Adventures come in different shapes and sizes and mean so many things to different people. I've just finished reading Adventurous Women, Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference by Penny Colman and am now starting on my own small adventure, a book review for the Adventurous Women blog.
Colman writes that she was looking for obvious adventures and not so obvious, from an expedition to the Arctic to building a school. Many of the women featured in the book decided that their lives would be full of adventure and were fortunate enough to have the money to make that decision. Others had adventure thrust upon them. For them, it was more a case of survival providing the adventure in their lives, but they rose to the challenge and not only survived but thrived and helped their family members and others around them as they lived their adventurous lives.
The adventurous women include Louise Boyd, an arctic explorer and Mary Gibson Henry, a plant hunter -- two very different women, with very different interests. Boyd started her exploration at a young age, chartering a boat to explore the Arctic whereas Gibson Henry discovered her passion as a child but married, raised five children, then started her plant-finding adventure, taking her family along with her.
Juana Briones became the head of her family. Her adventure wasn't the luxury of travelling with her family but raising them on her own while becoming one of the preeminent women in California history. Alice Hamilton, a super sleuth, used her medical knowledge to fight for better rights for workers. Ignoring factories that had been cleaned up before her inspection, Hamilton instead listened to gossip and tracked down the problems workers faced with lead and other substances.
Mary McLeod Bethune, a passionate educator has an amazing story of building a school and hospital during segregation and standing up to the Ku Klux Klan, "If you burn my buildings, I'll build them again." Adventurous, bold, brave, there aren't enough words to describe her strength of character. Katharine Wormeley, a daring superintendent, worked on board a hospital ship during the Civil War in horrendous conditions and wrote letters describing her experience.
The final chapters of the book feature Biddy Mason, a fierce fighter who walked to California behind a wagon train before finally winning her freedom from slavery, and Peggy Hull, a resolute reporter who was the first female war correspondent. Hull spent seven months in Siberia, covered the Japanese attacks of Shanghai in 1932 and World War II.
These are incredibly brief introductions to these women, their stories are inspirational. I enjoyed Penny Colman's style, in a "conversational voice," which made the stories come to life rather than being bombarded with a great deal of facts. Strangely one of my favourite quotes comes from Louise Boyd. "I powder my nose before going on deck, no matter how rough the sea is" really made me smile. Here is this amazing woman chartering a boat to explore the Arctic, convincing a captain that a woman could take on that role, dealing with severe conditions but still ensuring her nose was powdered as was important in the 1930s.
I'm not sure what adventure I'd like to have in 2009 but I would happily take a small amount of the passion and strength of any of these amazing women and will enjoy dipping into their stories every now and then when I need some inspiration.
Lorna Harris is Editor in Chief of Boudica, a social news site for women. Lorna is British but recently moved to California. Her new blog about life in California from a British point of view will begin the new year.
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