The National Women’s History Museum and the George Washington University have joined forces to present a new lecture series entitled Initiating Change/Adapting to Change. The series is slated to begin on October 2, 2013. A series of four lectures—two in the fall semester and two in the spring—will focus on topics like women effecting change, women in the military and women in entrepreneurship. Speakers will be leaders in their fields and will present both historical and contemporary perspectives.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on Thursday, May 30, 2013 by Museum President & CEO, Joan Wages and GWU President, Steven Knapp.
“We’re delighted to embark on this partnership with the National Women’s History Museum,” Dr. Knapp said. “The museum is a cultural institution devoted to an important subject area that is not only of great interest to our students, but also a focus of many of our departments and programs — from our Global Women’s Institute and Women’s Leadership Program to our women’s studies and history departments.”
In her remarks, Wages noted that “all of us here know the importance of history–it is empowering and offers us inspiration and confidence about our future. So it is all the more significant that women’s history is largely missing form K-12 textbooks and most museum exhibits. Less than 8% of the statues in our National Parks are of women and in our Nation’s Capitol Building, only 15 of the 217 statues are of women leaders.”
Bill Becker, Professor and Chair of GW’s History Department echoed Knapp’s comments.
“The partnership between GW and NWHM offers great opportunity to further the understanding of women’s history,” said Becker. “Two years ago, eleven members of the Department of History put together a concentration of courses focused on gender and women’s history. They joined together with colleagues in other parts of the University–the Global Women’s Initiative, the American Studies Department, and the Women’s Studies Program–to focus on common interests and concerns. Now GW’s partnership with NWHM brings together two audiences intensely interested in women’s history and issues.”
Stay tuned for more information about the lecture series.
NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSEUM AND THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY COLLABORATE ON PUBLIC OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Four-part academic lecture series entitled “Initiating Change/Adapting to Change” to begin Wednesday, October 2, 2013 on GW Foggy Bottom Campus
WASHINGTON, DC, Monday, June 3, 2013 –Joan Bradley Wages, President and CEO of The National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) and Steven Knapp, President of the George Washington University (GW), signed a memorandum of agreement Thursday, May 30, 2013 to collaborate on public programs that will engage the local community on topics of historical relevance to women. The National Women’s History Museum and GW are excited about this new opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »
Long before Jennifer Aniston burst onto the scene in the 1990s as Hollywood’s favorite “it” girl, America had another sweetheart: Mary Pickford. With her lush blond curls and sweet smile, she captivated the hearts of many American moviegoers with her convincing portrayals of innocence on the silver screen.
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Smith in 1892, in Toronto, Canada. After the death of her father, Pickford became an actress at age six to help support her family while her mother took in boarders and sewing work. Over the next nine years, Pickford acted in vaudeville sketches, melodramas, and road show productions throughout the United States, escorted by her family. Through her own ambition and hard work, in 1907, at the age of fifteen, Pickford impressed one of Broadway’s most famous producers, David Belasco, and acted in his play The Warrens of Virginia. It was Belasco who suggested she change her name from Gladys Smith to Mary Pickford.
This week’s #FoodieFriday takes us down a historical memory lane of five of the most bizarre and questionable diets during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many women, in an effort to meet harsh societal standards of beauty for women, adopted these diets.
The Tapeworm Diet
One extremely disgusting beauty regimen that gained some popularity during the 1800s was the “tapeworm diet.” It involved ingesting pills that contained sanitized tapeworm larvae, which would live in their stomachs. The worms would then consume the excess calories into their own bodies and grow larger, until they had to be removed in what was usually a very unpleasant process. Read the rest of this entry »
Female television game show hosts have been few and far between. Though some women have been able to step into hosting roles, the world of game shows is still largely dominated by men. This week’s Throwback Thursday post is all about three of the women who have made their marks on one of the most popular genres of television since the medium’s inception.
Arlene Francis is perhaps best known as a panelist on the enduring classic television game show, What’s My Line?, on which she appeared regularly for 25 years. While she is well remembered for her appearances on What’s My Line?, she is much less remembered for the work she did on her very own long-running game show, Blind Date. Francis got her first radio role, on the show The March of Time, in 1931. She worked on radio throughout the 1930s and 1940s, and landed the opportunity to host the new radio matchmaking show, Blind Date,in 1943. Upon the decline of radio and the rise of television throughout the 1940s, Francis began to worry that her career as a radio personality would end. However, when Blind Datemoved from radio to television on May 5, 1949, Francis was given the opportunity to host that version of the show as well. She continued as host until 1952, when a new male host stepped in. In taking her hosting gig from radio to television, Francis became the first ever female television game show host. Her success on Blind Dateled to her appearances on What’s My Line?, as well as to her being casted as the first female emcee, or “femcee,” of the popular television variety show, Your Show of Shows. On top of her ongoing work on television, Francis went back to her radio career in 1961 with The Arlene Francis Show, which ran for nearly three decades until 1990.
According to a report released today by the Pew Research Center, women are the sole or primary breadwinners for about 40 percent of all households with children. Female headed households are becoming more and more of a reality and traditional gender roles seem to be changing.
The report cites the recession as one possible cause for this shift. Men, who have been hit harder with job losses during the recession, have been either forced into unemployment or taking lower paying jobs. In 2011, 15 percent of married women earned more than their husbands. Women also are becoming better educated and are earning more advanced degrees than men, meaning mothers are starting to have more education than fathers.
Another possible cause is the increasing number of single mothers, who account for 40 percent of new births. The bread-winning role often is a burden for those women, though. Single mothers tend to earn less, be younger, and have less education than married mothers.
Today marks the 162nd anniversary of abolitionist, suffragist, and former slave, Sojourner Truth’s impassioned speech at the Women’s Rights Convention, known today as the “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. The convention was held in Akron, Ohio on May 28-29, 1851. Truth’s words portrayed women as strong, resilient and intelligent, and called into question the institution of slavery.
Have you ever wondered what the inside of the White House kitchen looked like at the turn of the 20th century, or what Martha Washington’s favorite dessert was? Well you don’t have to wonder anymore, because this week’s #Foodie Friday takes a look at 7 interesting facts about the First Ladies and the White House kitchen and gardens that you may not know. Read the rest of this entry »
Merida of the Disney-Pixar film, Brave, is the one Disney princess who many girls and their parents feel actually represents real girls. She looks like a “real girl,” is strong, independent, athletic, able to save herself from situations, and sees no need for a Prince Charming to take her away. When Merida was announced as the 11th and newest inductee into the Disney Princess Collection, many people were happy. However, before her coronation ceremony at Disney World on May 11, Disney gave her a makeover, making many people upset. Disney made her figure slimmer, her hair less frizzy, and her dress tighter and sparkly. They also took away her signature bow and arrows. After considerable outrage, though, Disney removed the new Merida from the princess section of their website in the United States and replaced her with the original. However, the new image still appears on other countries’ Disney sites and on her official Princess Collection merchandise. To many, Merida’s makeover is yet another example of Disney’s long history of upholding and promoting certain beauty standards and their problematic portrayals of gender roles. Some of the characters we remember watching and liking when we were younger perhaps do not always provide the best role models for children to emulate. Check out the examples below and see if you watch them differently now as adults. Read the rest of this entry »
Did you know that today marks the 81st anniversary that Amelia Earhart became the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight in less than 15 hours? Now there’s an historical woman who rocked!
Amelia was born in Kansas in 1897, and lived in Iowa and Minnesota before graduating from high school in Illinois. She did a semester of work at a small college in Pennsylvania then went to Canada to work in a military hospital during World War I. It was there that she met aviators and developed her lifelong love of flying. Read the rest of this entry »
