In case your calendar didn’t tip you off, March is Women’s History Month.
It’s as good a time as any to consider the nation’s first ladies, who took what seemed a ceremonial role and ran with it.
Their stories are told in a delightful children’s book, “What’s the Big Deal About First Ladies” by Ruby Shamir, who worked at the White House for 3 ¹/₂ years under Hillary Clinton before leading Clinton’s Senate office.
Among her findings: Mary Todd Lincoln was a fervent abolitionist; Edith Wilson decoded messages from our allies during World War I, and chic Jackie Kennedy helped turn the White House into a living museum of the presidency.
Here are books about four other women whose courage and vision this New Yorker admires:
Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee
Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, and her story is breathtaking. The brutal civil war turned her world upside down. Pregnant and starving, she survived a refugee camp and later escaped with her children from an abusive partner. She helped counsel former child soldiers and discovered the only way to stop the strife was for women to say, “Enough.”
Hold Nothing Back: Writings by Dorothy Day edited by Patrick Jordan
My sister suggested this book to me, and I loved it. Day was a writer and devout Catholic who called attention to poverty and tried to alleviate the suffering she saw. I’m not Catholic, but I was so moved by the rawness of her writing and her honesty about not living up to her ideals.
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
This memoir, published in 2003, takes you from her earliest moments through her election to the Senate. I’ve always been floored by how she always musters the will to get up after she’s been knocked down. After health care failed in 1994, she worked with a Republican Congress to pass the Children’s Health Care Insurance Program.
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
The Supreme Court justice grew up in the same tough South Bronx neighborhood my in-laws came from, so I love reading her story. Her dad died when she was young and she had diabetes, but she overcame all that through intelligence and curiosity. She’s approachable, too: The minute you meet her, she’s welcoming.