Resources and context to help your family celebrate Women's History Month!
Did You Know?
Feb. 28, 1909 marked the first Woman's History Day in New York City. It commemorated the one-year anniversary of the garment workers' strikes when 15,000 women marched through lower Manhattan
Women's History Day became Women’s History Week in 1978. In 1987, it became Women’s History Month. Since 1995, every president has issued a proclamation declaring March as Women's History Month.
Wyoming Territory was the first place to grant women the right to vote in 1869. In addition, Wyoming elected the first female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, in 1924.
Until Congress passed the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, women could not get credit cards in their own name. Legal work done by late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg laid the foundation for the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as well as many other basic rights women have today, including the ability to attend state-funded schools, protection from pregnancy discrimination at work, and the ability to serve on juries. Suffragettes You May Not Know
Nina Otero-Warren was a suffragist, educator, author, businesswoman, and homesteader. She spent her life working to improve conditions of rural Native American and Hispano communities while also serving as a suffragist and a role model for young female activists. She was also involved in politics, running a historic campaign and also working as a central component of the New Mexico suffragist movement. Her impact led to the approval of the women's vote in New Mexico.
Ida B. Wells was an activist, journalist, and researcher who was born into slavery, but defied all societal odds in becoming an educator. In addition, she was also a suffragette and a champion for equality, fighting for fair treatment of workers and drawing attention to lynching. Wells was also active in the women's rights movement, working to create a more equitable movement that also addressed the issues that Black women faced.
Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was a known figure in the New York suffrage movement. She was also the first Chinese woman to receive a PhD in Economics at Columbia University and vocally expressed her desire to use her education to improve the lives of women. Even as an immigrant who was unable to vote, she still fearlessly used her voice to advocate for women's voting rights without directly benefitting from a change in legislation.
Jane Addams rejected motherhood and marriage to dedicate her life to social change. Addams was a suffragette who also moved into a home in an immigrant neighborhood named "Hull-House," where she fostered a place for immigrants and diverse communities to gather. She along with other Hull House residents worked to sponsor legislation to abolish child labor, limit hours of working women, champion for labor unions, and ensure safe working conditions. She founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and is now recognized as the mother of social work.
Other Notable Trailblazers
Roberta Gibb was the first Sojourner Truth was a former woman to run and finish the slave turned abolitionist and Boston Marathon in 1966. Of women's rights activist. Her best course, she didn’t get official known speech, "Ain't I a credit for it, as women were not Woman?" was delivered at a allowed to enter the race until women's convention and 1972, but her wins, in ’66, ’67, continues to be treasured today. and ’68 seriously challenged When Truth passed away, her long-held beliefs about the athletic prowess of women. funeral was the largest her town had ever seen, serving as a testament to her impact.
Chien-Shiung Wu disproved the Malala Yousafzai was shot in law of conservation of parity, the head and neck by the Taliban which claimed that physical when she boarded a bus to systems behave identically. advocate for Pakistani girls’ Using a chemical isotope, Wu education. She was 15 years old. disspelled a law of physics that Two years later, she was awarded had been widely accepted, yet the Nobel Peace Prize, making only her two male colleagues her the youngest recipient to receive one. received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Rosalind Franklin was an Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her excellent chemist known for the life fighting for women's rights discovery of DNA's double and combatting discrimination in helix structure, a remarkable the Supreme Court. She was a feat at the time. However, only force to be reckoned with, her two make colleagues were dominating the academic world as widely recognized and top of her class at Harvard accredited with the discovery, University while also caring for later winning a Nobel Peace Prize without her. her sick husband and never backing down from the fight for equality until her last breath in September 2020. Women's History Books
Ages 0-5 Ages 6-12 Ages 12+ Brave Girl: Clara and the For the Right to Learn: I am Malala by Malala Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of Malala Yousafzai's Story by Yousafzai 1909 by Michelle Markel Rebecca Langston-George She Takes a Stand: 16 Every-Day Dress-Up by Lillian's Right to Vote by Selina Alko Jonah Winter Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World by Michael Elsohn Ross RCL Events Spotlight
"Growth Mindset Around Diversity" with Dr. Taylor Lucas and Dr. Borelli
How do you support your child's identity development and teach them to celebrate their differences? Are there guidelines that parents should follow when discussing issues of racism, sexism, or classism when speaking with their children? Are there ways to foster respect for the differences of others? Utilizing RCL’s F-E-E-L Framework, this webinar will offer tangible ways parents can help their children embrace diversity from a growth mindset.
Click here to watch this event Family Friendly Media
Moana (2016) age 6+ A League of Their Own (1992) age 7+ He Named Me Malala (2015) age 12+ On the Basis of Sex (2018) age 12+ Moxie (2021) age 15+
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