An exploration of gender, the Arab Spring, and women’s experiences of revolution, including firsthand accounts. In Women of the Midan, Sherine Hafez demonstrates how women were a central part of revolutionary process of the Arab Spring. Women not only protested in the streets of Cairo, they demanded democracy, social justice, and renegotiation of a variety of sociocultural structures. Women’s resistance to state control, Islamism, neoliberal market changes, the military establishment, and patriarchal systems forged new paths of dissent and transformation. Through firsthand accounts of women who participated in the revolution, Hafez illustrates how the gendered body signifies collective action and the revolutionary narrative. Using the concept of rememory, Hafez shows how the body is inseparably linked to the trauma of the revolutionary struggle. While delving into the complex weave of public space, government control, masculinity, and religious and cultural norms, Hafez sheds light on women’s relationship to the state in the Arab world today and how the state, in turn, shapes individuals and marks gendered bodies.

"Constance Markievicz had some advice for women activists: 'Leave your jewels in the bank, and buy a revolver.' Most of the women who became involved in the fight for Ireland's freedom did not have jewels to swap for guns, but the change in their circumstances and lives would be just as radical. Setting aside their roles as dutiful daughters, wives, and mothers, they became dispatch carriers, gunrunners, spies. Guns in hand, they fought alongside their male comrades in arms, displaying a courage and resolution that astonished and sometimes offended public opinion of the time." "What they were doing was considered 'unladylike and disreputable' - a notion that explains why their stories became hidden histories; in many cases families were unaware that their great-aunts and grannies had prison records." "But the evidence is there in their prison diaries and autograph books, in the graffiti that remain on the walls of Kilmainham Gaol, and in the archive lists of women prisoners of 1916, the War of Independence, and the Civil War. From this wealth of material and interviews with survivors, Sinead McCoole has produced a portrait of the girls and women whose indomitable spirit overcame hunger strikes, harsh prison conditions, and the tragedy of huge personal loss."--BOOK JACKET.

“Lively and delightful...zooms in on the faces in the crowd to help us understand both the depth and the diversity of the women’s suffrage movement. Some women went to jail. Others climbed mountains. Visual artists, dancers, and journalists all played a part...Far from perfect, they used their own abilities, defects, and opportunities to build a movement that still resonates today.” —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History “An intimate account of the unheralded activism that won women the right to vote, and an opportunity to celebrate a truly diverse cohort of first-wave feminist changemakers.” —Ms. “Demonstrates the steady advance of women’s suffrage while also complicating the standard portrait of it.” —New Yorker The story of how American women won the right to vote is usually told through the lives of a few iconic leaders. But movements for social change are rarely so tidy or top-heavy. Why They Marched profiles nineteen women—some famous, many unknown—who worked tirelessly out of the spotlight protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship. Ware shows how women who never thought they would participate in politics took actions that were risky, sometimes quirky, and often joyous to fight for a cause that mobilized three generations of activists. The dramatic experiences of these pioneering feminists—including an African American journalist, a mountain-climbing physician, a southern novelist, a polygamous Mormon wife, and two sisters on opposite sides of the suffrage divide—resonate powerfully today, as a new generation of women demands to be heard.

Watching women take home gold medals and sparkling trophies from sporting competitions was not always as commonplace as it is in today's society. Like in many aspects of our culture, women throughout history struggled against prejudice and dealt with condescending male counterparts before reaching their place in the spotlight of athletics. Before Venus Williams volleyed her way to her fourth Grand Slam, Lucy Diggs Slowe proved African-American women could win titles alongside men. Before Danica Patrick raced past the finish line in the Indy Japan 300, Odette Siko helped to pave the racetrack for women in auto-racing. And Madge Syers was breaking rules and changing the course of figure skating history long before Michelle Kwan spiraled onto the ice. Their names may have been forgotten in history, outshined by men like Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, and Muhammed Ali, but the legacies of women in sports live on today through their predecessors. The athletic women of history have stories filled with dramatic struggles, game-changing firsts, and historic victories. They deserve to be told.

The revolutionary movements that emerged frequently in Latin America over the past century promoted goals that included overturning dictatorships, confronting economic inequalities, and creating what Cuban revolutionary hero Che Guevara called the &"new man.&" But, in fact, many of the &"new men&" who participated in these movements were not men. Thousands of them were women. This book aims to show why a full understanding of revolutions needs to take account of gender. Karen Kampwirth writes here about the women who joined the revolutionary movements in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, about how they became guerrillas, and how that experience changed their lives. In the last chapter she compares what happened in these countries with Cuba in the 1950s, where few women participated in the guerrilla struggle. Drawing on more than two hundred interviews, Kampwirth examines the political, structural, ideological, and personal factors that allowed many women to escape from the constraints of their traditional roles and led some to participate in guerrilla activities. Her emphasis on the experiences of revolutionaries adds a new dimension to the study of revolution, which has focused mainly on explaining how states are overthrown.

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, completely upending the energy grid of the small island. The nearly year-long power outage that followed vividly shows how the new climate reality intersects with race and access to energy. The island is home to brown and black US citizens who lack the political power of those living in the continental US. As the world continues to warm and storms like Maria become more commonplace, it is critical that we rethink our current energy system to enable reliable, locally produced, and locally controlled energy without replicating the current structures of power and control. In Revolutionary Power, Shalanda Baker arms those made most vulnerable by our current energy system with the tools they need to remake the system in the service of their humanity. She argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must engage in the creation of the new energy system in order to upend the unequal power dynamics of the current system. Revolutionary Power is a playbook for the energy transformation complete with a step-by-step analysis of the key energy policy areas that are ripe for intervention. Baker tells the stories of those who have been left behind in our current system and those who are working to be architects of a more just system. She draws from her experience as an energy-justice advocate, a lawyer, and a queer woman of color to inspire activists working to build our new energy system. Climate change will force us to rethink the way we generate and distribute energy and regulate the system. But how much are we willing to change the system? This unique moment in history provides an unprecedented opening for a deeper transformation of the energy system, and thus, an opportunity to transform society. Revolutionary Power shows us how.