As the centenary of women’s suffrage approaches, the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) will launch a six-month commemorative initiative, Determined to Rise: Women’s Historical Activism for Equal Rights (https://www.womenshistory.org/events/determined-rise), at Wesleyan College, Thursday, January 30, 2020. Each event in the series will feature scholarly panels, public events, and lively discussions on women’s history topics from the early 1830s when African-American women abolitionist groups organized to fight for freedom, personhood, and women’s rights, to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Determined to Rise shapes a broader understanding of the woman suffrage movement throughout the turn of the century, acknowledging not only the achievements resulting in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, but also its profound limitations. The topic for the inaugural event hosted at Wesleyan, is “Women’s Education Reform in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920.” Panelists for the event include Dr. Jenny Barker-Devine, associate professor of history, Illinois College; Dr. Vivia Lawton Fowler, president, Wesleyan College; and Dr. Daleah Goodwin, professor of history, Warren Wilson College. Moderator will be Dr. Deidra Donmoyer, professor of communication, Wesleyan College.
The series will visit six cities through June 22: Indianapolis; New York City; Los Angeles; Oberlin, Ohio; Lansing, Michigan; Chicago; and Philadelphia.
For the last twenty years, the NWHM has served as the largest online cultural institution dedicated to U.S. women’s history. As an institution, it has galvanized support for preserving, illuminating, and sharing the powerful history of women in America. The museum’s goal is to build a physical space for visitors to experience, understand, and amplify the pivotal role women play throughout history, thus becoming the first museum in any nation’s capital to show the full scope of the history of its women. To learn more about the NWHM visit https://www.womenshistory.org/about-us.