Her Half of History
Why don't women's clothes have more pockets? Who are the female writers and artists my education forgot to include? How does a woman go about seizing control of her government? What was it like to be a female slave and how did the lucky ones escape? When did women get to put their own name on their credit cards? Is the life of a female spy as glamorous as Hollywood has led me to believe? In short, what were the women doing all that time? I explore these and other questions in this thematic approach to women's history.
Episodes
October 2, 2025 • 25 mins
Quite possibly no invention in modern history has done more to change women's lives than the pill so important it can just be called: The Pill. Safe, reliable, relatively easy birth control was a game changer for many (but not all) women.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the show on my Patreon page for bonus episodes, polls, and a general feeling of self-satisfaction. ...
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September 25, 2025 • 26 mins
The ancient world recorded many means of contraception, some of them reasonable, and some of them bizarre. Many records only say that prostitutes do this well, and do not give the means at all. Records start to get better in the 19th century, but access was limited depending on what part of the world you lived in. In the early 20th century, many activists campaigned for better alternatives and information, but at mid-century the a...
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September 18, 2025 • 24 mins
The problem of what to cook for dinner has been with women for millennia, but for most women in history, the options were limited by modern standards. They ate fresh, local ,and minimally processed. Not because they were healthy and environmentally conscious, but because they had no other ingredients available.
Canned goods were invented for the military, not for housewives. But after a great deal of invention, regulation, and adv...
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September 11, 2025 • 24 mins
Historically, women carred an awful lot of water. It was so commonplace that it rarely gets mentioned in the historical record, so the details are scarce. But the search for water sparked invention 10500 years ago when the oldest wells were dug and has continued to inspire countless inventions ever since.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
This show survives on the support of list...
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August 28, 2025 • 23 mins
Until the very recent past, your chances of surviving childhood were iffy. Your chances of losing one or more of your own children were high. The invention of vaccines dramatically improved children's health, but getting there was a challenge for both scientists and policy makers. Vaccine hesitancy is nothing new. The fact that so many of us have never experienced any of the major diseases ranks among the top human achievements of ...
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August 21, 2025 • 20 mins
Over the 19th century, a larger middle-class and better educational opportunities meant that many women had the necessary skills to work in an office. But somehow they never got the job. Instead, they were told they were "superfluous" and "redundant" if they did not get married. The typewriter was the machine that got women in the office door.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
This s...
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August 14, 2025 • 23 mins
The four biggest natural fibers are wool, cotton, flax, and silk, but none of them naturally come long, continuous, or strong. To make any textile at all, the fibers have to be twisted into thread or yarn by a process called spinning. Historical women all over the world had this as their primary assignment, and it was unbelievably time consuming. Right up until machines could do it better. Then the spinners all lost their jobs.
Vi...
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July 31, 2025 • 23 mins
For centuries, one of the biggest causes of maternal death was puerperal fever or postpartum infection. Doctors proposed many theories and many remedies, but they were totally unprepared to accept the truth: doctors were spreading the infection themselves. And all they needed to do was some solid hand washing between each patient.
The feature image is by Rasheedhrasheed, CC BY-SA 4.0
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July 24, 2025 • 25 mins
Susan B Anthony was in her seventies by the time the bicycle was widely available to women, but she admired it all the same and said “a girl never looks so independent, so much as if she felt as good as a boy, as on her wheel." She was, in Susan’s words, “the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”
Anthony meant that quite literally because until the 1890s, most women did not have the freedom to go beyond walking distance of the...
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July 17, 2025 • 27 mins
I'm starting this new series on Inventions that Changed Women's Lives at the very beginning—so early that it predates written history. In this episode, I dive into the origins of agriculture and ask the (possibly) surprising question: Was it actually a bad idea?
For many women, life as a hunter-gatherer may have been easier, freer, and more equal than what came after. But it's true that sources are sketchy, hindsight is 20/20, and...
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July 3, 2025 • 11 mins
The United States is gearing up for the Fourth of July, Independence Day. But in 1776, it was by no means certain that anyone would celebrate this day, or who would celebrate, or which day they would celebrate. John Adams wrote the news of the day to his wife Abigail Adams, and he was very dispirited about Canada. Also, he was dead wrong about which day we would celebrate.
I am currently on research break preparing Series 15. Enjo...
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June 26, 2025 • 3 mins
The polls are closed! In this episode, I'm giving you the results of the Women Podcasters Awards and the topic of my next series to start later in the summer. (Hint, it's all good news!)
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
This show survives on the support of listeners like you. Support the show on my Patreon page for ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Or make a one-time dona...
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June 19, 2025 • 25 mins
In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr., gets a holiday partly because he challenged Americans to live up to their own ideals and extend freedom and equality to people of all races. Partly because he delivered this challenge peacefully, with no violence. Partly because he paid for this cause with his life. And partly because he had a great wife, who stood by him. Coretta Scott King was also an activist, also risked danger, al...
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June 12, 2025 • 25 mins
Jiang Qing spent part of her life as an actress, part of it as an almost invisible housewife, part of it as a powerful leader in the Cultural Revolution, and part of it in jail taking the blame for actions that Mao certainly knew about and may have given orders for. Madame Mao is now notorious as the White-Boned Demon, and certainly she deserves some blame. But just how much blame she deserves is very difficult to know from the av...
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June 5, 2025 • 25 mins
Zelda Fitzgerald basically defined the iconic image of a flapper from America's Jazz Age. She was immortalized in fiction by her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is (debatably) the great American novelist. Sadly, the way he portrayed the sadness behind the glitter and glitz was all too real as well. Zelda was beautiful, witty, charming, and talented, but mental illness, alcohol, financial worries, and misogyny all took their toll....
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May 22, 2025 • 26 mins
Traditional histories give President Franklin Delano Roosevelt a lot of credit for guiding the United States out of the Great Depression. But his best move may have been appointing the first woman ever to join a presidential cabinet. As Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins won victories on public works for increased employment, 8 hour work days, minimum wage, Social Security, workplace safety standards, and no child labor. Many of h...
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May 15, 2025 • 20 mins
Frank Lloyd Wright is among the most famous architects of all time, but the drawings which made him famous weren't necessarily drawn by him. Marion Mahony had more qualifications than he did and ultimately believed that he had stolen her work. Nevertheless, she had a successful career as an architect, mainly in Australia.
Please vote for me in the Women Podcasters Awards! (https://bit.ly/43gK8Pt) I'm in the History category.
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May 8, 2025 • 24 mins
Einstein met his first wife in college, where they were both studying math and physics. How much Mileva contributed to his groundbreaking papers is regularly debated. This episode explains what we know, and what we (sadly) don't know about her efforts.
Please vote for me in the Women Podcasters Awards! I'm in the History category.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
Support the sh...
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April 24, 2025 • 25 mins
Gandhi is among the most documented figures of the 20th century. Most of these sources reveal astonishingly little about his wife Kasturba. But he actually credited her with teaching him the principles of nonviolent resistance. This episode tells the story of her transformation from an ordinary Hindu girl to a woman leading protests against the British Empire.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and ...
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April 17, 2025 • 24 mins
Robert Schumann is a big name in classical music. However, in his own lifetime, Robert Schumann wasn't “the” Schumann. His wife was the famous one. Clara Schumann was an internationally known virtuoso who delighted audiences for 60 years, including the periods before, during, and after her eight pregnancies, Robert's illness, and eventual death.
Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.
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