In Her Shoes

A Compilation of Inspiring Stories from the First Decade of the Worcester Women’s Oral History Project

By Charlene L. Martin and Maureen Ryan Doyle

Cost: $15.00 (includes shipping and handling)
Net Proceeds benefit Worcester Women’s History Project

In Her Shoes contains excerpts from the stories of women from different generations, ethnicities, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds who participated in the first decade of the Oral History Project.  The universal themes of striving for work-life balance, commitment to a personal cause, and finding one’s path in life despite obstacles big and small, arise as the women’s lives are revealed.

It is through the sharing of women’s stories that we come to appreciate, that despite our differences, there are often common threads that unite all women.  Whether reading about the life of a baker, an actress, a mother, an entrepreneur, or a funeral director, we come to respect each woman’s experience and the choices she makes.  And, perhaps, we achieve a better understanding of life in her shoes.

Charlene L. Martin, Ed.D. has thirty-five years of experience in higher education. She is the former Dean of Continuing Education at Assumption College, an adjunct professor, and the founding director of the Worcester Institute for Senior Education known as WISE. Maureen Ryan Doyle has worked as a freelance writer for many years and is also the owner of a small property management company in Central Massachusetts. She was the winner of Good Housekeeping Magazine’s New Traditionalist writing competition. Both Maureen and Charlene served on the Steering Committee of the Worcester Women’s History Project and have co-chaired the Worcester Women’s Oral History Project since 2008. They co-authored Voices of Worcester Women: 160 Years after the First Woman’s Rights Convention in 2011.