If you’re in the United States and interested in women’s history, you should keep the National Women’s History Alliance  (formerly the National Women’s History Project) on your radar.(1)

Founded in 1980, NWHP led the coalition that successfully lobbied Congress to name March as National Women’s History Month.

Today the organization is a major clearing house for information about women’s history for teachers, parents, community organizations, the media and anyone else who wants to know more. Their motto is “writing women back into history”—an idea I fully support. (No surprise there.) Among other things:

•  They distribute tens of thousands of posters, curriculum kits, videos and program guides.
• They maintain a registry of women’s history performers and speakers.(2)
• During the recent election, they helped interested voters find the burial places of suffragists from their community so they could celebrate voting by putting a flower or voting sticker on a local suffragists grave. (An idea I think is brilliant and creative.)
• They promote a multicultural perspective of women’s history.  Not a small matter.
• They chose an annual theme for Women’s History Month and honor women who embody that theme. The theme for 2019 is Visionary Women: Champions of Peace and Non-Violence. It’s too late to nominate your favorite shin-kicker for the 2019 awards, but the process for 2020 should open in the spring.

Their work is important. Our schools still largely teach history as his-story. The National Women’s History Alliance makes it easier for teachers to give children a broader vision of the past, and consequently a broader vision of the future.

Currently the alliance is in the middle of its annual on-line auction, with 100+ books and other items related to women’s history, including a signed copy of Heroines of Mercy Street. If that’s your jam, here’s the link: https://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/auctionhome.action?auctionId=341440005

New items are being added daily.  The auction goes through November 20, 8:00 pm, Pacific Standard Time

(1) Not the same thing as the National Women’s History Museum.
(2) Why yes, I should add my name to that list.  *Headsmack*