TROUBLEMAKERS IN TROUSERS

Twenty capsule biographies of historical women who wore trousers or men’s clothing.

The women portrayed in these short, illustrated narratives wore traditionally male clothing for different reasons. Harriet Tubman found skirts to be a hinderance when helping enslaved people escape; Vesta Tilley was an English-born drag performer during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the women disguised themselves as men so they could work in professions forbidden to women, while Ellen Craft disguised herself to escape slavery. The pharaoh Hatshepsut portrayed herself as male because that’s what pharaohs were, and if Frida Kahlo were alive today, “we might describe her as gender fluid.” Historical photographs and paintings add interest, although with descriptions pushed to endnotes, their often intriguing context is hard to find. A contemporary, slangy voice wavers between forced and quite funny, and the sidebars that pepper the collection (on everything from smallpox to the gender spectrum to “How To Start Up a Model T”) are informative and mostly rather interesting. About half of the subjects are White, though Black, Native American, Mongolian, and Indian women are covered as well. Almost all are from the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States or Western Europe. The final biography (of Marguerite Johnson, streetcar conductor) has such a satisfying reveal that it brings thematic closure to the whole collection.

Colorful, fun, relatable tastes of history that may tempt readers into further research.