Awesome Women Library
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  • Daredevils, Explorers, & Pilots
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Amy Johnson
    • Sacagawea
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Valentina Tereshkova
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • 1900 - present
      • Rachel Carson
      • Eugenie Clark
      • Sylvia Earle
      • Dian Fossey
      • Rosalind Franklin
      • Jane Goodall
      • Ruth Handler
      • Mary Jackson
      • Shirley Ann Jackson
      • Stephanie Kwolek
      • Hedy Lamarr
      • Mary Leakey
      • Wangari Maathai
      • Mary Sherman Morgan
      • Ellen Ochoa
      • Sally Ride
      • Stephanie Schwabe
      • Donna Shirley
      • Kathryn Sullivan
      • Ruth Wakefield
      • Peggy Whitson
      • Wu Chien-Shiung
    • 1800 - 1899
      • Hertha Ayrton
      • Florence Bascom
      • Katharine Burr Blodgett
      • Annie Jump Cannon
      • Martha Coston
      • Marie Curie
      • Lillian Gilbreth
      • Margaret E. Knight
      • Lise Meitner
      • Ynes Mexia
      • Maria Mitchell
    • - 1799
      • Mary Anning
      • Marie d'Arconville
      • Laura Bassi
      • Emilie du Chatelet
      • Catharine Littlefield Greene
      • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Wang Zhenyi
  • Health & Medicine
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
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    • Rachel Fuller Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Karen Horney
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Mary Eliza Mahoney
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Jane Cooke Wright
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
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    • Ellen DeGeneres
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    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Billie Holiday
    • Nichelle Nichols
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Rihanna
    • Yma Sumac
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Rosetta Tharpe
    • Raven Wilkinson
  • Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Marianne North
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin of Awesomosity (aka, the blog)
  • About the Library
  • Awesome Women Resources
  • Contact
  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Josephine Butler
    • Mary Shadd Cary
    • Septima Clark
    • Dorothy Day
    • Durgabai Deshmukh
    • Nawal El Saadawi
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Helen Keller
    • Coretta Scott King
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Athletes
    • Ball Sports
      • Althea Gibson
      • Mia Hamm
      • Billie Jean King
      • Lisa Leslie
      • Nancy Lieberman
      • Cheryl Miller
      • Jackie Mitchell
      • Martina Navratilova
      • Annika Sorenstam
      • Toni Stone
      • Pat Summitt
      • Sheryl Swoopes
      • Serena Williams
      • Venus Williams
      • Lynette Woodard
    • Body Sports
      • Nicola Adams
      • Laila Ali
      • Simone Biles
      • Bonnie Blair
      • Alice Coachman
      • Nadia Comaneci
      • Dominique Dawes
      • Keiko Fukuda
      • Tanni Grey-Thompson
      • Sonja Henie
      • Florence Griffith Joyner
      • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
      • Ibtihaj Muhammad
      • Annie Smith Peck
      • Wilma Rudolph
      • Junko Tabei
      • Lindsey Vonn
      • Kristi Yamaguchi
      • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
    • Water Sports
      • Anita DeFrantz
      • Gertrude Ederle
      • Katie Ledecky
      • Ellen MacArthur
      • Dara Torres
  • Authors
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Jane Austen
    • Mary Ritter Beard
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Nellie Bly
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Tsitsi Dangarembga
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Lorraine Hansberry
    • Toni Morrison
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Ida B. Wells
  • Business & Finance
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Coco Chanel
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Indra Nooyi
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Madam C.J. Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, Teachers, & World Leaders
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Mary McLeod Bethune
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Queen Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Nannie Helen Burroughs
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Pharaoh Hatshepsut
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Patsy Mink
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Deborah Sampson
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Science & Math
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Daredevils, Explorers, & Pilots
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Amy Johnson
    • Sacagawea
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Valentina Tereshkova
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • 1900 - present
      • Rachel Carson
      • Eugenie Clark
      • Sylvia Earle
      • Dian Fossey
      • Rosalind Franklin
      • Jane Goodall
      • Ruth Handler
      • Mary Jackson
      • Shirley Ann Jackson
      • Stephanie Kwolek
      • Hedy Lamarr
      • Mary Leakey
      • Wangari Maathai
      • Mary Sherman Morgan
      • Ellen Ochoa
      • Sally Ride
      • Stephanie Schwabe
      • Donna Shirley
      • Kathryn Sullivan
      • Ruth Wakefield
      • Peggy Whitson
      • Wu Chien-Shiung
    • 1800 - 1899
      • Hertha Ayrton
      • Florence Bascom
      • Katharine Burr Blodgett
      • Annie Jump Cannon
      • Martha Coston
      • Marie Curie
      • Lillian Gilbreth
      • Margaret E. Knight
      • Lise Meitner
      • Ynes Mexia
      • Maria Mitchell
    • - 1799
      • Mary Anning
      • Marie d'Arconville
      • Laura Bassi
      • Emilie du Chatelet
      • Catharine Littlefield Greene
      • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Wang Zhenyi
  • Health & Medicine
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Fuller Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Karen Horney
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Mary Eliza Mahoney
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Jane Cooke Wright
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Billie Holiday
    • Nichelle Nichols
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Rihanna
    • Yma Sumac
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Rosetta Tharpe
    • Raven Wilkinson
  • Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Marianne North
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin of Awesomosity (aka, the blog)
  • About the Library
  • Awesome Women Resources
  • Contact

Mary Ritter Beard

August 5, 1876 - August 14, 1958
(Indianapolis, IN - Phoenix, AZ)

"Reverencing our pioneers is important. But work in our own time for our own time is equally vital, is it not?"

Mary Ritter Beard
Public domain photo from Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons
  • HISTORIAN
  • Born into a middle-class family, she earned her bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1897
  • Began volunteering in support of women's causes in the early 1900s, joining the Congressional Committee (led by Alice Paul), and helping to win suffrage for women at the state level in New York
  • Dedicated the last few decades of her life to writing and research, authoring several books both alone and with her husband, Charles Austin Beard, who would also become an influential historian
  • The Rise of American Civilization, written by the Beards and published in 1927, offered a greater survey of women's historical participation than any other book up to that point
  • The book was a commercial and critical success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies, but even though her husband credited her as contributing significantly to this and their other joint works, she received almost no acknowledgment from academia
  • She was ONE OF THE FIRST historians to focus exclusively on the contributions of women to past and contemporary civilization, calling out male historians for ignoring their achievements
  • Tried to create the World Center for Women's Archives, a repository of documents that would showcase women's roles and accomplishments; although the endeavor ultimately failed, it inspired other such collections, including at Smith College and Radcliffe College
  • Unfortunately she did not support the Equal Rights Amendment, but at least her reason is amusing: "I am not against equality of course, I simply regard it as inadequate today. Men are so incompetent and ridiculous when not base that I can't stomach the idea of equality as the ultimate goal any longer."

Not So Awesome

~ On the plus side, Beard differentiated herself from many of her fellow white suffragists by seeking out ways to include women of color. When many leaders of the 1913 women’s march desired a segregated procession, she fought for integration, and when she started organizing her World Center for Women's Archives (WCWA), she actively sought out contributions from women of all classes and races, particularly soliciting participation from leaders in the Black community, such as Mary McLeod Bethune and former presidents of the National Association of Colored Women. However, when some white members of the WCWA refused to allow the Black women to join, Beard did not fight for their inclusion, choosing instead to avoid the issue altogether by having them work directly with her rather than the organization itself. This loophole was challenged by many of the white members, some arguing that the Black women had every right to become members, and others rejecting their participation altogether. This infighting over race was part of the reason the project failed.
​
~ While her work provided invaluable evidence of women's capabilities and achievements, Beard had little patience for women who claimed their lack of achievement was due to a system that oppressed them. Instead of recognizing the very real legal and social limitations placed on women, she drew on her own experiences as a middle-class white woman with a supportive husband to accuse those women of indolence and frailty.
Bibliography: Cott, Nancy F. "Beard, Mary Ritter." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 206-207.
​
Norton, Mary Beth. “Teaching Women About Themselves.” New York Times. 1991, March 24.
Trigg, Mary. ”To Work Together for Ends Larger than Self": The Feminist Struggles of Mary Beard and Doris Stevens in the 1930s. Journal of Women's History, Volume 7, Number 2, Johns Hopkins University Press, Summer 1995, pp. 52-85.

Books by this Awesome Woman

The American Labor Movement
Woman As Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities
Picture
Laughing Their Way
The Rise of American Civilization
Woman's work in municipalities
History of the United States

Research

Making Women's History: The Essential Mary Ritter Beard
A Woman Making History: Mary Ritter Beard Through Her Letters

Meet more Awesome Women like this

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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Josephine Butler
    • Mary Shadd Cary
    • Septima Clark
    • Dorothy Day
    • Durgabai Deshmukh
    • Nawal El Saadawi
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Helen Keller
    • Coretta Scott King
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Athletes
    • Ball Sports
      • Althea Gibson
      • Mia Hamm
      • Billie Jean King
      • Lisa Leslie
      • Nancy Lieberman
      • Cheryl Miller
      • Jackie Mitchell
      • Martina Navratilova
      • Annika Sorenstam
      • Toni Stone
      • Pat Summitt
      • Sheryl Swoopes
      • Serena Williams
      • Venus Williams
      • Lynette Woodard
    • Body Sports
      • Nicola Adams
      • Laila Ali
      • Simone Biles
      • Bonnie Blair
      • Alice Coachman
      • Nadia Comaneci
      • Dominique Dawes
      • Keiko Fukuda
      • Tanni Grey-Thompson
      • Sonja Henie
      • Florence Griffith Joyner
      • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
      • Ibtihaj Muhammad
      • Annie Smith Peck
      • Wilma Rudolph
      • Junko Tabei
      • Lindsey Vonn
      • Kristi Yamaguchi
      • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
    • Water Sports
      • Anita DeFrantz
      • Gertrude Ederle
      • Katie Ledecky
      • Ellen MacArthur
      • Dara Torres
  • Authors
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Jane Austen
    • Mary Ritter Beard
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Nellie Bly
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Tsitsi Dangarembga
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Lorraine Hansberry
    • Toni Morrison
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Ida B. Wells
  • Business & Finance
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Coco Chanel
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Indra Nooyi
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Madam C.J. Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, Teachers, & World Leaders
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Mary McLeod Bethune
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Queen Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Nannie Helen Burroughs
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Violeta Barrios de Chamorro
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Pharaoh Hatshepsut
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Patsy Mink
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Deborah Sampson
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Science & Math
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Daredevils, Explorers, & Pilots
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Amy Johnson
    • Sacagawea
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Valentina Tereshkova
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • 1900 - present
      • Rachel Carson
      • Eugenie Clark
      • Sylvia Earle
      • Dian Fossey
      • Rosalind Franklin
      • Jane Goodall
      • Ruth Handler
      • Mary Jackson
      • Shirley Ann Jackson
      • Stephanie Kwolek
      • Hedy Lamarr
      • Mary Leakey
      • Wangari Maathai
      • Mary Sherman Morgan
      • Ellen Ochoa
      • Sally Ride
      • Stephanie Schwabe
      • Donna Shirley
      • Kathryn Sullivan
      • Ruth Wakefield
      • Peggy Whitson
      • Wu Chien-Shiung
    • 1800 - 1899
      • Hertha Ayrton
      • Florence Bascom
      • Katharine Burr Blodgett
      • Annie Jump Cannon
      • Martha Coston
      • Marie Curie
      • Lillian Gilbreth
      • Margaret E. Knight
      • Lise Meitner
      • Ynes Mexia
      • Maria Mitchell
    • - 1799
      • Mary Anning
      • Marie d'Arconville
      • Laura Bassi
      • Emilie du Chatelet
      • Catharine Littlefield Greene
      • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Wang Zhenyi
  • Health & Medicine
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Fuller Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Karen Horney
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Mary Eliza Mahoney
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Jane Cooke Wright
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Billie Holiday
    • Nichelle Nichols
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Rihanna
    • Yma Sumac
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Rosetta Tharpe
    • Raven Wilkinson
  • Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
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