As recently as the 1970s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration for 1978.
The week of March 8th, International Women’s Day, was chosen as the focal point of the observance.
Due to the start of the Spring quarter and efforts to draw audience participation from faculty and students, MCC celebrates Women's History Month programming during the last two weeks of March. Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” A special Presidential Proclamation is issued every year which honors the extraordinary achievements of American women.
The Story of a Pioneer – Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw & Women’s Suffrage
Led by: Rev. Dr. Anne Dilenschneider Ph.D., New Idea Counseling
Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Location: Fort Omaha Campus, Building 10, Room 110
For decades, Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw – the first woman ordained in the Methodist Church (1880), medical doctor, leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association (1904-1915), and head of the first children’s immunization program in America – was missing from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Finally, thanks to the efforts of women theological students all over the U.S., in the late 1980s, Dr. Shaw – one of the best-known women of her day – was finally added to the Britannica.
Dr. Shaw lived through an ocean shipwreck as a child, and then built her family’s cabin (in 1859, at age 12) in the Michigan wilderness. She was the only woman attending Boston University School of Theology (1875-1878), and then – while pastoring churches – she became a medical doctor. Wanting to help women even more, she led the effort for women’s right to vote in the United States, and served as an advocate for the League of Nations. Through all of this, she was known across the country for her “keen sense of humor and ready wit,” and these attributes helped her persuade others when logic alone would have failed.
Dr. Shaw was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest civilian honor awarded by the U.S. president. When she died in 1919, The New York Times, called Dr. Shaw a “genuine American . . . with the measureless patience, the deep and gentle humor, the whimsical and tolerant philosophy and the dauntless courage, physical as well as moral, which we find most satisfyingly displayed in Lincoln, of all our heroes.”
Film showing - Breaking the News
Led by: Heather Hundley, PhD, Professor & Director for School of Communication
Date: Monday, March 24, 2025
Time: Noon.-2:00 p.m.
Location: Fort Omaha Campus, Building 10, Room 110
Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora wanted to do something radical about the white men dominating newsrooms. “70% of policy and politics editors are men, almost all of them are white,” says Emily. “These are the people deciding which stories are told, who is telling them, and whether they will be on the front page or the back page, if they get there at all.” So, Emily and Amanda along with Editor-at-Large Errin Haines and a scrappy group of fearless journalists band together to buck the status quo and launch The 19th*, a digital news start-up. Named after the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote, but with an asterisk to acknowledge the Black women and women of color who were omitted, the 19th’s work is guided everyday by the asterisk - asking who is being omitted from the story, and how can they be included.
Voice of Native American Women
Led by: Nancy S. Gillis Former Executive Director of the John Neihardt State Historic Site
Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Time: 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
Location: Elkhorn Valley Campus,
Many sources provide the words of great Native men such as Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph, but the women also had much to say and their words were recorded even if not well publicized. This presentation is a collection gathered from Native American women spanning from the late 1600’s to the present speaking on relationships, governance, land, and cultural issues
Next Gen Women
Led by: Noemy RL Castañeda, Manager of Graphic Design and Process Engineering Oriental Trading Co. & Berkshire Hathaway Co.
Date: Monday, March 31, 2025
Time: Noon .- 1:00 p.m.
Location: South Omaha Campus, Mahoney Building, Room 503/511
A journey through lived experiences as a first generation Mexican-American to a seat in corporate America. We will look at the women who have paved the way and visit the struggles they faced to make an impact in history. We will reflect on our own journeys and discuss where we came from, where we are, the journey that lays before us.
