Happy Birthday Women of History

Women of History is coming up to another birthday milestone 

- its 22nd birthday!

Women of History was founded on 13th October 1998 as a fledgling website hosted by the now defunct Geocities.  It initially featured biographies of fifty historical women that fascinated me personally. 

After a few years, more biographies were added, with each biography being accompanied by some amazing art work and a list for further reading.  The research that I put into these vignettes was done the old fashioned way - through books - there was no such thing as wikipedia when I first started out.

Once Geocities finally closed down in March 2009, the old website morphed into the Women of History blog, hosted by Blogger since May 2007. The blog that you see today has undergone many changes - mainly theme related. Articles, newsworthy items, and biographies and books on notable women throughout history graced the pages of the blog.

In the end, I began cross posting reviews of related books onto my other blog - Melisende's Library - which is where you will find all literary related items.

I hope you take some time to visit and explore both my blogs.

State of Women - Two Views

The Women - amazing blog about women in India - past and present.

At the time when the West voting laws in favor of gender equality, the position of the Hindu woman in India today remains precarious.

Afghan Women: A History of Struggle - blog from Times Union.

The film is first and foremost a summary of Afghanistan’s struggle and how that struggle was perpetuated by outside influences, notably the United States and the Soviet Union. It is a powerful documentary that I would encourage anyone to watch.

One of those moments ...

Just had a "one of those moments" moments - dicovered the "follow" option at the top of my blog.  Yes it had been there all this time but for some strange reason I have never seen it before today.

Used it to follow a blog which only had the option to follow via twitter (which I don't have / use).

Must go back and follow all those other blogs I have bookmarked!

TV Spat: Jezebel versus Jon

From the Guardian:

Talked about on numerous blogs and websites, covered by the New York Times, attacked by The Daily Show and attracting upwards of 38m global page views a month, the women's website Jezebel has clearly come of age.

It also needs to be noted that the site has overtaken its infamous sibling, the gossipy Gawker, in terms of notoriety after a public spat with Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Gaby Darbyshire, Gawker Media's chief operating officer, told the New York Observer that Jezebel "has received more complaints per year than any other [Gawker media] site", while Gawker's founder, Nick Denton, told the New York Times that it was no longer seen by advertisers as "a cute new entrant" on the blogging scene.

The spat with The Daily Show began with a report by the site's Irin Carmon on the programme's hiring policies, which highlighted the lack of women in senior writing or on-air positions and argued that it was "a boys' club where women's contributions are often ignored and dismissed".

Although The Daily Show had declined to comment for Carmon's original piece, a visibly flustered Stewart attempted to address the issue a week later stating: "Jezebel thinks I'm a sexist prick."

Updates

Dear Fellow Bloggers,

Updates will be added over the next couple of days (as you may have noticed, posts have been on the rather rare side - though mounting up).

Will also be updating links, etc.

Happy blogging!

World of Blogs

Some items and blogs worth checking out this week include:

The Silent Village @ Culture 24

Shajar al-Durr @ Medievalist

From Egypt to Umbria: Jewish Women and Property in the Medieval Mediterranean @ eScholarship

Why She Sits Defiantly @ Ludmilla's Diary

Al-Majida - A Tribute to the Iraqi Woman @ Blog from the Middle East

High Price of a Cuppa @ Care2 Make A Difference

Forbes: 20 Best Blogs

Forbes has listed its 20 best marketing and social blogs for women.

This list is full of women that I have found to be leaders, women who are consistently providing relevant and useful information to the marketing and social media industry. I appreciate each and every one of them and recommend these ladies as the Chicks Pick Best in Blog--Marketing and Social Media.

November Blogs of Interest

From The Tyee - a review of "A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice" by Malalai Joya.

See also a review from Canadian Press posted here in October: Malalai Joya: A Woman Among Warlords

From Original Wavelength - Where can a Muslim woman show her face and the history of the veil.

From Reality Observer - a look at women in English literature (from Beowulf to Bronte).

From History Undressed - Kimberly Killion: Fiction vs. Fact: Did a woman’s virginity raise her worth on the slave market?

From A Striped Armchair - Women Unbound: A New Reading Challenge

Women in the Blogoshpere

Some interesting articles pertaining to women from the Blogosphere:

• Women's Rights In Ancient Egypt
• Marriage in Late Medieval Valencia
• Women in History - More than just Heroines
• Interview with Author Juliet Blackwell
• Unnamed Women of the Bible and their Contributions

Blogs of Interest

A couple of noteworthy blogs that I have recently come across and thought you might enjoy:

History of American Women
Dedicated to the many women who contributed to the growing history of America.

Wings & Wasp
Dedicated to the many women aviators of World War II.

Women of Mystery

Another interesting blog that I would like to share: Women of Mystery.

A message from the gals:

The Women of Mystery share the trek, travail and tangles of writing and publishing, along with the magic of language and story. Don't just peek around the jamb, come on in and join the conversation.

Blogs: Haven for Egyptian Women

From BBC News:
"Young Egyptian women are using blogs and online radio stations to beat the censors and to fight for equality.

Despite making up only 24% of the workforce in Egypt, 30% of women use the internet.

But it is the middle and upper classes that have really taken to the internet as an alternative way to discuss topics and exchange information and air what many conservatives would consider to be radical views.

Often exploiting the anonymity afforded by the internet they tell personal stories, share political and cultural views, post favourite pictures, and talk about their daily frustrations. "

New Make Over

Women of History is undergoing a "make over". I got a bit tired of the old look. Unfortunately when messing about late late last night, the blog suddenly reverted back to its original look. So, I am fiddling with templates before I change the theme.

Please be patient as I transform Women of History yet again.


NB: Now if only I could get the comments part active - any techno-savvy bloggers out there, please, please feel free to email me.

Best Blogs

Without seeking to do so, I found my blog listed on two "top 100" listings.


101 Women Bloggers to Watch - Fall 2008 - WE Magazine for Women

100 Awesome Blogs for History Junkies - Best Colleges


I thank whoever added this blog - to both lists. There are some amazing blogs listed, so I hope that you have enough hours in the day to explore them all - I know I don't!

Blog Beef

Yes, I have a beef about Blogs - not so much the Blogs themselves - but their descriptions. I mean, have you ever searched for a Blog that uses certain key words and come up empty. I did - yesterday.

Take for instance my interest - medieval history. I came across a list of 234 Blogs listed under "medieval interests". Did all 234 have medieval interests - dare I say it - NO!

Simple break down: about half dozen I had already come across which did have medieval / history content - no arguements there. But as for the rest - about another dozen did not exist anymore; about 100 had the barest amount of visible medieval / history content whatsoever (eg: a sentence here and there but not even in context); and the rest had nothing (and I just couldn't be bothered going through more than one year's worth of blogging).

Yes, I spent my time reading blogs about gardening, cats, dead cats, even more cats (cats seemed to be the most popular theme) - and no they weren't medieval or even historical cats!

So, just how true to a Blog's "key words" should a Blog be???? Now me, my Blog is listed under the following key words: women, medieval, history, biography - so I can cover quite a bit without seeming to run off-topic (which I am known to occasionally do). But should a Blog that uses the key words "medieval law" actually contain something akin to medieval law or since the author consistently Blogs about their cat, should it's key words thus be "cat"??? Don't get me wrong - even I couldn't find something in medieval law to Blog about day in and day out - but you would think that there would be the occasional topic - I failed to find one (as I said, one years' worth was enough for me - I just couldn't stand reading about the darn cat or the plumbing or the frozen stock cubes anymore.


I have a list for "women's history" - there's only 15 in that list - I'll let you know how I get on - or not!

Housekeeping @ WOH

For the first time, in quite a while, I actually have a four-day weekend over Easter!

So, I have decided to do a little housekeeping - sort of. I've decided to clean up some dead links, delete blogs that I no longer read, remove links to forums I never visit - you know the type of thing.

On another front, I have also used the time, albeit not too wisely at times, to go through the stack of notes and notebooks, with bits of information and data jotted down willy-nilly, and to type it out and organise it somewhat - thus eliminating huge piles of scrap notes. Create an orderly mess. Stuff I have rarely referred to - but just can't seem to throw out in case I need it later - I have filed away - I have more lever-arch folders than the local newsagent!

I have also added a couple of articles to the Women of History website - unfortunately, I am working on a number of things at once and yet don't seem to be progressing much at all.

I've been blogging elsewhere at the moment - over at "Executed Today" - and I had a request from someone else to write an article for their blog - Algo de Historia - still haven't decided what I am going to write about.

The book I am writing is progressing at snail's pace - I have this habit of going off on a tangent when a topic or subject crops up that takes my fancy (now you know why I have huge amounts of notes lying about the place!). But as one famous Kiwi said .... "it won't happen overnight, but it will happen ..."

I am always on the look-out for a good blog or forum with a history related theme - so if you know of any - feel free to drop me a line.

Take care on life's great journey!