“The amazing tales of Jewish girls on six different continents who celebrate the Jewish ritual of becoming a woman.” —The Jewish Journal Winner, Spirituality Category, New England Festival Best Books of the Holiday Season Divided into nine regions—Africa; Asia; Australia and New Zealand; the Caribbean, Europe; the former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe; Latin America; the Middle East and North Africa; and North America—this book tells the story of each girl’s unique journey and introduction into womanhood. Gorgeously illustrated with more than 100 black and white family photographs, Today I Am a Woman also captures each area’s unique customs and how they affect the lives of Jewish girls and the local Jewish community’s traditions. “The editors scoured the globe to find powerful, varied, and moving depictions of bat mitzvah in the contemporary Jewish world. This is a rich resource for anyone interested in understanding religious diversity, folk practices, and cultural creativity through the lens of gender.” —Deborah Dash Moore, former Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and a Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan “The stories speak for themselves, putting Jewish girls and women on the center of the stage, into the limelight, and at the pulpit. By showcasing ritual innovation, they make a point about Judaism’s elasticity and women’s agency.” —Hasia R. Diner, coeditor of Remembering the Lower East Side

One of the foremost Native writers in North America, Lee Maracle links her First Nations heritage with feminism in this visionary book. "Maracle has created a book of true wisdom, intense pride, sisterhood and love." -Milestones Review

(Applause Books). I Am A Woman is a journey, not through time so much as through realms of consciousness expressed in the haunting voices of some of literature's most powerful women. Together, on the page or in performance, these voices weave a powerful and haunting tapestry. Each woman's struggle permeates another's triumph, and each triumph rings with the irony of its passing. Here is a repertoire of the heart. Among the selections: Pentimento * Diary of Anne Frank * Lady Chatterly's Lover * A Conversation Against Death * The Liberated Orgasm * Little Girl My Stringbean My Lovely Woman * Dance of Death * In My Mother's House * The Madwoman of Chaillot * Lovers and Other Strangers * Misalliance.

When Jesus was on earth, he did nothing to indicate women were second-class citizens. For example, he asked Mary Magdalene, at one of the most critical times in his life, to be the disciple to announce his resurrection. Yet somewhere in history, women have been made to feel like they shouldnt be pastors or leaders of the church because of their gender. In You Are Todays Women of the Bible and I can prove it, author Darci Jeffries shows women are just as much a child of God as anyone, no better than men and no worse than men. Through a variety of Biblical entries and scriptures, she recognizes the important roles women played in the Bible and how todays women still have significant impact influencing people for Gods kingdom. Jeffries notes the influential female of the Bible such as Jochebed (Moses mother), Esther, and Rebekah, and shares how its because of those women and the roles they played in Biblical history, that todays women have the same level of influence. Inspiring todays women to achieve all they can, You Are Todays Women of the Bible and I can prove it seeks to get more women working with others for Gods kingdom and to help them understand how important they are in Gods workplace.

When woman removes all the definitions that the world uses to define her, everything from her job to her wardrobe; from her hair and nails to the job she keeps, or even the job roles and stereotypes of cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, tending to children, and paying bills, what is left? What does the bare, vulnerable, unadulterated woman look like? What does she need? What does she desire? What does she express? The pieces in this book are only small reflections of the larger picture. I, being one woman, can fathom only so many feelings and expressions that only when we collect the expressions of every woman on this earth, can we realize the full essence and beauty of woman. For now, let us begin the conversation inch by inch, poem by poem, woman by woman.

This e-only volume expands and updates the original 4-volume Encyclopedia of Women in Today′s World (2011), offering a wide range of new entries and new multimedia content. The entries reflect such developments as the Arab Spring that brought women′s issues in the Islamic world into sharp relief, the domination of female athletes among medal winners at the London 2012 Olympics, nine more women joining the ranks of democratically elected heads of state, and much more. The 475 articles in this e-only update (accompanied by photos and video clips) supplement the themes established in the original edition, providing a vibrant collection of entries dealing with contemporary women′s issues around the world.

queer [adj]: 1 differing from what is usual or ordinary; odd; singular; strange 2 slightly ill; 3 mentally unbalanced 4 counterfeit; not genuine 5 homosexual: in general usage, still chiefly a slang term of contempt or derision, but lately used by some as a descriptive term without negative connotations --Webster's Dictionary queer [adj]: used to describe a 1 body of theory 2 field of critical inquiry 3 way of proudly identifying a group of people 4 way of seeing the world 5 sense of difference from the norm -- David Shneer and Caryn Aviv, Queer in America, Now and Then Contrasting queer life today and in years past, this landmark book brings together autobiographies, poetry, film studies, maps, documents, laws, and other texts to explore the meaning and practice of the word queer. By this Shneer and Aviv mean: queer as both a form of social violence and a call to political activism; queer as played by Robin Williams and Sharon Stone and as lived by Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena; queer in the courthouses of Washington D.C. and on the streets of hometown America. Contextualizing these contemporary stories with ones from the past, and understanding them through the analytic tools of feminist social criticism and history, the authors show what it means to be queer in America.

Kathryn Kish Sklar calls this work "a major contribution to our historical understanding of the role of women in organizing American miners in the twentieth century." Agnes Burns Wieck was a crusading labor organizer, an activist known as "the Mother Jones of Illinois." This first book-length biography is a unique portrait of her energy and unremitting dedication to social justice. Wieck organized miners' wives and led a movement of Illinois coalfield women. She used her talents as a journalist and a public speaker to campaign for a decent standard of living, for good schools and working conditions in communities free of corporate domination, and for union democracy, racial equality, and acceptance of women in political life.