Women's History Month: Off to a Good Start

My job entails overseeing the academic part of our campus--but because we're a small campus with a small staff, I often do a wider variety of tasks.  If we had a Student Affairs department, they might plan more of the events that I plan.  I help out Admissions more than I would if we were bigger.

And then there are the tasks that bring me joy, and even though no one would say they essential to my job description, they are adjacent to essential areas.  For example, yesterday I created a bulletin board to celebrate Women's History Month:

The cool thing about this board is how it's become a group project.  Our registrar came up with a great group of quotes and had them printed.  I taped them to the board, which prompted one of our Allied Health faculty to bring me material about Clara Barton to add to the board.

Then it was on to the library.   I took down the African American History book display in the library and creating one for Women's history month, including a shelf of firsts.

I realize that you can't really read the tags on the yellow and orange paper. Here's what they say, in order of books from left to right, under the One of the First sign: to use female pronouns when talking about children in general (see p. 182); to interview women writers; to analyze domestic violence; female sociologists in the U.S.

I'm pleased with the whole display:

I'm very pleased with this shelf, although it's my particular indulgence:

I would love to be at a campus where we had more speakers coming in for Women's History Month, or a whole conference, or a concert series--perhaps in future years, we will.  I have a vision of a variety of art projects, like a dress form with the kinds of undergarments that have been constraining in the past:  a bustle, a corset, a girdle.  But I suspect the month will run out before I can assemble them. 

I had been thinking that I needed to find the actual garments.  But maybe I could use pictures.  Then I could include bound feet and other constraints.  I could be more metaphorical and include statistics about married women not being able to establish their own credit until well into the 20th century.  Hmm--let me think about this further.  Who would I know who has a dress form?  Would it work as well with a clothes rack?

I'm looking around this bedroom where I write.  I see a Barbie doll and a china figure from my grandmother that's wearing 19th century formal clothing.  Perhaps a shadow box?  Stay tuned!