WASHINGTON — March is Women鈥檚 History Month, and while some question the need for the annual event, others in the Washington area have first-hand experience they say shows the clear need to keep fighting for women鈥檚 rights, and for a planned new memorial to suffragettes along the Occoquan River in Fairfax County.
Edith Mayo is curator emeritus of the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Museum of American History, and she says she came to that job with a 鈥渂ee in my bonnet鈥� about better showcasing the contributions of American women. She wanted to make sure women never 鈥渂ecome invisible again.鈥�
鈥淚 had a male colleague who came up to me after some women鈥檚 history event that we had had at the Smithsonian, and he demanded to know when were we going to have some men鈥檚 history,鈥� Mayo told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors this month.
鈥淗e was tired of all this women鈥檚 history, and [asked] 鈥榃hen are we going to have a museum for men鈥檚 history鈥�. And I said, 鈥榃ell, we already have one. It鈥檚 called the Smithsonian,鈥� she said.
She is among those pushing for the , which would be on the site of the old Occoquan Workhouse in the Lorton Prison complex, where dozens of women were taken after a 1917 protest at the White House.
鈥淭he public has absolutely no idea that these women had to struggle for the right to vote,鈥� Mayo says. 鈥淓verybody knows that the civil rights activists were jailed and maltreated鈥ecause it came in every night on your television set.鈥�
She says the reports of how the women were treated at the facility were a real turning point that helped get the 19th Amendment added to the constitution a few years later.
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 know that these women were jailed, that they were maltreated in every conceivable way, and that they were part of a struggle that developed the strategies and tactics 鈥� that became the model for all the rest of the rights movements in the 20th century,鈥� Mayo says.
Members of the Board of Supervisors, like Penny Gross, shared their own takes on how much has changed in just the last few decades.
鈥淚n the early 鈥�70s, women staff members were not allowed on the floor of the U.S. Senate,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淲hen they finally allowed women on the floor, you could not wear pants. You had to wear skirts and hose. This was in the U.S. Senate in the 1970s. People don鈥檛 believe that today,鈥� Gross says.
鈥淲e have not won all the fights 鈥� It wasn鈥檛 over for them in 1917. It wasn鈥檛 over for women in the 1970s. It鈥檚 not over now,鈥� Gross says.
In the early 1980s, Supervisor John Foust says his wife had trouble getting a full time job after finishing her OB-GYN residency.
鈥淪he was hired by a practice of three men. They actually found her a part time job because they didn鈥檛 think women would want to go to a female OB-GYN,鈥� he says.
