Hanscom kicks off Women's History Month

  • Published
  • By Women's History Month Committee
March is National Women's History Month and this year's theme is "Honoring Women in Public Service." The goal of this year's campaign is to honor women who have shaped America's history and its future through public service and government leadership. 

Women's History Month traces its beginnings back to 1911 with the first International Women's Day. It then gained popularity throughout the United States, and in February of 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980 as National Women's History Week.

In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Barbara Mikulski co-sponsored the first Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming a Women's History Week. Congress passed a resolution which authorized the president to proclaim the week beginning on March 7, 1982 as "Women's History Week."

In 1987, after being petitioned by the National Women's History Project, Congress passed a Joint Resolution, which designated the month of March 1987 as Women's History Month.

To honor this monthlong event, the Hanscom's Women's History Month Committee will host events throughout the month:

March 8: A diversified panel of Hanscom AFB members will share their experiences, challenges and opportunities in the O'Neill Auditorium from 10 to 11 a.m. This event will be moderated by Tanya Lambert, a member of the Hanscom WHM committee, and will be followed by a question and answer session.

March 19: Tour Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House at 10 a.m.; a National Historic Landmark dating to the early 1700s. Alcott was a novelist and poet who is best known as the author of the novel "Little Women." The cost for this tour is $10 per person. To register, contact Suzanne Stuart at 781-225-0635 or by email at suzanne.stuart.1@us.af.mil. Space is limited for this event.

March 26: The base community is invited to a tour of the Lowell Mills at 1:30 p.m. The "Mill girls" was a term occasionally used to describe young Yankee women, generally 15 to 30 years old who worked in the large cotton factories. In the mills, female workers faced long hours of toil and often grueling working conditions, yet, many female textile workers saved money and gained a measure of economic independence. The base community is invited to a tour of the Lowell Mills. To register, contact Suzanne Stuart at 781-225-0635 or by email at Suzanne.stuart.1@us.af.mil. Space is limited for this event.

March 29: The month will culminate with an address by this years' key note speaker, Sarah MacConduibh, vice president of the Air Force portfolio in the MITRE Corp. National Security Engineering Center. The event is scheduled from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the O'Neill Auditorium. 

Additional information will be available throughout the month. For further information on any of the scheduled events, contact Barbara Briand at 781-225-1178.