By: Ellie McCartney
As the end of National Women’s History Month approaches, the time to recognize women responsible for powerful acts in history is growing shorter.
Too often, prominent names in the industry of historical women are seen as the most important women in history. Meanwhile, other women who have impacted lives within their community are unfortunately forgotten or under documented. It is the responsibility of society to identify these women and work together to share their stories with the rest of the world.
Amy Schindler, director of archives and special collections at UNO said, “One of the greatest privileges of the profession I’ve chosen is I have the great fortune of learning about women in our society, in our communities and in our state who are not household names.”
In Schindler’s opinion, these prominent women are not the only women who deserve recognition during National Women’s History month. There are several local community leaders here in Omaha that have made a difference in people’s lives. A good example of a woman local to Omaha and one of Schindler’s favorite woman in history is Emmy Gifford.
“She took her passion for art and culture and Omaha and she channeled that into creating the Omaha Children’s Theater, which is now at the Rose,” said Schindler. “Hearing their stories and all the work they’ve done caring for and trying to improve the community… in big and small ways is just amazing.”
In many ways, women who are behind powerful and inspirational actions have made big and small impacts in the world we live in today. It’s unfortunate that many people are unaware of the influence that women like Emmy Gifford had on their communities.
“For so long, people and not just historians or educators, but people just didn’t talk about history that was outside of the dominant culture, which for us as we know is white upper-class men,” said Schindler. “We need to remind people that, yes, there is a long history of women going back to, oh I don’t know, the beginning of humanity on this plane.”
Although we’ve come a long way since 1982, when women were only given a week to celebrate their history, there are still women in history that are not being documented for their roles they’ve played in activism, civil rights or even the creation of a children’s theater.
“Skipping forward, there are these women in history who have done these things. Who have a vision for right then, but also for the future and then you have people who, again, see a need and just fill it,” said Dawn Cripe, gender and women’s studies professor at UNO.
A perfect example of this type of person in history is Alice Paul. As a young suffragette Alice spoke out for the rights of women and fought to address the gender inequality that women were facing during that time.
“Even after she went through being imprisoned and beaten and force fed. She still continued to fight because she saw a vision for our future,” said Cripe. “Every living breathing moment she had was spent fighting for what she saw as an injustice and I think about where we wouldn’t be today if it wasn’t for her and other suffragettes like her.”
The sad part is that a majority of people in the world are unaware of this one woman’s actions and how they led to women getting the chance to vote. But, she is not alone in her suffering and fight for rights. Other women from the civil rights era were just as under documented as Alice Paul in their efforts for justice like Fannie Lou Hamer.
“She was a civil rights worker, again, she was jailed, she was beaten and yet she kept singing and she kept fighting on for what she saw was an injustice for black people in the south who were disenfranchised, kept from registering and so those are like wow people to me,” said Cripe.
Overall, these women have worked hard to make a better future for us all. It’s not enough to share the prominent women with society. We need to share all women who have impacted communities, societies rules and other injustices because if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t be where we are today.
