eBooks

Florence Nightingale David: A Passionate Probabilist, Statistician, Historian, and Leader
Golbeck, Amanda (2025)

This book examines Florence Nightingale David's life, contributions, and relationships throughout her life, as well as her subsequent legacy. Florence Nightingale David (1909-1993) was the first woman professor in the world's first academic statistics department, served in various British ministries during the war from 1939-1945, and was one of the first women to chair a statistics department in a research university. 

In this biography, the life stories of David are used as a vehicle to explore a variety of questions surrounding culture and engagement in the statistical sciences. What does it take to succeed in an environment that is not inclusive of your demographic? How can stories be used to bring technical material to life for students and other learners? And how can a nontraditional leader succeed in challenging boundaries and moving an enterprise forward? - Publisher's Description

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Gender Issues in the Sustainable Development Era: Emerging Evidence and Future Agenda
Paoloni, Paola (2024)

Nowadays, sustainability is one of the main pillars for organizations' revamp and growth. Sustainability can be summarized as the set of actions based on the mutual respect of economic, environmental, and social interests. No action should be taken unless it simultaneously respects the interests of these three spheres. 

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed by the United Nations for the 2030 Agenda are moving in this direction. Among them, reducing diversity and strengthening women's empowerment are the main targets of Goal 5 "Gender Equality." 

This edited volume discusses three main topics: Diversity Management for Sustainable Governance of Organisation, Innovation and New Technologies for Sustainable Development of Enterprises Led by Women and Agri-food, Fashion, Luxury and Made in Italy in Sustainable Female Firms. - Publisher's Description

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Gender Perspectives for a Renewed Design Culture: Unveiling Dynamics in Academic, Professional and Civic Lives of Women
Sedini, Carla (2025)

This book explores the evolving role of women in scientific, professional, and public spheres, with a special focus on design, not only as a field but also as a strategic tool for societal change. 

The first section examines Gender and Science, addressing the promotion of gender-inclusive cultures within academia. Contributions from scholars across disciplines delve into how gender roles shape academic careers, influencing choices and opportunities for success. The second section shifts to professional practice, bringing together designers and practitioners to reflect on the changing landscape of the design industry. It investigates the presence and achievements of women in design and how the field itself can become a catalyst for reducing gender disparities through inclusive approaches to objects, spaces, and services. The third section broadens the scope to urban contexts, discussing the right to the city from a gendered perspective. It highlights the importance of designing urban environments that foster safety, accessibility, and social equity, ensuring women’s and other genders' needs and experiences are embedded in the fabric of public spaces and lives. 

A valuable resource for researchers, professionals, and students in design, social sciences, and gender studies, this book offers critical insights into the shifting dynamics of gender in academic, professional, and civic life, challenging norms and envisioning a more inclusive future. - Publisher's Description

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STEMM the Bleed: Equity and Women Scientists
Murray, Georgina (2025)

This book examines the working lives of women scientists from different countries, backgrounds, and career stages. Despite their varied experiences, many face similar challenges: job insecurity, high stress, unequal caregiving responsibilities, gender discrimination, limited support for career development, and a culture that tolerates bullying and harassment. 

The research is based on qualitative responses from 30 women scientists who were selected through articles they had published. Each responded to a 10-question survey in 2021–22, offering insights into their day-to-day experiences in science. While their stories differ, a common theme emerged: many felt science remains a male-dominated field where progress can be harder for women. 

One of the more striking findings is the extent and nature of (sexual) harassment and bullying in these high-skill environments. In the context of ongoing conversations around gender equality and the #MeToo movement, these firsthand accounts add evidence and nuance to a highly charged public debate. 

This book doesn’t offer easy solutions. Instead, it gives readers a clear picture of what working in science is like for many women today, and shares their own suggestions for how conditions could improve. For readers in academia, research, or other professional environments, it raises important questions about culture, leadership, and inclusion. - Publisher's Description

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Cultures of Lecturing in the Long Nineteenth Century
Graef, Sebastian; Zwierlein, Anne-Julia; Weig, Heidi (2022)

The Victorian rise of mass print media competed against persisting cults of orality: lectures, political speeches, and other oral formats were omnipresent. Still, cultures of lecturing and public speaking have remained surprisingly invisible in Victorian literary and cultural studies. These two anthology volumes explore this important cultural practice, tracing representations and fictionalisations of ephemeral oral performances through print and, sometimes, manuscript. 

From manuals of rhetoric via journalism and autobiography to fiction, the sources have been selected, introduced and annotated with care; some of them are published here for the first time (and most of them for the first time since the Victorian era). 

Both volumes combined also show how the vibrant scene of lecturing became increasingly more diversified, popularised, and socially inclusive. - Publisher's Description

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Women, Fertility, and Maternal Art in Renaissance Florence
Gislon Dopfel, Costanza (2025)

"Women, Fertility, and Maternal Art in Renaissance Florence" examines maternity-centered art to reveal women’s crucial function in saving Florence from a depopulation catastrophe. 

Nativity and Madonna and Child images that graced many households and chapels in Florentine society formed a program of visual indoctrination, championing a 'birth epic' that glorified the social duty of reproduction but dismissed its high risk. As images emphasizing women’s reproductive value multiplied throughout the century, the accounts of their deaths in childbirth and the records of their elaborate public funerals present these mothers as new examples of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. 

This book re-centers the history of the Renaissance around women and their bodies – both as subjects of artistic representation and as critical but ignored contributors to Florentine society. It proposes a more inclusive vision of an era that is still too often addressed exclusively via the history of its male artists, bankers and merchants. - Publisher's Description

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Media, Women, and the Transformation of Sport: From Title IX to NIL
Creedon, Pamela; Wackwitz, Laura (2025)

This edited collection provides a singular look at contemporary mediated coverage of women athletes and sports from Title IX to the present day. 

Through personal perspectives, contributors provide a valuable overview of common patterns in women’s sports media coverage, exploring issues of diversity, ethnicity, and inclusion. Chapters examine Title IX discourse, NIL brand creation, and marketing among female college athletes through platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter (X), the recent surge in what appears to be empowering gender discourse and contemporary public debates, legislative attacks on the participation of trans and nonbinary athletes, differential treatment of women’s athletic injuries as compared to men’s injuries, and the role of women working in sports media both on the field and on the sidelines. The book includes a review of changes in the media coverage of women in sport, offering an overall assessment of the status of women athletes in the half-century after Title IX. It concludes with an examination of the power of coaching and the imperative to protect athletes from abuses of that power. - Publisher's Description

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Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers
Smokler, Kevin (2025)

In the twenty-first century alone, women filmmakers have succeeded at directing every size, genre, and style of motion picture. Their movies have won Oscars ("Free Solo"), made actors into household names (Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone"), received induction into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry ("Real Women Have Curves"), and become worldwide box office phenomena ("Captain Marvel," "Deep Impact"). Nevertheless in 2023, the year of "Barbie," women directed only 12% of the top 250 movies in America. demonstrating how far moviemaking remains from gender parity. When women filmmakers succeed, they do so against these odds. 

"Break the Frame" is a collection of 24 career-spanning interviews with America's celebrated, reigning, and rising women filmmakers. Each conversation considers the director's complete filmography as a map of their evolving artistry and evidence of their unassailable contributions to a historically misogynist industry. Author Kevin Smokler listens as women filmmakers speak to the struggle and triumphs of developing and directing movies that are shaping how the film business sees women in the director's chair, and how their audiences see themselves and each other. This book is both an opportunity and invitation to devote one's time, admiration and enthusiasm to movies directed by women. - Publisher's Description

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Abraham Lincoln and Women in Film: One Hundred Years of Hollywood Mythmaking
Wetta, Frank; Novelli, Martin (2024)

Frank J. Wetta and Martin A. Novelli’s "Abraham Lincoln and Women in Film" investigates how depictions of women in Hollywood motion pictures helped forge the myth of Lincoln. Exploring female characters’ backstories, the political and cultural climate in which the films appeared, and the contest between the moviemakers’ imaginations and the varieties of historical truth, Wetta and Novelli place the women in Lincoln’s life at the center of the study, including his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln; his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln; his lost loves, Ann Rutledge and Mary Owens; and his wife and widow, Mary Todd Lincoln. Later, while inspecting Lincoln’s legacy, they focus on the 1930s child actor Shirley Temple and the 1950s movie star Marilyn Monroe, who had a well-publicized fascination with the sixteenth president. 

Wetta and Novelli’s work is the first to deal extensively with the women in Lincoln’s life, both those who interacted with him personally and those appearing on screen. It is also among the first works to examine how scholarly and popular biography influenced depictions of Lincoln, especially in film. - Publisher's Description

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Women and Architectural History: The Monstrous Regiment Then and Now
Arnold, Dana (2025)

In this book, prominent architectural historians, who happen to be women, reflect on their practice and the intervention this has made in the discipline. Of particular concern are the ways in which feminine subjectivities have been embodied in the discourses of architectural history. 

Each of the chapters examines the author’s own position and the disruptive presence of women as both subject and object in the historiography of a specific field of enquiry. The aim is not to replace male lives with female lives, or to write women into the masculinist narratives of architectural history. Instead, this book aims to broaden the discourses of architectural history to explore how the potentially ‘unnatural rule’ of women subverts canonical norms through the empowerment of otherness rather than a process of perceived emasculation. 

The essays examine the historiographic and socio/cultural implications of the role of women in the narratives and writing of architectural history with particular reference to Western traditions of scholarship on the period 1600–1950. Rather than subscribing to a single position, individual voices critically engage with past and present canonical histories disclosing assumptions, biases, and absences in the architectural historiography of the West. This book is a crucial reflection upon historiographical practice, exploring potential openings that may contribute further transformation of the theory and methods of architectural history. - Publisher's Description

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The Legacy of Elise Hall: Contemporary Perspectives on Gender and the Saxophone
Honnold, Adrianne; Bertels, Kurt (2024)

The saxophone is a globally popular instrument, often closely associated with renowned male players such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, or more recently, Kenny G. Less well known, however, is the historical presence of female saxophonists in the nineteenth century, shortly after the instrument's invention. Elise Hall (1853–1924), a prominent wealthy socialite in Boston at the turn of the twentieth century, defied social norms by mastering the saxophone, an unconventional instrument for a woman of her time. Despite her career's profound impact, Elise Hall remains relatively obscure in broader music communities. Her untiring work as an impresario, patron, and performer made a significant mark on the history of the instrument. Yet these contributions have been historically undervalued, largely due to gender bias. 

This collection of essays, written by mainly female saxophonists/scholars, re-evaluates Elise Hall's legacy beyond a discrete history, updating the narrative by highlighting the ways in which her identity and the saxophone itself have influenced historical accounts. By analyzing the sociocultural factors surrounding this innovative musician through a contemporary lens, the contributors collectively affirm her place as one of the pioneers in the history of the saxophone and challenge historical oversights shaped by gender bias. - Publisher's Description

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Conversations with Women in Musical Theatre Leadership
Morgan, Amanda Wansa (2024)

Most writers, composers, librettists, and music directors who make their careers in musical theatre do so without specific training or clear pathways to progress through the industry. "Conversations with Women in Musical Theatre Leadership" addresses that absence by drawing on the experiences of these women to show the many and varied routes to successful careers on, off, and beyond Broadway. 

"Conversations with Women in Musical Theatre Leadership" features 15 interviews with Broadway-level musical theatre music directors, directors, writers, composers, lyricists, stage managers, orchestrators, music arrangers, and other women in positions of leadership. Built around extensive interviews with women at the top of their careers in the creative and leadership spheres of musical theatre, these first-hand accounts offer insight into the jobs themselves, the skills that they require, and how those skills can be developed. - Publisher's Description

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Women in the Factory, 1880-1930: Class and Gender
Moring, Beatrice (2024)

Based on extensive original archival research both in Britain and in many European countries, this book is a comparative study of the large numbers of women who were engaged in industrial work in the western world in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, that is at a time when the industrial revolution was established and the problems caused by industrial work had become part of political debate and social discourse worldwide. It analyses the scope of female factory work, what the conditions were in such work, and what the motivations were for women to enter such employment. It reveals the composition of the female workforce as to age and marital status. 

In addition, it considers the first generation of female industrial inspectors, outlining the background of these inspectors, assessing to what extent were they were capable of taking on the role of protectors of women in manual work, and discussing the actions and attitudes of the female inspectors as recorded in inspection reports, biographies and contemporary discourse. Overall, the book presents a rich, detailed, comparative picture of women's factory work, contributing much to the understanding of the history of gender and class. - Publisher's Description

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The Women of Microsoft: Empowering Stories from the Minds That Coded the World
Rodriguez, Miri; Duiwe, Izabela (2025)

In "The Women of Microsoft: Empowering Stories from the Minds that Coded the World," a team of renowned digital storytellers recounts many of the fascinating journeys taken by the women who have shaped, guided, and led Microsoft over the last five decades. The book pays homage to the highs and lows, joys and sorrows, and opportunities and challenges of the women who have set out to make a difference in tech. 

The authors share personal stories and insights that offer a window into real-world tech leadership and that help demonstrate how to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of female tech success. They encourage readers to craft their own compelling narratives, unbound by the limitations that may have prevented women from previous generations from achieving their full potential. - Publisher's Description

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Women Engineering Legends 1952-1976: Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award Recipients
Craig, Cecilia (2025)

This book offers a concise history of 25 legendary women who made significant contributions to engineering and were recognized for their work by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) between 1952 and 1976. In addition, the book provides a backdrop of the cultural and technical advances that led up to the time they were recognized. 

The book includes inspiring stories of their engineering career achievements and the legacies of how these women made a difference in the world. Set against a backdrop of important cultural and technology milestones, each chapter stands on its own as a complete story of a specific legendary engineer. Viewed as a group, these 25 technological luminaries provide an important perspective about women in the engineering and computer science fields. Each section represents a five-year increment, beginning with a setting-the-stage discussion, followed by the stories of the five engineers who were recognized during those years, which can also be read independently. - Publisher's Description

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Women in Soft Computing
Garg, Vanita; Deep, Kusum; Balas, Valentina Emilia (2024)

This book gives a detailed information of various soft computing techniques across various fields for solving relevant, real-life problems. The authors, all female leaders in the field, show how soft computing uses approximate calculations to provide imprecise yet usable solutions to complex computational problems. This enables solutions for problems that may be either unsolvable or too time-consuming to solve with current hardware. The authors show how these techniques, when applied, have proven to be efficient and robust in many difficult situations. 

As an important part of the "Women in Science and Engineering" book series, the work highlights the contribution of women leaders in soft computing, inspiring women and men, girls and boys to enter and apply themselves to secure the future in the field. - Publisher's Description

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Narratives on Defining Moments for Women Leaders in Higher Education
Schnackenberg, Heidi (2025)

In the intricate tapestry of life there exist moments in our lives that define us as individuals and as part of our communities. To gain insights into what makes a great leader, we can learn from those who have built the road before us. A profound exploration of pivotal experiences that shape the personal and professional trajectories of women in academia will help pave the way for the leaders of the future. 

Navigating the intersection of both personal and professional spheres, the book, "Narratives on Defining Moments for Women Leaders in Higher Education," delves into the profound impact of high-impact moments in the lives of women in leadership roles. Drawing on personal anecdotes and evidence-based practices, readers gain insight into the strategies, solutions, and resilience cultivated by women leaders in colleges and universities. From tales of perseverance and empowerment to reflections on reframing and reinvention, each narrative offers a unique perspective on the journey of women in academia. - Publisher's Description

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Muslim Women in Science, Past and Present
Akhmetova, Elmira (2025)

This Element examines issues related to Muslim women's engagement in science and scholarship both past and present. The first two parts discuss the contributions made by Muslim women to scholarly, scientific, and technological advancements. The third part discusses the factors that have contributed to a decline in Muslim women's scholarly involvement in Islamic civilisation, the veracity of historical accounts, and the constraints in original knowledge production in contemporary Muslim societies. 

It finds that there are no religious restrictions rooted in the Qur'an that forbid women from pursuing a profession in science, whether as learners or practitioners. Yet some economic and political circumstances, cultural influences, and outdated interpretations of Islam produce discrimination against women in Muslim societies, and lead to their underrepresentation in scientific research and academia. - Publisher's Description

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Firebrands: The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition
Diliberto, Gioia (2024)

In the popular imagination, the story of Prohibition in America is a story of men and male violence, one full of federal agents fighting gangsters over the sale of moonshine. 

In contrast, "Firebrands" is the story of four Jazz Age dynamos—all women –who were forces behind the passage, the enforcement, the defiance, and, ultimately, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. 

They battled each other directly, and they learned to marshal clout with cowed and hypocritical legislators, almost all of them men. Their clash over Prohibition stands as the first significant exercise of women’s political power since women gained the right to vote, and their influence on the American political scene wouldn’t be equaled for decades. - Publisher's Description

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Life in Language: Mission Feminists and the Emergence of a New Protestant Subject
Hovland, Ingie (2025)

The language of the Bible is a powerful lens through which many Protestants understand themselves and their world, and its prohibitions on women’s speech pose complicated challenges to women. Nevertheless, women frequently serve as vocal leaders in Protestant organizations, including the early twentieth-century Norwegian Mission Society. 

In "Life in Language," Ingie Hovland offers a unique biography of Henny Dons, a leader of the society’s so-called mission feminists, that grapples with ways Protestant women crafted innovative, expansive self-understandings through Christian language. More than their male peers, the mission feminists turned to religious speech to express material, as well as heavenly, desires for paid work, voting rights, and more, and Hovland argues that these experiments in women speaking, reading, writing, and listening paved the way for a new way of being in the world. - Publisher's Description

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Streaming Movies

Dolores
Roco Films (2017)

Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized.

"Dolores" tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century - and she continues the fight to this day, at 87. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one's life to social change.

Directed by Peter Bratt. Starring Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Robert Francis 'Bobby' Kennedy, Sr., Gloria Steinem. Produced by Alpita Patel, Peter Bratt. (1 hour 37 minutes)

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Girl Rising
Roco Films (2018)

"Girl Rising" journeys around the globe to witness the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world. Viewers get to know nine unforgettable girls living in the developing world: ordinary girls who confront tremendous challenges and overcome nearly impossible odds to pursue their dreams.

Prize - winning authors put the girls' remarkable stories into words, and renowned actors (including Meryl Streep and Salma Hayek) give them voice.

Directed by Richard E. Robbins. Starring Cate Blanchett, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Selena Gomez. Narrated by Liam Neeson. Produced by Richard E. Robbins, Martha Adams, Tom Yellin. (1 hour 44 minutes)

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Sisters with Transistors
Anna Lena Films (2020)

"Sisters with Transistors" is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today.

The film maps a new history of electronic music through the visionary women whose radical experimentations with machines redefined the boundaries of music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani, and Laurie Spiegel.

Directed by Lisa Rovner. Written by Sophia Al-Maria, Lisa Rovner. Starring Kim Gordon, Jean-Michel Jarre, Wendy Carlos. (1 hour 44 minutes)

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What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
Juno Films (2018)

Pauline Kael, the New Yorker film critic for 25 years until the early 1990s, was a lightning rod of American culture. She waged a battle to be recognized and her opinions made her readers hate or love her. Her distinctive voice pioneered the art form, and was largely a result of stubborn determination, huge confidence, and a deep love of the arts.

The movie also shows 20th-century movies through Pauline's eye, and shows Pauline's own life through moments of other movies. The filmmakers had complete access to the subject -- through Gina James, Pauline's only child and the executor of her estate; friends and colleagues; and Pauline's personal archives. With over 30 new interviews, including David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, Camille Paglia, Molly Haskell, Alec Baldwin Greil Marcus, Paul Schrader, John Guare and Joe Morgenstern. Sarah Jessica Parker voices Pauline through her writing and letters.

Directed by Rob Garver. Produced by Glen Zipper. Starring Pauline Kael, John Guare, Lili Anolik. (1 hour 33 minutes)

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The Beaches of Agnes
Cinema Guild (2008)

At nearly 80, Agnès Varda explores her memory - growing up in Belgium, living in Sète, Paris, and Noirmoutier, discovering photography, making a film, being part of the New Wave, raising children with Jacques Demy, losing him, and growing old. She explores her memory using photographs, film clips, home movies, contemporary interviews, and set pieces she designs to capture a feeling, a time, or a frame.

Shining through each scene are her impish charm, inventiveness, and natural empathy. How do people grow old, how does loss stay with them, can they remain creative, and what do they remember? Memory, she says, is like a swarm of confused flies.

Directed by Agnès Varda. Written by Agnès Varda, Didier Rouget. Starring Agnès Varda, André Lubrano, Blaise Fournier. (1 hour 50 minutes)

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Daughters of the Dust
Cohen Film Collection (1991)

At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina – former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions – struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots. 

The first wide release by a Black female filmmaker, "Daughters of the Dust" was met with wild critical acclaim and rapturous audience response when it initially opened in 1991. Casting a long legacy, "Daughters of the Dust" still resonates today, most recently as a major in influence on Beyonce’s video album "Lemonade."

Directed by Julie Dash. Written by Julie Dash. Starring Cora Lee Day, Alva Rogers, Barbara O. (1 hour 52 minutes)

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