Women in Texas History

Women in Texas History Series, sponsored by the Ruthe Winegarten Memorial Foundation

by Angela Boswell

In recent decades, a small but growing number of historians have dedicated their tireless attention to analyzing the role of women in Texas history. Each contribution—and there have been many—represents a brick in the wall of new Texas history. From early Native societies to astronauts, Women in Texas History assembles those bricks into a carefully crafted structure as the first book to cover the full scope of Texas women’s history.

By emphasizing the differences between race and ethnicity, Angela Boswell uses three broad themes to tie together the narrative of women in Texas history. First, the physical and geographic challenges of Texas as a place significantly affected women’s lives, from the struggles of isolated frontier farming to the opportunities and problems of increased urbanization. Second, the changing landscape of legal and political power continued to shape women’s lives and opportunities, from the ballot box to the courthouse and beyond. Finally, Boswell demonstrates the powerful influence of social and cultural forces on the identity, agency, and everyday life of women in Texas. In challenging male-dominated legal and political systems, Texan women shaped (and were shaped by) class, religion, community organizations, literary and artistic endeavors, and more.

Women in Texas History is the first book to narrate the entire span of Texas women’s history and marks a major achievement in telling the full story of the Lone Star State. Historians and general readers alike will find this book an informative and enjoyable read for anyone interested in the history of Texas or the history of women.

Genres: History

366 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 12, 2018

Reviews

[Jennifer Chenoweth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a strange way that the women in my life failed to talk about all their hard histories, they just wanted to "put the past behind them." Reading this book gave me the context to understand the inherited layers of hardships and expectations that my ancestors experienced. This book made me value my rights and freedoms in a way that not many other historical accounts have framed so fairly.

In any picture, there is someone you don't see in the frame that is doing the hard work to make the picture possible, usually a mother, grandmother, aunt, sister. There is a woman of color who is on the hook for much of the hard work of our world.

I'm going to go kiss my household appliances, and raise my daughter to not accept or expect abuse.
When I gave a copy to my mother-in-law, she said "its like they never told me the truth before!"

[Rocky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I detested the detached passive voice used in this text to deemphasize the intentional wrongdoing of European colonizers against Native and African people. Also, I did not like how the white woman's experience of Texas was the baseline to which all other minority womens' experiences were compared to. Setting all that aside, I did enjoy learning about varied experiences of Texas women.

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

For work. A solid, engaging (microhistory) narrative about women throughout Texas history, beginning with precolonial women and their social roles, and ending in the early 2000s.