Opportunities now and throughout the year to learn about women who have made a difference throughout history
By Eileen Ogintz
Tribune Content Agency
Taking the Kids
Let’s hear it for women who make change happen!
March is Women’s History Month and the 2024 theme is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”
I know March is nearly over but there are plenty of opportunities now and throughout the year to learn about women who have made a difference throughout history, as well as today.
For example, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery showcases women’s achievements in its “Recent Acquisitions” exhibit with each of the 21 portraits either representing a woman or created by a woman artist. It’s on view until Oct. 27.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) celebrates Black women entrepreneurs the entire month of March on the museum’s social media channels @NMAAHC.
In New Orleans, The National WWII Museum recently debuted Our War Too: Women in Service, a groundbreaking special exhibit honoring the nearly 350,000 American women who answered the call to serve their country during World War II, serving in the women’s component branches of the US Army, Coast Guard, Navy and Marine Corps, and with the civilian Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), as well as the additional 73,000 women who served in the Army and the Navy Nurse Corps.
In Philadelphia, celebrate revolutionary women at the Museum of the American Revolution. They include Deborah Sampson who disguised herself as a man to fight in the Revolutionary War and Phillis Wheatley, America’s first published B lack female poet.
And in Hyde Park, N.Y., two miles from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s home, you can visit Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Val-Kill, preserved as a National Historic Site. She is the only first lady with her own national park site. An active partner in FDR’s political career, she became an important Democratic Party leader and humanitarian in her own right after his death. She was also an early champion of civil rights, traveled widely to see how FDR’s policies impacted ordinary people, and broke precedent by holding her own news conferences and penning a widely syndicated newspaper column.
The National Park Foundation notes 10 sites that celebrate women’s history around the country, including the young immigrant women who worked the textile mills at Lowell National Historic Park in Massachusetts to the female shipyard workers at Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond, California. The Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Keene, California, also honors the work of Dolores Huerta who was key in expanding the United Farm Workers of America. The Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., honors the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement.
Take the opportunity to chat up women you meet — national park rangers, for example. They account for about a third of park rangers. When the organization was formed in 1916, few female rangers worked within its ranks. In case you are wondering, records show that the first paid female park ranger in the National Park Service was Esther Brazell at Wind Cave National Park. Brazell was hired as a park ranger in 1916, by her father Thomas W. Brazell.
In Denver, visit the Center for Colorado Women’s History that focuses on the experiences of women who helped build Colorado. (Kids are free!) Another good bet in Denver is the Molly Brown House Museum. Molly Brown famously became “the unsinkable Molly Brown” when she survived the sinking of the Titanic. What is less well- known is that she helped the survivors of that tragedy, spoke out for miners’ and women’s rights, and worked on relief efforts in France during World War I.
Seek out women who are outstanding in their fields. If you are in London, you can have sushi crafted by Miho Sato, the city’s only female sushi master. The qualification can take up to a decade to achieve, Miho now heads up the sushi offering at The Aubrey, at the Mandarin Oriental in Hyde Park.
Have a suit made at The Deck, the first women’s- only tailoring house on Savile Row, long synonymous with fine men’s tailoring. Founded by Daisy Knatchbull, The Deck specializes in heritage tailoring for the modern woman, from suits to bridal.
Chat up women ski instructors or female wranglers at dude ranches. Better yet, take your favorite gal pals, sisters, daughters, nieces to a girlfriend getaway at a Dude Ranch. Bar W Guest Ranch in Montana, for example, offers a package for women to “Cowgirl Up” and take over the ranch; White Stallion Ranch in Arizona offers several “Cactus Cowgirls packages each year.
Sustainable luxury travel curator Up Norway invites travelers to explore Norway from a gender-equality perspective with its Tracing Norway’s Super Women journey. Norway is one of the world’s most gender equal countries, and this journey (available year-round) offers a historical and geographical adventure that introduces travelers to remarkable stories. Highlights throughout the 10- day journey include Scandinavia’s only Women’s Museum; witchcraft and wildlife at the Steilneset Memorial; king crab fishing with storytelling about strong female characters who historically have served the same roles as men; Ekeberg Sculpture Park, acclaimed as one of the world’s top five sculpture parks, which features depictions of women and work by female artists, and more.
Make sure to ask the women in your lives about their accomplishments. I bet there are lots of their stories you don’t know.
(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The fourth edition of The Kid’s Guide to New York City and the third edition of The Kid’s Guide to Washington D.C. are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.)
©2024 Eileen Ogintz. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
