Introduction
I remember in February 1997 taking my then seven and five year old
daughters to an exhibition of Shakespeare's "Unruly Women" at the Folger
Shakespeare Library in Washington. There was Portia in
The Merchant of
Venice, who takes on the whole Venetian legal world and uses the law to
bring new, deeper insights to it. There was Beatrice in
Much Ado About
Nothing, and Rosalind in
As You Like It, both of them "take no
prisoners" women who ruffled the feathers of those birdbrains mindlessly
parroting the status quo.
Fearless women come in all shapes, forms, ages, and professions.
As Shakespeare put it, "Age cannot wither her, nor custom
stale her infinite variety."
I wanted to take my daughters to that exhibition because it's
never too early to teach women fearlessness. But now as I watch
my girls in their teenage years, I'm stunn ...
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