At the turn of the century, a time when women had few choices, Bess Steed Garner inherits a legacy—not only of wealth but of determination and desire, making her truly a woman of independent means. From the early 1900s through the 1960s, we accompany Bess as she endures life's trials and triumphs with unfailing courage and indomitable spirit: the sacrifices love sometimes requires of the heart, the flaws and rewards of marriage, the often-tested bond between mother and child, and the will to defy a society that demands conformity.

From her first visit to East Timor in 1990, Kirsty Sword fell in love with the country and its people and became determined to help them in their seemingly hopeless struggle for independence. Little did she know then where her passion for the cause would lead her. Over the next decade, Kirsty worked as an undercover activist in Jakarta, becoming an increasingly valuable operative within the East Timorese independence movement. In 1994 her work brought her into contact with the jailed leader of the resistance movement, the charismatic Xanana Gusmao. Through their letters, smuggled in and out his prison, they fell in love. This unlikely but remarkable romance, no less passionate for their being so forcibly separated, was further tested when Kirsty was compelled to flee Indonesia one step ahead of its feared intelligence service. It was not until the fall of President Suharto and Xanana's subsequent release from prison that Kirsty was finally reunited with the revered independence leader. Working beside Xanana, Kirsty found herself at the very centre of the epic events that saw East Timor freed from Indonesian occupation: the vote for independence, the militia groups' murderous rampage that followed, the intervention of Australian and international peacekeeping forces, and the slow and painful rebuilding of a devastated country. Today, the former guerrilla commander and the activist live together as president and first lady, with their two children, in a country where fear has been replaced by hope. A Woman of Independence is the story of an incredible love affair, and the passion and courage it takes to free a nation.

“Like man, woman is a human being.” When The Second Sex was first published in Paris in 1949—groundbreaking, risqué, brilliantly written and strikingly modern—it provoked both outrage and inspiration. The Independent Woman contains three key chapters of Beauvoir’s masterwork, which illuminate the feminine condition and identify practical social reforms for gender equality. It captures the essence of the spirited manifesto that switched on light bulbs in the heads of a generation of women and continues to exert profound influence on feminists today.

A groundbreaking history of the American Revolution that “vividly recounts Colonial women’s struggles for independence—for their nation and, sometimes, for themselves.... [Her] lively book reclaims a vital part of our political legacy" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American. In this book, Carol Berkin shows us how women played a vital role throughout the conflict. The women of the Revolution were most active at home, organizing boycotts of British goods, raising funds for the fledgling nation, and managing the family business while struggling to maintain a modicum of normalcy as husbands, brothers and fathers died. Yet Berkin also reveals that it was not just the men who fought on the front lines, as in the story of Margaret Corbin, who was crippled for life when she took her husband’s place beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth. This incisive and comprehensive history illuminates a fascinating and unknown side of the struggle for American independence.

"Today, only twenty percent of Americans are wed by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960. The Population Reference Bureau calls it a 'dramatic reversal.' [This book presents a] portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the single American woman, covering class, race, [and] sexual orientation, and filled with ... anecdotes from ... contemporary and historical figures"--

Are You Ready For The Battle? Many of us are not living the life we desire because we believe that something or someone is holding us back. We blame our spouses, significant others, jobs or finances for why we are not experiencing the success that we know is our birthright. The battle seems to be on every front, in our relationships, careers, and family. Author, Speaker and Certified Wealth Strategist Jennifer Harris shares her powerful message of independence and freedom as she reveals ten declarations of truth that every woman must live by in order to successfully battle for the independence that she deserves. As you declare these truths, you will be empowered to unapologetically fight for your independence.

FREE Romance Series Starter. Allison knows she shouldn’t cling to memories of a lost love. Torn from her high school sweetheart and left to rebuild the pieces of her life, Allison has almost given up on finding love. Ten years have passed, but when she sees Cole again, her pulse kicks up in that old, familiar way. The question is, can they resolve the issues that tore them apart – and can she learn to love again? Loving From Afar is Book One of The Women of Independence series.

Rebecca Dickinson's powerful voice, captured through excerpts from the pages of her journal, allows colonial and revolutionary-era New England to come alive. Dickinson's life illustrates the dilemmas faced by many Americans in the decades before, during, and after the American Revolution, as well as the paradoxes presented by an unmarried woman who earned her own living and made her own way in the small town where she was born. Rebecca Dickinson: Independence for a New England Woman, uses Dickinson's world as a lens to introduce readers to the everyday experience of living in the colonial era and the social, cultural, and economic challenges faced in the transformative decades surrounding the American Revolution. About the Lives of American Women series: selected and edited by renowned women's historian Carol Berkin, these brief biographies are designed for use in undergraduate courses. Rather than a comprehensive approach, each biography focuses instead on a particular aspect of a women's life that is emblematic of her time, or which made her a pivotal figure in the era. The emphasis is on a 'good read', featuring accessible writing and compelling narratives, without sacrificing sound scholarship and academic integrity. Primary sources at the end of each biography reveal the subject's perspective in her own words. Study questions and an annotated bibliography support the student reader.

An ancient title of respect for women, the word “cunt” long ago veered off this noble path. Inga Muscio traces the road from honor to expletive, giving women the motivation and tools to claim “cunt” as a positive and powerful force in their lives. In this fully revised edition, she explores, with candidness and humor, such traditional feminist issues as birth control, sexuality, jealousy between women, and prostitution with a fresh attitude for a new generation of women. Sending out a call for every woman to be the Cuntlovin' Ruler of Her Sexual Universe, Muscio stands convention on its head by embracing all things cunt-related. This edition is fully revised with updated resources, a new foreword from sexual pioneer Betty Dodson, and a new afterword by the author. “Bright, sharp, empowering, long-lasting, useful, sexy....”—San Francisco Chronicle “... Cunt provides fertile ground for psychological growth.”—San Francisco Bay Guardian “Cunt does for feminism what smoothies did for high-fiber diets—it reinvents the oft-indigestible into something sweet and delicious.”—Bust Magazine

A rousing picture book biography of the only woman whose name is printed on the Declaration of Independence. Born in 1738, Mary Katharine Goddard came of age in colonial Connecticut as the burgeoning nation prepared for the American Revolution. As a businesswoman and a newspaper publisher, Goddard paved the way for influential Revolutionary media. Her remarkable accomplishments as a woman defied societal norms and set the stage for a free and open press. When the Continental Congress decreed that the Declaration of Independence be widely distributed, one person rose to the occasion and printed the document--boldly inserting her name at the bottom with a printing credit: Mary Katharine Goddard. Here is an important biography of a groundbreaking woman who had the courage to write herself into the history she helped create.