March is Women’s History Month
We celebrate women’s history this month because the first observances of Women’s History Week revolved around International Women’s Day; that was first celebrated on March 8, 1911. International Women’s Day honors women’s achievements worldwide; the United Nations has sponsored International Women’s Day observances since 1975.
The National Women’s History Theme for 2019 is “Visionary Women: Champions of Peace & Nonviolence.”
National Women’s Alliance
At DCBS, we want to recognize the many women’s contributions in history and contemporary society, including some of these Oregonian trailblazing women.
Norma Paulus was an American lawyer and politician in Oregon. A native of Nebraska, she was raised in Eastern Oregon before becoming a lawyer. A Republican, she first held political office as a representative in the Oregon House of Representatives. She served as Oregon Secretary of State in 1977 and was the first woman to hold an Oregon constitutional statewide office.
Gwen Trice developed the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center to tell the story of a tiny logging town that once existed near Wallowa. Maxville was one of the most culturally diverse Oregon towns of its time. The center seeks to preserve the rich history Maxville and other similar communities in the Pacific Northwest. Trice was the subject of a 2009 Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary called “The Logger’s Daughter.”
Sandra Mims Rowe, former editor of The Oregonian, is the Cronkite School’s sixth Edith Kinney Gaylord Visiting Professor in Journalism Ethics. As editor of The Oregonian, Rowe led the paper to five Pulitzer Prizes, including the Gold Medal for Public Service, before her retirement in 2010.
Shoni Schimmel, a shooting guard, first received notoriety as a high school player in Oregon. Raised on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Mission, Oregon, she was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Jonathan Hock called Off the Rez, which chronicled her journey to earn an NCAA scholarship with her basketball ability.
Events around the state