Why Women Organize

Women have taken active roles in movements throughout history but are often left out of the traditional narrative. During this four-day educator institute, leading experts in the field explored women's activism and involvement in various movements throughout modern U.S. history. And, the timing was fitting! The 99th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote, is this August 2019.

Speaker Schedule

Monday, June 10

• Dr. Sarah Jane Deutsch, Duke University
• Women and Their Alliances in the 1910s U.S. West
• Organized women in the U.S. West and across its borders sought allies and were sought as allies. They were part of a drive to radically expand democratic participation, not least with their own enfranchisement. The alliances they struck could be surprising. This presentation reveals that organized women served as engines and co-creators of a revolutionary vision of the U.S. West—not always at odds with a racist vision of a white "man's" country—but not always aligned with it either.
• Dr. Madeline Y. Hsu, The University of Texas at Austin
• Finding Our Voices
• The Civil Rights Movement empowered women not only to organize and seek greater political inclusion and representation, but also to explore, develop, and express their perspectives through writing and other creative outlets as equally critical means to claim visibility and authority. This session explores efforts by Asian American women writers to find and project their voices.
• Christopher Zarr, National Archives and Records Administration
• Rightfully Hers: Records of Women from the National Archives
• Participants will explore documents, photographs, and other primary sources related to women's history from the National Archives through our award-winning educational resource DocsTeach. Educational strategies will be shared on how to incorporate these primary sources into the classroom.

Tuesday, June 11

• Dr. Danielle McGuire, Wayne State University
• Rosa Parks and the Radical, Civil Rights Roots of #MeToo
• Black women's protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled civil rights campaigns throughout the South beginning during WWII and continuing through the Black Power Movement. The Montgomery bus boycott was the baptism, not the birth of that struggle.
• Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, The University of Texas at Austin
• Chicana Feminisms: Critical Documents and Perspectives
• Presentation and participants will explore documents, photographs, and other primary sources related to Chicana women's history and feminism from the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin. Lecture and activity strategies will be shared about how to incorporate these primary sources into the classroom as a part of a larger narrative about women and gender in American History.
• Dr. Michelle Scott, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• When Music Met the Movements: Popular Music as a Window Into Gendered Activism
• From songs like "Going to the Polls" to "We Shall Not Be Moved," protest movements included music as a method of raising morale and organizing the physical activity of marches or demonstrations. Yet how did listeners interpret and utilize the popular commercial songs that the paralleled movements like suffrage, second wave feminism, or 21st century calls for social justice? This presentation recalls on songs from Motown, Stax, and beyond that moved listeners to "dance in the streets" while at the same time raising their political consciousness about the socio-economic "respect" for which women fought and organized.

Wednesday, June 12

• Dr. Holly McCammon, Vanderbilt University
• US Women's Movement Lawyers' Litigation in the Courts
• This talk will provide an overview of the efforts of women's movement attorneys and the critical junctures in winning women's rights and gender equality they faced through litigation in the U.S. courts. Who were these litigators? What issues did they take into the courts? When and how did they win their legal victories? And what has been the impact of these judicial successes on U.S. society?
• Jan Miller, State Bar of Texas Law-Related Education
• Strategies to Teach Cases, People, and Events
• Join the State Bar of Texas Law-Related Education team as they share strategies designed to stimulate student thinking about the political, social, and economic contribution of women. Whether introducing, reviewing, or differentiating a unit of study, these strategies will engage students in the learning process. Experience sneak peek packs, case studies, hexagonal thinking, and relay reviews. Participants will receive access to all materials.
• Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, The University of Texas at Austin
• Women of Color's Club Movements in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
• Even though most scholarship on racial reform and uplift in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century focuses on African American, Dominican, and Mexican American benevolent societies run by men, this lecture will address racial uplift projects by middle class women of color who partook in what we call Club Movements, Mutualistas (mutual aid societies) and Benevolent Societies. With primary historical documents, the lecture will show how women of color across the U.S. mobilized their class privilege to influence racial uplift of the downtrodden working classes in their communities.
• Heather Vaughn, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, The University of Texas at Austin
• Putting Women on the Map: Advocacy in the 21st Century
• William James describes consumption choices best, “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” In the era of #MeToo and #ToTheGirls, one can see how digital media shapes discourse now more than ever. This session will focus on understanding the digital activism components, critically reviewing circulated messages, and empowering students to become content producers that amplify their own causes.

Thursday, June 13

• Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, The University of Texas at Austin
• Year of the Woman 2.0
• One hundred years ago, in 1919, the 19th Amendment was passed in Congress – eventually being ratified in 1920. And since then women have made up for lost time. Going from not being able to vote to outvoting men for the last 30 years. However, in the electoral arena the path for representation has been a bit bumpier and slower. It wasn’t until 1992 that we saw the first critical mass of women in Congress – The Year of the Woman. Since then the numbers have been steadily rising but representational parity has yet to be achieved. That may change sooner rather than later. Today a record number of women serve in Congress and the 2018 electoral cycle saw a record number of women run for office. What we have witnessed is a Year of the Woman 2.0. The question is what happens from here?
• Dr. Amanda Vickery, Arizona State University
• After the march, what? Rethinking how we teach the feminist movement
• This session will explore the history of Black women’s activism within the women’s movement. It will also include pedagogical tools that can be used to teach K-8 students about intersectionality and Black women’s contributions as critical citizens.