Tag Archives | Women

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Making Houston Happen: Local Organizers and the Planning of the NWC

By Maya BoucheblThe International Women’s Year Commission chose Houston to host the National Women’s Conference. The main venues and hotels were located downtown, shown here in 1977. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library flickr. In the months leading up to the National Women’s Conference of November 1977, the staff of the International Women’s Year (IWY) Commission […]

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Sylvia Ortiz: An “Everyday Woman” Who Became a Feminist Celebrity

By Miranda Ruzinsky  The official conference report published in 1978 for President Jimmy Carter and the public featured, left to right, Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot, and Michelle Cearcy on the cover page. Photo by Adela Alonso, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.  “WALK A CELEBRITY MILE!”: This call to action circulated around Houston in 1977 on a poster advertising […]

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From Buttons to Banners

By Mackenzie Vance Participants at the NWC used their crafting skills to create buttons and pins, as well as other graphics, to visually communicate their ideas and beliefs.  Photo courtesy of the Dorothy Marder Papers, Peace Collection, Swarthmore College.  As more than 20,000 attendees flocked to the 1977 National Women’s Conference (NWC), they did so with excitement […]

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Leaving a Legacy: Houston Women in Politics after 1977

Introduction by Caitlyn Jones-Excerpts from oral histories conducted by Lena Craven and Caitlyn JonesRepresentative Bella Abzug, at the podium, is flanked by the torch relay runners (in blue), First Lady Rosalynn Carter, former first ladies Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, and Maya Angelou. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.  When the National […]

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Preserving the Legacy of the National Women’s Conference.

By Livia Lee Garza National Women’s Conference relay runners wore blue “Women on the Move” shirts as they carried the “torch of freedom” from Seneca Falls to Houston. Image courtesy of the Houston Area NOW and Other Feminist Activities Collection. All photos are from Special Collections,  University of Houston Libraries. “There was never anything like it.”This opening […]

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The beauty and dramatic personality of Johnny George, founder of Theatre, Inc., is captured in this portrait. From 1953 to 1966, Theatre, Inc. produced over fifty Broadway musicals utilizing volunteer Houston talent. Photo courtesy Don Looser.

Movers and Shakers: Houston Women in the Arts 

Women have played significant roles in the history of Houston’s cultural development. Some have had talent; some have had resources; some have had influence as powerful journalists or fundraisers. Among these women were Houston’s cultural impresario Edna Saunders and the formidable journalist Wille Hutcheson. Three other remarkable women, however, were historically strategic in shaping Houston’s […]

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Scottish Brigade in formation, circa 1939-1940.

Marching into History: The Sisterhood of the Stephen F. Austin Scottish Brigade 

On June 23, 1972, nearly thirty-five years prior to the passage of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or educational program that receives federal funding, there was the Scottish Brigade Drill Team. Beatrice Lytle, the group’s sponsor, organized the Scottish Brigade Drill Team in September of 1937 in conjunction with the newly […]

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Cougars Fostering Inclusion in the U.S. Military

By Christine Le with Jacob LoewGeneral Barrye Price, LTC Melissa Comiskey, and 2LT Katelyn Kubosh have each played a role in opening doors to women in the U.S. Military. Photos courtesy of the U.S. Army.Serving in the military requires a noble spirit along with a strong passion for service and our nation. Enlistment, training, service, […]

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The Women Behind the San José Clinic

By Sarah ChikhaniIn the early 1990s, Sister Annette McDonagh and Sister Pauline Troncale carpooled to work at San José Clinic in Houston’s Second Ward. Every morning, Sister Annette, a pharmacist in her seventies, would bless the clinic with a splash of holy water and pray that she would not make any mistakes. Recalling the story with a laugh, Sister Pauline, who was CEO of the clinic at the […]

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