logo
episode-header-image
May 2024
6m 14s

Workers: Sue Cowan Williams

Wonder Media Network and iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

Sue Cowan Williams (1910-1994) was a teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, who filed and won a lawsuit to end pay discrimination against Black teachers in the segregated South. Hher case helped shape the organization’s legal strategy for civil rights in schools across the country.

Special thanks to the Central Arkansas Library System for access to their Oral History collection, 1973-2001, UALR.ORH.108. UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture. 

For Further Reading:

This month we’re talking about workers: Women who fought for labor rights and shaped the way we do business today. They advocated and innovated to make the “office” – wherever it is – a more equitable place.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Hannah Bottum, Lauren Willams, and Adrien Behn. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

Follow Wonder Media Network:

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Aug 22
Pink Collar Workers: Virginia Apgar
Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) was a pioneering obstetric anesthesiologist who designed a test that still saves newborns every day. She was also the first woman to become a full professor at Columbia University. This month, we’re bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes y ... Show More
6m 5s
Aug 21
Pink Collar Workers: Angélique du Coudray
Angélique du Coudray (1712-1794) transformed the practice of midwifery in eighteenth century France. Her work was so invaluable that the king of France himself recognized her contributions and funded her teaching. This month, we’re bringing back some of our favorite Womanica epis ... Show More
5m 34s
Aug 20
Pink Collar Workers: Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta (1930-present) is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement. She helped found the organization now known as United Farm Workers and helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965. She is credi ... Show More
7m 41s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 29
Best Of: Barbara Kingsolver on ‘Urban-Rural Antipathy’
“It’s so insidious, people don’t realize it,” Barbara Kingsolver told me, describing the prejudice against “country people.” Kingsolver is one of those “country people,” as well as a literary legend in her own time, who set out to write the “great Appalachian novel.” And I think ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 9
The Patriarchy Playbook: How America’s Gendered Hierarchy Endures with Anna Malika Tubbs
This week on The Monday Edit, we have a very special guest joining in on the Monday fun: best selling author Anna Malaika Tubbs stopped by to tell us all about her new book, Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us and helps us hone in on real time examples of our Patr ... Show More
35m 20s
Sep 2023
195: Serial Killer: Judi Buenoano
When 54-year-old Judi Beunoano was executed by the State of Florida on March 30th of 1998, she was widely known as Florida’s Black Widow. And that’s because, over the course of 12 years, Judi had made attempts on the lives of these four innocent men: James Edgar Goodyear, Bobby J ... Show More
1h 7m
Dec 2024
40. By Hook or by Crook
Lucy Worsle digs into the lives of bold women who choose - by hook or by crook - to escape a life of poverty, misfortune and hardship. This episode highlights the fascinating tales of four invincible women. Sophie Lyons, a bank robber who, by the power of the American Dream, turn ... Show More
27m 58s
Sep 2024
Sojourner Truth Read By D'Atra "Dee Dee" Jackson
Once there was a girl whose powerful voice would inspire people to fight for equality. Her name was Isabella Baumfree, but we know her now as Sojourner Truth. She was a Black woman born into slavery in Dutch-speaking rural New York in 1797. She escaped to freedom after nearly 30 ... Show More
20m 16s
Jul 30
Beatrice Kenner and Midred Smith: Sister Inventors
Beatrice Kenner’s inventions were focused largely on making life easier and less annoying for herself and the people around her, including period products. Mildred Smith’s invention was about family, and it grew from her disability after she developed multiple sclerosis. Research ... Show More
40m 52s
Apr 2023
Nancy K. Miller and Tahneer Oksman. "Feminists Reclaim Mentorship" (SUNY Press, 2023)
Mentorship continues to loom large in stories about women's work and personal lives-- sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. If mentors can nurture and support, they can also bitterly disappoint, reproducing the hardships they once suffered and reinforcing the same ol ... Show More
1h 16m
Mar 2025
More Perfect: Sex Appeal
In 2017 our sister show, More Perfect aired an episode all about RBG, In September of 2020, we lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the annals of history. She was 87. Given the atmosphere around reproductive rights, gender and law, we decided to re-air this More Perf ... Show More
1h 5m
Feb 2025
Murder On The Red River: Who Killed Jennifer Harris?
A decades-old mystery—who killed Jennifer Harris? More than 20 years after Jennifer Harris was murdered, her family is still searching for answers. Jennifer’s sister, Alyssa Wernick, and her husband, Barry Wernick, sit down with Dr. Phil, former investigator Daryl Parker, and hos ... Show More
42m 51s
Feb 2025
Sojourner Truth: American abolitionist, suffragist, preacher
Greg Jenner is joined in 19th-Century America by Dr Michell Chresfield and comedian Desiree Burch to learn all about abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery in a Dutch-speaking area of New England, Sojourner Truth fought to free herself and then others, bec ... Show More
57m 49s