Colman, Penny

Recounts Dorothea Dix's lifelong fight to improve the lives of others, such as her own family, the mentally ill, prisoners, the physically ill, and the retarded.

Presents biographical essays on historical women who challenged expectations, including Civil War nursing superintendent Katharine Wormeley, African-American girls' school founder Mary McLeod Bethune, Arctic explorer Louise Boyd, industrial poison investigator Alice Hamilton, and four others.

A biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary of labor, who became the first woman cabinet member and a pioneer in labor reform, establishing unemployment insurance, minimum wages, maximum hours, safety regulations, and social security.

A biography of the businesswoman who was born in poverty on a Louisiana plantation, founded her own hair care business, and made more money than any woman, black or white, had ever made before in America.

Describes the work of women war correspondents who covered all theaters of World War II from its beginnings in the 1930s to the surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945.

Text and accompanying photographs present a biography of the civil rights activist who devoted her life to helping blacks register to vote and gain a national political voice.

Presents the lives of courageous women who served as spies for the North and South during the Civil War, including Belle "The Siren of the Shenandoah" Boyd, Elizabeth "Crazy Bet" Van Lew, and Harriet Tubman.

Describes the many roles assumed by women in the U.S. after the country's entry into World War II.