Clinton Hillary Rodham - The Book of Gutsy Women

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For everyone looking for inspiration to live their own gutsy life

When CNN published the eye-catching headline Rare blue pigment found in medieval womans teeth rewrites history, we both read the article, then immediately sent it to each other. It explained that researchers examining burial remains at a womens monastery in Germany had come across the skeleton of a woman who had died as early as 997 AD. As they looked at the skeleton, they noticed something strange: There were flecks of blue in her teeth. Those blue flecks turned out to be a rare, expensive pigment made from crushed lapis lazuli stones, once as expensive as gold. Only the most talented artists were permitted to use it. So howin a time when artists were presumed to be mendid it find its way into this womans teeth? According to the scientists, she was most likely a painter, dipping her brush in her mouth after each stroke.

That the discovery was made in a rural German monastery is no surprise; books were being produced during this time in monasteries across the country, the article explains. But women were not known to be the illustrators of such prized creations. In fact, the writers and illustrators often didnt sign their work, as a gesture of humilityand if women were those writers and artists, the practice would effectively erase them from history. Reading the story brought to mind Virginia Woolfs famous work A Room of Ones Own: I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.

Power has largely been associated withand defined bymen since the beginning of time. Yet women have painted, written, created, discovered, invented, and led for just as long. Its simply that their work is more likely to go unrecognizedsometimes for centuries. We believe it is past time for that to change.

Take the women on the cover of this book, civilian firefighters pictured during a training exercise at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard circa 1941. The photo was published countless times before a librarian and writer named Dorothea Buckingham came across it on a website and looked it up in the Hawaii War Records Depository. Seventy years after the photograph was taken, the public learned who the women were: Elizabeth Moku, Alice Cho, Katherine Lowe, and Hilda Van Gieson. We were rugged, Katherine, then ninety-six years old, remembered fondly. We carried heavy stuff, oil drums, bags, anything that needed to be stored.

By now its a familiar idea, beautifully echoed by Sally Ride: You cant be what you cant see. But many of the women in this book set out to become exactly what they couldnt see. They had no route to follow, no guarantee theyd ever reach their destinationwhether that destination was freedom, the right to vote, the chance to be a doctor, or the opportunity to compete in sports or in anything else. But every time someone has the courage to try, she shows the way. And that helps little girls and boys alike to know that girls dreams are equally as valuable, valid, and important as those of their brothers, their friends, and most of the faces they see in their history books. Each of us has seenfirst in her own life, then through the eyes of her daughterjust how powerful representation can be.

Thats what drove then ten-year-old Marley Dias to start the campaign #1000blackgirlbooks after she noticed that there were no characters in the books she read who looked like her. Its what inspired Chelsea to write She Persisted and She Persisted Around the World, and to include inspiring women in Its Your World and Start Now!, her books for young activists. Its why movies like Hidden Figures, about three black women working in the space program, and On the Basis of Sex, about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are so important. Its why its so thrilling to cheer for female athletes around the world, from ice hockey players in India to synchronized swimmers in Jamaica to the four-time World Cup champion womens soccer team in the United States. Its why the leadership shown by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after the mosque massacre in New Zealand and the significant speech against misogyny by former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard are so powerful. Its why we love hearing from girlsand boysabout who their favorite female heroes are and sharing our own favorites. And its why we loved writing this book.

Throughout history and around the globe, women have overcome some of the toughest and cruelest resistance imaginable, from physical violence and intimidation to a total lack of legal rights or recourse, in order to redefine what is considered a womans place. That is the great achievement of the women featured in this book. And thanks to their talents and guts, we have all made progress.

So how did they do it? The answers are as unique as the women themselves. The writers Rachel Carson and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie named something no one had dared talk about before. Civil rights activist Dorothy Height, LGBTQ trailblazer Edie Windsor, and swimmer Diana Nyad kept pushing forward, no matter what stood in their way. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins and tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams had laser focus despite a storm of sexism made even more challenging because each was a first in her own way. Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai stared fear in the face and persevered. Pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale and organizer Ai-jen Poo relied on seemingly endless reserves of compassion. Wangari Maathai, who sparked a movement to plant trees, understood the power of role modeling. Early womens rights advocate Sojourner Truth and Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, saw how one cause was linked to another. Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg remained fiercely true to herself even when she was ignored or belittled. Every single one of their lives was or is optimisticthey had faith that their actions could make a difference.

Before we had even finished writing, we were seized with regret that we couldnt include every woman who has inspired us with her tenacity and commitment to improving our world, whether she defined that as her own family or our global community. We initially included a courageous DREAMer fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, but she told us that doing so would likely expose her family to retribution. And we could have written an entire book about our friends who have proven, through their own bravery and brilliance, that one gutsy woman can spark a chain reaction within her community.

The list went on and on. What about Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who shattered nearly every athletic barrier in the early 1900s and, when asked whether there was anything she didnt play, answered, Yeah, dolls? What about artists like Mary Cassatt, Georgia OKeeffe, Frida Kahlo, Carrie Mae Weems, and the rest of the page-long list we came up with? What about Laverne Cox, whose courage has changed hearts, minds, and lawsnot to mention television? What about Zainab Bangura, the first woman to run for president of Sierra Leone and someone who has dedicated her life to speaking out against the atrocity of rape used as a tactic of war? What about fearless journalists like April Ryan, who are standing up for freedom of the press despite personal attacks from the president of the United States? What about the three mighty women on the United States Supreme Court, or the 127 in Congress? What about Joy Harjo, who became the first Native American U.S. poet laureate as we handed in our final manuscript? What about the sixsix!women running for president of the United States in mid-2019? We are living through a time of upheaval and tumult around the globe, but were also living in an era of gutsy women from all walks of life.