Remember the Ladies

Betsy Ross, Harriet Tubman and Annie Oakley are among the 100 American women highlighted in Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women. This attractive collection of movers and shakers of the female persuasion also contains unfamiliar names that Shannon and I would like to research further. Women like Sylvia Earle, who walked untethered on the ocean floor, further down than any other human at 1,250 feet! And Sybil Ludington, who at sixteen rode her horse through the night during the Revolutionary War to warn that the British were attacking Connecticut. “I had NO idea that women did that!” was Shannon’s reaction.

We enjoyed reading this, and together discovering just what women are capable of. The illustrations are wonderful. The chronological order is well handled, with each spread dedicated to a designated time period from the New World to Turn of the Millennium. I question some of the author's choices, like Martha Stewart, who, granted, built an empire, yet she excluded Mary Kay Ash, who built an empire that provided so many other women an opportunity to succeed.

Warning: In the sixties area of the book the birth control pill and abortion are brought up. My daughter is ten and at first I was a little uncomfortable discussing these topics with her. But it did lead us to a great mother/daughter talk on pro-life and pro-choice views.

Ages 9-12
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