As a mother raising two teenage girls, I find myself
thinking about role models quite a bit. These days who do our girls have to
admire? I’m grateful for the fact that strong women are out there inventing technologies,
running companies, and changing the world. While there are still fences to be
climbed and boundaries to be pushed, my daughters’ generation has a growing
confidence that they can do anything they put their minds to.
For years females were overlooked in our history
books. The good news is authors are now
rectifying that discrepancy and filling in the gaps. Women who were overlooked
in the past are coming to light. For example, did you know about a woman named
Rosalind Franklin whose research was instrumental in the discovery of the structure
of DNA? When James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins’ work was
published in 1953 however, Franklin did not become a household name. Only now
is her story being revealed.
Or perhaps you’ve heard of “The Girl Paul Revere”
recently? Sybil Ludington was a courageous young girl who outdid Paul Revere
during the American Revolution, riding 40 miles to warn her father’s troops
that British had begun burning Danbury, CT. She rode from 9 pm until dawn, at one
point defending herself with her father’s musket against the enemy. The good
news is Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride by
Marsha Amstel presents this heroine to young readers. Likewise a movie entitled
Sybil Ludington: The Female Paul Review
was produced by Kicks Flicks to honor her heroic actions as well.
Lately I’ve been reading books about other woman who
were under the radar historically. The
Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel is a non-fiction book
that takes a fascinating look into the lives of the wives who were behind
NASA’s spacemen. As the jacket flap describes, these women “formed the
Astronaut Wives Club, providing one another with support and friendship,
coffee, and cocktails.” Until now their lives were often glossed over by the media.
Being married to a NASA hero was not all that it was cracked up to be.
Reporters invaded their lives. The wives felt like they were under an unspoken
contract to make everything at home look as perfect as Camelot. Real strength
was required to maneuver their families through the day to day upheavals,
including the roving eyes of some of their husbands, or sudden accidents or
losses.
In terms of historical fiction, I’ve also discovered
a few unsung heroes of late. Many of Susan Vreeland’s books intrigue me.
Vreeland is known for her in-depth historical research and for telling a story through
an oft overlooked character’s point of view. Clara and Mr Tiffany is one of these stories. Vreeland weaves the
story of Clara Driscoll, an amazing woman living in the Gilded Age who, as it
turns out, was the designer of nearly all the iconic leaded-glass lamps for
Tiffany Studios.
Remember the dragonfly and daffodil patterns in those gorgeous
Tiffany lamps? Those were Driscoll’s designs. Without the recent revelation of Driscoll’s
letters to her family, Vreeland would never have been able to tell this tale. Like
many women of that age, ultimately Clara Driscoll had to choose between having love
in her life or a career as Tiffany’s prized glass designer.
Another author who creates fictional stories
revolving around lesser known historical women is Jennifer Chiaverini. I
thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, in Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker. The character
of Keckley is based on Mrs. Lincoln’s real life dressmaker who fashioned
dresses for Washington DC’s elite. As a designer, “Keckley supported the First
Lady through years of war, political strife, and devastating personal losses,
even as she endured heartbreaking tragedies of her own.” While Chiaverini filled
in the historical gaps with story, she researched Keckley’s life thoroughly,
using the dressmaker’s own memoir entitled Behind
the Scenes (1868).
Certainly all of these revelations give me hope that
the tides are changing, that my daughters won’t have to hunt far and wide to
find the stories of women who have played vital roles in history. Actually, my
ultimate hope is that they will become the very women whom history will
remember, women in the forefront instead of the background. An ideal wish? Perhaps!
But we mothers like to dream.
