About

The Basics

I have always enjoyed biographies of women in history. As an elementary school student, I remember doing a report on a biography of Susan B. Anthony, and also being very interested in the life of Helen Keller. In high school, I read a biography about Catherine the Great of Russia, which fascinated me. As reflected in the blog title, my current fascination is Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire.

I am creating this site so that women may discuss women in history, and ways that their lives may have been different, if only those historical women had: a little more freedom, the right to own property, or had insight from other women, whose later writings empowered and educated women about ourselves.

Please do post a comment. Or, suggest a book. Or, leave a message about how you think Georgiana’s life could have been different if only she would have known…what?

More thoughts…

When I read Amanda Foreman’s book, Georgiana the Duchess of Devonshire, several years ago, it became the focus of my universe for a time. I would tell my family about the interesting and juicy details of her life. Because I am a very political being, I found it wonderful to see so closely — due to Amanda Foreman’s excellent research and compelling narrative — how a woman from history integrated her life as a wife, mother, daughter, political wife, and politician. When the movie came out in 2008 I was thrilled that I would have more people to talk to about the life of Georgiana.

I hope that this blog will be a place for other women to share their reflections about Georgiana, about women in politics, and about women in general. While I think that the book, the movie, and the DVD with addenda all shy away from saying it very bluntly, Georgiana’s story is a great way to study feminism and the rights of women.

I can’t help but think: What if Georgiana’s mother had steered her in a more empowered direction? What if women were allowed to inherit titles and property, so that Georgiana’s husband would have been as happy as her with the birth of his daughters? What if when the Whig Party realized the Georgiana was a million times better and more interested in politics than her husband, they could have given her an actual title? Or, let her run for office?

Amanda Foreman acknowledges in her book the various layers of oppression in Georgiana’s society. And, the movie “The Duchess” actually evokes many of these struggles. Amanda Foreman notes that in addition to the oppression of women, all the characters in the drama of Georgiana’s life were also affected by complicated expectations and limitations in regard to: “class, locality, economy, and age.”

Still, I believe that there are not enough places in the world for women to talk among women. And, Georgiana seems like the perfect example of someone whose life could have been so much better if she had had a place to go to be among women only. So, I invite everyone to peruse this web-site, and to e-mail me comments. Though,it is my inclination to only invite comments by women. And, I hope a lot of women will participate and chime in.

If you have another historical woman who you would want to have a dialogue about, please write a comment on the “Others” page and/or send me an e-mail. I am hoping to gather a list of a few choices of woman to focus on, and create a poll for people who find their way here. One woman who I will definitely write about is Victoria Woodhull, because I recently wrote about her on my other blog and it generated a lot of interest.

I am going to post a wide variety of links. I would guess that people would be interested in Georgiana’s life and/or the movie “The Duchess” for a wide variety of reasons. And, I would also like to use this platform to present some of my own ideas. So, among the links and conversation threads I am considering are: Women in history; Descendants of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; News, art and artifacts from the Chatsworth estate; Fashion (for aesthetics, and for political message, as Georgiana used it); Other women in history; Feminist studies; Women in the peace movement. I have already noticed that the links I am interested in reflect people with a wide variety of points of view. I hope you will take what you like and leave the rest, as they say.

Thank you,

Kimberly Marie Isaksson Wilder

KimberlyWilder06@yahoo.com
KimberlyWilder06 at yahoo dot com