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Women's and Gender Studies

Basic Biographical Sources

Contains biographical information on over 500,000 individuals from all time periods, geographical locations, and fields of endeavor. The advanced search option allows searching for people based on one or more personal facts, such as occupation.
 
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia
Main Library Reference E 185.86 .B542 1993
A comprehensive picture of Black women in America, from 17th-century slave women to contemporary television personalities. The more than 800 signed entries include both biographical essays on individual women and broad topical essays on such subjects as slavery, religion, civil rights, the law, physicians, and education, which provide in-depth treatment of major contributions of Black women to American life and culture.
 
Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia
Main Library Reference DS 115.2 .J49 1998
A two-volume set that contains more than 800 biographies and 110 topical essays. All entries are signed, and all have brief bibliographies. Biographies of authors also have lists of selected works. Women included are, for the most part, deceased or over the age of 60 at the year of publication, 1998.
 
The first major modern reference book of women's biographies. Covers deceased individuals only (women who died after 1950 are not included. Entries include a bibliography of works by and about the biographee.
Represents 442 women who died between 1951 and 1975.
Contains biographical sketches of 483 women who died between 1976 and 1999, and follows the series' goal "to uncover and document women's contributions to politics and culture during historical periods when their significance was generally unrecognized by the society at large."
 
Contains over 650 biographies of influential women and over 600 topical articles covering topics such as geography and history, culture and society, organizations, movements, and gender studies.
 
Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day
Main Library Reference HQ 75.2 .W46 2001
Includes some 500 entries with geographical scope that takes in the whole of the Western world. Covers subjects drawn from politics, the arts and popular culture.
 
Signed biographical essays. "This book contains those figures of importance to gay and lesbian history, whether themselves homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, or none of the above" (introduction).
 
Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia
Main Library Reference HQ 1115 .W6 1999
Entries on over 10,000 individual women from all historical eras. Extensive genealogical charts and an index.
 
Women Who Ruled: A Biographical Encyclopedia
Main Library Reference D 107 .J33 1990
Contains 350 biographical sketches, from Egypt's Meryet-Net (31st century B.C.E.) to Nicaragua's president, Violeta Chamorro, are included. Scope, criteria for selection, and special problems are discussed in the preface; a useful overview by continent comprises the introduction; and a chronology lists each ruler by century. Narratives, arranged alphabetically by name, range from a paragraph to several pages, depending on the ruler's importance and availability of historical information.

Southern Women: Their Lives and Times series

The University of Georgia Press has published biographical, life-and-times histories of women from the various southern states. Each book is a collection of insightful essays focused on the lives of individuals or small groups of women that address larger issues in the history of the state, the South, and the nation. There is no volume in the series for Florida women. Among the titles available are the following:
  • Alabama Women: Their Lives and Times (Main Library ARC General Collection HQ 1438 .A2 A43 2017)
  • Arkansas Women: Their Lives and Times (Main Library ARC General Collection HQ 1438 .A8 A75 2018)
  • Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, vols. 1-2 (Main Library ARC General Collection CT 3262 .G4 G46 2009)
  • Kentucky Women: Their Lives and Times (Main Library ARC General Collection HQ 1438 .K4 K43 2015)
  • Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times, vols. 1-2 (Main Library ARC General Collection CT 3262 .L6 L68 2016)
  • Mississippi Women: Their Histories, Their Lives, vols. 1-2 (Main Library ARC General Collection CT 3260 .M57 2003)
  • North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, vols. 1-2 (Main Library ARC General Collection CT 3262 .N67 N678 2014)
  • South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, vols. 1-3 (Main Library ARC General Collection CT 3262 .S65 S68 2009)
  • Tennessee Women: The Lives and Times, vols. 1-2 (Main Library ARC General Collection CT 3262 .T2 T46)
  • Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives (Main Library ARC General Collection HQ 1438 .T4 T58 2015)
  • Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times, vols. 1-2 (Main Library ARC General Collection HQ 1438 .V5 V57 2015)

Women in Antiquity series

An ongoing series of books published by Oxford University Press aimed at filling the lacuna on prominent women in antiquity. Among the titles available are the following: