Though we’re heading into 2017, there were plenty of instances this year – the sexist campaign launched to impeach Dilma Rousseff, Donald Trump’s entire presidential run, the media diminishing female athletes success at the Olympics, etc – to remind us that in may ways, we still live in a man’s world. And while history’s mostly framed around white men doing things, we can find solace in books, like Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl’s Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History. Released in September 2016, this book highlights 40 women from 31 different countries. Spanning from 430 BC to 2016, the book tells the stories of powerful and inspiring women. Cut-paper portraits decorate the pages.
Between Latin America and the United States, Schatz and Stahl looked to sheroes like Frida Kahlo, Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, Marta, Quintremán sisters, Bastardilla, Policarpa “La Pola” Salavarrieta, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and many more.
For Schatz writing the book brought some light to her life. “As I researched and wrote this book, during the summer and fall of 2015, the world often felt like a scary and sad place,” she wrote in the book. “News of war, terrorism, gun violence and human suffering was relentless. Far away in lands distant from my own, people fled war, desperate to find new homes; here on the streets of America, police gunned down young black boys. Politicians and terrorists stoked hatred. Bullets flew, and tears fell.
“It is no exaggeration to say that writing this book was a refuse for me. A reminder of the vast realities of historical suffering, and the enormous capacity for love and change. Every day I sought solace in the stories of these women whose lives were tragic and triumphant, inspiring and encouraging.”
Check out a snippet of the Latin American women featured:
Purchase the book for $12.34 here.