Explore Wayne History Department’s Faculty and Student research into Women’s History.
A large CLUW delegation join anti-apartheid protests at the South African embassy in Washington D.C. from the Walter-Reuther Library
Women’s history month began in 1978 as a week long celebration of American women’s accomplishments and achievements In Santa Rose California. The week was commissioned by the Sonoma County board of education, and timed to coincide with the UN’s International Women’s day, which is celebrated every March 8th. From this week, a movement to recognize March as Women’s history month launched in 1980, lead by the National Women’s History Project. On March 8th 1980, President Carter signed the first of many presidential proclamation’s declaring March Women’s History week. In 1987 congress passed Public Law 100-9 declaring every March Women’s History month.
While Women’s History Month initially celebrated and recognized American women in History, the event has blossomed and is now celebrated in other countries like England and Australia. As our understanding of gender identity grows, so too does the definition on who is included and we continue to add to the rich history of Women and femmes.
Wayne State celebrates women’s history month in all its definitions and locations. Below are fantastic student research on women in history. You will also find faculty projects relating to women and archival resources from WSU’s Walter P. Reuther Library.
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Learn more at the official Women’s History Month website and on the Women’s History Museum website.
Student Research On Women in History
- Lesley Chapel – Lavender Magnolias: Heteronormativity, Domesticity, and Lesbian Identity in the South During the 1960s-1970s – Blog entry
- Nicholas Rhein – The Astronaut Family: A case study in American Cold War gender representation in popular media – Presentation
- Rebecca Phoenix – The Unusual Six: A Case Study of the Horner Sisters in Victorian Women’s Networking- Sterne-Lion Presentation
- Alyssa Noch – Remembering Comfort Women Through the Stage: An Examination of Transnational Memory – Mini-Documentary
Faculty Research On Women In History
Check out these faculty projects and visit their profile pages to find more publications relating to women’s history!
John J. Bukowczyk – Through Words and Deeds: Polish and Polish American Women in History
Aaron Retish – Gender in Modern Russia 1850 to the present – The Bloomsbury History of Modern Russia Series
Elizabeth Faue – Writing the Wrongs: Eva Valesh and the Rise of Labor Journalism
Liette Gidlow – “Race and Gender in Politics: The Last 100 Years”
Janine Lanza – From Wives to Widows in Early Modern Paris: Gender, Economy and Law
Elizabeth Lublin – Reforming Japan: The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the Meiji Period
Marsha Richmond – “Opportunities for Women in Early Genetics“
Kidada E. Williams – “Michelle Obama’s White Family History: Confronting the Historical Reality of Rape in the Lives of Enslaved Women and Girls“
Graduate Students Research On Women In History
Check out these projects and publications by some of our History department graduate students.
Dr. Christine Cook – “The Feminine Military Mystique: The Women’s Army Corps’ Evolution from a Separate and Unequal Corps to Full Integration into the U.S. Army, 1948-1978.”
Doctoral Candidate Katie Parks – Presentation on how German Catholic women responded to pronatalist measures encouraged by the Nazi regime between 1935 and 1945
Doctoral Candidate Alexandrea Penn – “Female Agitators: The Women of the 1913-1914 Keweenaw Copper Strike“
Graduate Student Aimee Shulman – “A Woman’s Place in the Male Sphere: Gender in the Late Victorian and Edwardian Labor Movement.”
WSU Archives
The Walter P. Reuther archive has thousands of records in their online databases. Check out the links below to get a peek at some of the records and collection highlights the Reuther has to offer on Women in Labor Unions, Detroit and Wayne State. Check out the Walter P. Reuther’s website for more!
“Out of the House: Detroit Women’s Organizations in the 20th Century”
American Society of Women Engineers and Architects
Coalition of Labor Union Women Records
The Origins and Impact of the “Women’s Mob,” The United Community Services Women’s Committee
Interested in more WSU student work? Checkout our Student Showcase from Fall 2021
Translating historical research for public audiences