February 2006 Newsletter

“Well behaved women rarely make history”
~Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Honor Our Mothers by Celebrating Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day on March 8.

Here’s a little background on Women’s History Month: In my youth and up until the 1970’s, women’s history was virtually nonexistent the public school curriculum or in public consciousness. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women first initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978. They chose the week of March 8 to make International Women’s Day the focal point of the observance.

The response was so overwhelming across the country that by 1987, the entire month of March was designated as Women’s History Month by a bi-partisan Congressional resolution. That said, it is my observation that most history curricula still underreport women’s history and history made by women. Thus the annual celebrations are an opportunity to learn and to teach about this universally important topic.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court can be up to no good by agreeing to hear another abortion ban case, and South Dakota has passed a law making abortion illegal, it’s urgent to talk about the connection between women’s struggles for our most fundamental rights, including reproductive rights as an essential human right.

On February 22, I had the pleasure of delivering the keynote speech to the remarkable volunteers of the Peer Health Exchange at their annual volunteer conference. Peer Health

Exchange college students give generously of their time and talents to teach top notch comprehensive health education in public schools.

Click here to learn more about the Peer Health Exchange.

Here’s where I’ll be speaking this month — Please Join Me.

­The Bradley University Public Lecture

“The Courts and Women Today: Special Interests or

Fundamental Human Rights?”

Wednesday, March 1, 2006, 7:30pm

Newmiller Lecture Hall, Bradley Hall, Bradley University

1501 West Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL

Celebrate Women’s History Month at the Library

“Motherhood in Bondage / Motherhood in Freedom.”

Saturday, March 4, 2006, 2pm

Brooklyn Public Library, 2nd Floor Meeting Room, Central Library, 1 Grand Army Plaza, call 718-230-2100 for more information.

I’m especially excited to give this speech in Brooklyn, where the birth control movement began with the first clinic in 1916.

Click Here for more information.

NY Celebrates International Women’s Day with leading human rights advocates.

I am honored to be speaking with this distinguished panel: The Right Reverend Catherine S. Roskam, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, Charlotte Bunch, Noleen Heyzer, Bianca Jagger,

Dr. Speciosa Kazibwe, and Vivian Stromberg.

Wednesday, March 8, 7:30-9:30pm – St. Bart’s Church on Park Ave. at 50th

Click Here for more information.

Dangly Earrings
Of all the articles, photo, and words I have put into these newsletters over the past 6 months, my revelation that (finally at my tender age) I got my ears pierced so that I can wear beautiful dangly earrings has generated the most comments, from men as well as women.

This is not unrelated to the admonition about good behavior not making history. Any act that represents a break from the past creates energy, sometimes negative, more often positive. With this in mind, I want to ask you, dear readers, to share your equivalent of dangly earrings with me for a new column by that name. What have you done that is a meaningful departure from your past? Why did you do it? And what has been the result? I can’t wait to see your stories.