Women's History Month
March is Women's History Month when we recognize and celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women by providing information and educational materials and programs.
In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women's History Month. PDF
Before 1970, women's history was rarely the subject of serious study. Since then, almost every college offers women's history courses and most major graduate programs offer doctoral degrees in the field.
The public celebration of women's history in this country began in 1978 as "Women's History Week" in Sonoma County, California. The week including March 8, International Women's Day, was selected. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint Congressional resolution proclaiming a national Women's History Week.
Support Equal Pay for Women
Congress may soon consider the Paycheck Fairness Act (S 766/HR 1338), which would enhance provisions of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and close loopholes in that law and other statutes in order to close the wage gap between men and women workers. Working through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the bill would enhance enforcement of equal pay requirements, provide resources to government agencies for use in training staff to comply with the laws, as well as empower women to negotiate more equitable salaries, contracts, and benefits.
Paycheck Fairness Act S. 766 Clinton (D-NY) H.R. 1338 DeLauro (D-CT) Wage discrimination. Amends the Equal Pay Act to provide for expanded penalties and enhanced enforcement of prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of compensation. Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who share pay-related information with co-workers. S. 766 was introduced on March 6, 2007, and referred to the Senate HELP Committee. H.R. 1338 was introduced on March 6, 2007, and referred to the House Education and Labor Committee.
American women earn only 77 cents on every dollar earned by men, a figure that adds up to nearly $10,000 in median annual income disparity. The disparity is even greater for minority women. This gender wage gap persists even when relevant career and family attributes are taken into account, suggesting that sex discrimination still plays a role.
Gender pay gap emerges early, study finds Mon Apr 23, 2007
"One year after graduation, a pay gap turned up between women and men who studied the same fields." The Oregonian's statistics
Resources
COMPUTER WONDER WOMEN PIONEERS
Female Inventors: The Wonder Women who were the first computers. Yes, that is where the name comes from . . . the women who did it by hand, who did the math with pencils and paper! We were the computers, we figured it out by ourselves and we win the smart-epants award.
The Educational CyberPlayGround (founded by a woman) provides many wonderful resources to help you discover the important contributions, discoveries, and achievements made by women throughout our history. We hope you will find information to use all year round and for a lifetime of learning.
The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the historical accomplishments of American women during Women's History Month.
The National Women's History Project
 |
Hedy Lamarr's Invention Finally Comes of Age Movie actress Hedy Lamarr invented cell phone technology Wireless Technology and Hedy Lamarr National Women’s History Month: Female Inventor Hedy Lamarr and her Contributions to Wireless Technology |
| Sybilla Masters | First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) - it was granted to her husband | 1715 |
| Mary Katherine Goddard | First woman postmaster | 1775 |
| Betsy Ross | First person to be a U.S. flagmaker | 1776/77 |
| Hannah Adams | First woman to become professional writer | 1784 |
| Mary Dixon Kies | First U. S. patent issued to a woman. Kies, a Connecticut native, invented a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. First Lady Dolley Madison praised her for boosting the nation’s hat industry. Unfortunately, the patent file was destroyed in the great Patent Office fire in 1836. | 1809 |
| Lucy Brewer | First woman marine | 1812 |
| Elizabeth Blackwell | First woman to receive a medical degree | 1849 |
| Amelia Jenks Bloomer | Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper | 1849 |
| Harriet Tubman | First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape | 1850 |
| Lucy Hobbs | First woman to graduate from dental school | 1866 |
| Susan B. Anthony | Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization | 1869 |
| Arabella Mansfield Babb | First woman admitted to the bar | 1869 |
| Frances Elizabeth Willard | First woman to become a college president (Evanston College) | 1871 |
| Victoria Chaflin Woodhull | First woman to be presidential candidate | 1872 |
| Helen Magill | First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University) | 1877 |
| Belva Ann Lockwood | First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court | 1879 |
| Clara Barton | Founder of the American Red Cross | 1881 |
| Maud Booth | Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America | 1887/96 |
| Suzanna Madora Salter | First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas) | 1887 |
| Miriam Benjamin | The second black woman to receive a patent for an invention she called a Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels. | 1888 |
| Mary McLeod Bethune | First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college | 1904 |
| Mary Anderson | Patented the windshield wiper. | 1905 |
| Blanche Scott | First woman to fly an airplane | 1910 |
| Jeannette Rankin | First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana) | 1916 |
| Kate Gleason | First woman president of a national bank | 1917 |
| Jeannette Rankin | First woman in Congress | 1917 |
| Florence E. Allen | First woman judge | 1920 |
| Nellie Tayloe Ross | First woman governor of U. S. state (Wyoming) | 1925 |
| Katherine Bement Davis | First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes | 1929 |
| Jane Addams | First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize | 1931 |
| Hattie Wyatt Caraway | First woman elected to U.S. Senate | 1932 |
| Amelia Earhart | First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean | 1932 |
| Ruth Bran Owen | First woman foreign diplomat | 1933 |
| Pearl S. Buck | First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature | 1935 |
| Hattie McDaniel | First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind). | 1939 |
| Linda Darnell | First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange | 1941 |
| Conchita V. Cintron | First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain | 1949 |
| Georgia Nesse Clark | First woman treasurer of the United States | 1949 |
| Evelyn Hooker, Ph.D. | Hooker's research demonstrated that expert clinical judges could not distinguish the projective test protocols of nonclinical homosexual men from a comparable group of heterosexual men, nor were there differences in adjustment ratings, was validated soon thereafter by other investigators. Not until 1973, however, did the American Psychiatric Association delete homosexuality from its diagnostic handbook. | 1957 |
| Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova | First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6. | 1963 |
| Stephanie Kwolek | Kevlar was invented by former DuPont chemist Stephanie Kwolek of Wilmington, Del. Soldiers owe their lives to a retired 79-year-old woman in Delaware. |
1965 |
| Muriel Siebert | First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange | 1967 |
| Janice Lee York Romary | First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games | 1968 |
| Marie Brown | The first video home security system was patented (patent #3,482,037) on December 2, 1969 to Marie Brown. The system used television surveillance. | 1969 |
| Mary Clarke | First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army | 1978 |
| Ella Grasso | First woman govenor to be re-elected (Connecticut) | 1978 |
| Sandra Day O'Connor | First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court | 1981 |
| Sally Kristen Ride | First American woman to reach outer space. | 1983 |
| Joan Benoit (Samuelson) | First woman to win an Olympic marathon | 1984 |
| Penny Harrington | First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR) | 1985 |
| Ann Bancroft | First woman to walk to North Pole | 1986 |
| Christa McAuliffe | First woman citizen passenger on a space mission | 1986 |
| Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O. | First African American woman to be appointed dean of an American medical school. | 1993 |
| Lt. Col. Eileen Collins | First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle | 1995 |
| Madeleine K. Albright | First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government | 1997 |
| Hillary Rodham Clinton | Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate | 2000 |
| Halle Berry | First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar | 2002 |
| Condoleezza Rice | First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State | 2005 |
| Nancy Pelosi | First woman to become Speaker of the House | 2007 |
| Hillary Clinton | Second women to run for President of the United States | 2008 |
First Computer Programmers Inspire Documentary
Decline in Numbers of Women in Computer Science Threatens U.S.
Competitiveness, Say Experts By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES Dec. 4, 2007 (ABCNews)
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3951187&page=1
During World War II the Army ran out of male mathematicians and turned to six women to program the world's first computer - ENIAC. Historian Kathy Kleiman (left) has recorded oral histories of these women - now in their 80s - in her upcoming documentary film, "Invisible Computers." ...At 83, Betty Jean Jennings Bartik -- a devoted bridge player and grandmother of five -- had a secret past that was invisible to many who knew her.Her grandson Alex knew her story. He stormed out of school one day when his teacher refused to believe his gray-haired granny was a computer pioneer who had calculated firing tables and ballistic trajectories during World War II. The boy's parents had to explain to the teacher that Bartik and five other women had, indeed, legally hacked one of the world's first computers, converting it into a stored machine and eventually helping to usher in the digital age.
The Book of Household Management published 1859-1861 by Isabella Beeton in 24 monthly parts. Find "information for the mistress, housekeeper, cook, kitchen-maid, butler, footman, coachman, valet, upper and under house-maids, ladys-maid, maid-of-all-work, laundry-maid, nurse and nurse-maid, ... also, sanitary, medical, & legal memoranda; with a history of the origin, properties, and uses of all things connected with home life and comfort." Also includes recipes. From the University of Adelaide Library.
500 Years of Women in Art and Film
Music: Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007
performed by Yo-Yo Ma
