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It has often been said: “Every time a girl reads a womanless
history she learns she is worth less.” Women’s museums play
an important part in raising women’s status and self-esteem.
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The
National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame can be described
as a “women’s museum” – that is a permanent
place where women’s history, art and their special contribution
to society is preserved, documented and publicly displayed.
The majority of women’s museums developed during the
1980s as a result of the women’s movement in the previous
decade, highlighting the importance of “Herstory”
and the rise of “gendered” history amongst academics.
However there are a few earlier examples from the late 1950s
and 1960s such as the Pioneer Woman Museum, Oklahoma and the
National Women’s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, NY, USA.
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In
2000 NPWHF curator Pauline Cockrill was awarded the Northern Territory
Government’s Chief
Minister’s Women’s Fellowship (now known as the Chief Minister’s
Study Award for Women)
to study the history, management and organisation of women’s
museums, both real and virtual, around the globe.
The
resulting research uncovered around 40 women’s museums on 5 continents,
which are listed here with short descriptions, links to websites and
pictures of those that Pauline visited during 2001. The list includes
both general women’s museums as well as museums/Halls of Fame
dedicated to groups of women in specific professions. If you can provide
details of other women’s museums and/or pictures or other feedback,
please complete the form below.
There
are also many other institutions and organizations around the world
where researchers can access archives and libraries of collections
and materials relating to women’s history. In Australia for example
there is the Jessie
Street National Women’s Library
as well as the Australian
Women’s Archives Project.
A
good guide to international sources for women’s history can be
accessed via the Genesis
project,
based at the Women’s
Library
in London or The
World Wide Web Virtual Library: Women’s History
maintained by the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.
International
Women’s Day (8 March)
was generally accepted worldwide following the United Nations’
call for every nation to adopt such a day in 1975, International Year
for Women. These days IWD offers the opportunity to call for a better
world for women and girls everywhere as well as for celebrating women’s
achievements both past and present. From 1980 one day expanded to
a month of celebrations in the USA with the creation of Women’s
History Month due to the National
Women’s History Project
lobbying Congress. 20 years on Australia followed suit. Women’s
History Month
was launched in March 2000 by the National Women’s Media Centre
and is now coordinated by the National
Foundation for Australian Women.
The
Feminist Bookshop, (Australia's first) was established
in Sydney in 1974 and is another good resource for information on
women's issues.
Acknowledgements:
Pauline Cockrill in indebted to the NT Government’s Office of
Women’s Policy, to Petra Kanzleiter of Frankfurt, Germany who
so generously shared her knowledge from her doctorate research on
women’s museums, to Jane Paradise of the International Museum
of Women in San Francisco as well as Denise Cook via the Women in
Museums SIG of Museums
Australia
who started the ball rolling in 1994.
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If you would like to submit a women's museum or would like
to notify us of any changes to this World Wide Women section
please click here. |
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you experience any difficulties with this site
please contact the webmaster.
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