The National Women's History Project has been
chosen to be featured on the NCWHS site.

Read below to learn about this great women's history site.

National Women's History Project

The National Women's History Project was founded in 1980 in Santa Rosa, California, after local women began exploring and celebrating women’s history in the neighborhood schools. In 1987 the NWHP led a coalition that successfully lobbied Congress to designate March as National Women’s History Month, now celebrated across the land. The NWHP was also an original founder of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites.

The NWHP’s 2007 poster promoted the theme of “Generations of Women Moving History Forward.”

While not literally an historic site, the NWHP is a significant center for work today which helps to move women’s history forward. The Project champions women’s accomplishments through publications, presentations, conferences, panels, a popular website and an annual catalog of Women’s History Resources. The networks which the NWHP is part of also help extend the range of women’s history into many different areas of society.

Writing Women Back Into History

The National Women's History Project is the catalyst for a myriad of activities promoting women as leaders and influential forces in our society.  The Project promotes a multicultural women’s history perspective by honoring women of diverse cultural, ethnic, occupational, racial, class, and regional backgrounds. Multicultural American women are overlooked in most mainstream approaches to U.S. history, so the NWHP leads the drive to write all women back into history.

Performer Ellen DiMaggio brings a Civil War-era woman to life for school children. Talented women’s history performers, speakers and authors are listed on the NWHP website.

Recognizing the achievements of women in all facets of life – science, community, government, literature, art, sports, medicine, the family – has a huge impact on the development of self-respect and new opportunities for girls and women. The NWHP initiates and inspires both local and national efforts, consults, advises and networks with a wide variety of institutions and activists in the field.

March is National Women’s History Month

Every year in March the NWHP chooses the overall Women’s History Month theme, publishes educational material, and coordinates regional and national actions. Programs based on the theme are planned at schools and libraries, military bases and government offices, workplaces, civic centers and communities throughout the country. The NWHP also selects a number of notable multi-cultural American women to honor each year. These inspiring role-models are recognized at a national celebration, on a commemorative poster, in a biographical activity book, and on the web.

Activists Zoe Nicholson (center) and Crystal Lander of the Feminist Majority (right) join attorney Linda Wharton and California NOW president Dr. Kimberly Salter (far left) on a panel on ÒThe Constitution and WomenÕs RightsÓ during the 2006 NWHP Networking Conference.

The NWHP, in conjunction with academic institutions, holds workshops and Networking Conferences that highlight the role of women in particular areas (such as “The Women of the West”).  These collaborative symposiums provide important opportunities for sharing research and stories about women’s roles, struggles, and successes today and throughout our history.

Teachers discuss how to integrate womenÕs history into school curriculum following a workshop in Little Rock, Arkansas.

We also operate an award-winning web site which makes information about American women widely available.  The site, www.nwhp.org, attracts over one million visitors annually and provides a wealth of resources including easy access to women's history performers, organizations, museums, and historic sites.  Fabulous books, posters, display sets and more can also be ordered through the NWHP’s extensive online store, or from our mail-order catalog.

NWHP staff has conducted women's history training sessions and women's historic site tours in 42 states. We have trained over 30,000 teachers and Federal program managers, and have delivered over 2,500 speeches. The Project has been recognized for its groundbreaking work in education by organizations throughout the country including the National Association for Multicultural Education, the Center for Women Policy Studies, and the National Education Association.

NWHP director Molly Murphy MacGregor (right) helps Susan Scott of Bonniebrook Historical Society display a rare Rose OÕNeill suffrage poster from 1917.

The NWHP operates with the conviction that recognizing the dignity and accomplishments of women from all backgrounds, as well as those from our own families, builds higher self-esteem among girls and greater respect for women among boys and men. Significant – if often overlooked – women are part of the American story, and a truly balanced and inclusive history would recognize how important women have always been in our national life. 

The NWHP continues to recognize and celebrate the vital role which women’s dreams and accomplishments play in our lives.  We are a non-profit, publicly supported educational institution which depends on catalog and web store sales, and on the tax-deductible contributions of those who believe in the importance of promoting women’s history today.

The NWHP helped author Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr. produce the landmark illustrated history of womenÕs long drive for equal rights, ÒWinning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement.Ó

Join us! Call for a catalog, visit our website, make a donation, and join our NWHP Network to further women’s history.

National Women's History Project
3343 Industrial Drive, Suite 4
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
(707) 636-2888

http://www.nwhp.org
nwhp (at) nwhp.org
Molly Murphy MacGregor
Executive Director and Co-founder

Page updated 2/02/2007