Today’s Deseret News carries an interesting feature article on a recently published, but little publicized, book entitled Women in Utah History: Paradigm or Paradox? (USU Press, 2005).  The group project to publish the book, which contains chapters on women in churches, education, politics, work, the arts, polygamy, farming, women’s clubs and women’s life cycles, actually began in 1983, but things didn’t go as planned.  (Group projects rarely do.)  The editors took turns getting bored and giving up on the book.  It didn’t help matters that three authors and the photo editor died during the last two decades.  But the book has finally arrived. 

During the month of March, in honor of Women’s History Month, lectures based on the book will be given each Wednesday at noon at the Utah Historical Society, 300 S. 455 West.  Here is the schedule:

Wednesday: “Images from ‘Women in Utah History,’ ” Susan Whetstone, photo librarian, Utah Historical Society

March 8: “From Schoolmarm to State Superintendent: The Changing Role of Women in Utah Education, 1847-2004,” Patricia Lyn Scott, consulting archivist, Westminster College

March 15: “Women in Politics: Power in the Public Sphere,” Kathryn L. MacKay, associate professor, Weber State University

March 22: “Conflict and Contributions: Women in Utah Churches, 1847-1920,” John Sillito, archivist and professor, WSU

March 29: “Gainfully Employed Women in Utah,” Miriam B. Murphy, historian and writer, former associate editor of the “Utah Historical Quarterly”

The proceeds from the book’s sale will go to fund a history prize awarded for the best paper on women’s lives in Utah.