Of course, there continue to be barriers to be broken. Last night, a woman won the Best Director Oscar for the first time. While these achievements are important in their own right, it is the stories behind the achievements that are even more important.

Below is a YouTube video with interviews of Kathryn Bigelow, Best Director award winner, and Sandra Bullock, Best Actress award winner. (Sorry, it has an opening ad, but the video is such a good one that it is worth the short commercial.) Both of these strong women show us that one needs to keep trying and to accept the failures along with the accolades. They are all part of life.

In case you didn’t follow the Oscars this year, Kathryn Bigelow became the first female winner of the Best Director Oscar category. Her film, The Hurt Locker also won the Best Picture award.

There have only been three other female nominees is the entire history of the Oscars that spans 82 years. The others are: Linda Wertmüller (1976, Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (1993, The Piano), and Sofia Coppola (2003, Lost in Translation).

Well, I got off my topic: Women’s History. So often a movement gets started for political reasons. However, the story of Women’s History Month shows that it grew out of a combination of political and education needs. If you don’t know the story, here’s a little information:

1. In the US the Socialist Party organized the first National Women’s Day in 1909. Now before you roll your eyes at the mention of the Socialist Party, remember that in 1909 women did not have the right to vote and the Socialist Party was one of the organizations that took up that cause. They wanted to draw attention to the right to vote that was denied to women.

2. Merely a year later, the Socialist International Party declared an International Women’s Day with a message of the need for universal suffrage. The first celebration was held in 1911 with a continuing emphasis on the women’s right to vote, but also calling for the end to job discrimination. The celebration of International Women’s Day was on March 19. Then, tragically, only six days later, the now infamous Triangle Fire in New York City killed 140 young women working in the garment industry. Locked in the work room, they were unable to escape. The fire brought additional interest to the agenda of the International Women’s Day to protect female workers.

3. Continuing with the international emphasis, Russian women held peace rallies in 1913 and 1914 in conjunction with International Women’s Day. And in 1917, they organized and carried out a stroke for “bread and peace.”

Although some of these celebrations were held on the last day of February, most were held in March.

4. Fast forward to 1978. Obviously, women now had the right to vote in the US. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also included the statement in Section 703 (a) that made it unlawful for an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

So with voting rights ensured and workplace discrimination official ended, you might wonder about the need for an new emphasis on women’s history. In 1961, Ester Peterson was the Director of the Women’s Bureau that collected data about many aspects of women’s work lives. She persuaded President Kennedy to establish a non-partisan Commission on the Status of Women, which he did, naming Eleanor Roosevelt as Chair. The Commission issued its report in 1963 that documented discrimination in many areas of women’s lives. As a result of that report, many states and counties established their local Commissions. Many of these had committees looking at the status of women in education.

My personal story gets intertwined with history at this point. I was active in establishing several committees to investigate the role of women in my field, communication. I went on to write a book called Women and the Mass Media: Sourcebook for Research and Action that summarized all the studies available of the presentation of women in the media, including textbooks.

I make the point about textbooks because many of the commissions on the status of women began to document the invisibility of women in the K-12 curriculum. In an effort to draw more attention to the roles women have played in history, Sonoma County’s Commission organized a Women’s History Week for 1978. Many of the schools in the county eagerly participated with guest speakers and new materials used.

This marked the beginning of a new effort to recognize the importance of women in society.

5. The following year, Molly Murphy MacGregor, a member of the Sonoma County Commission’s Education Task Force, was included in a program at The Women’s History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. MacGregor’s description of Sonoma county’s successful program excited the other national leaders who agreed to start similar efforts through their organizations. But more importantly, they saw the need to work together to establish a National Women’s History Week.

6. The next step forward came in 1980. At that time, President Jimmy Carter issue a Presidential Proclamation making the Week of March 8th, 1980 National Women’s History Week. At this point, we’re back to politics again. Carter’s resolution was specifically for 1980. Representative Barbara Mikulski and Senator Orrin Hatch worked together to co-sponsor a Congressional Resolution for 1981 establish National Women’s History Week.

Each year, organizations banded together to lobby for National Women’s History Week because each proclamation and resolution was only for one specific year.

7. By 1987, while national efforts were still initiated on a yearly basis, 14 states had declared March as Women’s History Month. In that same year, Congress declared the entire month of March as the permanent National Women’s History Month.

As you read this summary, I hope you noticed that it began in 1909, 11 years before women had the right to vote. That was the same year that my mother was born. I always have to stop to remind myself of the not-too-distant past when women couldn’t vote.

Then I hope you also noticed how recently there was recognition of National Women’s History Month. This was established on a permanent basis only in 1987.

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On this blog, we sometimes feature stories of that generation of women born during World War II, daughters of the iconic Rosie the Riveter. Other times, we look at stories of the women who worked during the war, the Rosie’s themselves, because they took the first step toward opening occupations to women. Of course, they managed to also raise an incredible generation of women, many of whom were the first to graduate from college in their families or the first female to hold the jobs they sought and won.

Today, I’d like to highlight a PBS documentation about one of the many women in the generation of Rosie’s Daughters that we call the “First Woman To (FW2)” Generation. Joan Baez. Actually, all you have to do is say her name and you see a face and hear a voice that resonates with many of us. PBS recently aired in the American Masters Series a broadcast called Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound.

As someone who came of age politically in the 1960s, the interwoven history and music in the documentary brought back memories — the Civil Rights and Peace Movements, Bob Dylan’s music, and much more. I was touched to see the recent conversation between Joan Baez and Davis Harris in the documentary.

But most of all, I loved hearing Baez talk about how comfortable she is on stage where once her fear caused her to regularly flee, even in the middle of a concert. It is a reminder to all of us to embrace what we’ve done, both the good and the not-so-good, and to become comfortable with ourselves at this point in our lives.

The following video, although not from How Sweet the Music, is Joan singing Love is Just a Four Letter Word. Enjoy.

Missed the PBS viewing? I just checked and you can rent it through NETFLIX.

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Following is the first of a series of stories of Rosie the Riveter’s
Legacy. We invite you to tell your story, or your mother’s.
Please email us and we’ll send you the details. We look forward
to honoring many of the women who worked during World War II.
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Marian Perkins Horton

By Norma Horton Bryant

We knew we wanted to honor our parents. We had no idea how deeply we would be moved in the process.

As a child I once asked my mother, “Why do you have those tiny scars on your arms and legs?” She tilted her head back and a smile came across her face as if she was reliving her memories. She told me, “They are from a time when I was a welder during the war.” It was obvious she wore those scars as though they were her medals. She could not have been more proud of her part in the war effort.

My mother, Marian Horton (Perkins at the time) was and still is, a beautiful woman with a strong sense of southern propriety, having grown up in Richmond, Virginia. I was intrigued as to what brought her into that world of work and made her enjoy the experience.

“I was just out of high school when I heard that Richmond Engineering was hiring women. They needed us to weld bomb racks, tank turrets and portable bridges.” I knew my mother loved adventure and the thought of serving her country this way must have been a perfect fit.

My sisters and I were always captivated by her stories. She told us a story of how the men already working on the lines had at first resented the women coming in and “doing men’s work.” They would try to intimidate the women by spitting chewing tobacco on their boots as they worked but my mother and a friend refused to be intimidated. Instead, they came up with a plan. They emptied tobacco pouches and filled them with shaved licorice. When they came to work for their next shift, the women each filled a cheek with “tobacco” as the men did. When the men spat on their boots, my mom and her friend spat licorice back on the men’s boots. Their spunk brought a laugh and cut the tension.

Another story we loved was about the time the “Truth or Consequences” radio show came to a Richmond theater to broadcast live for the GIs and local people. The premise of the show was to ask the contestants a riddle, and if they could not answer it they had to pay the consequences.

The producers wanted two women welders to be contestants so they came to Richmond Engineering and selected my mother and another woman for the show. They instructed the women to come to the theater after working all day, as they were, without cleaning up and still wearing their welding uniform, helmet and gloves. When they arrived, my mother and her co-worker were further “smudged up” and had their hair mussed before being sent onstage.

They were stumped by the riddle, “When is a door not a door?” Mom said they never would have thought to reply, “When it is ajar.” Mom and the other contestant had to pay the consequence, which was to be given a glamorous makeover and dressed in ball gowns, fur stoles and jewels. When they returned to the stage they received screams and cheers from the audience. To complete the Cinderella story, they were whisked off to a ball to dance the night away with two officers who were stationed nearby.

One more memory (and our favorite) was when my mother and friends, obviously dressed for a special occasion, were waiting for a bus. As they boarded, a couple of servicemen came up and asked them where they were going. My mother took notice of one handsome GI, but being a lady, would not tell him where they were going. The handsome GI, Eugene Horton, caught the next bus, asked where there was a dance that night and had the driver drop him off there. He found my mother and asked her to dance. They dated every time he had leave after that.

Several months later, the handsome GI received papers to report to South Carolina. Because they couldn’t stand to be separated, they were married. As Mom and Dad moved away from Richmond, Mom’s welding days ended. Obviously, her pride and fond memories did not.

Mom always proudly told us that Dad had joined the Army the day he graduated from high school and that later he served in France.

Being very proud of both of our parents, my sisters, Janet Campbell and Lynn Dawes, and I found a way to honor them. We had no idea how deeply we would be moved in the process.

My sister Lynn has lived in England for about twenty years. In addition to teaching, she is a big bands singer. For many years she has performed at a WWII Memorial Weekend–an event Mom and Dad had enjoyed attending many years ago and often spoke of with great fondness.

The Severn Valley Railway “War Weekend” has been held every summer for the past fifteen years. The depots of the five towns along the line, connected by steam trains, are transformed to look as they did during the war. In addition to battle re-enactments, there are big band concerts with forties dance music. Re-creations of period residences and shops are set up. Re-enactors, musicians and the attending public dress in period attire that has special meaning to them. They engage in role-playing as a way of remembering those who served, supported and experienced WWII.

To celebrate our parents lives, Janet and I felt privileged to attend this event with our father this year. Sadly, because my mother has Alzheimer’s, she could not attend.

With several trips to Army surplus stores, we were able to recreate my dad’s uniform, which he wore proudly as he mingled and exchanged war stories with other veterans. My sister Lynn, dressed as a forties band singer when she performed, took pride in wearing the tailored suits my mother wore. My sister Janet and I dressed as Rosie the Riveter. We wore mock I.D. badges from Richmond Engineering using our mom’s name and a photo of her on our uniform as if we were our mother for the day.

There were people dressed to represent different branches of the military, including uniforms and costumes from Allied and Axis countries. The German Army officers gave our father a start. Even after so many years, he said the hair stood up on the back of his neck.

People came as Red Cross nurses, land girls, black market dealers and school aged children who were evacuated during the bombings. Attendees shared their stories of how the war influenced their lives and enjoyed listening to the memories of other people and their service on the ‘Home Front.’ Many of these people attend every year and were very welcoming to us as we were clearly there to participate.

My sisters and I were able to share our mother’s story, as well as the spirit of the many Rosies of America with people attending this event who asked us about our Rosie attire and the photo of the “lovely lady” on the badges.

We had underestimated how much comfort it would give us to talk about her and her part in the war, especially since she can no longer do it for herself.

As the steam trains ran, there were flyovers by actual WWII planes. Using multiple speakers and special effects, air raids with realistic sounds of diving planes shooting at the station made our hearts race. Explosions were set off down the side train tracks to resemble bombs exploding. We found ourselves engulfed in the sights and sounds of 1942. This was at once awe inspiring and somewhat unsettling. We felt transported back into a time we had only heard described.

Listening to stories of bravery and sacrifice and soaking up the atmosphere of places that had been transformed gave us an even deeper sense of what it was like to be part of Mom and Dad’s wartime world.

We felt closer than ever to our parents, having taken a few steps in their shoes, if only by pretending.

We always on the lookout for information about the Rosie the Riveter generation. Today, we found a World War II safety video about women working during the war. We thought we’d share it with you. 

The focus in this video is hair. The interesting story behind all of this is that safety clothing was not available in women’s sizes at the time of the war. Steel toe shoes, safety gloves, and other safety articles were only available in men’s sizes. WWII and Rosie the Riveter changed many expectations.

Post #14 - Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett

Rosie the Riveter, as portrayed in Howard Miller’s iconic poster, is shown wearing a red and white polka-dot bandana. And yes, women working in factories during World War II did wear bandanas to keep their hair out of the machines and equipment that they used. 

After our collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters was published, Kendra and I wanted red bandanas with white polka dots. We thought they’d be lots of fun to wear and a wonderful way to share Rosie the Riveter’s legacy of strength, courage, and empowerment that she passed on to her daughters. 

Then we started our search. We couldn’t find any bandana that was even close. We couldn’t even find a good fabric to make them from. Rosie’s bandana clearly was a random pattern while most fabric shows a regular set of rows and columns for the white dots. Hum. What to do? 

We finally decided to design our own Rosie bandana. As soon as we began to show it, everyone wanted one. We created a Limited Edition I Rosie the Riveter bandana, which is now sold out. One of the last ones was purchased by photographer Gina Addison. In a recent email, she wrote, “The bandana I purchased on you website was used for a photoshoot to re-create the Rosie the Riveter image for the May ‘09 issue of Military Spouse Magazine” Gina sent us a copy of the cover and gave us permission to share it with you. Hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we did. 

By the way, we have just introduced our Rosie the Riveter bandana, Limited Edition II. Same great polka dots, but this time we’ve embedded a profile of Rosie along with the inspirational words: We Can Do It! Pass It On! If you are interested, visit our STORE for more information.

Post #13 - Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett

Thanks to the research we did for our collective memoir Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story, we’ve also learned a lot about Rosie the Riveter. Of course, Rosie is just the shorthand for all the women who worked did during World War II — in factories, in government agencies, in the military, in offices, on farms … well you get the idea. Many more women also did important work as volunteers with the Red Cross, USO, and many other organizations. 

My coauthor, Kendra Bonnett, and I now want to capture as many of Rosie’s stories as possible. They were the original We Can Do It generation. They were role models for other women and still serve as role models today. Without the contribution of these women, we could not have won the war. Their determination, strength, courage, and inventiveness provide lessons for the modern day Rosie the Riveters — women in today’s workforce.

Please help us record these stories. If you worked or volunteered during WWII, we’d like to receive your story. Perhaps your mother or grandmother was a Rosie. If so, we’d like you to write her story and send it to us. We’re looking for stories that are about 1200 words that talk about her experiences during WWII. We’d also love to have two photos — one from WWII and a more recent one. 

Help us preserve these important life stories. 

Our commitment. We’ll create a special area on our website and post all stories. You can share your story or the story of your mother or grandmother with so many other women. In addition, we will choose some stories — ones that reflect the wide variety of experiences of these women — and include them in a book we are planning to showcase these women. 

For now, please send us an email saying that you would like to submit a story — either of your experiences or of someone you know. We’ll send you additional details. You can just click on the CONTACT menu item above.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The past several days have put a spotlight on a number of “First Woman To” (FW2) generation women. Here are three that I happened to see:

1. Sunday’s Meet the Press had historian FW2 Doris Kearns Goodwin on the panel discussing parallels between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln. Doris Kearns Goodwin has written books on several presidents and drew on her experiences when researching and writing about Lincoln. She said:
“I think to become concerned with history–maybe it’s because I love history so much–it makes you bigger, it enlarges you. I felt every day, living with Lincoln, as I woke up with him in the morning, went to bed with him at night–metaphorically, anyway–that I was becoming a better person. I mean, weird as that sounds, everybody who’s studied Lincoln feels that way. That’s why there’s 14,000 books. Ida Tarbell once said there’s no one more companionable than Lincoln. Let him be companionable for Obama, we’ll be in great shape.”

2. Then on Monday’s NewsHour, I watched FW2 Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the first African-American woman to attend the University of Georgia, discuss the global implication of Obama’s presidency. Hunter-Gault currently lives in South Africa and is a special correspondent for NPR.

3. And finally, this morning I listened to Aretha Franklin, another FW2, belt out My Country Tis of Thee. If you missed her performance, you can see it here on YouTube.

You can expect to continue to see our generation of women.

We’ve done it again. The Rosie’s Daughters generation is still shining, still getting awards. The 2008 Kennedy Center honorees have just been announced — 6 outstanding individuals, 4 men and 2 women. Both of the women are Rosie’s Daughters — Barbra Streisand and Twyla Tharp. The Kennedy Center award is considered to be one of the most prestigious awards in the arts.

Barbra Streisand’s work is widely known. Perhaps you don’t know Twyla Tharp. Tharp is said to have reinvented modern dance blending jazz and ballet. Illustrating the diverse influences on the Rosie’s Daughters generation, she’s choreographed dances to Bob Dylan’s music and the Beach Boys.

“Twyla was challenging because she would never compromise on integrity,” said Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “She taught me the difference between making a ballet and making art.”
When I was researching some of the famous FW2s for my book, I read Twyla Tharp’s memoir, The Creative Habit, a fascinating look at ways to bring creativity into your life and your passions. If you’re interested, I’ve included a link to her book.

CBS will broadcast the award ceremony on December 30.

Oh yes — here are the names of the men honored: Roger Daltry, Pete Townshend, Morgan Freeman, and George Jones.

Title: Rosie’s Daughters: The “Tipping Point” in Women’s History
Location: Sunol Valley Golf Club, Sunol, California
Description: Sponsored by AAUW, Fremont, this presentation is open to the public. Fee $20. For more information, go to: http://www.aauwfremontbranch.org and click on the calendar. Walk-ins are welcome.

On the historic anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Matilda Butler will talk about the vital role that women played during World War II. They changed, forever, the roles of women in the workplace. Although they went home after the war, at the urging of the government, they raised their daughters with a “can do” attitude. These daughters entered the workplace and have never left. This presentation, filled with the sights and sounds of Rosie the Riveter, is both entertaining and enlightening. 

Come join AAUW, Fremont for a special afternoon. $5 of each purchase of an autographed copy Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story will be donated to AAUW’s Education Fund to help women obtain a better education.

Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2008-12-07
End Time: 16:00