Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

Women's History Month

Slideshow

The National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress in 1987 to expand the observance of “Women’s History Week” as established in 1981 to include the entire month of March. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.” 

Early proponents of education for women were trampled by arguments from physicians and other “experts” who believed females were incapable of intellectual development equal to men, or that they would be harmed by attempting to gain knowledge that they were not able to retain. The Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act (or simply “Title IX”), passed into law in 1972 and enacted in 1977, prohibits gender discrimination in federally-funded institutions, which gave women the equal opportunity to learn. This Act became a primary platform for women, allowing them to fully participate in all aspects of education, and has transformed the educational landscape of America within the span of a generation.

Early proponents of education for women were trampled by arguments from physicians and other “experts” who believed females were incapable of intellectual development equal to men, or that they would be harmed by attempting to gain knowledge that they were not able to retain. The Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act (or simply “Title IX”), passed into law in 1972 and enacted in 1977, prohibits gender discrimination in federally-funded institutions, which gave women the equal opportunity to learn. This Act became a primary platform for women, allowing them to fully participate in all aspects of education, and has transformed the educational landscape of America within the span of a generation.

The women of Missouri stepped up to the challenge of furthering their education, becoming major contributors to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The list includes:

• Adaline Weston Couzins was a nurse during the Civil War. She worked on hospital boats that traveled up and down the Mississippi River, risking her life to help wounded Union and Confederate soldiers.
• Dr. Linda Godwin is a scientist and astronaut and has been on four space flights. Over her career, she logged more than 38 days in space, including more than 10 hours on two spacewalks.
• Virginia Eshelman Johnson is a former American psychologist, best known as the junior member of the Masters and Johnson sexuality research team.  Along with then-husband William Masters, she pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s.
• Engineer Dr. Janet Lynn Kavandi is a director of flight crew operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  A three-flight veteran, she has logged more than 33 days in space, traveling more than 13.1 million miles in 535 Earth orbits.
• Chemist Annie Turnbo Malone became a millionaire by successfully developing and marketing hair products for black women in St. Louis.  She used her wealth to promote the advancement of African Americans and gave away most of her money to charity.
• Luella Agnes Owen was a self-taught speleologist (spee-lee-OL-eh-jist), a person who studies caves.  She bravely entered and explored hundreds of caves in the Midwest at a time when people used candles for light and women wore long skirts.
• Architect Nelle E. Peters drew plans for many notable apartment buildings and hotels when very few women were active in this profession.  Many of her elegant and functional buildings still stand today in Kansas City and other cities.
• Katherine Berry Richardson was a doctor and surgeon who dedicated her life to relieving the suffering of poor children.  She and her sister, Alice Berry Graham, a dentist, established a free hospital for children in Kansas City called Children’s Mercy Hospital.
• Mary Easton Sibley was an educated pioneer woman who lived for several years at Fort Osage on the Missouri River. She also founded the first four-year women’s college west of the Mississippi River, now Lindenwood University.
• Dr. Jessie L. Ternberg paved the way for many women at Washington University (WU) School of Medicine in St. Louis.  She was the first woman surgical resident at Barnes Hospital, the first woman chief resident, the first woman surgeon on the WU medical school staff, and the first woman to serve as president of the St. Louis Surgical Society.

Celebrate Women’s History Month in Missouri by attending any of the following events throughout the state:

Western Missouri

Kansas City

• March 5, 6 p.m.: Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical will be presented by author Stacy Wolf at the Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street.  From Adelaide in Guys and Dolls to Nina in In the Heights and Elphaba in Wicked, female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche.  For more information, call 816-701-3481 or RSVP here.
• March 14, 6 – 8:30 p.m.: CineWomen: A Refreshing Showcase of Women in Film will be held at the Screenland Theatre, 1656 Washington Street, Crossroads District.  There will be a reception, followed by a discussion with a few of Kansas City’s highly regarded female filmmakers and professors.  Take a look at the work of some of Kansas City’s most talented student filmmakers before the evening ends with mingling and an opportunity to network.  Light refreshments will be provided as well as a cash bar.  This event is free to the public.  For more information, contact Morgan Elyse Christensen at PoPFilmKC@gmail.com or the UMKC Women’s Center at umkc-womens-center@umkc.edu or 816-235-1638.
• March 20, 6:30 p.m.: Julia Hill spent nearly 60 years at the forefront of the battle for civil rights and equality.  Now she participates in a public conversation at the Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street, with educator Mary Ann Wynkoop, discussing her own story and those of other Kansas City women who have made a difference.  For more information, call 816-701-3481 or RSVP here.
• March 23, 6:30 p.m.: Friday Night Family Fun: Women’s History Month Celebration will be held at the Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street.  Join local storyteller Molly Postlewait and others for a journey through history and meet some of the amazing women who have shaped our nation. This event is appropriate for children in second through twelfth grades. For more information, call 816-701-3481.
• Throughout March: This year’s “Women in Jazz” celebration at the American Jazz Museum’s Blue Room, 1616 East 18th Street, showcases the continuing contributions of women within all aspects of perpetuating the jazz musical art form.  Performers include preeminent jazz vocalist Denise Thimes on March 9, 7 p.m. – 1 a.m.; Eboni Fondren and Stephanie Moore on March 15, 5 p.m. – 1 a.m.; and Everette DeVan with Lori Tucker and Kelly Gant on March 23, 7 p.m. – 1 a.m.  For additional show times and ticket information, call 816-474-8463.

Independence

• March 16, Noon – 2:30 p.m.: Enjoy a day out at the 26th Annual Spring Fashion Show and Luncheon, Bingham-Waggoner Estate, 313 West Pacific.  There will be a delicious lunch, including wine, along with live music and a preview of the latest spring fashions.  Reservations are required.  For further information and to purchase tickets, contact Shireen McLaughlin at 816-461-3491.

Southwestern Missouri

Springfield

• March 1, 6 p.m.: First Friday Live will kick off Women's History Month at Missouri State University.  Enjoy art on display, live music, and live painting on stage at the Gillioz Theatre, 325 Park Central East.  For more information, call 417-863-9491 or e-mail info@gillioztheatre.com.

Central Missouri

Columbia

• March 1, 7– 10 p.m.: Power On, Power Up, Perform: The Power of Punk is a venue for solo and group musical and spoken performers to share their talent. This free coffee-house event will be held at Dorsey Gym, 1007 Rogers Street.  Learn how women have used performance as a means to challenge the status quo.  Enjoy coffee and cocoa, snacks, and giveaways.  For more information, e-mail tmcompton@ccis.edu.
• March 7, 4– 6 p.m.: The 20th Annual Women in the Arts Gallery Show Reception will be held at Craft Studio, N12 Memorial Union, 518 Hitt Street.  The Women in the Arts Gallery Show is an annual juried exhibition that highlights talented women artists of Missouri.  In conjunction with Women’s History Month, the Craft Studio presents this exhibit as a tribute to past, present, and future female artists whose creations are often overlooked and forgotten.  There will be refreshments and live music as well.  For more information, call the Women’s Center, 573-882-6621.
• March 12, 6– 7 p.m.: All are welcome to come celebrate the 17th Annual Women’s Poetry Night at the Women’s Center, G108 Student Center, University of Missouri campus.  Join renowned and up-and-coming poets and spoken word artists from the MU, Stephens College, and Columbia communities as they share their words.  Light refreshments will be provided.  For more information, call the Women’s Center, 573-882-6621.
• March 12, 7 – 8:30 p.m.: A showing of the The Invisible War, a groundbreaking investigative documentary uncovering the little-talked about problem of rape within the U.S. military, is open to all at Columbia Public Library, 100 West Broadway. The film will be followed by a discussion moderated by members of the Association of American University Women.  Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m.  For more information, call the library at 573-443-3161 or 1-800-324-4806.
• March 20, 7 p.m.: Kathleen Hanna, a New York City-based artist best known for her groundbreaking performances as a member of the seminal ’90s punk band, Bikini Kill, and her more recent multimedia, Le Tigre, will be presenting her lecture, "My Art: Punk Rock Reminism and Beyond" in Launer Auditorium, 901 Rogers Street, Columbia College campus.   For more information, call 573-875-8700.

Jefferson City

• March 12, 10 a.m.: Concerned Women for America of Missouri present Women’s Lobby Day at the State Capitol, 201 West Capitol Avenue.  The group will provide information packets, brief participants on the issues and help you find the offices of your state representative and senator. You can observe debates in the House and Senate Chambers and attend a hearing, then speak with the legislator or a staffer about any of the issues.  For more information or to RSVP, call 314-608-0168 or e-mail director@missouri.cwfa.org.

Eastern Missouri

Saint Louis

• Every Monday in March, 6 – 8 p.m.: "First Bloom," a Women's History Month Reading Series, will feature two dynamic female poets from the greater St. Louis region at the GYA Community Gallery, Gya/Yeyo Arts Collective, 2700 Locust Street. Each artist will do two fifteen-minute sets, and there will be free snacks and beverages provided.  For more information, call 314-932-1003 or e-mail lostnation2009@gmail.com.
• Every Monday in March, 6 – 8 p.m.: Monday Movies Madness at the St. Louis Public Library, Schlafly Branch, 225 North Euclid Avenue, celebrates Women's History Month.  View films that depict the determination, transformation, and emancipation of women, including Osama, The Help, Hope Springs, and A Woman Rebels.  For more information, call 314-367-4120. 
• March 4, 11 a.m.: The Meramec Women's History Committee at St. Louis Community College, 11333 Big Bend Road, welcomes keynote speaker Dr. Gail Dines in the Meramec Theatre for her lecture, "Sex(ism), Identity, and Intimacy in Porn Culture."  Her writing and lectures focus on the hypersexualization of the culture and the ways that pornagraphic images filter down into mainstream pop culture. For more information, contact Dr. Emily Neal at 314-984-7989 or eneal20@stlcc.edu.
• March 5, 7:30 p.m.: In celebration of Women's History Month, the Meramec Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Voices of Magic, with special guests the St. Louis Harmony Chorus, will perform a memorable concert of music, featuring women composers in the Meramec Theatre, 11333 Big Bend Road, St. Louis Community College.  For more information, contact Meramec Music at 314-984-7639 or meramecmusic@stlcc.edu.
• March 9, 1 – 3 p.m.: The St. Louis Public Library, Walnut Park Branch, 5760 West Florissant Avenue, presents “Looking Out For Ourselves: African-American Women and AIDS” as part of Women’s History Month activities.  A panel discussion, featuring AIDS prevention specialists, will examine the extent of the HIV/AIDS outbreak in St. Louis and detail current prevention efforts.  For more information, call 314-383-1210.
• March 15, 7 p.m.: The St. Louis Art Museum, One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, presents Dr. Michael Yonan, Associate Professor Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Art, and his discussion on Elisabeth-Louise Vigee Le Brun, who became a favorite artist for the French nobility and for Queen Marie Antoinette.  Explore the fascinating life and work of one of the most important woman artists of the 18th century.  For more information, call 314-721-0072.
• March 19, 6:30– 7:30 p.m.: As part of the Not So Quiet Concert Series, the St. Louis Public Library, Central Branch, 1301 Olive Street, presents Celia, an eclectic performer and guitarist who mixes rock, folky funky expressions, and the vocal strength of torch song singers to make her own unique recipe of sound – a bit like performers Carole King, Edie Brickell, Burt Bacharach, and a dash of groups like the Sundays, The Isley Brothers, and the Pretenders, while still managing to have room for more than a sprinkle of her own special ingredient.  For more information, call 314-241-2288.
• March 21, 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.: Guest speaker Stacey Lannert speaks about eliminating sexual violence in all forms on the campus of St. Louis Community College, 11333 Big Bend Road.  The morning session will be held in SC 125, with the evening session being held in BA 105.  Lannert, herself a victim of sexual violence, spent 18 years in prison for the murder of her father.  For more information, call 314-984-7500.

St. Charles

• March 4, Noon: St. Charles Community College presents "Mystic Iran: The Unseen World", a modern woman’s mystical journey deep into the heart of her native country, Iran, in search of spiritual rites and rituals hidden for centuries.  Despite risking confiscation of filming equipment and traffickers at the border of Iraq, documentary filmmaker Aryana Farshad gained access to underground locations and religious ceremonies that have never before been captured on film.  This documentary will be shown in the SSB Auditorium, 4601 Mid Rivers Mall Drive, Cottleville.  For more information, call Mandi Smith at 636-922-8469 or e-mail asmith@stchas.edu.

Southeastern Missouri

Cape Girardeau

• March 13, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Southeast Missouri State University is sponsoring a community women's luncheon in an effort to connect female students at Southeast with opportunities, women mentors, and resources in the community.  This "The Power of Women" event will be held at the Show Me Center, 1333 North Sprigg Street, and will feature an expo with local businesses, community groups, and various campus organizations.  Community members and students are invited to attend, and reservations must be made by March 6.  For more information, including how to reserve a booth in the expo, contact the Missouri University Foundation at 573-651-2252.

However you choose to commemorate women in history this March, remember to thank those in your life who have contributed to your personal successes and inspired you through imagination!