The Yocum Library Celebrates Women's History Month

In honor of National Women's History Month, The Yocum Library has several displays of books and DVDs about women's history. Next time you're in the library, take a look. You might find something you want to check out.

Not all of our books and DVDs on women's history are on display. So if you don't see what you want, talk to someone at the Service Desk. They can find out if we have it and if it's checked in.

Today Is International Women's Day 2017

Every person - women, men and non-binary people - can play a part in helping drive better outcomes for women. Through meaningful celebration and targeted bold action, we can all be responsive and responsible leaders in creating a more gender inclusive world. 

The World Economic Forum predicts the gender gap won't close entirely until 2186. This is too long to wait. So around the world, International Women's Day provides an important opportunity for ground breaking action that can truly drive greater change for women.

Use International Women's Day (IWD) on March 8 as an important opportunity to:

• celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women because visibility and awareness help drive positive change for women
• declare bold actions you'll take as an individual or organization to help progress the gender agenda because purposeful action can accelerate gender parity across the world

This information and photo are from the International Women's Day web site.

Celebrating Women's History Month: Did You Know?

As we celebrate March as Women's History Month, here are some facts about women in history. These facts are from Gender Across Borders web site.

Forties movie actress Hedy Lamarr wasn’t just a pretty face; she was also an inventor. Hoping to find a way to contribute to the war effort during World War II, Lamarr developed a radio-controlled torpedo device which used “frequency hopping” to prevent the signals from the torpedoes from being jammed. While the technology wasn’t adopted for WWII, it was used in subsequent conflicts.

Until 1846, the practice of obstetrics was a female-dominated field. It was then that most medical colleges decided women could not attend and the newly founded American Medical Association barred women. Legislation intended to regulate the medical profession also made it nearly impossible for young women to pursue a medical career. Today, however, obstetrics is a female-dominated field once again.

African-American performer Josephine Baker was working in France during WWII, but not only as a singer, dancer and actress. She was also helping the war movement, smuggling numerous messages to French soldiers. She often hid messages inside her dress or concealed with invisible ink on her sheet music. Baker’s work in the war is only part of what makes her such an amazing figure, as she was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and perform in a concert hall, and she played a big role in the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1921, American novelist Edith Wharton was the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. She won the award for her novel, The Age of Innocence," a story set in upper-class New York during the 1870s.

March is National Women's History Month

The 2017 theme for National Women’s History Month is "Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business.” It honors women who have successfully challenged the role of women in both business and the paid labor force. Women have always worked, but often their work has been undervalued and unpaid.

The 2017 Honorees represent many diverse backgrounds and each made her mark in a different field. Additionally, the Honorees’ work and influence spans three centuries of America’s history. These women all successfully challenged the social and legal structures that have kept women’s labor underappreciated and underpaid.

Facing stark inequalities in the workplace (lower wages, poor working conditions, and limited opportunities), they fought to make the workplace a less hostile environment for women. They succeeded in expanding women’s participation in commerce and their power in the paid labor force. As labor and business leaders and innovators they defied the social mores of their times by demonstrating women’s ability to create organizations and establish their own businesses that paved the way for better working conditions and wages for themselves and other women.

They proved that women could succeed in every field. While each Honoree is extraordinary, each is also ordinary in her own way, proving that women business and labor leaders can and should be considered the norm. Most importantly, the 2017 Honorees paved the way for generations of women labor and business leaders to follow.

For more information about the 2017 honorees, visit the National Women's History Project.

Article and photo from the National Women's History Project.

National Women’s History Month 2014

*...In celebration of Women’s History Month, here you go. Undercover reporters. Abolitionists. Suffragists. Civic leaders. Artists. These amazing Pennsylvania women made their mark on history! 1. Nellie Bly: Undercover journalist

Nellie Bly

1. Nellie Bly: Undercover journalist
 Via biography.com
Born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, this Pittsburgh native famously went undercover as a journalist to report on patient abuse in New York’s Blackwell Island Lunatic Asylum. She began her journalism career at the Pittsburgh Dispatch, where she had her first taste of investigative reporting.





2. Lucretia Mott: Abolitionist, suffragist

Via washingtonpost.com

Via washingtonpost.com
Lucretia Mott moved to Philadelphia in 1811 and soon became a national hero for her devotion to the anti-slavery and women’s suffrage movements. Among her many achievements, she founded both the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and Swarthmore College. She is one of the few women with a statue in the Capitol.



3. Marian Anderson: National performer

Via amychristiansen.blogspot.com

Via amychristiansen.blogspot.com
The first African American to perform in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, Anderson was born in humble circumstances in Philadelphia. She is most famous for her 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial after she was barred from performing at D.C.’s Constitution Hall because of her race. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led the charge to ensure this gifted singer had the opportunity to perform on a grand stage – the Lincoln Memorial.

C. Delores Tucker

 

 4. C. Delores Tucker: Glass ceiling smasher
Via visionaryproject.org
Born, raised, and educated in Pennsylvania, Delores Tucker was a civil rights activist and public servant. She became the first African American Secretary of State in the country when she began her tenure as Pennsylvania Secretary of State in 1971. Before her death in 2005, Tucker began a campaign against violent and sexually explicit rap lyrics.
U.S. Capitol History Alert Tucker was the force behind lobbying for an image of Sojourner Truth to appear in the Capitol. A statue of the civil rights icon now rests in Emancipation Hall.




5. Mary Cassatt: Impressionist

Via marycassatt.org

Born in Allegheny County, Cassatt attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia before going abroad. She is most famous for her impressionist artwork depicting women and children.








6. Maria Sanford: Professor


An education trailblazer, Maria Sanford is remembered for her role as one of the first female college professors. After serving as superintendent of Chester County schools, she began teaching history at Lucretia Mott’s Swarthmore College.
U.S. Capitol History Alert Thanks to Minnesota, Sanford has a spot in Emancipation Hall to honor her service to the University of Minnesota.






7. Betsy Ross: Small business woman


Via americangallery.wordpress.com
A skilled seamstress, Elizabeth “Betsy” Ross owned an upholstery business in Philadelphia during the time of the American Revolution. As the legend goes, she was commissioned by George Washington to make a flag for the newly minted United States.




8. Katharine Drexel: American saint


Via patheos.com
Born into a prominent Philadelphia family, Katharine Drexel devoted her life to serving Native American and African American communities by establishing schools. She is the founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as Xavier University in New Orleans. In 2000, she was canonized as a saint, only the second American ever to be recognized in this way.


                                                     
9. Molly Pitcher: Courage under fire
Via playrific.com
It is widely believed that Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley helped fight the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse during the American Revolution. Nicknamed “Molly Pitcher,” she delivered water to help clean the cannons during the battle. As the legend goes, Molly began firing her husband’s cannon after he collapsed in the heat. The existence of Molly Pitcher, who resided in Carlisle, is evidenced by a federal pension she received in her own name.





10. Jennie Wade: Courage under fire - Part II 
Via totalgettysburg.com
Virginia “Jennie” Wade was the only civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg. Jennie, a Gettysburg native, spent the first two days of the battle giving bread and water to Union soldiers. On the third day, she was kneading dough in her kitchen when she was fatally struck by a Confederate bullet. By a national executive order, the Jennie Wade Monument and the Betsy Ross House are the only women’s memorials to fly the American flag 24 hours a day.



* http://www.buzzfeed.com/sentoomey/10-fascinating-pennsylvania-women-jxex

National Women’s History Month 2014

*National Women’s History Month 2014
Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment
Women Inspiring Innovation through Imagination

Each year, March is designated as National Women’s History Month to ensure that the history of American women will be recognized and celebrated in schools, workplaces, and communities throughout the country.

This year’s theme, Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment, honors the extraordinary and often unrecognized determination and tenacity of women. Against social convention and often legal restraints, women have created a legacy that expands the frontiers of possibility for generations to come. They have demonstrated their character, courage and commitment as mothers, educators, institution builders, business, labor, political and community leaders, relief workers, women religious, and CEOs. Their lives and their work inspire girls and women to achieve their full potential and encourage boys and men to respect the diversity and depth of women’s experience.

The lives and work of the 2014 Women of Character, Courage and Commitment Honorees span the centuries of American history and come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.  National Women’s History Month 2014 provides an excellent opportunity to honor women and their accomplishments

Chipeta (1843 – 1924)
Indian Rights Advocate and Diplomat
Chipeta was a Ute Indian leader, diplomat, and peacemaker who used her influence with Chief Ouray (her husband) to avert a war between the Ute tribe and the White settlers. In 1880 she was included in a Ute delegation to negotiate a reservation resettlement treaty in Washington DC.

Anna Julia Cooper (1858 –1964)
African American Educator and Author
Anna J. Cooper was an author, educator, speaker, and among the leading intellectuals of her time. Born into enslavement, she wrote A Voice from the South (published in 1892), widely considered one of the first articulations of Black feminism.

Agatha Tiegel Hanson, (1873–1959)
Educator,  Author, and Advocate for Deaf Community
Agatha Tiegel Hanson was a teacher, poet, and advocate for the deaf community. In 1893 she became the first woman to graduate from Gallaudet University. Her valedictorian speech argued for the recognition of the intellect of women, a cause she advocated throughout her career.

Katharine Ryan Gibbs (1863 – 1934)
Women’s Employment Pioneer
Katharine Ryan Gibbs founded the Gibbs Schools (1911), providing women with high-level secretarial training and the opportunity to earn their own incomes. Her schools quickly expanded, opening branches near many ivy-league universities, and effectively establishing secretarial work as a desirable occupation.

Frances Oldham Kelsey (1914 – Present)
Pharmacologist and Public Health Activist
Frances Oldham Kelsey is a pharmacologist who, while working at the FDA, refused to authorize thalidomide for market (a drug that later proved to cause severe birth defects). She went on to help establish the rules for clinical trials and directed the surveillance of drug testing at the FDA.

Roxcy Bolton  (1926 – Present)
20th Century Women’s Rights Pioneer
Roxcy Bolton is a lifetime advocate and activist for women’s rights. She founded Florida’s first battered women’s shelter (1972) and the nation’s first hospital-based Rape Treatment Center (1974). Her extensive work includes lobbying for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and convincing NOAA to name hurricanes after both women and men.

Arden Eversmeyer (1931 – Present)
The Old Lesbian Herstory Project, Founder
Arden Eversmeyer founded the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (1999), to ensure that the stories of lesbians born in the first part of the 20th century, who were labeled “mentally ill”, fired from their jobs, rejected by their families, and even raped and murdered with impunity, are recorded in history.

Carmen Delgado Votaw (1935- Present)
International Women’s Rights Activist
Carmen Delgado Votaw is a leading advocate for girls and women’s rights both nationally and internationally. She served on the International Women’s Year Committee, worked with the first United Nations Conference on Women, and has significantly influenced the advancement of women in Latin America.

Ann Lewis (1937- Present)
Women’s Rights Organizer and Women’s History Advocate
Ann Lewis is a leader of progressive political reform focusing on the importance of civic involvement, health-care reform, economic and work-family policies, and international and national women’s rights. She served as a White House Communication Director and is a national commentator on public policy.

Jaida Im (1961 – Present)
Advocate for Survivors of Human Trafficking
Jaida Im founded Freedom House (2010), the first residential shelter and aftercare program for adult female survivors of human trafficking in Northern California. In 2013, Freedom House opened a similar shelter for girls. The organization already has served hundreds of survivors, offering holistic case management, counseling, and educational and job-training resources.

Tammy Duckworth (1968 - Present)
Member of Congress and Iraq War Veteran
Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran and US Representative from Illinois. Recognized for her commitment to serving veterans with disabilities, she seeks mandatory government funding of veterans’ healthcare and improvements in transition assistance. She is the first woman with a disability elected to the House of Representatives.

Lisa Taylor (1974-Present)
Civil Rights Attorney
Lisa Taylor is a civil rights attorney for the Department of Justice where she has enforced the rights of HIV victims, autistic children, and educational opportunities for minority students. As a Naval Officer she challenged sexual harassment and aided in establishing her ship’s first anti-harassment program.
For more information about these Honorees or National Women’s History Month, visit www.nwhp.org or email nwhp@nwhp.org or call (707)-636-2888.  For promotional materials. Visit Theme and Celebration materials in our webstore.

 * http://www.nwhp.org/whm/pressrelease.php