Her Stories in History
Saturday was a fine day for Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Adams, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Alice Paul to get together and chat about human rights. A fitting day, too, considering that we’re in women’s history month.
OK, so the four famous women were at UC Irvine in spirit only. Their contributions were represented by four Newport Harbor High students who wore historical dress and presented scripts for each character at the Great American Write-In. The free event was sponsored by Women For: Orange County, a volunteer political action group.
Volunteer Janet Hadley of Newport Beach (whose answering machine lets you know which famous woman was born on the day you’re calling) said she was shocked four years ago when she saw that her daughter’s homework assignment was to quote someone important born in February. What upset her was that the list of famous people handed out by the first-grade teacher didn’t include any women.
That sent Hadley to the library, where she researched women born that month. She sent her list to the school.
Her daughter’s classroom assignment was expanded, but that wasn’t enough for Hadley. She has since devoted time and money to buy bibliographies on women for local libraries (“only 15% of books now on shelves are about women,” Hadley says).
She also serves as a resource for groups looking for information for classroom study (“There’s a lot of be given out”). And she directs people to the National Women’s History Project, based in Windsor, Calif. [(707) 838-6000].
“People think equality was accomplished in the ‘60s, but education is still being presented as [mostly] what men did,” she argues. “The true stories of women and their accomplishments largely go unrecognized.”
Hadley also joined forces with the 12-year-old Great American Write-In committee, founded by Molly Lyon of Newport Beach. Saturday, 450 students were given paper, pens, stamps and encouragement to express their opinions in writing to their local or national representatives.
Also attending were spokespersons for 40 advocacy organizations who discussed education, health, handgun legislation and human and civil rights.
“I felt that working with people who are already active would give us more inroads with education,” Hadley says.
Newport Harbor High seniors Sara Robinson and Erin Glasgow portrayed author Wilder and suffragist Paul, while juniors Erin Phillips and Mary Sharp portrayed first ladies Roosevelt and Adams.
“This made the famous women seem more real to the students,” Hadley says. “We now have more converts who see that everything has yet to be uncovered about women’s history.”