The Modern Woman as Global Exemplar, Part I: Biographies of Women Worthies

The literary genre of “Biographies of Women Worthies” exists across the globe, historically and analytically important. This essay examines the potential this genre of writing holds for scholars of world and transnational history, particularly those who wish to incorporate gender and cultural studies into their work. I focus on the late 19th‐/early 20th‐century global process of cooptation and incorporation of foreign moral exemplars into local compendia of eminent women and suggest avenues for cross‐area research to expand the field of World History.