Sisterhood Is Powerful

An anthology of writings from the women's Liberation Movement.

A powerful and essential anthology that sheds light on the status of women throughout the world Hailed by Alice Walker as “one of the most important human documents of the century,” this collection of groundbreaking essays examines the global status of women’s experiences, from oppression to persecution. Originally published in 1984, the compilation features pieces written by a diverse set of powerful women—journalists, politicians, grassroots activists, and scholars—from seventy countries. Author Robin Morgan, a champion of women’s rights herself, expertly weaves these inspiring essays into one comprehensive feminist text. These compelling “herstories” contain thoroughly researched statistics on the status of women throughout the world. Each chapter focuses on a different country and includes data on education, government, marriage, motherhood, prostitution, rape, sexual harassment, and sexual preference. Sisterhood Is Global transcends political systems and geographical boundaries to unite women and their experiences in a way that remains unequalled, even decades after its first publication.

Contrary to clichés about the end of feminism, Deborah Siegel argues that younger women are not abandoning the movement but reinventing it. After forty years, is feminism today a culture, or a cause? A movement for personal empowerment, or broad-scale social change? Have women achieved equality, or do we still have a long way to go?

An amazing trajectory: From child star to prize-winning writer to feminist icon Robin Morgan is famous as a bestselling author of nonfiction, a prize-winning poet, and a founder and leader of contemporary feminism. Before all of that, though, she was a working child actor. From the age of two, “Saturday’s child had to work for a living.” She had her own radio show on New York’s WOR, Little Robin Morgan, by the time she was four; starred during the Golden Age of television in TV’s Mama from ages seven to fourteen; and was named the Ideal American Girl when she was twelve. In Saturday’s Child, she writes for the first time about her working youth, her battles to break away from show business and from her mother, her search for her absent, abandoning father, her entrance into the literary world, and the development of her politics, relationships, and writing. Morgan describes her tumultuous but successful life with startling honesty: her flight from child stardom into literature, her twenty-year marriage to a bisexual man, her joyful motherhood, her lovers, both male and female, her actions as a “temporary terrorist” on the left during the 1970s, and her travels and experiences in the global women’s movement. She writes about compiling and editing the famous anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful and Sisterhood Is Global and later cofounding with Simone de Beauvoir the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. Saturday’s Child follows this “Ideal American Girl” on her path to becoming the feminist icon she is today. Epic in scope, witty, and bravely insightful, this is the tale of half of humanity rising up and demanding its rights, told through the intensely personal story of one remarkable woman.

A teen girl, backed by a secret society of powerful women, competes to make an 18-year-old future President fall in love with her in Sheena Boekweg's compelling new YA novel, A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions. Behind every powerful man is a trained woman, and behind every trained woman is the Society. It started with tea parties and matchmaking, but is now a countrywide secret. Gossips pass messages in recipes, Spinsters train to fight, and women work together to grant safety to abused women and children. The Society is more than oaths—it is sisterhood and purpose. In 1926, seventeen-year-old Elsie is dropped off in a new city with four other teenage girls. All of them have trained together since childhood to become the Wife of a powerful man. But when they learn that their next target is earmarked to become President, their mission becomes more than just an assignment; this is a chance at the most powerful position in the Society. A life more influential than they had ever before dared to dream possible. All they have to do is make one man fall in love with them first.

Nima Naghibi makes powerful connections among feminism, imperialism, and the discourses of global sisterhood. Naghibi investigates topics including the state-sponsored Womens Organization of Iran and the involvement of feminists such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem in the Iranian feminism movement. She also examines the veiled woman in the films of Tahmineh Milani, Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Kim Longinotto, and Mahnaz Afzali.

In the 1970s, feminist slogans proclaimed “Sisterhood is powerful,” and women’s historians searched through the historical archives to recover stories of solidarity and sisterhood. However, as feminist scholars have started taking a more intersectional approach—acknowledging that no woman is simply defined by her gender and that affiliations like race, class, and sexual identity are often equally powerful—women’s historians have begun to offer more varied and nuanced narratives. The ten original essays in U.S. Women's History represent a cross-section of current research in the field. Including work from both emerging and established scholars, this collection employs innovative approaches to study both the causes that have united American women and the conflicts that have divided them. Some essays uncover little-known aspects of women’s history, while others offer a fresh take on familiar events and figures, from Rosa Parks to Take Back the Night marches. Spanning the antebellum era to the present day, these essays vividly convey the long histories and ongoing relevance of topics ranging from women’s immigration to incarceration, from acts of cross-dressing to the activism of feminist mothers. This volume thus not only untangles the threads of the sisterhood mythos, it weaves them into a multi-textured and multi-hued tapestry that reflects the breadth and diversity of U.S. women’s history.

"A fantastic page-turner." —Historical Novels Review Based on a true story of the first witchcraft trial in Ireland, The Burning Time is the riveting tale of one extraordinary noblewoman, Lady Alyce Kyteler and her fight for a country’s soul. When the Catholic Church brings the Inquisition to Ireland, Lady Alyce Kyteler refuses to grant them power over her lands or her people, and refuses to stop the practice of The Old Religion. Declared a dangerous heretic by the Pope’s emissary, Lady Alyce determines to fight back. Against the penalty of being burned at the stake, she risks all to protect her people, her faith, and her beloved Ireland. The Burning Time is a vivid account of an astonishing but little-known historic figure and a gripping tale of bravery, treachery, guile, and redemption. An award-winning poet, novelist, journalist and editor, Robin Morgan has published over 20 books, including the now-classic anthology Sisterhood is Powerful. One of the founders of contemporary U.S. feminism, she has been a leader in the international Women’s Movement for over 30 years. A 2006 Book Sense Paperback Pick by the American Booksellers Association