Originally published: North Haven: Archon Books, 1995.

Established as an academic field in the 1970s, women's studies is a relatively young but rapidly growing area of study. Not only has the number of scholars working in this subject expanded exponentially, but women's studies has become institutionalized, offering graduate degrees and taking on departmental status in many colleges and universities. At the same time, this field--formed in the wake of the feminist movement--is finding itself in a precarious position in what is now often called a "post-feminist" society. This raises challenging issues for faculty, students, and administrators. How must the field adjust its goals and methods to continue to affect change in the future? Bringing together essays by newcomers as well as veterans to the field, this essential volume addresses timely questions including: Without a unitary understanding of the subject, woman, what is the focus of women's studies? How can women's studies fulfill the promise of interdisciplinarity? What is the continuing place of activism in women's studies? What are the best ways to think about, teach, and act upon the intersections of race, class, gender, disability, nation, and sexuality? Offering innovative models for research and teaching and compelling new directions for action, Women's Studies for the Future ensures the continued relevance and influence of this developing field.

Throughout history, women have often worked in informal ways and in modest conditions, frequently without monuments or grand examples of architecture preserved to commemorate their accomplishments. Landmarks of American Women's History describes the sites that represent a wide variety of women's experiences and accomplishments. As early as the fourteenth century, the women of New Mexico's Taos Pueblo lived equal lives of responsibility with men, even building most of the pueblo. Mary Chase Perry Stratton's Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, Michigan exemplifies women's contributions to the arts. Bryn Mawr College's M. Cary Thomas Library is tangible evidence of Thomas's drive to secure equal educational opportunities for women. The boardinghouse at Boot Cotton Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts provides a glimpse into the daily life of women in the industrial workforce. New York City's United Charities Building was- and still is- the headquarters of numerous reform organizations, many headed by women. In vivid sketches of eleven historic sites from across the country- in addition to numerous related location that act as supporting characters- Page Putnam Miller tells an engaging story of the accomplishments and the lasting influence of women on American history.

Brave Hearts: Indian Women of the Plains tells the story of Plains Indian women through a series of fascinating vignettes. They are a remarkable group of women – some famous, some obscure. Some were hunters, some were warriors and, in a rare case, one was a chief; some lived extraordinary lives, while others lived more quietly in their lodges. Some were born into traditional families and knew their place in society while others were bi-racial who struggled to find their place in a world conflicted between Indian and white. Some never knew anything but the old, nomadic way of life while others lived-on to suffer through the reservation years. Others were born on the reservation but did their best in difficult times to keep to the old ways. Some never left the reservation while others ventured out into the larger world. All, in their own way, were Plains Indian women.

The first Europeans to arrive in North America’s various regions relied on Native women to help them navigate unfamiliar customs and places. This study of three well-known and legendary female cultural intermediaries, Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea, examines their initial contact with Euro-Americans, their negotiation of multinational frontiers, and their symbolic representation over time. Well before their first contact with Europeans or Anglo-Americans, the three women’s societies of origin—the Aztecs of Central Mexico (Malinche), the Powhatans of the mid-Atlantic coast (Pocahontas), and the Shoshones of the northern Rocky Mountains (Sacagawea)—were already dealing with complex ethnic tensions and social change. Using wit and diplomacy learned in their Native cultures and often assigned to women, all three individuals hoped to benefit their own communities by engaging with the new arrivals. But as historian Rebecca Kay Jager points out, Europeans and white Americans misunderstood female expertise in diplomacy and interpreted indigenous women’s cooperation as proof of their attraction to Euro-American men and culture. This confusion has created a historical misrepresentation of Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea as gracious Indian princesses, giving far too little credit to their skills as intermediaries. Examining their initial contact with Europeans and their work on multinational frontiers, Jager removes these three famous icons from the realm of mythology and cultural fantasy and situates each woman’s behavior in her own cultural context. Drawing on history, anthropology, ethnohistory, and oral tradition, Jager demonstrates their shrewd use of diplomacy and fulfillment of social roles and responsibilities in pursuit of their communities’ future advantage. Jager then goes on to delineate the symbolic roles that Malinche, Pocahontas, and Sacagawea came to play in national creation stories. Mexico and the United States have molded their legends to justify European colonization and condemn it, to explain Indian defeat and celebrate indigenous prehistory. After hundreds of years, Malinche, Pocahontas and Sacagawea are still relevant. They are the symbolic mothers of the Americas, but more than that, they fulfilled crucial roles in times of pivotal and enduring historical change. Understanding their stories brings us closer to understanding our own histories.

This that I now tell is as I saw my mothers do, or did myself, when I was young. My mothers were industrious women, and our family had always good crops; and I will tell now how the women of my father's family cared for their fields, as I saw them, and helped them. --Buffalo Bird Woman

This Reader in Gender Archaeology presents nineteen current, controversial and highly influential articles which confront and illuminate issues of gender in prehistory. The question of gender difference and whether it is natural or culturally constructed is a compelling one. The articles here, which draw on evidence from a wide range of geographic areas, demonstrate how all archaeological investigation can benefit from an awareness of issues of gender. They also show how the long-term nature of archaeological research can inform the gender debate across the disciplines. The volume: * organizes this complex area into seven sections on key themes in gender archaeology: archaeological method and theory, human origins, division of labour, the social construction of gender, iconography and ideology, power and social hierarchies and new forms of archaeological narrative * includes section introductions which outline the history of research on each topic and present the key points of each article * presents a balance of material which rewrites women into prehistory, and articles which show how the concept of gender informs our understanding and interpretation of the past.

Land is often known by the names of past owners. "Emma's Land", "Gina's quarter", and "the Ingeborg Land" are reminders of the many women who homesteaded across North Dakota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Land in Her Own Name records these homesteaders' experiences as revealed in interviews with surviving homesteaders and their families and friends, land records, letters, and diaries. These women's fascinating accounts tell of locating a claim, erecting a shelter, and living on the prairie. Their ethnic backgrounds include Yankee, Scandinavian, German, and German-Russian, as well as African-American, Jewish, and Lebanese. Some were barely twenty-one, while others had reached their sixties. A few lived on their land for life and "never borrowed a cent against it"; others sold or rented the land to start a small business or to provide money for education.

A guide to 366 places that are significant to American Indians and open to the public. Organized geographically, the guide includes location information, maps, and suggestions for further reading about the sites.