National Women's History Newsletter
March 2007
"Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be."
--- Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
"Remember the Ladies... If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice or Representation."
--- Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband, John Adams, while he was attending the Second Continental Congress, drafting the Declaration of Independence
March Highlights in US Women's History
- March 8 - A day internationally recognized as International Women's Day - its origins tracing back to protests US and Europe to honor and fight for the political rights for working women
- March 20, 1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", is published and becomes America's first book to sell over 1 million copies
- Mar 30, 1888 - The National Council of Women of the US is organized by Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- March 17, 1910 - Camp Fire Girls is established as the first American interracial, non-sectarian organization for girls
- March 12, 1912 - Juliette Gordon Low assembled 18 girls together in Savannah, Georgia, for the first-ever Girl Scout meeting
- March 4, 1917 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana is sworn in as the first
- March 6, 1934 - Eleanor Roosevelt becomes the first First lady to travel by air to a foreign country
- March 2, 1973 - Women begin pilot training for the US Navy
- March 1, 1978 - Women's History Week is first observed in Sonoma, California
- March 21, 1986 - Debi Thomas becomes first African American woman to win gold medal in a world skating competition
- March 23, 1917 - Virginia Woolf establishes the Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf.
- March 1, 1987 - Congressional resolution naming Women's History Month is passed
- Mar 31, 1776 - Abigail Adams writes to husband John who is helping to frame the Declaration of Independence: "Remember the ladies..."
March Birthdays
- March 3, 1962 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee - Considered the world's greatest female athlete; most decorated woman in U.S. Olympic track and field history with sixth Games medals overall.
- March 5, 1931 - Geraldyn (Jerrie) Cobb - Record-setting aviator; first woman to pass qualifying exams for astronaut training, 1959 but rejected as military did not allow female jet pilots at the time.
- March 7, 1938 - Janet Guthrie - Pioneering woman auto racer; first woman to compete in Indianapolis 500 (1977) and Daytona 500 (1977); only woman to place in top 10 finish at Indy 500 (1978)
- March 9, 1928 (1987) - Graciela Olivarez - Chicana activist; first woman and Latina law graduate from Notre Dame Law School; first woman chair of Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
- March 16, 1933 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Supreme Court Justice
- March 18, 1964 - Bonnie Blair - Speed skater; the most successful Winter Olympian in US history and 5 time gold medalist
- March 23, 1857 (1915) - Fannie Farmer - authored famous cookbook, "The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook", including accurate and specific ingredient measurements for the first time that would become standardized cooking measurements
- March 23, 1924 (1980) - Bette Nesmith Graham - invented Liquid Paper in her kitchen; sold her company to Gillette Corp. for $47.5 million; created 2 foundations to help women find new ways to make a living
- March 24, 1826 (1898) - Matilda Joslyn Gage - Suffragist, women's rights activist and theorist, historian
- March 24, 1912 - Dorothy Height - Served over 40 years as President, National Council of Negro Women; 2002 NWHP Women's History Month honoree
- March 25, 1935 - Gloria Steinem - Women's rights activist and journalist; founding editor of Ms. Magazine; helped found National Women's Political Caucus, the Women's Action Alliance, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women
- March 26, 1930 - Sandra Day O'Connor - First woman to join Supreme Court as justice (1981)
- March 27, 1924 (1990) - Sarah Vaughan - World renown jazz singer and pianist known as the "Divine One"
- March 31, 1889 (1975) - Muriel Wright - Choctaw Indian; fought for recompense for First Americans
Celebrate great women's birthdays year-round with our
"Celebrate Women!" Birthday Poster.
Dear Friends,
Happy National Women’s History Month! In 2007, we celebrate some very special women's history anniversaries, including the 50th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock's Central High School in 1957 and the 30th anniversary of the First National Women's Conference that took place in 1977.
2007 is also the 20th anniversary of the recognition of the month of March as National Women's History Month. From 1980 to 1986, the nation celebrated the week of March 8th, International Women's Day, as National Women's History Week. In 1987, the National Women's History Project spearheaded the successful campaign to have Congress declare the entire month of March as National Women's History.
Today, we invite you to become an official member of our Writing Women Back into History (WWBH) team to support the continued recognition of National Women's History Month and to help ensure that women will be written back into history.
National Women's History Month has become an important vehicle to recognize women as a force in history. Women's work and accomplishments need to be recognized everyday, every week, every month along with men's work and accomplishments. Until such recognition becomes a reality, establishing a special time on the national calendar to honor, recognize, and celebrate women as a force in history is essential. All aspects of our culture, including our schools, our religious institutions, our workplaces, the national media, and our political discussions need to include the perspective of the female experience.
- National Women's History Month provides the opportunity to begin the discussion. Without this month of activities, events, programs, and celebrations, most of women's contributions would continue to be overlooked and ignored.
- National Women's History Month reminds the nation of the need to recognize who women are and what their tenacious and intelligent work has sustained and created in our history and society.
- National Women's History Month provides the opportunity for recognizing significant historic and contemporary female role models for girls and boys and for women and men.
Your official membership in the WWBH Team supports and ensures the essential on-going work of "writing women back into history."
Thank you,
Molly Murphy MacGregor
Executive Director and Cofounder
Please feel free to use any of the words or images on our website to continue your work of promoting women's history. The 2007 Honorees and Theme.
A Special Washington, DC Women’s History Month Celebration
Please join us...
The National Women's History Project invites you to be our guest at a reception celebrating National Women's History Monthand recognizing the 2007 National Women's History Month Honorees.
The event will be held on March 21, 2007 in the Parkview Room at the Hotel Washington. The reception will begin at 5:30 and the Program will begin at 6:30.
The Hotel Washington is located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street NW, Washington, DC. Please RSVP by Monday, March 19, to 707-636-2888 or nwhp@aol.com.
2007 Presidential Proclamation for National Women's History Month
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The New President of Harvard: A Woman Who is Moving History ForwardDrew Gilpin Faust by Margaret Zierdt The selection of Drew Gilpin Faust to be the twenty-eighth president of Harvard University has been headlined as "a historic first" by the Christian Science Monitor. |
| It is indeed a fitting reward and recognition of Dr. Faust's scholarship and leadership by this prestigious institution founded in 1636, the first university in America. Its strict male-only environment broke in 1919 when it accepted the first woman faculty member. Harvard began admitting women to graduate programs in the 1940s, although it did not admit women to its undergraduate program until 1973. The irony is that Harvard has been aided by generous grants from women since its inception. In 1641 Anne Radcliffe, later Lady Mowlson, bequeathed 100 pounds sterling to establish the first scholarship for poor boys. Eleanor Elkins Widener contributed $3.5 millions for the Widener Library, but women could not use this fine building and its books until the end of the 1940s. Now committees have been formed to determine how to achieve parity. Click here for more. |
Featured Women’s History Resource of the Month
Roads from Seneca Falls is a website designed to bring together the best web-based material on women's history and leadership for K-12 students and teachers.
Fully searchable by terms, topics, grade level and type of material. The site provides lesson plans and primary sources relating to women's history across the country, as well as information on women’s historic sites, museums, libraries and markers.
A special feature is "Ask Mrs. Stanton," which allows students to ask questions about women's history and to receive an answer from an expert in the field.
This site was funded by the Department of Education and carried out cooperatively by the State University of New York at Oswego and Syracuse University.
Look for a new section on our webstore www.nwhp.org that will feature Women's History Collectibles. Announcement of launching will be in the mid-month's E-Flash.
Special Women's History Month Raffle that will continue from March 15th to April 15. Raffle prizes will include dozens of women's history books, videos, CD's and other related materials. Librarians, teachers, collectors, and women's history enthusiast will all want to participate. Downloadable raffle tickets will be available on our website on March 15th. The mid-month E-Flash will include a reminder of this fun-filled event.
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The National Women's History Project is located at 3343 Industrial Dr., Suite 4, Santa Rosa, California 95403
The National Women's History Project is a non-profit educational corporation with 501(c)3 status.