anti-Gay Witchhunt 1996 [At Internet Archive, from Xmission.com]
• Eugene Patron: Heart of Lavender: In Search of Gay Africa, from Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Fall 1995.
• Matthew Quest : Afrocentricity vs. Homosexuality: The Isis Papers [At Spunk.org]
  A critique of Frances Cress Welsing's The Isis Papers.

The Islamic World

General

• See WEB Islamic History Sourcebook
• WEB Women in Islam [At Answering Islam]
  The website is a site devoted to arguments with Muslims. This web page contains links to explanations, defences, and attacks on the subject of women in Islam.
• The Qur'an: The Women [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
  From Surah's 2 and 4.
• Ibn Battuta: Malian Women, [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]

Great Women

• A Visit to the Wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (Translated from a Genoese Letter), c. 1550
• Lady Mary Wortley-tagu (1689-1762): Dining With The Sultana, 1718

Women's Oppression

• 2ND Anne Hardwick: From Muhammad to Present: Islamic Law and Women [At Internet Archive, from Rhodes]
• 2ND John F. Burns: "Journal: Islamic Police Create a Minefield for Women," New York Times, August 29, 1997  [At Mt Internet Archive, from Holyoke]
• Female Circumcision/Female Genital Mutilation
  • 2ND Douglas Jehl: "Egyptian Court Voids Ban on Cutting of Girls' Genitals," New York Times, June 26, 1997  [At NY Times]
  • The Issue of Female Circumcision [At H-Net]
  • Female Genital Mutilation on Trial [At The Atlantic, subscription required]
  • Linda Burstyn: Female Genital Mutilation Comes to America, The Atlantic October 1995 [At The Atlantic, subscription required]
  • WEB Female Genital Cutting Education and Networking Project
    lots of interesting stuff, and discussion within the context of Islam. Also discusses "male genital mutilation" - such discussions in the past have ended up with distinct anti-Semitic overtones.

The Structure of Women's Lives

• Charles James Wills: A Persian Wedding, 1885 [At this Site]
• Demetra Vaka: Aïshé Hanoum, c. 1888 [At this Site]
  Life of a Turkish woman.

Women's Agency

• The Women and Her Suitors story from the Thousand and One Nights [caution: very rude!]
• 2ND Barbara Crossette: "A Manual on Rights of Women Under Islam," New York Times, December 29, 1996  [At Internet Archive, from Mt Holyoke]
• The Legends & Poetry of The Turks, selections
  This file includes selections from the women poets Mirhi (the "Turkish Sappho") and Zeyneb.

Apologetics

• 2ND M. Rafiqul-Haqq and P. Newton: The Place of Women in Pure Islam [Ar Venus Project]
  Decidely critical of Muslim practice, but quotes a  large number of sources.
• WEB About Islam and Muslims [At Ummah.net]
  Islamic apologetics, but preaching to the converted - see the text on Women and Islam!
• 2ND Sherif Abdel Azeem: Women In Islam Versus Women In The
  Judaeo-Christian Tradition  [At TWF]
  Widely reproduced "defence" of women's role in Islam.

Feminism

• 2ND Ghada Barsoum: Polemics on the Veil in Egypt
  Student paper on modern Egyptian debates. [At Internet Archive]
• 2ND Marelise Simons: "Cry of Muslim Women for Equal Rights Is Rising," New York Times, March 9, 1998  [At Internet Archive, from Mt Holyoke]

Gender Construction

• The Qur'an on Homosexuality.
• Edward Carpenter (1884-1929): Iolaus: An Anthology of Friendship [chapter on Arabia and Persia], with extracts from Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi.
• The Tale of Nur Al-Din Ali and his Son Badr Al-Din Hasan,
  from The Arabian Nights, translated Sir. Richard Francis Burton.
• Abu Nawas (c.756-810): Poetry
• Sadi: Gulistan, 13th Century CE, Full text of Persian prose/poetry text with significant homoerotic content.
• Rumi: Poetry
• Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522 - 1592): Lesbian Love in A Turkish Bath, 1560  [At Internet Archive, from Letters Magazine]
• 2ND Richard Burton: Terminal Essay, from his edition of the Arabian Nights.
  Burton' compilation of data on variety of societies was meant to explain some of the stories in The Nights. In doing so, he provided first overview of Islamic homosexuality.
• 2ND Islam and Homosexuality [At Islam Geocities]
  An extremely homophobic article which claims Islam never tolerated homosexuality.

Further Resources in Women's History

• Web Guides
  • WEB Yahoo! Women's History
• Academic Sites

 

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© Paul Halsall, November1998. Last Updated April 16, 2007.
halsall@fordham.edu