HISTROM for all: Feminists
For the letter F, I could think of no better audience than Feminists.
I don’t know where I ever got the idea that historical romance pushed the obedience of women to patriarchal values.
It’s a genre largely by women for women where female characters are given complex POVs and Happily Ever Afters. Especially now, intersectionality and diversity is being uplifted in the genre. You really can’t get more feminist than romance.
I know there is much more to feminism than women’s suffrage, but I will cover a lot of those topics in other letters of this series. The letter ’s’ is already claimed by FMCs carving their way into male-dominated fields. I chose these books because not only are the main characters advocates for change, but they do so with a community of other strong women.
I wish to include a quote from Alyssa Cole’s Let us Dream that captured the essence of this week’s choices. “Women helped each other in ways small and large every day, without thinking, and that was what kept them going even when the world came up with new and exciting ways to crush them.”
Let us Dream by Alyssa Cole
In 1917 Harlem, Bertha owns and runs a cabaret. She takes care of her girls and staff, offering the protection she never had. She provides community education to young women and encourages them to advocate for women’s suffrage through their clients. Amir, a socialist-minded chef from Bengal, begins to work at the cabaret as a dishwasher. He is quickly captivated by his fearless boss and even finds himself offering Bertha dance lessons to sit in on her political classes himself.
A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore
Lucie is the tireless leader of the Oxford suffragist society. Their current mission is to abolish the Married Women’s Property Act. To push their agenda, Lucie buys a majority share of a major publishing company to publish her reports, but also infuse current women’s publications with political consciousness raising content. Lord Ballentine, an old rival, stands in her way as he buys up the remaining shares making them 50/50 partners.
Winnie West Has an Agenda by Kat Sterling
Winnie West is determined to start her new life of adventure and aims to be the first female reporter at The Puget Sound Post. She is recruited into a new women’s club, the Seattle Suffrage Society, and is given the go-ahead to write her first editorial on this organization. Unfortunately, assistant editor of the paper, Mack has his own reasons for following her along to her first convention.
The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan
Frederica, or Free, runs and writes for the Women’s Free Press, a newspaper for women by women that draws attention to issues affecting women, including women’s suffrage. Her paper publishes stories from women in all aspects of society, from millworkers, miners, and prostitutes. When a member of the peerage aims to attack her, her paper, and her staff, she teams up with a self-proclaimed scoundrel, Edward, to fight back.
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