RECENT POSTS
National Women’s History Month
March 2008 Theme:
" Women's Art Women's Vision"
How it began
In the 1970’s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in public schools or in the general public consciousness. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the
In 1979, efforts were begun to secure a congressional resolution declaring the second week in March “National Women’s History Week”. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD co-sponsored the first joint Congressional Resolution. Within a few years, thousands of schools and communities were celebrating National Women’s History Week, supported by and encouraged by resolutions form governors, city councils, school boards and U.S. Congress.
To honor the originality, beauty, imagination, and multiple dimensions of women’s lives, the 2008 theme for National Women’s History Month is Women’s Art: Women’s Vision. The history of women and art is quintessential women’s history. It is the story of amazing women’s accomplishments acclaimed at the time but written out of history. Join us in ensuring that their accomplishments are never forgotten. This year’s theme provides a special opportunity to discover and celebrate women’s visual arts in a variety of forms and mediums that help expand our perceptions of ourselves and each other. The honorees are: Judy Chicago - 1939 Painter/Printmaker/Tapestry/Needlework, Harmony Hammond -1944 Painter, Edna Hibel – 1917 Colorist, Painter, Stone Lithographer, Serigrapher, Etcher, Sculptress, and Filmmaker, Lihua Lei – 1966 Multimedia Installation, Violet Oakley –1874-1961 Muralist, Stained Glass Artist, Rose Cecil O’Neill – 1874-1944, Painter, Illustrator, Sculptress, Faith Ringgold – 1930, Painter/Quilter, Miriam Schapiro – 1923 Print/ Painter Lorna Simpson – 1960 Artist, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith –1940, Painter/Printmaker, Nancy Spero – 1926 Painter, June Claire Wayne – 1918, Painter/Lithographer
Celebrate the history of women in your life and community.
National Women’s History Project Website: http://www.nwhp.org
Other Websites on African American Women’s History
http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/subjects/africana/afrowomen.html
http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/collections/digitized/african-american-women/
http://www.africana.com/
http://womenshistory.miningco.com/homework/womenshistory/cs/africanamerican/
http://www.DistinguishedWomen.com/subject/BlackHist.html
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/africanamerican/a/black_women.htm
http://blackquest.com/link.htm
Test Your Knowledge of Women's History
1. Who founded
2. What woman was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. ?
3. What Black woman refused to give up her seat to a White man, in
4. Who was the first woman to run for President of the
5. Who opened up social work as a profession for women, and also won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize for her anti-war organizing work?
6. Which Mexican-American woman has repeatedly been the leading money winner in the Ladies Professional Golf Association?
7. Who was the first woman Poet Laureate of the
8. Who was the first “First Lady” to have developed her own political and media identity?
9. Who wrote the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, in 1923?
10. Who was the first Black woman elected to Congress?
11. What leading suffragist was arrested and convicted of attempting to vote in the 1872 election?
12. Who was the first Chinese-American woman ever elected to hold a statewide office in the
13. What journalist traveled around the world in 72 days in 1890?
14. What woman was turned down by 29 medical schools before being accepted as a student, graduated at the head of her class, and became the first licensed woman doctor in the
15. What former slave was a powerful speaker for the rights of women and Black people?
16. When was the Equal Rights Amendment first introduced into Congress?
17. Who was the last queen of the Hawaiian Islands, deposed because American business interests wanted to annex
18. Which woman was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding religious discussion meetings in her home?
19. Who spoke out for the advancement of American Indians’ rights from speaker’s platforms nationwide and before Congressional committees in the 1880s?
20. Who drove a stagecoach across the roughest part of the West without anyone knowing until she died that she was a woman?
21. Who was the first Hispanic woman to serve as U.S. Treasurer?
22. Who was the Shoshone Indian woman who served as guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark expedition?
23. Who was Chair of the Board and publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, and also oversaw six broadcasting stations?
24. About 20,000 women shirtwaist workers staged a strike for better working conditions. Their action was called the “Uprising of the 20,000.” When and where did his strike occur?
25. When did officials of Little League Baseball announce that they would “defer to the changing social climate” and let girls play on their teams?
26. As vice president of the United Farm Workers, what woman has been vital in speaking for civil and economic rights for farm workers throughout the
27. When did Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 go into effect, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded school programs and activities?
28. What woman was invited to teach nuclear physics at
29. What woman served as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, freeing hundreds of southern slaves and leading them to safety in the North? A $40,000 reward was offered for her capture.
30. What woman is credited with helping free more than 2,000 Chinese women and children smuggled into
31. Who was the first African-American woman poet to have her works published?
Find answers at http://www.nwhp.org or contact Sankofa Heritage Foundation for a workshop or display.Compiled by
Sankofa Heritage Foundation