A Tyranny of Petticoats: Girls Kicking Butt in America!

It's March, which is Women's History month! It's also the month that A Tyranny of Petticoats comes out! This awesome collection of short stories--edited by the amazing Jessica Spotswood--follows women in America throughout history in fifteen awesome short stories.

This is seriously a collection not to miss--the stories are simply fantastic. One thing that struck me was the way women have often been ignored throughout history, and yet they quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) get things done. My own story is about a teacher on the frontier in the Wild West, and there's no doubt that the women who took a similar role had an integral part in shaping the West and, indeed, all of America. We don't know their names, we only know their legacy.

One of my favorite quotes is by Virginia Woolf: "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." Not every important person in history is remembered, and most of the ones who are forgotten are women.

• The author of the first novel in the world was a woman
• The first computer programmer was a woman
• The first orphanage in America was established by a woman
• Women fought in the American Revolution and the Civil War
• Women played an integral role in abolishing lynching and establishing civil rights
• Without a woman, Lewis & Clark would totally have died, let's be real
• The most badass pirate ever was a woman
• A woman could struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
• A woman revolutionized India
• A woman used her skills as a runner to advocate for tribal peace
• A woman started a campaign to plant trees throughout Africa, affecting global environmentalism
• A woman's bravery changed the face of education for girls world-wide--despite the point-blank range bullet shot in her head by the Taliban in a failed effort to stop her 
• A woman helped shape Burmese history and democracy

How many of these women did you know? I have to admit--I learned a lot just by looking for more names to add to my ever-growing list of women to admire. And most of these women--despite changing the world--are forgotten. 

That's what I love so much about A Tyranny of Petticoats. While there are real-life women portrayed, it also shows the stories of women throughout history that are forgotten, nameless, but there. 

A Tyranny of Petticoats comes out March 8th, and if you pre-order from One More Page bookstore, you'll get a very limited edition print by Simini Blocker (which you can see to the left here). It's beautiful--don't miss out on this!