Deborah G. Felder - Trailblazing Women!: Amazing Americans Who Made History

Deborah G. Felder is a graduate of Bard College, where she studied drama and literature. She worked as an editor at Scholastic, Inc., and has been a freelance writer and editor for over thirty years. The author of more than twenty publications, including fiction and nonfiction books and articles for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers, she has published such titles as The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time: A Ranking Past and Present; A Century of Women: The Most Influential Events in Twentieth-Century Womens History; and A Bookshelf of Our Own: Works That Changed Womens Lives. She has also written book reviews for the New York Times Book Review, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. She resides with her husband, Daniel Burt, in South Chatham, Massachusetts.

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F amed womens rights activist and suffragist Susan B. Anthony once advised women to Forget what the world will say; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own consciences for approval. Here are the inspiring stories of extraordinary American women from colonial times to the present whose impressive achievements illustrate Susan B. Anthonys wise words.

Many of the women in this book are so famous its no surprise to find them here; many others youll discover for the first time. Their lives and accomplishments are unique and diverse, but they all share one thing in common: they challenged American societys traditional, frequently male-dominated notions of gender roles: what women could and should achieve and how they should behave once they succeeded in their chosen fields. Many faced such obstacles as poverty, racism, sexism, and illness while growing up and in their struggle to succeed, but they never wavered in their determination to reach their goals. They transformed their lives, and in turn they influenced the lives of countless others and had a major impact on the history of our nation.

Women have always fought for change, and sometimes the cost of that fight was high. Elizabeth Cady Stantons insistence that the campaign for womens rights needed to include demands for a womans right to vote was met with jeers and anger. Labor leader Mary Harris Jones was jailed for protesting business owners treatment of their workers; birth control activist Margaret Sanger suffered the same fate when she opened an illegal birth control clinic in 1916. Social worker Jane Addams, once the most admired woman in America, was despised and berated for advocating the cause of peace during World War I; southern civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer was the target of violence during the movement to end segregation in America.

The accomplishments of American women in every field of endeavor have been remarkable. Writers such as Toni Morrison and Amy Tan changed the way we look at women and the world. Activists Dolores Huerta and Wilma Mankiller worked to better conditions for Latinx and Native Americans in society and in the workplace. Education for African American girls became a reality, thanks to the efforts of educator Mary McLeod Bethune. Amelia Earhart, Jacqueline Cochran, and Sally Ride influenced young women to seek careers in aviation and space flight. The work of scientists Gertrude Elion, Rachel Carson, Grace Hopper, and Katherine Johnson transformed our understanding of disease, the environment, computers, and physics. Billie Jean King, Althea Gibson, and Wilma Rudolph defied racism and sexism to become world-class athletes.

These are just some of the many amazing women whose stories are featured in this book. They reflect the words of celebrated Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who once said: Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time. The women in this book did just that: They took one step, then another. and another, continuing to persist until their outstanding achievements changed our history and blazed a path for other women to follow.