March is Women’s History Month. Originally designated as
Women’s History Week in 1981 (Public
Law 97-28), in 1987 Congress passed a joint resolution extending this
celebration of Women’s History through the entire month of March Public Law (Public
Law 100-9). Since 1995, the President has issued annual proclamations
reconfirming March as Women’s History Month.
Just in time for 2014’s Women’s History Month, HeinOnline
has introduced a new library of historical works, “Women & the Law.” The
archive contains over 800 fully searchable titles including books, government
publications and reports, biographies, and scholarly articles relating to women’s
relationship with the law over the centuries. Many of the works focus on the
United States, but the collection also includes works regarding women from
numerous other countries, including the united Kingdom, Germany, Russia, and
Japan.
The collection includes documents from as early as the 17th
century, like William Heale’s 1609 Apologie for Women. Or an Opposition to Mr.
Dr. G. His Assertion. Who Held in the Act at Oxforde, Anno. 1608, That It Was
Lawful for Husbands to Beate their Wives. The collection continues through the centuries
to the present, including journal articles as recent as 2013. The works are
divided into a few sections: Women & Education, Women & Employment, Abortion,
Women & Society, Biographies, Feminism & Legal Theory Project, and
Legal Rights & Suffrage.
Much of the collection is devoted to the laws defining women’s
legal rights, especially with regard to marriage and marital property and the
status of working women. Some of the most interesting works in the collection
are the monographs written by both men and women concerning “the state of women”
at the time. The few titles below may give you some ideas of the wide variety
of materials available:
- Dorothy Thomas, Women Lawyers in the United States (1957)
- H. Harcourt Horne, Handbook of Law for Women (1929)
- Grace Duffield Goodwin, Anti-Suffrage: Ten Good Reasons (1912)
- Katherine Rachel Kibourn, Money-Making Occupations for Women (1901)
- William Parkes, Domestic Duties; or, Instructions to Young Married Ladies, on the Management of Their Households, and the Regulation of Their Conduct in the Various Relations and Duties of Married Life (1828)
If you are a member of the law center community, you can
access HeinOnline by visiting the law library’s homepage, and selecting HeinOnline
from the drop-down menu of databases. If you accessing HeinOnline while off
campus, be sure you are connected to the Law Center VPN and running the Law
Library VPN client. For VPN instructions, please visit http://law.uh.edu/lit/instructions/VPN/vpn.asp.
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