Loras College Library: Women's History: Research & Reading: Background Information

Oxford Reference Online

Use Oxford Reference Online to find background information on your topic. The database contains electronic versions of top-quality reference titles in an easy-to-use interface.

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Great resource for background information on your topic. Contains electronic versions of top-quality reference titles in an easy-to-use interface.

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Encyclopedias help you figure out the who, what & where of a topic. Knowing the who, what & where of a topic is the first step in researching a topic and discovering the "how" and "why". Encyclopedias and dictionaries can provide background information and can be used to identify key people, events and dates which can then be used as search terms for finding additional information. Many also provide a jumpstart on your research by listing related readings.

Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion
Call Number: 200.82 Yo87 | 1st Floor Stacks
The Encyclopedia's 600 articles place all aspects of religious thought and experience in a new light. Major themes explored include comparative study of issues such as mythology, ordination and afterlife; Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism; the study of art in religion, literature and science; historical perspectives on religions both new and prehistoric; biographies of religious leaders and scholars.
Black Women in America by Kim Marie Vaz (Editor)
Call Number: 305.48896 V47 | 2nd Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 1994
Challenges the tendency to represent African-American women's experiences as a monolithic whole. The interdisciplinary approach organized around the theme of activism enables an unusual and inventive selection of topics to be presented. The history, culture, sociology and psychology of black women are richly represented.
Encyclopedia of women social reformers by Helen Rappaport
Call Number: 303.484 R18 | 2nd Floor Stacks
Telling the stories of many women from the ancient world, Salisbury (history, U. of Wisconsin-Green Bay) shows the choices they made in their lives as they looked for happiness, wealth, power, or well-being for their families.
Encyclopedia of women's history in America by Kathryn Cullen-DuPont.
Call Number: 305.40973 C89 2000 | 2nd Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 2000
New edition of a resource that pays homage to women's many contributions to life in the United States from colonial times to the present.
Girlhood in America by Miriam Forman-Brunell (Editor)
Call Number: 305.23 F76 | 2nd Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 2001
This groundbreaking reference work presents more than 100 articles by 98 high-profile interdisciplinary scholars, covering all aspects of girls' roles in American society, past and present.
Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient World by Joyce Salisbury; Mary R. Lefkowitz
Call Number: 305.40901 Sa34 | 2nd Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 2002
This is an A-Z encyclopedia on women in the ancient world.
International encyclopedia of women's suffrage
Call Number: 324.62303 H19 | 2nd Floor Stacks
This thorough and very readable reference seeks to shift the focus elsewhere in order to demonstrate the global nature of the demand for women's right to vote.
Women in world history : a biographical encyclopedia
Call Number: 920.7203 C73 | 4th Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 2002
With more than 8,000 biographical entries in approximately 16 volumes, this is the most comprehensive women's history encyclopedia available.
Latinas in the United States by Vicki Ruíz; Virginia Sánchez Korrol
Call Number: eBoook
Publication Date: 2006
Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia records the contribution of women of Latin American birth or heritage to the economic and cultural development of the United States.
Our Mothers' War : American women at home and at the Front during World War II by Emily Yellin
Call Number: 940.53082 Ye38 | 4th Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 2004
A stunning and unprecedented portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society.
Women and Slavery in America by Catherine M. Lewis; J. Richard Lewis (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2011
Offers readers an opportunity to examine the establishment, growth, and evolution of slavery in the United States as it impacted women-enslaved and free, African American and white, wealthy and poor, northern and southern.
Women in the Middle Ages by Katharina M. Wilson (Editor); Nadia Margolis (Editor)
Call Number: 305.40902 W84 | 2nd Floor Stacks
Publication Date: 2004-12-30
Women significantly shaped medieval political, economic, and cultural life as rulers, religious leaders, wives, patrons, teachers, healers, merchants, warriors, and agricultural laborers.