Endorse HJ Res. 47 and SJ Res. 39, legislation to

remove the time limit for ratifying the Equal Rights

Amendment.

Click HERE to sign the petition!!!!!!

Petition:
On behalf of women of the United States, United 4 Equality calls on the Obama Administration to stand united with women by publicly supporting HJ Res 47 and SJ Res 39—to remove the time limit for ratifying the ERA, allowing the time to garner the endorsement of the three additional states required for the Amendment to be ratified into the Constitution. Until U.S. women are guaranteed equality in the law of the land, they will not be full citizens of this country.

Supreme Court Justice Scalia stated in 2011 that gender equality in the U.S. was not definite as the Constitution reads today. Public support of this legislation will send a clear message to the American people and our worldwide neighbors that the Obama Administration firmly stands for the principals our nation was built upon.

We need your help! We need 25,000 signautes by May 12th! Please help us spread the word! This is our opportunity to finish the work our fore-mothers started! Via Luanne J. Smith: We are now at 1372. There is a battle between New York and Virginia, with New York now one ahead for 6th place.

Welcome back to Colorado, Michigan, Utah, Indiana, Montana, South Carolina, Idaho, and West Virginia, which hadn’t been heard from for some time. We also heard from South Dakota for the first time! But still nothing from North Dakota, and Wyoming and Nebraska still have only one signer. We need every state to be fully engaged for us to succeed.

Please help us contact the states with low totals to have them fully represented in the petition.

Top States:
Florida 104
California 94
Ohio 63
Oklahoma 59

Click HERE to sign the petition!!!!!!

By: Tammy Simkins
Advocate for Social Justice, Fellow Organizing for America

National Women’s History Project
3440 Airway Dr Ste F
Santa Rosa, CA 95403

http://www.nwhp.org

(707) 636-2888
nwhp@nwhp.org

A great new book for readers of women’s history…

The Kings’ Mistresses is the little-known story of two spirited sisters who flaunted every social convention of 17th century Europe in their determination to live independently.

The Mancini sisters, Marie and Hortense, were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France at Versailles, and strategically married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. Such was the life of many young woman of the age: they had no independent status under the law, and were entirely a part of their husband’s property once married.

Marie and Hortense, however, had another lifestyle in mind altogether. Abandoning their husbands, they took to the road, using the brand new post coach service to ferry them across Europe. Hortense was a famous gambler, the women often dressed and passed as men, and their scandalous behavior became a sensation.

Elizabeth Goldsmith has written a vibrant biography of two pioneering free spirits, feminists long before the term existed, who refused to be constrained by the morals, mores, and hypocrisies of their age.

Elizabeth C. Goldsmith is a professor of French and director of the study abroad curriculum at Boston University. She has written books on literature in the age of Louis XIV, focusing on letter correspondences and women’s writing. She teaches courses on seventeenth-century theater and the novel, travel writing, and historical fiction.

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781586488895

So what are you waiting for?…Bid Now!
Every bid helps support our cause.   

Celebrating the theme of National Women’s History Month, the NWHP is sponsoring an on-line Auction going on now.

Whether you’re looking for something special for yourself, searching for a gift for someone else, or looking to add to your school or personal library, you’re sure to find something in our auction.  Click here -> Women’s Empowerment Aution

The success of this online auction depends on spreading the word to as many people as possible. We need your help. Please Refer a Friend and encourage them to participate so they don’t miss a single moment of the fun and excitement. Click the share option below to tell your friends on your social websites or through email! Help support NWHP!

You Can’t Do That

Written by: Kathy L. Baumgarten

 “Again? Tell you what, don’t bother,” we heard, followed by the slamming of a telephone. The young supervisor was having a bad day.  To some mumbling from the others, she advised, “Don’t you start! I already fired one guy today, I can do another! And I’d be outta here myself if there were any better jobs around!”

  My husband and I exchanged glances; at her age we were Staff Sergeants already. The service had been our ticket out of poverty. “The Air Force is hiring,” he shouted toward the counter.

 “Why on earth would I want to go in the military?” she asked incredulously, sandwich in hand. Once, I had wondered the same thing.

In 1975, I enlisted in the Women’s Air Force, following the footsteps of Greatest Generation women fighting for the right to serve. Shortly thereafter, I saw it dismantled. Integrated into the “real” Air Force, women were able to serve as more than just nurses and secretaries.  As the base’s first female entomologist, however, there were lots of challenges. Opposition often came from strange quarters; I had to learn to rise above it. One event, I recall, was pivotal in my personal growth.

After receiving reports of boot camp trainees suffering from bird lice, our investigation indicated that pigeons nesting on rooftops and ledges were the source. All afternoon, my boss and I worked together treating affected dormitories. At quitting time, two remained incomplete.

“Look, you do that one and I’ll do this one, and we’ll meet back at the truck, okay?” my boss decided.

“Sure,” I replied, forgetting that all day I’d been relying upon him to go up the ladder first. Would I have enough strength to hang onto the ladder and my gear with one hand, and open the heavy trap door at the top with the other?  “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it,” I decided as I climbed to the top floor women recruits’ dormitory. I knocked on the door, and a small face appeared in the window. “Civil Engineering- I need roof access,” I said, slapping my identification against the glass.

“I’ll have to get permission,” she responded. A moment later, I explained my mission to the woman in charge.

“This is great!” she replied. “I’ll have all the recruits watch so they can see how well a woman can do a man’s job!” Thus, as I    nervously stood considering the trap door some twenty feet up, I had an audience.

“What’re you gonna do?” one asked.

“Climb up onto the roof.”

“You can’t do that,” said another. “You’re a girl.”

“She can and will!” corrected their instructor. “Ma’am, you just do your job, don’t mind us!”

“Some are born great…others have greatness thrust upon them,” I remembered. Would these girls even try to find out if they had the “right stuff” if I fell to my death, right here, right now?

“What you waitin’ for, ma’am?” a voice urged.

I looked at my watch. Marty was probably done already. Bracing myself, I tucked my gear under my arm and started climbing.

“Look at her go!” the instructor beamed.

“Gloria Steinem, where are you when I need you?” I wondered as I reached the top. Hanging on as tight as I could, I reached way over, perilously over, and pulled the handle. The hatch popped open, and, as the bright sunlight poured in, the crowd below gasped in delight. However, I couldn’t push it completely open the way Marty did. “Well,” I decided, “maybe I can open it as I go.” That small revelation enabled me to inch upward to look out, and later became the foundation of many subsequent “feminizations” of my tasks. Heaving my gear over first, I pulled myself up, nudged the door some more and gingerly raised a leg over the side. In a moment, I tumbled onto the roof. “Not lady-like, but you did it,” I congratulated myself; the pigeons nearby were not impressed. Stumbling to my feet, I tossed the bait at my critics, glanced at my watch and headed back down.

Audience reactions were mixed. “That wasn’t nothin’,” declared one.  “Weren’t you scared?” asked another. “You’d never get me doin’ that,” and “That’s dirty work…” scoffed some.  “Man’s work,” declared others.

“Good job,” the Sergeant reassured me. “See, ladies. You can do anything you want.”

Outside, I found that I had finished first.  “Any trouble?” Marty asked as he walked over to stow his gear.

“Naw,” I smiled. “Let’s go.”

Although serving a career and, like many military women, often feeling ambiguous about my profession, I never questioned the importance of my ascent that day. In the coffee shop, however, I realized that I hadn’t been alone on that ladder. A lot of women had preceded me, women who worked hard so I could decide for myself whether to try to go up, or to stay down.

Written by:
K. L. Baumgarten 

Veteran and author Kathy L. Baumgarten often touches on military topics as a form of outreach and personal therapy in her column in The Lake Champlain Weekly . http://www.lakechamplainweekly.com/ . Learn more at her website, www.strictlyaloner.com.

A Women’s History Month Lesson Plan

Here at Flocabulary, we use hip-hop music to make learning exciting and accessible to students. We recently created a song all about the history of women’s rights, and we couldn’t wait to share it with the NWHP community. Using our Women’s Rights Song as a jumping off point, this lesson plan allows students to focus in on key moments in the history of women’s rights and create a kinetic timeline of famous women in history. At the end of the lesson, students will use historical examples to support a plan for the future of women’s rights.

The Lesson Plan

1. Listen to Flocabulary’s Women’s Rights song. As students are listening, ask them to note down the different rights that women fought for throughout history, as well as current issues that women face. These issues are:

• Equal rights in the home
• Inability to own land
• Prohibition from voting
• Women being sent back to the home after WWII
• Educated women being bored at home
• Unequal pay
• Women currently owning 1% of land worldwide
• Women not being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia
• No American head of state.

Explain to students that they will be learning more about the fight for these rights relate to periods of history through a research project and a creative presentation.

2. Break your class into 6 groups. Assign each group one of the time periods in history:

1. The French Revolutionary Era
2. The Civil War Era
3. Early 1900s
4. Post World War II
5. 1960s-1980s
6. The Modern Era

3. Each group should research and answer the following questions for its time period. They can begin research by clicking on the lyrics of our Women’s Rights song, and then using other online research techniques to find more:

• What major historical events happened in that period? How did these events affect women?
• What major rights issues were women facing during that period?
• Who were famous women during your time period who led the fight for specific rights?
• What were major women’s rights accomplishments during your time period? What important limitations still remained?
• From the beginning of your time period until the end, what changed for women?

4. After students have been given time to research, each group should create a skit that explains the answers to the questions. Give the groups time to write and practice their skits.

5. Started with the French Revolution group, have each group perform for the class while other students take notes. At the end this kinetic timeline, ask students:

Based on the successes and failures of historical women in their fight for rights, how do think current women’s rights issues should be addressed?

You can use this question as a basis for class discussion or as an essay prompt.

Like this song and lesson? Visit Flocabulary.com to access hundreds of songs, videos and lessons like these. 

Equality in all areas of education, equality in the workplace, equal pay, equal representation, and equal opportunity for all women, since the beginning of the Women’s Right Movement and Feminist Movement, the role of women in society has expanded. As a result, women’s role in society is no longer a one sided view or a narrow street partly because of women’s education.

Unequivocally, Women’s Education has assisted in improving the quality of life for women. Veritably, women’s history is an extensive one filled with struggle, strife, barriers, discrimination, demands, change and opposition. While women’s history is filled with opposition, clearly, women’s education has leaded the way to women’s empowerment. Care givers, nurturers, and providers by nature, women’s education has expanded the role of women to include such descriptions as mentors, motivators, educators and leaders.

Initially, at the rudimentary stages of American History women who considered getting an education often met opposition and adverse reactions. Although, the Women’s Right Movement and Feminist Movement has help to expand the roles of women in society, surely, the success of both of these movements has been the education of women and women educating other women.

Today, in the United States 60 Women’s colleges exist, and add to the fact a myriad of women attend state universities and colleges that accept both sexes. Archaic in our time, the school of thought that education should only be for men is now nearly defunct. Women’s education began as a thought, and then became part of a movement and eventually an equal opportunity. Women’s education for decades has received much approval, support recognition and encouragement from grandmothers, mothers, single mothers, daughters and sister girl friends.

Without the Women’s Right Movement, Feminist Movement, education and empowerment , today’s woman would be subject to one role that of domestication. To conclude, to effectively empower women with the tools to be successful in today’s society, education must be a pre-requisite, not an afterthoughtoroptional, Women’s Education and Women ‘s Empowerment is not invariable, it is dynamic and constantly changing; therefore, as women it is important that each of usremember the

Women’s Right Movement and Feminist Movement  as well as the importance of each movement and howboth movements has help improve the quality of life for all women. As you can see  and tell,despite the rate  or speed that Women’s Right progress ,each of usmust remember thatWomen’s Education – Women’s Empowerment began with women demanding equality .

Written by:
Jamala M Johnson

Founder & President of csaccac Inc

The 2012 Women’s History Month Proclamation given by President Barak Obama addressed women’s continual fight for equality, fairness, and justice.  Acknowledging that generations of women pioneers challenged injustices and shattered ceilings to further women’s education—there is still work to be done.

“As Americans, ours is a legacy of bold independence and passionate belief in fairness and justice for all. For generations, this intrepid spirit has driven women pioneers to challenge injustices and shatter ceilings in pursuit of full and enduring equality. During Women’s History Month, we commemorate their struggles, celebrate centuries of progress, and reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the rights, security, and dignity of women in America and around the world. …While we have made great strides toward equality, we cannot rest until our mothers, sisters, and daughters assume their rightful place as full participants in a secure, prosperous, and just society.”

-Barak Obama

Many of those pioneers in education are recognized and honored in the 2012 Gazette publication by the National Women’s History Project.  Representing hundreds of women whose countless hours of work remain uncounted for, these honorees lead the way in improving education for all young women in America over the centuries.  The efforts made by these individuals changed the course of history–or more appropriate herstory.

These Honorees include:

• Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870) – Women Higher Education Pioneer

• Charlotte Forten Grimke (1837 – 1914) – Freedman Bureau Educator

• Annie Sullivan (1866 – 1936) – Disability Education Architect

• Gracia Molina de Pick (b.1929) – Feminist Educational Reformer

• Okolo Rashid (b.1949) – Community Development Activist and 
Historical Preservation Advocate

• Brenda Flyswithhawks (b. 1950) – American Indian Advocate and Educator

Written by:

Kimberly Roush
Blog Manager

Today in History: Birth of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Second woman to serve as Associate Justice on the Supreme Court

Ginsburg was born March 15th, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. After receiving her BA at Cornell University, she attended Harvard Law School receiving her LL.B. from Columbia Law School.  She began her career serving as a law clerk to Edmund L. Palmieri, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1959–1961.

Continuing her career, throughout many roles, advocating for civil rights, women’s issues, worker’s rights and equality, she became a key player in contributing to the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU’s general Counsel from 1973–1980, and on the National Board of Directors from 1974–1980.

After being appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980, President Clinton nominated her as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court—taking her seat on August 10, 1993 next to Sandra Day O’Connor the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

She married Martin D. Ginsburg in 1954, and has a daughter, Jane, and a son, James. After 56 years of marriage, her husband passed away in June 2010. Not long after his passing, Ginsburg continued serving her position on the Supreme Court.

Ginsburg turning 79 today continues to serve the women of this country with her advocacy for equality and civil rights.  Ginsburg is an icon to young women of America, especially those pursuing a career in law.  Time and time again, she has proudly served her position to show that the Supreme Court is not entirely male —even when she was faced with some of life’s most difficult circumstances.

Ginsburg sets the standard for accountability; openly she has recognized the inaccuracies in history pertaining to equality, women, slavery, and Native Americans when no one else in her position seemed to be talking about such issues.  She continues to represent herself as a woman and more importantly as an individual that has ideas and perspectives that ultimately shape the outcomes of many issues currently facing our society and the world today.

Written by:
Kimberly Roush
Blog Manager

Sources:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-05-05-ruthginsburg_N.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-egypt_n_1248527.html

G.E.S.S. is a student organization at Ohio University of Chillicothe and our purpose is to promote gender equality and awareness to students and the local community. In recognition of Women’s History month, G.E.S.S. wanted to recognize the event on our campus by sponsoring an “Empowerment” themed art show.

The purpose of this show is to recognize Women’s History Month as well as empower the viewer. The artists range from Ohio University students, faculty and community members. A semi-formal reception will be held on March 9th from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM which is open to the public to honor the artists and their work. The show will run until March 27th.

Recognizing this event at a local level helps unite and empower women at a local level—in some cases this is where it is needed most. While each piece of artwork tells a story, it is up to the viewer to interpret that story. Artwork can spark ideas and conversations that other aspects of life and culture cannot. This show is meant to do just that with the intentions of empowerment and enlightening the individual.