Authors Discuss Georgia Women Who Shaped History

March 3, 2015

Ann Short Chirhart and Kathleen Ann Clark, co-authors of the book, Georgia’s Women: Their Lives and Times (Vol. 2), will present the keynote address for Women’s History Month on Wednesday, March 4 at 6 p.m. in the Assembly Hall of Nessmith-Lane Conference Center. The authors will present a lecture titled “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: Georgia Women Shape the 20th Century.” The presentation, based on their book, discusses a wide array of Georgia women who played an important role in history, from little-known Progressive Era activists to famous present day figures such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Though vital actors in the history of Georgia, as well as key figures in national and global developments, these women tend to be overlooked. Chirhart and Clark focus on 18 Georgia women from the turn of the century to the 1980s and illuminate the ways in which these women expanded opportunities, pushed for equality and became leading writers and artists. Chirhart is associate professor of history at Indiana State University and the author of Torches of Light: Georgia Teachers and the Coming of the Modern South. Clark is associate professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of Defining Moments: African American Commemoration and Political Culture in the South, 1863-1913. The keynote address is funded by a grant from the Campus Life Enrichment Committee, the Georgia Humanities Council, the Women’s and Gender Studies program, the Center for Africana Studies and the history, literature and philosophy, political science, sociology and anthropology departments.