University Libraries

By Michele Jennings

The story of Women’s History Month is recounted across various media every March: in 1978, Molly Murphy MacGregor of Santa Rosa, California, planned the first Women’s History Week to coincide with March 8, International Women’s Day. Over the course of the late 1970s and ’80s, the week became a month, and in 1987 its observance in the United States was enshrined by an act of Congress. In the decades since the month was established, the National Women’s History Alliance provides a theme for the observance and celebration.

This year’s Women’s History Month theme, “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” brings to light an important detail of the month’s origin — namely, that MacGregor was a history teacher. The idea of educating in order to move forward is particularly resonant as members of the UD community use this month to reflect, to celebrate the women who came before us, and to find new ways to struggle for rights and recognition not just during March, but all year long.

In that spirit, the University of Dayton Libraries celebrates the women educators who have inspired generations to fight against discrimination and to foster equitable learning spaces. The following resources highlight these educators and provide inspiration for teaching the next generation.

Libraries Resources

• Libraries Women’s History Library Guide
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 — a database (UD login required)
• University of Dayton Women's Center collections

Books and films

• A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune, by Noliwe Rooks, tells the life story and accomplishments of Mary McLeod Bethune, a trailblazing educator who founded the National Council of Negro Women and advocated for the education and rights of Black women and girls.
• Feminism and Intersectionality in Academia: Women's Narratives and Experiences in Higher Education, edited by Stephanie Anne Shelton, Jill Ewing Flynn and Tanetha Jamay Grosland, discusses the varied and intersecting challenges of women in higher education through first-person narratives that explore topics not commonly found in print.
• He Named Me Malala, produced by Davis Guggenheim, documents the life of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani education activist who was shot by the Taliban and in 2014 became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
• Lucy Sprague Mitchell: The Making of a Modern Woman, by Joyce Antler, explores the life of the first dean of women of the University of California, Berkeley through the framework of women’s studies.
• Maria Montessori: Her Life and Legacy, directed by Annette Haines, explores the life of revolutionary educator Maria Montessori as well as her method of education at various levels in the classroom.
• Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, by bell hooks, is a seminal text in critical pedagogy in which hooks recasts education as a means to achieve freedom.
• To Live More Abundantly: Black Collegiate Women, Howard University, and the Audacity of Dean Lucy Diggs Slowe, by Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, explores the life and career of Lucy Diggs Slowe, the first full-time dean of women at Howard University, whose philosophy to "live more abundantly" inspired Black women for more than a century to create inclusive spaces in higher education.
• Up Home: One Girl’s Journey is a memoir of Ruth J. Simmons, former vice provost of Princeton University and former president of Smith College, Brown University and Prairie View A&M University, Texas’ oldest historically Black university.

More Reading

• Women’s History Month (National Women’s History Museum)
• National Women’s History Alliance

— Michele Jennings is an assistant professor and special collections instruction librarian in the Marian Library.