Sistory Untold

Welcome back to our two-part series on "Snow Widows: Scott'S Fatal Antarctic Expedition Through the Eyes of the Women They Left Behind."  On this episode, we continue our conversation with biographer Katherine MacInnes and dive deeper into the lives of the five women in her book: Kathleen Scott, Oriana Wilson, Caroline Oates, Emily Bowers, and Lois Evans. For more information on Snow Widows and the author Katherine MacInnes, check out her website snowwidows.co.uk and follow Katherine on Instagram @macinnes.katherine. To learn more about Sistory Untold, follow us on Instagram and Twitter @sistoryuntold or visit our website sistoryuntold.com.

You may have heard of Captain Robert Scott and his tragic trip to the Antartic but do you know the stories of the women left behind? This week we have author Katherine MacInnes with us to tell us the stories of Kathleen Scott, Oriana Wilson, Caroline Oates, Emily Bowers, and Lois Evans the wives and mothers who were left behind and the shared tragedy that brought them together.  This is part one of two- this week we learn about the expedition to the south pole, what was feminism at the turn of the 20th century and an intro to the women. Join us two weeks from now for part two!  For more information on Snow Widows and the author Katherine MacInnes check out her website snowwidows.co.uk and visit Katherine on instagram @katherinemacinnes For more info on Sistory Untold follow us on instagram and twitter @sistoryuntold or visit our website sistoryuntold.com where we post all of our sources for the episodes!

On this episode, we give a quick rundown of the who, what, when, and why of the French Revolution before returning to our sistory about eighteenth-century painters Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun and Adelaide Labille Guiard. These women, now both successful painters and members of the Royal Academy, find themselves on opposite sides of the revolution. While Adelaide fights for women’s rights and contributes to the revolution in France, Adelaide flees the conflict and goes on to make her mark on the rest of the European continent, traveling around Italy, Austria, Prussia, and Russia painting the portraits of everyone who’s anyone.  Once the dust of war has settled, Elisabeth and Adelaide find themselves at a dinner party in a new century, in a new France, as new women. What have their vastly different lives taught them, and what does putting their life stories in the context of one another teach us about them as individuals? Find out in this episode of Sistory Untold! Remember that this is part two, so if you haven't listened to part one yet, go back and listen to that!

On the eve of the French Revolution, two women gained access to France's most elite and exclusive community of artists: The Royal Academy. Elisabeth and Adelaide were admitted to the Academy on the same day, during a period when the Academy allowed a maximum of four female members at any given time, and when the minister of fine arts was a raging misogynist. What made these painters so special to deserve this honor? How did they get noticed by famous neoclassical painters and gain the patronage of several members of the royal family? And what was the relationship like between two young, up-and-coming female painters in the man's world of eighteenth-century Parisian art? Find out in this episode of Sistory Untold!

We're so excited to be back with our first episode of 2022! We are jam-packing this season with amazing, inspiring, sometimes intimidating women from history.  In this episode we are going way way back to the 6th century to talk about two queens whose rivalry spanned 4 decades. This story really shows that sometimes truth really is just stranger than fiction!  For more Sistory Untold check out our website sistoryuntold.com and follow us on instagram and twitter @sistoryuntold. All sources for todays episode will be listed on our blog at sistoryuntold.com.

Warning: this episode contains violent content.  After growing up during the bloodiest period in the history of the Americas under the rule of a dictator, three girls decided to become the face of a resistance movement. The Mirabal Sisters Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa started out with small but significant acts of defiance, which grew into a movement with hundreds of members. Today, they are remembered today as symbols of Dominican pride, feminine strength and resolve, and the cruelty of violence against women. Listen to this episode to find out who the girls were before they became symbols. For more information follow us on Twitter and Instagram @sistoryuntold,  email us at sistoryuntold@gmail.com or find our episode sources on our  website sistoryuntold.com

Warning! If you didn't guess by the title this episode contains violent themes.  This week we are learning all about three teenage girls who took bravery and the fight for justice to the next level. Hannie, Truus, and Freddie worked with the Dutch resistance in WWII to fight the Nazi invasion. Hear about their lives and how they used their sisterhood to fight evil. Come for the amazing story- stay for the horrendous Dutch pronunciation.  Sources for this episode can be found in our blog at sistoryuntold.com. For pictures and more information about this episode follow us on instagram and twitter @sistoryuntold

Last week, you learned about the individual lives of the playwright Aphra Behn and the actress Nell Gwyn. On today's episode, present day writer and actor Claire Louise Amias joins us to talk about these women's sisterhood and shares some fun anecdotes about each of them. Claire trained as an actor at trained at RADA and Bretton Hall and has appeared both on screen and on stage. After becoming obsessed with the writer/spy Aphra Behn, Claire  wrote and performed in her one-woman play "The Masks of Aphra Behn" at the Women and War festival in 2016. Three years later, she released "Oranges & Ink," a play about our two sisters in today's episode. "Oranges & Ink" recently won an Off West End ‘OnComm’ Award! You can watch both of Claire's plays in a double bill on scenesaver.co.uk for free—we highly recommend that you do! We hope you enjoy this conversation with Claire and learn as much as we did!

In this episode, we talk about Aphra Behn and Nell Gwyn as individuals, so that next time we can talk about their sisterhood. But even alone, these women led interesting and impressive lives! Aphra was a novelist, poet, and and dramatist who was the first professional female writer in English. Nell started off as an actress, but amassed her wealth and property by being mistress to King Charles II. Listen to this episode of Sistory Untold to learn even more about these fascinating women!

**trigger warning** This episode covers subjects of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. Our first episode of season 2.5! Thanks for sticking with us! This weeks episode is all about Edna Goodrich and Evelyn Nesbit! For pictures and more info on the episode check us out on instagram or twitter @sistoryuntold and see all of our sources on our blog at sistoryuntold.com.

In the mid-eighteenth century, everyone who's anyone would attend salons at aristocrats' houses to drink, play cards, and gossip. But the Bluestocking philosophers had something else in mind. This group of women bonded over tea, enlightened conversation, and literary discussion. As an informal club made up of Britain's best and brightest ladies, the Bluestockings Society gives us a glimpse into the lives of women of Georgian aristocracy. Writers, actors, singers, artists, and housewives all came together to encourage and support one another's professional endeavors and build lasting friendships.  P.S. a few corrections from the episode: Erasmus Darwin IS Charles Darwin's grandfather (no greats needed). Jane Austen did subscribe to Frances Burney's novel “Camilla.”

The first celebrities of their kind, the Gabors were considered famous for just being famous. With 19 husbands among the three of them and their fair share of very public affairs, they became notorious. But there was so much more to them than that. They were a tight-knit family of Hungarian immigrants who fought and escaped encroaching Nazi forces (all in their own unique way). They were successful businesswomen and talented performers who excelled together as well as apart. And, most importantly to us, they were sisters! Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva Gabor represent the best side of sisterhood: they were there for each other during their highs and lows, helped each other’s careers, and stood by each other’s sides until the end of their lives. Tune in to hear the whole story of the glamorous Gabor sisters! Follow us @sistoryuntold to stay up to date on all things Sistory! Head to our website sistoryuntold.com to see our sources and ask us any questions you have.

This is Part 2 of the “Samurai Sisters” episodes. Today, we will finish telling the story of Sutematsu and Ume, two girls and who studied abroad in America in the 19th century, then returned to Japan and transformed their education system. Sutematsu played a huge role in bringing philanthropy to Japan while also being a major supporter of all of Ume’s work. Ume traveled to America and England multiple times throughout her life to research women’s education and ended up founding one of the first women’s colleges in Japan, which still exists today. Ume and Sutematsu’s personal and professional lives constantly overlapped. They were close friends whose unique experience kept them close from childhood until the end of their lives. We hope you enjoy this sistory! A huge shout out to For the Love of History Podcast for giving amazing insights into this story. Some other incredible sources for this episode are the books “Daughters of Samurai” by Janice P. Nimura and “The White Plum” by Yoshiko Furuki. For all of our sources, check out our blog on sistoryuntold.com. For more information, follow us on Instagram @sistoryuntold!

In December of 1871, five young girls from samurai families embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. They sailed from Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco, California then traveled the country on a brand new railroad, finally arriving in Washington DC. While the men they were with went on to complete the political component of their mission, the five girls remained to start on the cultural one: living among Americans for 10 years and receiving an education. Public education for girls did not exist in Japan at the time, and private education was limited and very gendered. These girls were expected to take the best of the American education system while maintaining a strong Japanese identity, then return to reform Japan. Two of these girls, Ume and Sutematsu, are the subject of this episode of Sistory Untold. They became fast friends and sisters and their lives would remain intertwined for the years to come. Part 1 covers a bit of Japanese history and the early childhoods of Sutematsu and Ume. Come back next week to learn about their lives as adults! Trigger Warning: this episode mentions suicide and sexual assault

With the advent of the “New Woman” in the late 19th century, England and America saw a resurgence of empowered women. They smoked, rode bikes, went to college, and said no to marriage proposals. And so, a new type of sisterhood emerged: bachelor girls. Bachelor girls were eligible, career-focused women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who chose not to marry, and refused to be called spinsters or old maids. They might change their minds if the right man came around, but they would rather focus on their careers and their friendships with one another than wait around for their prince to come. On this minisode, we look at a history of the spinster stereotype and how that evolved into bachelor girls. We also read clips from newspapers in the 1890s and early 1900s to paint a picture of what bachelor girls were and get a sense of how their contemporary society viewed them. To learn more about bachelor girls, make sure to follow us @sistoryuntold on Instagram and Twitter. Check out our blog for sources on sistoryuntold.com

Mary Astell and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had a lot more in common than having a record book full of firsts— the first English feminist, the founder of the first school with an all female board of governors, the first English female travel writer, the first woman published in the Spectator. They were also connected by a passion for politics, a commitment to justice, and a strong friendship. Throughout their more than fifteen-year friendship, the women certainly influenced each other, and even the ends of their lives mirrored each other. Find out all about them in this episode of Sistory Untold! For more information follow us on Twitter and Instagram @sistoryuntold, email us at sistoryuntold@gmail.com or find our episode sources on our website sistoryuntold.com

It's rare to come across a dynasty that was ruled entirely by women, but we were lucky enough to find one for this episode!  Asma Bint Shihab al-Sulayhi and Arwa al-Sulayhi ruled Yemen alongside and often in place of their husbands, the king. Asma was Arwa's cousin, mentor, teacher, mother-in-law and guardian. In other words, she was the best big sister a queen-to-be could ask for.  We hope you enjoy our first episode of season two as we learn about the Fatimid caliphate of the medieval Middle East and North Africa, discuss the role of women in medieval Arab culture, and, as always, explore history through the eyes of sisterhood! For more information about this episode and to stay up to date about the podcast, follow us at @sistoryuntold on Instagram and Twitter. Make sure to also check out our blog on sistoryuntold.com for our sources and pictures to go along with the episode!

This episode is a Sistory Untold first! We are talking about three fictional women: Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia in William Shakespeare's beloved tragedy, King Lear. The older sisters in this play are often portrayed as pure evil, but is that the case? We talk about that and so much more in this episode! We also talk about the legend that inspired Shakespeare's play, and compare the way these women were represented in each version of the story. And, because this is a history podcast after all, we bombard you with a bunch of random (but interesting!) facts about women in Elizabethan England.  For more information and our sources please check out our website sistoryuntold.com. Connect with us on twitter and instagram @sistoryuntold to see pictures and further information for each episode.

In this episode we are covering the tragic lives of the two women who are often considered the "last Tasmanians". They survived torture and genocide and also managed to live really interesting and remarkable lives. From out law gangs to music and theatre these two women have seen and done it all. We hope you will enjoy this episode as we take a peak in to an ancient indigenous culture that with out the strength of these women and several others would be lost to us today.  For more information and our sources please check out our website sistoryuntold.com Connect with us on twitter and instagram @sistoryuntold to see pics and further information for each episode.

In this episode, we are talking about Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman, two American-based anarchafeminists who stood up to women’s rights and really stuck it to the man in the late 19th and early 20th century. Although they didn’t always see eye to eye, they often supported and praised each other and for a while wrote for the same publication. Chronic illness, imprisonment, poverty, and even assassination attempts couldn’t hold these women back. We hope you love this episode as much as we loved recording it! Trigger warning: this episode contains themes of sexual assault and suicide. To find out more about Sistory Untold and see our sorces head over to our website sistoryuntold.com Find out more about each episode including pictures of the women we talk about, connect with us on twitter or instagram @sistoryuntold.