Database of the Month: Women and Social Movements

Women and Social Movements in the United States

March is women’s history month and the database of the month is composed of resources that document women’s participation in various movements for social change throughout American history.  A large proportion of the database contains current historical scholarship on the intersection between women’s movements and movements for social change published in the online journal “Women and social movements”.  This database also contains some primary source material for more detailed research into topics relating to women’s involvement in social issues. 

In addition to giving access to journal contents there is also some primary source material found in this database.  A documents archive contains numerous documents on the activism of women such as Cornelia Bryce Pinchot and Elizabeth Glendower Evans, early 20th century activists for the improvement of the working conditions of women.  The documents archive also contains an interpretation written by a current scholar describing the contents and significance of each collection of material.

There is also a documents library, containing many primary source documents. However, if you are looking for documents don’t use the browse documents, it is too tedious.  If you are looking for information on a specific topic like the Meeting of Seneca Falls use the “browse bibliography” function and deselect all topics found at the top except “Women’s Rights Conventions” (1848-1866)  This will get you to the relevant collection faster.

There are also various histories of women’s organizations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the League of Women Voters.  These can be accessed by clicking on the “movements” tab found near the top of the page and either browsing or selecting the “search movements” tab and entering in the title of the movement in which you are interested.  Each listing gives a helpful count of the number of primary source documents found on the organization in the database.

A very useful tool is the chronology.  It is a timeline giving the year, the event and links to primary documents related to that event which can be found in the database.  It also contains a number of graphs that can be limited by topic.

The database not only contains information on the usual topics associated with women’s history such as suffrage, labor and child rearing, it also contains some information on other historical movements like the anti-suffrage movement.  This movement was against granting voting rights to women.  (And, no, it was no just men that belonged to the movement)  But there is not much information on the recent involvement of women in current organizations or movements such as the various pro-life groups. 

WHEN SHOULD I USE THIS DATABASE: This database can be complex to use, and would not be the best choice if you are just beginning your research as it requires a number of clicks and searches to find the desired information.  If you have decided upon a topic and looking for detailed information to fill in gaps in your research, this can be a very helpful database.  If you are having trouble finding things, consult one of the reference librarians for assistance.

Access to library databases is limited to the current students, staff, and faculty of Monmouth College.