Giant Steps Read online

  Marlow, Joyce, ed. Votes for Women: The Virago Book of Suffragettes. London: Virago Press, 2001. Collection of documents, speeches, journals, and extracts from books and letters relating to the women’s movement from 1870 to 1928 in England.

  Sheen, Barbara. Janet Guthrie: Indy Car Racing Pioneer. Farmington Hills, MI: KidHaven Press, 2010. Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 race.

  Sherr, Lynn. Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015. Biography of America’s first woman astronaut and first woman in space.

  Smith, Norma. Jeanette Rankin: America’s Conscience. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2002. Rankin was the first woman member of the U.S. Congress.

  Smith–Daugherty, Rhonda. Jacqueline Cochran: Biography of a Pioneer Aviator. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012. Biography of Jacqueline Cochran, first female aviator to win the Bendix Air Race, to fly a bomber, to break the speed of sound, and to participate in astronaut training.

  Theoharis, Jeanne. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Boston: Beacon Press, 2013. Rosa Parks is often portrayed as a weary woman who was arrested for sitting in the wrong section of a bus in a segregated society. Actually, she had been a civil-rights activist before her act of protest and she continued to fight for equal rights for African Americans the rest of her life.

  Wilson, Dorothy Clarke. Lone Woman: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the First Woman Doctor. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1970. Blackwell established women’s place in medicine in the United States and England during the nineteenth century.

  Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. Young Readers Ed. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2013. Malala Yousafzai was a teenage girl from Pakistan in 2012 when she was shot because she wanted to get an education, although girls were banned from schools at the time. After her recovery in Great Britain, she wrote this book with a British journalist and was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. She continues to speak out on behalf of education for girls worldwide.

  Glossary

  anesthetic: A substance that produces loss of sensation with or without loss of consciousness.

  archaeologist: A person who studies fossils and material remains of past human life and activity.

  armistice: A temporary suspension of hostilities between opponents.

  artillery: Weapons that discharge missiles, such as bows and guns.

  barnstormer: A pilot who tours through rural districts to take passengers for plane rides and/or to perform aerial stunts. Barnstorming was especially popular after World War I.

  beau: Boyfriend.

  blacksmith: A person who shapes metal objects using fire and/or a hammer in order to make items such as horseshoes and tools.

  brocade: A rich silk fabric with a raised pattern in gold or silver.

  brooding hen: A chicken who is sitting on her eggs.

  carte de visite: A small photograph mounted on a card.

  cheshire cat: A grinning cat that made its first appearance in the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

  comeuppance: A deserved reprimand or punishment.

  czar: An emperor of Russia before the 1917 revolution; also known as tsar.

  damsel: An old expression for a young, unmarried woman.

  dime novel: A paperback novel, often with a western theme, which generally costed ten cents. Dime novels were popular from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries.

  discernment: The ability to understand shades of meaning or subtle differences between similar things.

  disconcerting: Something that causes confusion and sometimes embarrassment.

  emigrate: The act of leaving one’s place of residence or country to live elsewhere.

  epidemic: An outbreak of a disease that affects a large proportion of people within a population, community, or region.

  Equal Rights Amendment: The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was written in 1923 by Alice Paul to ensure equality in all aspects of the law regardless of sex. The amendment has never been passed. The last state to ratify the ERA was Indiana in 1977.

  flivver: Slang term for a small, inexpensive, and sometimes old automobile.

  franchise: A constitutional right or privilege, generally used in referencing the right to vote. See suffrage.

  front: The furthest line that armed forces have reached and where the enemy may be engaged.

  haymow: A place where hay is stored in a barn; also known as a hayloft.

  hijinks: Boisterous, carefree antics or horseplay.

  Hun: A derogatory, or disrespectful, name for Germans used during the world wars.

  immigrate: The act of arriving and becoming established in a foreign country.

  impetuous: A person who acts quickly without thought or care.

  interurban: A type of electric railway that transported people within and between cities and towns on streetcars.

  itinerant: To travel from place to place.

  jury: A group of people sworn to give a verdict on a legal matter, such as for a criminal case.

  lackey: Someone who does menial tasks or runs errands for another.

  League of Women Voters: Founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt to help women learn about political and social issues and how to vote. The organization still exists to improve government and increase citizen engagement in politics.

  middy blouse: A loose fitting blouse with a sailor collar worn by women and children.

  millinery: Shop where a milliner, or hat maker, sells hats.

  mohair: The yarn or fabric made from an Angora goat.

  National American Woman Suffrage Association: The suffrage association that resulted from a merger between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association, founded in 1869 by Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, and others.

  National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA): The organization founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in 1869 that worked for women to have the right to vote.

  oak apples: Large galls, or growths, on oak leaves or twigs produced by a gall wasp.

  ominous: Foreshadowing danger or evil.

  omission: Something neglected or left undone.

  pandemic: An occurrence, such as the influenza outbreak, that affects a large proportion of people across a wide geographical area.

  parliament: The highest legislative body in some democratic countries, such as the House of Commons in Great Britain.

  party line: Unlike today, telephone conversations in the early twentieth century were not private. Several households often shared a line. It was not unusual for more than one person to listen to their neighbor’s phone calls.

  paste wax: A type of cleaner that can be used on hardwood floors, vehicles, and other surfaces.

  phosphate soda: A tangy or sour beverage often made with fruit or malt flavorings and carbonated water.

  plank: The central issue or issues of a political party or organization.

  playbill: A poster announcing a theatrical performance.

  premonition: A feeling that something is about to happen or will happen in the future.

  quota: A fixed minimum or maximum number of a particular group of people needed for some activity, such as the number of soldiers needed for war.

  ramrod: Rigid; stiff.

  ratify: The act of formally approving something, such as a constitutional amendment.

  rosette: An ornament made of material gathered together to resemble a rose, often worn as a badge or used as a decoration.

  sarsaparilla: A sweetened carbonated beverage flavored with sassafras.

  serendipity: Occurrence of an event by happy accident or findin
g valuable or agreeable things without trying to do so.

  settee: A medium-size sofa with a back and arms.

  shirtwaist: A woman’s blouse or dress modeled on a man’s shirt.

  spinning mill: Factory in which fibers, such as cotton, are spun to produce thread for sewing or weaving.

  sprocket: A wheel with tooth-like grooves that engage the links of a chain, as on a bicycle.

  straw boater: A hat made out of stiff straw with a flat, rigid brim and top, often with a ribbon around the crown.

  streetcar: A railcar that transported people within and between cities and towns on electric railways. See interurban.

  strident: A harsh, insistent sound.

  stubble: A rough surface of growth, such as of stalks or straw.

  suffrage: The right of to vote. See franchise.

  suffragette: A woman who advocates or publicly supports the right to vote for women.

  suffragist: A person, man or woman, who supports extending the right to vote to those who are disenfranchised or do not have the right to vote.

  telegram: A message sent by telegraph, via wire using coded signals.

  telephone operator: A person who operates a telephone switchboard or otherwise provides assistance in establishing connections between people using landline telephones, especially on party lines.

  temperance movement: The organized effort against the consumption of alcohol.

  trench warfare: A type of combat in which opposing troops fight from trenches, or long narrow ditches, facing each other.

  tsar: See czar.

  u-boat: A German submarine.

  vehemence: Intensity and insistence.

  vociferously: Forcefully voicing an opposing viewpoint.

  voyageur: A man employed by a fur company to transport goods between faraway places, especially during and after the American colonial era.

  wanderlust: A strong longing or impulse to travel or wander.

  Women’s Franchise League: An English organization founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1889 to win the right to vote for women.

  World War I: In Europe this war lasted from 1914 to 1918. The United States entered the war in 1917. At the time it was known as the war to end all wars and also as the Great War. Major players in this war were the Allies: Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States vs. the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.The Allies won this war.

  Selected Bibliography

  Books

  Cott, Nancy F. “Historical Perspectives: The Equal Rights Amendment Conflict in the 1920s.” In Conflicts in Feminism, edited by Marianne Hirsch and Evelyn Fox Keller, 44–59. New York: Routledge, 1990. Available at Google Books.

  Madison, James H., and Lee Ann Sandweiss. Hoosiers and the American Story. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2014.

  ———. Indiana through Tradition and Change: A History of the Hoosier State and Its People, 1920–1945. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1982.

  Mill, John Stuart. “The Admission of Women to the Electoral Franchise, 20 May, 1867.” In The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII—Public and Parliamentary Speeches, Part 1, November 1850–November 1860, edited by Bruce L. Kinzer and John M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.

  Phillips, Clifton J. Indiana in Transition: The Emergence of an Industrial Commonwealth, 1880–1920. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau and Indiana Historical Society, 1968.

  Newspapers

  Abbs, Judith. “Ethel Smyth Belongs on the List of Great Women Composers.” Guardian Online. http://www.theguardian.com.

  “April is the Month of War.” Tippecanoe County Democrat, Lafayette, Indiana, March 30, 1917. Available at NewspaperArchive.com.

  “Denver Girls Will be Taught Marriage.” Lafayette Daily Courier, Lafayette, Indiana, March 30, 1912. Indiana State Library Newspaper Division.

  “First Women Appear on Jury in England.” New York Times, July 29, 1920. Available at NYTimes.com.

  Indianapolis Star, November 12, 1918. Available at NewspaperArchive.com.

  “Just a Few Lines on Political Subjects.” Tippecanoe County Democrat, Lafayette, Indiana, March 16, 1917. Available at NewspaperArchive.com.

  Periodicals

  Baer, M. Teresa. “World War I Letters to the Sammy Girls of Henry County, 1918–1919,” The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections 41, no. 2 (June 2001): 101–6.

  Cushman, Robert E. “Woman Suffrage Cases,” American Political Science Review 12, no. 1 (February 1918): 102–5. Available at JSTOR.org, doi:10.2307/1946347.

  Fitzgerald, Gerard. “Chemical Warfare and Medical Response During World War I,” American Journal of Public Health 98, no. 4 (April 2008): 611–25. Available at U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.11930.

  Marshall, Joan E. “The Changing Allegiances of Women Volunteers in the Progressive Era, Lafayette, Indiana, 1905–1920,” Indiana Magazine of History, 96, no. 3 (September 2000): 251–85, http://www.indiana.edu/~imaghist/.

  Ray, P. Orman. “Recent Primary and Election Laws,” American Political Science Review 12, no. 2 (May 1919): 264–74. Available at JSTOR.org, doi:10.2307/1946203.

  Resnick, Brian. “What America Looked Like: Collecting Peach Pits for WWI Gas Masks,” Atlantic Online (February 1, 2012), http://www.theatlantic.com.

  Documents

  Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 31, 1776. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/.

  Anthems of the Suffragette Movement.” How the Vote was Won. http://www.thesuffragettes.org.

  Gougar, Helen M. The Constitutional Rights of the Women of Indiana. An Argument in the Superior Court of Tippecanoe County, Ind., Judge F. B. Everett, Presiding, January 10, 1895. Typescript. Helen Gougar Collection, in Indiana Collection, G72c. Purdue University Libraries, Karnes Archives and Special Collections.

  National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. “Some Reasons Why We Oppose Votes for Women.” New York: 1894. Portfolio 130, Folder 13c. Library of Congress, American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html.

  Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women’s Right to Vote. America’s Historical Documents. National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/.

  “Teaching with Documents: The Zimmermann Telegram.” U.S. National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann/.

  Wilson, Woodrow. “Wilson’s War Message to Congress.” Message to 65th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document Number 5, Serial Number 7264, Washington, DC, April 2, 1917. Transcript. World War I Document Archive. https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wilson%27s_War_Message_to_Congress.

  Zimmerman Telegram. America’s Historical Documents. National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/.

  Internet Sources

  “75 Suffragists.” Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. http://mith.umd.edu/womensstudies/ReadingRoom/History/Vote/75-suffragists.html.

  “1911–1916: Media Stunts for Suffrage.” In “An Interactive Scrapbook of Elisabeth Freeman, Suffragette, Civil Rights Worker, and Militant Pacifist.” http://elizabethfreeman.org.

  “1914–1918: The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century.” PBS. http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/.

  Ballard, Robert. “Lusitania.” In “Lost Liners.” PBS. http://www.pbs.org/lostliners/.

  Borland, Elizabeth. “Music and Collective Identity in the Woman’s Suffrage Movement.” In “Women’s Suffrage in the United States.” College of New Jersey. http://www.tcnj.edu/~borland/2006-suffrage2/.

  Boydston, Jeanne. “Women in the Labor Force.” American National Biography Online. http://www.anb.org.

  Cohen, Jennie. “The Mother Who Saved Suffrage: Passing the Ninet
eenth Amendment.” History. http://www.history.com.

  “Early History.” National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. http://www.wctu.org.

  “Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” America’s Story from America’s Library. Library of Congress. http://www.americaslibrary.gov.

  Ewing, Tom. “Influenza Precautions, Then and Now.” Circulating Now. National Library of Medicine. http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov.

  Francis, Roberta W. “The History Behind the Equal Rights Amendment.” Equal Rights Amendment. http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/.

  “Great War and Jazz Age.” America’s Story from America’s Library. Library of Congress. http://www.americaslibrary.gov.

  Harper, Judith E. “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Biography.” Not for Ourselves Alone. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/.

  “Historical Timeline.” Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. http://www.wbhof.com.

  “History.” League of Women Voters. http://lwv.org.

  “Jeanette Rankin Casts Sole Vote Against WWII.” History. http://www.history.com.

  Kalvaitis, Jennifer M. “Indianapolis Women Working for the Right to Vote: The Forgotten Drama of 1917.” MA thesis, Indiana University, 2013. Scholarworks. https://scholarworks.iupui.edu.

  “Living Heritage: Women and the Vote.” UK Parliament. http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/.

  “National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS).” Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com.

  National Nineteenth Amendment Society. “Carrie Chapman Catt: A Biography.” Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home. http://www.catt.org.

  “Nellie Bly.” American Experience on PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/american experience/.

  “Nellie Bly.” Bio. http://www.biography.com/.