Celebrate Women’s History Month with the National Archives
Press Release · Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Washington, DC

The National Archives celebrates Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day with special programs on topics including a young learners program on Julia Child and author book talks on women on the MIT faculty and Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé. See our extensive Women’s History Month online resources. 

Join us on social media as we highlight the careers and contributions of women who have worked at the National Archives. Follow #WomenOfRecord on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Women’s History Month programming is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Denise Gwyn Ferguson.

The Story of a Speech: A Conversation with Lissa Muscatine
Wednesday, March 1, at 6 p.m. CT
Sturgis Hall at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, AR
Register to attend in person
Lissa Muscatine was a key player in the White House speechwriting team across most of the Clinton years, becoming First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s primary speechwriter. Muscatine will appear as part of the Clinton Presidential Center Presents series to have a conversation about her life as a speechwriter and, in particular, the historic speech at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, that is featured in the Clinton Center’s ongoing special exhibit Women's Voices, Women's Votes, Women’s Rights. Dr. Mike Hemphill, Director of Leadership Development at the Clinton Foundation, will lead the conversation with Muscatine. This program is sponsored, in part, by the National Archives Foundation.

Clinton Presidential Center Presents is a partnership between the Clinton Foundation, Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas, and Clinton Presidential Library.

The National Archives Comes Alive! Young Learners Program: Meet Julia Child
Thursday, March 9, at 11 a.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
Julia Child became a household name after collaborating on the bestselling book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which she followed up with more books and a long-running TV series. Before achieving fame as a culinary wonder, Julia Child played an important role in communications with the OSS, a U.S. Government intelligence agency. Ms. Child will share stories of her youth, her love of cooking, and her role as a traveling the world as a top-secret communicator during World War II. Actor and storyteller Linda Kenyon portrays Julia Child. This program is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation.

Book Talk – The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
Wednesday, March 15, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted to discriminating against women on its faculty for years, forcing institutions across the country to confront a problem they had long ignored: the need for more women at the top levels of science. Author Kate Zernike, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who broke the story for the Boston Globe, will discuss the story of how 16 highly accomplished women on the MIT faculty came together to do the work that triggered the historic admission. The Exceptions centers on the life of Nancy Hopkins, the leader of the 16 and a hero to two generations of women in science. Joining the author in conversation will be  Alexandra Pelosi.

Book Talk – Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson 
Thursday, March 23, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
The first woman President was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She hightailed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power. In 1919 (before women could even vote), she effectively became the first woman President of the United States when her husband, Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated. Beautiful, brilliant, charismatic, catty, and calculating, she was a complicated figure whose personal quest for influence reshaped the position of First Lady into one of political prominence. Untold Power is a nuanced portrait of Edith Wilson written by Rebecca Boggs Roberts, a leading historian on woman suffrage and power.

Book Talk – Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé
Wednesday, March 29, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
When America became a nation, a woman had no legal existence beyond her husband. Abigail Adams tried to change this, reminding her husband, John, to “remember the ladies” when when Congress formulated laws for the new nation. Fearless Women tells the story of women who dared to take destiny into their own hands; some were abolitionists, some famous like Susan B. Anthony, and most of them considered themselves patriots. Author Elizabeth Cobbs will discuss the stories of fearless women on both sides of the aisle, rich and poor, from all backgrounds and regions, and show that the women’s movement has never been an exclusive club.

Book Talk – The Confidante: the Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America
Wednesday, March 29 at 6 p.m. ET
Henry A. Wallace Center the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY
Registration for in person attendance is required; watch online YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook 
The FDR Presidential Library presents a Women's History Month conversation and book signing with Christopher C. Gorham, author of The Confidant: the Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America. 

Related exhibit currently on display: All American: The Power of Sports
Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery,  National Archives Museum, Washington, DC 
On display through January 7, 2024
All American highlights include a section on Title IX, including a display of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendment Act, and features Althea Gibson, Kathrine Switzer, Billie Jean King, #SheBelieves (Women's World Cup), the WNBA, Dominique Dawes, and more. All American: The Power of Sports is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of AT&T, AARP, and Mars, Incorporated. Additional support provided by HISTORY® and the Lawrence F. O’Brien Family.

Related Online Exhibits from the National Archives

• View documents and photographs featured in Rightfully Hers on Google Arts and Culture
  Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote commemorated the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by looking beyond suffrage parades and protests to the often overlooked story behind this landmark moment in American history. 
• The Keynote Speaker: An Exhibition of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
• Sandra Day O'Connor: Behind the Scenes of Confirming the First Woman to the United States Supreme Court
• The War Womanpower Commission
• The U.S. Food Administration, Women, and the Great War: The Pennsylvania Food Conservation Train

Educational Resources

• DocsTeach: Find primary sources and activities for teaching about women's rights
• Women’s Rights: Legislation and Advocacy Since the founding of our country, women have redefined their roles and carved out a place for themselves in society and government. From the decades-long campaign for voting rights to expanding social and economic equality through legislation, women and women’s rights advocates have worked to obtain the rights and privileges of citizenship promised to women today.