Other Women's Voices: Translations of Women's Writing Before 1700

Enheduanna (a Mesopotamian priestess), Sappho (an Ancient Greek poet), and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (a 17th-century Mexican scholar and nun) are just several of the women represented on this website. The 125 texts presented here were written by women throughout time and across continents, spanning from 2300 BCE to the early 18th century, and from the Middle East to Asia to Europe.

The majority of these women were nobility, but writings from other women are also available. These include the works of Sei Shonagon, a prominent literary figure and attendant at the Japanese court in the 10th century, and Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya, of Basra, Iraq, who may have been a freed slave living in the 700s. Available texts include drama, prose, poetry, biography, visionary literature, history, memoirs, and letters that shed light on how women viewed such diverse topics as war, crime, class, sexuality, sex roles, and especially religion, in the particular contexts in which they lived. The website offers a biographical portrait of each writer with pertinent facts, though little additional historical context is provided.

Read a more in-depth review of Other Women’s Voices: Translations of Women’s Writing Before 1700 written by Nora Jaffary of Concordia University.

Or explore other website reviews at World History Sources – Finding World History.