The story "A short history of women" revolves around the life of five women of the same family from different generations. The narrator starts off introducing Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a woman who dies protesting for women's suffrage in 1914.
Dorothy is a young and ambitious woman who thinks ahead of her time. She is the mother of two children, but she successfully shatters the image of a mother and becomes an epitome of altruism for everyone. Dorothy's daughter Evelyn becomes a chemistry professor. On account of her mother's sacrifice, Evelyn doesn't think that her mother's sacrifice was a selfless act.
Dorothy Trevor Townsend's granddaughter Dorothy Townsend Barrett lives a normal life with her husband and children. She divorces her husband in her seventies and starts a blog to protest against the Iraq war. Her two daughters Caroline and Liz, also try to keep alive their great-great grandmother's legacy.
