A collection of biographical sketches providing an introduction to both the contrasts and continuities of American women's experience through nearly four centuries. Major subjects and themes emerge, including women's rights, suffrage, education, health, women's liberation, and marriage.

The authors featured in this extraordinary book can hardly be called ordinary -- neither can their advice. New York Times best-selling author Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott, acclaimed songwriter Jana Stanfield, and 17 of America's top motivational speakers have created a book by women for women. Book jacket.

These are the stories of five ordinary women-Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare-who trusted in their extraordinary God as he led them to do great things for his kingdom. Noël Piper holds up their lives and deeds as examples of what it means to be truly faithful. Learning about these women will challenge readers to make a difference for Christ in their families, in the church, and throughout the world.

A rare nineteenth-century journal of an everyday woman richly infused with the minutiae of antebellum daily life and work. In 1820, Phebe Orvis began a journal that she faithfully kept for a decade. Richly detailed, her diary captures not only the everyday life of an ordinary woman in early nineteenth-century Vermont and New York, but also the unusual happenings of her family, neighborhood, and beyond. The journal entries trace Orvis’s transition from single life to marriage and motherhood, including her time at the Middlebury Female Seminary and her observations about the changing social and economic environment of the period. A Quaker, Orvis also recorded the details of the waxing passion of the Second Great Awakening in the people around her, as well as the conflict the fervor caused within her own family. In the first section of the book, Susan M. Ouellette includes a series of essays that illuminate Orvis’s diary entries and broaden the social landscape she inhabited. These essays focus on Orvis and, more importantly, the experience of ordinary people as they navigated the new nation, the new century, and the emerging American society and culture. The second section is a transcript of the original journal. This combination of analytical essays and primary source material offers readers a unique perspective of domestic life in northern New England as well as upstate New York in the early nineteenth century. “Ouellette’s chronicle offers the reader a beautifully crafted and richly textured account of ten years in the life of a young woman as she transitions from unmarried to married life on the New York and Vermont frontier. In the hands of Ouellette, the diary of Phebe Orvis is interpreted with skill and grace, and her life experiences are firmly grounded in the vibrant world of post-revolutionary America. This engaging work will be liked by those readers seeking a deeper understanding of the lives of women and family in the Early Republic as well as those interested in the history of New York, Vermont, and the American frontier.” — Jacqueline Barbara Carr, author of After the Siege: A Social History of Boston, 1775–1800 “Unraveling intricate threads from a young woman’s nineteenth-century diary, Ouellette deftly weaves them into a picture of life in northern Vermont and New York during the Early Republic. Themes of life, death, courting, marriage, travels, fears, and yearnings jump off the pages as Ouellette works her magic not only bringing Phebe Orvis to life but also using the diary and other primary sources to place Phebe’s life within the larger context of her times, gender, and social class. A wonderful read.” — Elise A. Guyette, author of Discovering Black Vermont: African American Farmers in Hinesburgh, 1790–1890

The Order of British Columbia was established in 1989 to recognize and honour ordinary citizens who have made a difference in the lives of others. Goody Niosi offers the stories of 17 of these recipients, from well-known people like Rick Hansen and Robert Bateman to lesser-known heroes, including Dr. Michael O'Shaughnessy, who has dedicated his life to AIDS research; Joan Acosta, who created the revolutionary newspaper The Westcoast Reader and helped adults acquire literacy and language skills; and Ric Careless, who has worked hard to ensure that precious wilderness areas are protected for future generations. Also showcased are Geraldine Braak, Dr. Leonel Perra, Dr. A. Hayward Rogers, Dr. Roger Tonkin, Grace Nielson, Hilda Gregory, Mel Cooper, Richard Hunt, Ross Purse, Takao Tanabe, Tim Frick and Merve Wilkinson. The foreword is written by former Supreme Court Justice Allan McEachern.

As far back as the first century BCE, Chinese dynastic historians - all men - began recording the achievements of Chinese women and creating a structure of understanding that would be used to limit and control them. To men, these women became role models for their daughters and wives; to the few literate women readers, they became paradigms for their own behavior. Thus, although these biographies are descriptive by nature, they actually became prescriptive. Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives is an enlightening source for studying Chinese women of the Imperial era as well as for understanding Chinese womanhood in general. By contextualizing these biographies, the author shows us these women not just as the complaisant, calm-eyed, delicate figures that adorn Confucian texts, but also as the products of the Confucian tradition's appropriation of women.