Amplify: Women in History

Amplify is a once a month series written by HerStry columnist, Joycelyn Ghansah. Each month Joycelyn explores one of the lives lesser known from women in history. It is our goal to bring these women’s stories and works to the forefront so that their stories are not forgotten. 

Coming Soon:

A new movement series, from July to October 2022!


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Amplify InBetween: The Second to Last

Welcome to our second-to-last piece of Amplify of the year and our final Amplify InBetween for 2022! We hope you enjoyed learning about the fantastic womxn we shared this year. To end the year, we’re doing something a little different. By now, everyone’s a little burnt out for the year, so instead of an entire article, we decided to switch it up. This piece will give you some resources and recommendations, a short article on a womxn you should know, and what’s to come from Amplify in the future.

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Shapers of a Movement: The Impact of Women of Color and Nonbinary Folx in Organizing Spaces

Welcome to the August edition of the Amplify series: Shapers of a Movement. In this edition, we decided to do something different. We decided to talk to someone actively organizing to improve their community. What did we talk about? Well, the impact women of color and nonbinary folx have in organizing movements, and how they create spaces, fight to enact better policies for the community at large, and continue to fight and manage in an area that is often dominated by cisgender, white, and male people.

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Sisterhood and the Many Identities of Pat Parker

April is about new beginnings. Our theme for this month, Breasts, can be a touchy subject. Our Amplify has chosen to talk about the untold struggles and triumphs of Activist, Feminist, and poet Pat Parker, a woman who made it her life mission to enhance the lives of those in her community, embrace her identity, and foster self-love.

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Anna Julia Cooper, The Black Liberation Feminist

HerStry’s monthly theme for January, “The Rest of The Story,” connects with our Amplify of the Month. Learn about the extraordinary life of Anna Julia Cooper, a famous scholar in social science circles, also known as “the Mother of Black Feminism.” Check out how she spent her life advocating for equal education for Black women, and how she changed the course of history and HerStry.

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AMPLIFY: Baby Esther Jones

This will likely be one of the shortest editions of Amplify. So short, in fact, that I don’t even have a timeline following this article because the life of Esther Jones was not well documented. In fact, the best source available (for free) online is Wikipedia. In most cases I wouldn’t use Wikipedia as a source, let alone my only source, but the citations for this particular Wikipedia article about the child who inspired the woman who inspired Betty Boop are books, newspaper articles, and scholarly articles so big thanks to the angel that put that page together.

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AMPLIFY: Anita Hill

This month for Amplify, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of searching deep through the internet and archival websites for women to highlight, I looked right at the headlines. I had heard the name Anita Hill many times before this past week, but never knew who she really was.

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Amplify: Linda Martell

There are few people on this planet that would walk away from the trajectory of fame that Linda Martell left behind. After breaking big into the country music industry in 1969, our May AMPLIFY feature retired just five years later, in 1974. 

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