Celebrating Women’s History Month

From The New Yorker’s archive: a selection of pieces about women central to the story of this nation. View in browser | Update your preferences Celebrating Women’s History Month In 2017, Kathryn Schulz published an essay about Pauli Murray, a transformative and underappreciated figure who had played a key role in making the case for racial equality and women’s rights. Thurgood Marshall referred to one of Murray’s books as “the bible” of Brown v. Board of Education, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg credited Murray with helping shape her work on gender discrimination. “Four decades before another legal scholar, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, coined the term ‘intersectionality,’ Murray insisted on the indivisibility of her identity and experience as an African-American, a worker, and a woman,” Schulz writes. This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces about women central to the story of this nation. In “The Imperfect, Unfinished Work of Women’s Suffrage,” Casey Cep explores the history of the fight for voting rights. In “Lift and Separate,” Ariel Levy considers why some elements of feminism remain so divisive today. In “Death of a Revolutionary,” Susan Faludi examines the tragic life of the writer and activist Shulamith Firestone, a leading figure in the second-wave feminist movement. Finally, in “Books as Bombs,” Louis Menand reviews the remarkable and lasting influence of Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique.” Taken together, these pieces reveal the extraordinary accomplishments of women who blazed new trails and brought America into the future. —David Remnick From The New Yorker’s Archive Books The Many Lives of Pauli Murray She was an architect of the civil-rights struggle—and the women’s movement. Why haven’t you heard of her? By Kathryn Schulz | April 17, 2017 Books The Imperfect, Unfinished Work of Women’s Suffrage A century after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, it’s worth remembering why suffragists had to fight so hard, and who was fighting against them. By Casey Cep | July 8 & 15, 2019 American Chronicles Death of a Revolutionary Shulamith Firestone helped to create a new society. But she couldn’t live in it. By Susan Faludi | April 15, 2013 Newsletters Sign Up for The New Yorker’s Books & Fiction Newsletter Book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature, twice a week. Books Lift and Separate Why is feminism still so divisive? By Ariel Levy | November 16, 2009 Books Books as Bombs Why the women’s movement needed “The Feminine Mystique.” By Louis Menand | January 24, 2011 You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up. Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our Privacy Policy Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.