Author Dr. Nelly Maseda often wonders how she became successful, but her brothers didn't. She wonders how she survived a childhood raised by a single Dominican mother on public assistance who suffered from severe mood swings, rage, promiscuous sexual behavior, and cycles of depression. While Maseda pursued her degree at Cornell University, her brothers and cousins entered into a world of substance abuse and its related criminal activities and violence.

In Strangers in the Night, Maseda looks inside the dynamics of a family and describes the life of her mother, Nena-her early years in the Dominican Republic, immigration to the United States in 1959, her new life in New York City, and raising her children against the backdrop of rage, depression, and a questionable home life. She also shares the trajectory of her two brothers' lives to show that lessons can be learned from their experiences.

Maseda tells her mother's story from the perspective of her profession as a pediatrician to communicate to patients and others that we now live in a time where help exists to undo the damage that negative, early life experiences can do to minds and lives.

An Encouragement for the Heart
SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GOD CALLS YOUR NAME

You dream of being used by God but think your life has been too rough, you have been through too much, or done too much for yourself.

If you want to find out if God could use you, join with Lorene Kimura to see how he used even the most unsuspecting women. The secret is not in the knowledge you have but being ready every day for the special time for when God calls your name. Describing herself as the "chosen child," Lorene never comprehended the entire meaning of that until much later in life, when God called her and she was ready to listen. Come on a journey, as you discover a fresh approach to a life for God, conquering the attitudes that would hold you back. God doesn't look at your mistakes, lifestyle, or commitments, but by your willingness to say, "Here I am, God. Use me."

Jam-packed with storytelling and Bible teaching, One Ordinary Woman, One Extraordinary God will open your eyes to the many ways God can use you where you are, if only you will let him, illustrating the similarities of biblical and contemporary women.

God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. "(Ephesians 2:10, NCV)"

Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote? Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) was a heroic American civil rights leader who was pivotal in enabling American women to vote; unfortunately it did not come to pass until fourteen years after her death. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President. She also co-founded the women's rights journal, The Revolution. She averaged 75-100 speeches per year, traveling the length and breadth of the United States, as well as speaking in Europe. This book is a Biography that she helped Ida Husted Harper to write. It contains a great number of personal letters, public addresses and letters from her contemporaries spanning fifty years. The book traces the evolution of the 19th century women's suffrage movement. This edition contains both volumes of the autobiography, including the appendix and three indexes as well as copious footnotes, autographs and illustrations.

Judy Chicago's monumental art installation "The Dinner Party "was an immediate sensation when it debuted in 1979, and today it is considered the most popular work of art to emerge from the second-wave feminist movement. Jane F. Gerhard examines the piece's popularity to understand how ideas about feminism migrated from activist and intellectual circles into the American mainstream in the last three decades of the twentieth century.
More than most social movements, feminism was transmitted and understood through culture--art installations, "Ms. Magazine," "All in the Family," and thousands of other cultural artifacts. But the phenomenon of cultural feminism came under extraordinary criticism in the late 1970s and 1980s Gerhard analyzes these divisions over whether cultural feminism was sufficiently activist in light of the shifting line separating liberalism from radicalism in post-1970s America. She concludes with a chapter on the 1990s, when "The Dinner Party" emerged as a target in political struggles over public funding for the arts, even as academic feminists denounced the piece for its alleged essentialism.
The path that" The Dinner Party" traveled--from inception (1973) to completion (1979) to tour (1979-1989) to the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum (2007)--sheds light on the history of American feminism since 1970 and on the ways popular feminism in particular can illuminate important trends and transformations in the broader culture.

"One of the least understood and often maligned aspects of the Tokugawa Shogunate is the Ooku, or 'Great Interior, ' the institution within the shogun's palace, administered by and for the upper-class shogunal women and their attendants who resided there. Long the object of titillation and a favorite subject for off-the-wall fantasy in historical TV and film dramas, the actual daily life, practices, cultural roles, and ultimate missions of these women have remained largely in the dark, except for occasional explosions of scandal. In crystal-clear prose that is a pleasure to read, this new book, however, presents the Ooku in a whole new down-to-earth, practical light. After many years of perusing unexamined Ooku documents generated by these women and their associates, the authors have provided not only an overview of the fifteen generations of Shoguns whose lives were lived in residence with this institution, but how shoguns interacted differently with it. Much like recent research on imperial convents, they find not a huddled herd of oppressed women, but on the contrary, women highly motivated to the preservation of their own particular cultural institution. Most important, they have been able to identify "the culture of secrecy" within the Ooku itself to be an important mechanism for preserving the highest value, 'loyalty, ' that essential value to their overall self-interested mission dedicated to the survival of the Shogunate itself." - Barbara Ruch, Columbia University "The aura of power and prestige of the institution known as the ooku-the complex network of women related to the shogun and their living quarters deep within Edo castle-has been a popular subject of Japanese television dramas and movies. Brushing aside myths and fallacies that have long obscured our understanding, this thoroughly researched book provides an intimate look at the lives of the elite female residents of the shogun's elaborate compound. Drawing information from contemporary diaries and other private memoirs, as well as official records, the book gives detailed descriptions of the physical layout of their living quarters, regulations, customs, and even clothing, enabling us to actually visualize this walled-in world that was off limits for most of Japanese society. It also outlines the complex hierarchy of positions, and by shining a light on specific women, gives readers insight into the various factions within the ooku and the scandals that occasionally occurred. Both positive and negative aspects of life in the "great interior" are represented, and one learns how some of these high-ranking women wielded tremendous social as well as political power, at times influencing the decision-making of the ruling shoguns. In sum, this book is the most accurate overview and characterization of the ooku to date, revealing how it developed and changed during the two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule. A treasure trove of information, it will be a vital source for scholars and students of Japan studies, as well as women's studies, and for general readers who are interested in learning more about this fascinating women's institution and its significance in Japanese history and culture." - Patricia Fister, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto

When Nancy was in her late twenties, she began having blinding headaches, tunnel vision, and dizziness, which led to the discovery of an abnormality on her brain stem. Complications during surgery caused serious brain damage, resulting in partial paralysis of the left side of her body and memory and cognitive problems. Although she was constantly evaluated by her doctors, Nancy's own questions and her distress got little attention in the hospital. Later, despite excellent job performance post-injury, her physical impairments were regarded as an embarrassment to the "perfect" and "beautiful" corporate image of her employer. Many conversations about brain injury are deficit-focused: those with disabilities are typically spoken about by others, as being a problem about which something must be done. In Living with Brain Injury, J. Eric Stewart takes a new approach, offering narratives which highlight those with brain injury as agents of recovery and change in their own lives. Stewart draws on in-depth interviews with ten women with acquired brain injuries to offer an evocative, multi-voiced account of the women's strategies for resisting marginalization and of their process of making sense of new relationships to self, to family and friends, to work, and to community. Bridging psychology, disability studies, and medical sociology, Living with Brain Injury showcases how--and on what terms--the women come to re-author identity, community, and meaning post-injury. In the Qualitative Studies in Psychology series J. Eric Stewart is a Clinical-Community Psychologist and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell.

Freemasonry is generally regarded a male phenomenon. Yet, both before 1723 and since 1744, women were initiated as well. This book is about the rituals, used for the initiation of women in the Adoption Lodges, since the middle of the 18th century. It describes their contents, roots and creation before reviewing and conceptualising their development in the past three centuries. It analyses the different families of rituals within the Adoption Rite, and gives an overview of specific developments, showing how the rituals were adapted to their changing contexts. Apart from its relevance for the history of Freemasonry in general and the Adoption Rite in particular, the book also writes a hitherto unknown chapter of women s history. Of particular interest for the history of feminism is the chapter about the 20th century, which could only be written now that the documents concerning it, which had been moved to Moscow in 1945, had been returned in 2000.

As women become more outspoken regarding their right to equal pay, it has been noted that gender equality, with women earning as much as men, would enrich the global economy. These studies have shown that equal pay, equal hours, and equal participation for women in the workforce could lead to a global wealth jump and potentially create knock-on benefits such as lower malnutrition and child mortality rates. Women Empowerment and Well-Being for Inclusive Economic Growth is a collection of innovative research that makes the case for understanding development in economic terms as well as in terms of well-being, empowerment, and participation and uncovers the role of empowering women and achieving gender equality in sustainable development. Research work and cases related to participation of a women's labor force in the economic development of the country, the place of women in society, their contribution to the social development of their country, and the problems faced by them are key features in the book. While highlighting topics including gender inequality, self-worth, and industrial policy, this book is ideally designed for economic analysts, managers, policymakers, business professionals, government officials, entrepreneurs, and business students.

At a time when women are being exhorted to ""lean in"" and work harder to get ahead, Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insight and Activism encourages both women and men to ""let go"" instead. The book explores alternatives to the belief that individual achievement, accumulation, and attention-seeking are the road to happiness and satisfaction in life. Letting go demands a radical recognition that the values, relationships, and structures of our neoliberal (competitive, striving, accumulating, consuming, exploiting, oppressive) society are harmful both on a personal level and, especially important, on a social and environmental level. There is a huge difference between letting go and ""chilling out."" In a lean-in society, self-care is promoted as something women and men should do to learn how to ""relax"" and find a comfortable work-life balance. By contrast, a feminist letting-go and its attendant self-care have the potential to be a radical act of awakening to social and environmental injustice and a call to activism.

The supernatural has become extraordinarily popular in literature, television, and film. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, witches, and wizard have become staples of entertainment industries, and many of these figures have received extensive critical attention. But one figure has remained in the shadows - the female ghost. Inherently liminal, often literally invisible, the female ghost has nevertheless appeared in all genres. Subversive Spirits: The Female Ghost in British and American Popular Culture brings this figure into the light, exploring her cultural significance in a variety of media from 1926 to 2014. Robin Roberts argues that the female ghost is well worth studying for what she can tell us about feminine subjectivity in cultural contexts. Subversive Spirits examines appearances of the female ghost in heritage sites, theater, Hollywood film, literature, and television in the United States and the United Kingdom. What holds these disparate female ghosts together is their uncanny ability to disrupt, illuminate, and challenge gendered assumptions. As with other supernatural figures, the female ghost changes over time, especially responding to changes in gender roles. Roberts's analysis begins with comedic female ghosts in literature and film and moves into horror by examining the successful play The Woman in Black and the legend of the weeping woman, La Llorona. Roberts then situates the canonical works of Maxine Hong Kingston and Toni Morrison in the tradition of the female ghost to explore how the ghost is used to portray the struggle and pain of women of color. Roberts further analyzes heritage sites that use the female ghost as the friendly and inviting narrator for tourists. The book concludes with a comparison of the British and American versions of the television hit Being Human, where the female ghost expands her influence to become a mother and savior to all humanity.