than just the two, but he thought two would initially be probably enough, but he wasn't going to stop there and he continued to make them. next here on c-span 3, a discussion on women's suffrage. the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote was ratified on august 18, 1920. the national archives in washington, d.c. this evening is hosting a panel of historians and women leaders to commemorate the 9 9 th anniversary. they'll examine how women suffrage has impacted the role of women in politics and society. among the speaker, the executive director of the league of women voters, nancy tate. just getting under way live here on c-span 3.

>> good evening. it's a pleasure to welcome you to the william g. mcgowan theatre this evening here at the national archives. and a special welcome to our viewers on c-span and our own youtube channel. tonight's program, women's history on the horizon, the centennial of the women's suffrage in 2020, it is presented in commemoration of women's equality day, 2014, and the 94th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution, which granted women the right to vote. and forever changed the face of the american electorate. before we begin the bram, i

would like to tell you about two upcoming programs that will take place in this theatre. on thursday, august 28 at 7:00 p.m., award-winning documentary filmmaker nancy burski will be here to introduce and discuss her latest film "afternoon of a fawn." tanna quill awe claire. the story of a fame prim ma ball rin ma whose career was tragically struck short when she got polio in her early 20s. the most cited legal scholar discuss his latest book "conspiracy theories and other dangerous ideas." a compilation of his most insightful and relevant pieces. a book signing follows the program. to learn more about these and all of our programs and activities, consult our monthly calendar of events in print or online. there are copies in the lobby as

well as the sign-up sheet. we receive the calendar by regular mail or e-mail. you'll also find brochures about other archives and events. another way to get more involved with the national archives is to become a member for the foundation of the national archives. the foundation supports all of our wrork in education and outreach. there are applications in the lobby. and no one has ever been turned own down for membership for the foundation of the national archives. it was on august 18, 1920 that the fate of the 19th amendment was decided. 35 states, one short of what was needed had ratified it and it came down to the tennessee legislature. the tennessee senate had approved it but the state house had deadlocked a young representative named harry byrne who was opposing it listened carefully to the debate.

and then he opened a letter from his mother that said don't forget to be a good boy and put the rat in ratification. he was indeed a good boy and changed his vote to yay, thus ratifying the 19th amendment. the national archives holds many text you'll photograph call rorz including the 19th amendment itself as well as petitions in support of suffrage signed by susan b. anthony, elizabeth katie stanton and frederick douglas. and even records opposing women's suffrage, including a petition for mrs. jane w. wadsworth jr., president of the national association opposed to women's suffrage, because, quote, it would be an official endorsement of nagging as the national policy. it would give every radical woman the right to believe that she could get any law she wanted passed by pestering her city

council, her legislature or her congressman or her president. no matter how the people voted or what national crisis existed. and if feminism can be put through by pestering regardless the will of the people, so can pa passivism, socialism and other isms. how 100 years of voting rights have had an impact on present day political, social and economic roles for women. the panel includes bridgette howe, management of program services for girl scouts national capital, dr. idae. jones, assistant curator of manuscripts at the mor lan springarm research center at howard university, cindy ballonick from the national trust for historic preservation. mr. libby o'connell, chief historian for history, formerly the history channel. and nancy e. tate, executive director of the league of women

voters of the united states. tonight marks the fifth consecutive year the national archives has presented this women's equality day program in partnership with the sewell belmont house and museum, home of the historic national women's party located here in washington, d.c. and it's now my pleasure to introduce our moderator for tonight's discussion and executive direct sewell belmont house page arrington. she brought her passion to the role of executive director. previously she served as the vice president of the operations for the united states navy memorial and architectural memorial at the preservation firm of architect mill ford, wayne donaldson. she earned two masters degree from the university of san diego. her first in public history, and second in nonprofit management and leadership. and in addition to her work at sewell belmont, page serves on the board of directors for the national collaboration for women

history sites. please welcome page harrington and our panel. [ applause ] >> good evening. so much for that wonderful welcome. we have the privilege of being here in this wonderful theatre and we are desighted to celebrate this equality day with you. tom does a fantastic job and makes us feel very welcome. so those of us who work directly in women's history organizations or sites have been talk act the centennial anniversary for suffrage in 2020 for many years now. i know that there are several of my colleagues who work at different women's organizations and history sites in the audience here tonight, including those from the women's history project, turning point suffrage

memorial and again the national collaborative for women history sites. it's our goal, however, tonight to actually expand the conversation. we hope this dialogue will be one that not only women historians have, and not only other women organizations, but that we actually get it into the public mainstream. and hopefully that will give us a chance to once again remind the citizens of this country about the bravery and sacrifice for those who committed themselves of empowerment and citizen engagement for all. the museum is a national landmark and has an extensive collection of suffrage banners, other documents, papers, and art facts. they're all part of broad reaching, well respected organizations. the girl scouts reached their centennial anniversary just a couple of years ago.

the national woman's party, my organization, will celebrate our centennial in 2016. the league of women voters will celebrate theirs along with the 19th amendment in 2020, and howard university predates all of us, being founded in 1867. tonight, you will hear from this distinguished panel. not only about their own organizational histories, but also how they're moving the conversation forward. looking ahead to upcoming centennial and other anniversaries and also seeking new partnerships. the national woman's party used many effective tactics and strategies during their campaigns for both suffrage and equal rights. one of the most effective was a publication of the weekly magazine, first the suffragist and then the equal rights. at a high point, the circulation reached over 20,000. and provided critical updates, necessary calls to action, and celebrated many victories for the cause in the days before social media and twitter, of course.

sometimes you have extra copies. well, the nwp is no different. in 200, staff rediscovered hundreds and hundreds of extra copies of the equal rights magazines. and it is our goal to be able to redistribute those magazines that were never distributed originally in the '0s, '0s, '50s and even into the 1960s. by finding new organizations, archives and other wonderful collaborative partnerships that we can turn ownership of some of those documents over to, so that they can reach a whole new generation of researchers. it's taken more than ten years to get this project off the ground. i'm happy to say that through a generous grant through our friend lisa smith who is in the audience tonight, we have actually started. and today was the first day of our new intern. so i'm excited to tell you that.

we look forward to new organizations both locally, nationally and also internationally so that we can share these treasures with them. tonight, we have pulled together an outstanding panel for a lively conversation. women's suffrage, equality, what 100 years of the woman's vote has meant for the economy, for our own organizations, and also for our country. we will start with just introductory remarks from the group and then i will moderate what i think will be a very lively discussion, if we pick up on what we were already talking about backstage. and then we also have an opportunity for questions and comments from the audience. so there's microphones on both sides. you all can cue up. i will give you the hi sign when we're about there. thank you very much. it's nice to see everyone tonight.

>> can we start with you? >> am i on? thanks page for the introduction and the opportunity to be on this panel. we're the largest girl scout council in the country and we serve about 64,000 girls with 25,000 adult members and volunteers. in 25 counties in maryland, the district of columbia, virginia and west virginia. we are -- i am very lucky to be part of an organization that is so well known. i think everyone has heard of girl scouts. and such a part of american culture. quick question, how many in the audience and on the stage were girl scouts? just as i suspected. the evidence shows that women who are girl scouts are more civically engaged as they become adults, and clearly that's holding true in this room. if you were a girl scout 20 years ago, 0, 40, 50 years ago, you might not know what we're doing today. so i would like to share some of that with you. of course, girls still go camping in girl scouts. they're never going to skop going camping, because outdoor

experiences develop valuable skills like team work. and i would be remiss if i didn't acknowledge probably our most famous program, the cookie program. the cookie program is a great way for young women to learn firsthand the ins and outs of running a business. they learn goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills,ing and inprobably most importantly, they learn business ethics. and the importance of being ethical in everything they do. and of course, girls still earn badges. badges have not gone away either but we as an organization are on a mission to do more than cookies, camping and crafts. for 10 2 years since 1912, girl scouts has been the premier leadership organization for girls and that's still true today. every experience a girl has in girl scouts prepares her to be a leader today and a leader tomorrow. we value civic engagement, we want the girls to value civic engagement, to not only feel comfortable sitting to the table but to move ahead of the table. we do this by providing fun,

high quality programs that help girls discover their skills, strengths, values and connect with their communities and take action to make the world a better place. we have .2 million members nationally and over 50 million alumni so we've definitely reached a lot of girls. 70% of female members of congress were girl scouts and every female secretary of state was a girl scout. i spent a lot of time thinking about how girl scouts relate to the other organizations on the panel and the subject of the panel, and i think sharing some of the girl scout's history would be appropriate. we were founded by juliet gordon lowe in 1912 and we celebrated our centennial right here in 2012 with the world's largest sing along called rock the mall. it was a great day. a little bit warm, but a great day. girl supreme courts actually had its first national headquarters here in washington, d.c. in the muncie billing, just a couple of blocks down pennsylvania avenue

where was also headquartered the american women's national suffrage ceremony. i have an imaginary image of juliet gordon lowe waiting for the elevator and those she might have run into. maybe one day we'll find out. through its history, girl scouts have been known for civic engagement. from your first badge book in 1916 called "how girls can serve their country" girls have become knowledgeable about government. and in 1916, there was a civic badge available, along like signaling, needle woman and laundress. and the requirements were not easy. there were about 15 requirements, but i'm going to share a coup. because it gave me a lot of insight. a girl must have been able to recite the preamble to the constitution, to state the chief requirements of citizenship of a voter in her state, territory or district. and keep in mind, this was in

1916 when girls could not vote nationally. know how the governor of her state, the lieutenant dpofr nor, senators and representatives are elected and their term of office. know the principal officers in her town and city and how they're elected and term of office. that's an awful lot of emphasis on voting and civic engagement. there's never been a girl scout badge book without a badge that encourages civic engagement and our promise asks our members to promise to serve their country. today we have a series of citizen badges from celebrating community to inside government to behind the ballot and public policy. locally, we have a program entering its 0th year. i'm sorry, we just completed our 40th anniversary where girls spend a week on capitol hill doing internships with members of congress. we're also looking to 2016, which will be the 100th anniversary of girl scout's highest award. in 1916, it was the golden eaglet of merit.

now it's the girl scout gold award. but we're also, and i'm winding up here, very excited to make sure that girl scouts have a seat at the table for the centennial of suffrage. today's girls have a lot of opportunities, but that means it's all the more important they know the history. i'm looking forward to generating ideas to my fellow panelists and looking at ways to engage girls in the celebration in six years. thank you. >> four years ago, i was here moderating this panel at the 90th. and actually this week that just passed was 50 years since the mississippi free democratic party met in atlantic city with the assertion of rights to be represented in atlantic city. we're also celebrating page being six years at the sewall-belmont home, as well as the voting rights act of 1964.

i want to make some comment, but i also want to give you some texts to also read as university representative/historian, there is some lis chur out there that would be very helpful. online is the publication that would be black women in the united states 2014. progress and challenges by the national coalition on black civic participation. published by the black women's round table. and progress and challenges looks at 50 years of the war on poverty, 50 years on the civil rights act, and 60 year s of brown versus board of education. two publications that are seminal textbooks. some of us are brave is a seminal work in black women's history. and finally, a colleague of mine, african-american and the struggle for the vote, 1850 to 1920, really helps you understand the struggle for african-american women who are at the nexus of both being women and african-american, are doubly

marginalized in light of their participation and membership in both groups. so in light of discussing what we would see in 2020 with regards to the suffrage movement, it had a very rocky start. we can't ignore the history that there was class divisions as well as race divisions within the suffrage movement. we still have not ameliorated all those issues, but for african-american women in particular, what i have looked at through the literature, black women, once they received the franchise understood the important of civic engagement on the basic level. ptas, school boards, city councils and changing policies that would once again impact education and economics. and education, politics and policy still remains very much an issue. in the essay written by l.c. scott who's at the ron walters chair at howard university, she talks about shirley chissolm and carrie moseley braun. the only african-american woman

elected to the senate in the history of the senate. and that was 20 years ago. then, of course, she made the first campaign in the 20th century for the democratic nomination to run for the president of the united states. so african-american women understand their politics not just being rationized or gendered, but civically engaged that all person, whether they are latino immigrants, legal or illegal, whether they be working below minimum wage, that all persons have a civic responsibility to be counted as equal. so i think in light of the next six years we're looking at, and the lame duck presidential administration right now and possibly a female candidate in 2016, there are a lot of issues that we really need to engage beyond the issue of race, but we can't ignore the issue of race. and right now the issue of race has turned green. it's a matter of poverty. we have people working beneath poverty level. and usually children who are abandoned by husbands and/or trying to survive on their own. coupled with the fact that most women are now -- black women are facing prison terms because they're doing things that are

extralegal or illegal for their families. writing fraudulent checks not being able to pay for parking tickets leads to criminal efforts at a time when you're felony convict, you can not have voting rights. so the idea of repealing felony convictions so people can receive their franchise after imprisonment is a huge issue. african-american in politics and civic engagement where concerned with bread and butter issues. it's nice to look at reproductive rights and other thing, but historically our history has been to be at the table, educated, economically employed with standards of living and being able to see that everyone is entitled to their level of civic responsibility. i look forward to the conversation, i look forward to sharing with my guest panelists. but it's important for us to understand they just recently reissued the voting rights act. and by 201, it was nullified with the supreme court decision that took a lot of the teeth out of the new voting rights act.

so we're concern with the ideas of having women candidates in place that can put sensitive supreme court justices, governor, senators and legislators in place to be very broad minded in their perspective of race, class and gender. as we move into the 21st century and the first half. so thank you. >> good evening, everyone. thanks for having me. my foundation was founded in 1949, congressionally chartered with a two-fold purpose. one was to kick off historic preservation movement, although as a history nerd and geek myself, i'm not sure how many of you all know that historic preservation movement in the united states was, of course, started by a woman at mount vernon. and women continued to lead that

movement including in our own organization where we have the first -- we've had our first female ceo, who was appointed in 2010. so that was happy news to many of us. i've watched a bit of the trust for a dozen years in a variety of positions. and i've watched particularly the last few years women also move into executive roles and certainly at hour historic site, which is what i do at the national trust. i am pleased to have served as the dep pi and chief of staff for the senior vice president of the historic sites department. and our role at headquarters is to work with our historic sites. it's a national nationwide portfolio that expands the country. it's about 5 si25 sites. but it's 4,000 acre, 60,000 objects, and perhaps most importantly, core stories of

americans and american history. what we've been working on particularly the last few years is to start to share the core stories, peel back the onion, so to speak, of those people that have been marginalized. certainly people of color and certainly women. but we also know that at every historic site, there are women's stories. certainly the national trust acquired many of their sites as gifts, often many times they were gifts from women. but they've often focused on men. and that's part of the push to start to share stories in a setting or often, many people don't see themselves reflected. and women have not seen themselves reflected as of late. i want to tell you about two or three of our sites, are working

diligently to start to share those stories so that when visitors come, when they visit websites, they actually -- and women in particular see themselves. my first job at the national trust was to serve as the executive director of the decatur house here in la fayette square. we started talking about susan immediately, his wife who had to take care of things after he was killed in a duel of 11 months later. interesting that his name is steven decatur and he lived there about 1 1 months. but the most important part of that site i think and the work i'm most proud of was to share the slave quarters. it's the only remaining physical evidence that human beings were held in bondage inside of the white house. and perhaps one of the most compelling stories that we began telling that the site was the story of charlotte dupuis was

enslaved there by then secretary of state henry clay. and what did she do? she sued for her freedom in 1829. i love this story. she did not ultimately prevail, but it's an amazing story of strength and resilience at that site and that building in particular and the stories that we started to unearth that we started to research about people of color, people enslaved, women, are amaze pg and they resonate with many of the people and students that visit. other sites that are amazing. our glass box is locate outside of chicago. the farnsworth house outside of play kn plano.

they had perhaps a tempestuous relationship, but she was intimately involved in the building of her summer retreat as a single woman to make her way out to chicago, out of chicago as easily an hour by car now. so longer in 1949. and to travel out there and work with such a famed architect is quite something. so the new executive director there is working to start to share her story more. i'll also just mention one more and then pass it on. so also in washington, d.c. is our site the president wilson, woodrow wilson house, which many of you can imagine that the president had perhaps a fraught, maybe is one way of putting it, relationship with women and came to see the light when he finally supported suffrage.

i will say that, you know, that site and that director has worked, you know, especially with page, is open and wants to start to talk more about that, about that time in our history. these places that encompass these stories that embody tension, that embody, you know, what's human about us. these are places that set up a frame work for education, and that opening, that peeling back the layers, lifting up the veil is how we acknowledge the past and how we embrace the future and think about how we're going to move forward. so all of our sites across the country, we are focusing on those stories that are -- those core stories that are embodied at those places. and those are just three examples.

happy to talk about more of that as we go on tonight. [ applause ] >> i'm dr. libby o'connell. chief historian of the history channel, part of a&e networks. i'm also a commissioner of the united states centennial commission on world war i, which is a great honor for me to do. but that means i'm very familiar with the woodrow wilson house, and the themes of world war i are those that we encounter when we're setting women's history, because it was an era of great change. and so it's particularly an honor to be here tonight. i want to thank the national archives for hosting this, and i want to thank page harrington and the sewall-belmont house for inviting me. because both of the hats i wear today are really entwined in the issue of women's voting. the history channel was begun

almost 20 years ago. it is part of a group of networks, a company called a&e networks. one is a&e, the second is history and the other is li lifeline. it was called the network for women. today it proudly supports a campaign called your life, your time, your vote. they've done some work with league of women's voters and we are very engaged in getting women using our air time, which is an important attribute of a tv company, using our air time to encourage women to register and to get out and vote. and it's been embraced by both sides of the political fence. so we're happy to get that support. and working at the history channel, all of those three

networks are -- you've got to love the model of the cable industry. we are universally distributed. that means we're in each of those networks are in about 100 million homes in the united states. and then we're in about -- history channel is in about 150 countries worldwide. largely we tell on the history channel stories that appeal to a male audience. that is what our assignment is. it's like this is the brother channel and lifetime is the sister channel. i'm not kidding. so the goal of lifetime is to reach 60% women, and the goal of history channel is to reach 60% male. so those programming goals and attributes are very different, but they are parallel. the nightly ratings system by

coordinating with historic sites by coordinating with museums, working with organizations like the national archives. we're doing some programming videos. we're donating to the national archives for an exhibit they have coming up on the history of booze in america. it's called the spirit of the republic. i'm sure it's going to be great. very excited about that. we also did a short film for sewall-belmont house, talking about the national women's party. i also do work for the smithsonian, producing short form there and the national parks service and places like gettysburg or at other public sites like mount vernon. one of the things that intrigues me the most is the confluence of place and memory and how when you go to an historic site or you go to a certain place in history, you've got a very strong sense of the past. and by talking to people who work there, the experts in the field, but also the families and

the elders who have a story to tell, to share, it really brings a vie brancy and a sense of vivid connection that we should all be involved in in sharing those conversations. i'm just going to bring up one because i went to graduate school at the university of virginia, from my perspective not that long ago, but for many of you here, a long time ago. but it was in the '70s. and my husband -- he was very cute. we got married, but at the time, we were just dating. and he was at law school and i would go over to the law school. and the women's bathrooms had urinals in them because they had not expected women to ever be at the law school except as guests. and the bathroom upstairs, there was one women's bathroom upstairs that said ladies. and then down stairs, the bathrooms were women were all for men.

and this building had been built in the '60s. in the 1860s, 1960s. they never expected women to go to law school. i tell people like my daughter that, and they say really? you lived during that time? and my experiences are just small compared to others. so i encourage you all to get involved in this conversation about women's equal rights, because we all have stories no matter how old we are and how we participated. >> thank you to page and anl the panelists. it's a central team we love the topic at the league of women voters. we were founded -- i'm nancy tate. i'm the executive director of the league of women voters of the united states. the league was founded in february of 1920, which was seven months before the amendment wutz ratified. they weren't even sure that it

would be ratify tied at that po. we were founded by carrie chapman who was the president of the national american women suffrage association. and it was founded to do two things. the first premise was because women had never voted, they were not knowledgeable about the issues. how could they be informed and active members of society without knowing the issues. so we were founded to help with that education process. but secondly, one of the goals was to continue the fight. and of course, it was not the fight about women suffrage specifically, but more broadly over time, it's been for political equality. primarily in the united states, but not limited to the united states. so what is the league of women voters today? we are a national grassroots organization. we are a membership organization, and we operate at the three levels of government. so i'm at the national league.

there are 50 state leagues plus the district of columbia, and over 7 00 local leagues. almost all the work that is done by the state and local leagues are done by our members who were predominantly volunteers. so people like all of you who are active civically in their community doing a variety of things. we continue in different ways to focus on the two original goals of education and advocacy. we believe that participation in the political process is fundamentally important and is important for everybody's voice to be included. but we do this in a nonpartisan way. and nonpartisan means we don't endorse or support candidates or parties in any way. but it does not mean that we don't take a position on issues that are dear to us, which usually relate to improving the political process. so our goals are full enfranchisement and political equality, and while we're doing that, we are encouraging all

americans to be active themselves, and to make their voice heard. so another characteristic of the league is that we don't give up. so some of these issues we've been working on for over 50 years. those of you who live in the district of columbia know voting rights for the district is a long -- a rock that we've been trying to push up that hill for a long time, and we're going to keep at it. but to quote an early league leader, the success of democracy does not depend on a few persons doing great things, but on many persons doing small things faithfully. and that pretty much sums up the league's philosophy. so over these last 94 years, we have, as i said, been doing both education and advocacy. local leagues actually educate the community on any number of issues. they try to have both sides of a complex situation, be it sprawl or their education system. but of course, we're best known in the elections area. so leagues are very active in

explaining to people how to register to vote, when to register to vote. actually helping them to register to vote. we're well known for doing what we call voter guides, which are often printed in newspapers and frequently online now which explain who's running for every race and what their positions are and of course, we have done a lot and continue to do a lot of candidate debates. the political parties became uncomfortable with us playing that role because they saw us as too independent and they've now turned it over to the commission on presidential debates. most recently, we have created online one-stop shop on election information, which we call vote411.org. i put some cards out in the lobby about that that explains all the laws in all the states,

because the states vary significantly in their election laws. also has a polling place look up for everybody. as well as candidate information. suffrage, which is our history in our background and it's a great partnership to work with page who actually has a building and artifacts. we don't have any of that, but we have real people who are the children, the grandchildren, the decendents of all the women and men who worked so hard for suffrage. so we hope to partner with many organizations with various museums, with many women's organizations who are pushing for particularly different types of fuller equality for women, economic pay equity, reproductive rights and so forth. but we're also going to focus on our own history. and we're going to do this basically in three ways, although our plans are just evolving.

one is to highlight parts of our own history in each of the next five years leading up to 2020 so that we don't have to wait until one magic year where you try to tell your whole history in the blink of an eye. but for instance, 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the united nations. that's significant to the league because the league lobbied in the 1930s and the 1940s for a variety of international peace treaties and for the founding of the united nations. we were present at the signing of the u.n. charter in san francisco, and we continue to have official observer status there. several of our new york and new jersey members go weekly and are very active in a lot of the related organizations. presidential debates keep coming up. people keep asking us to take back the debates. you can't take back the debates if the parties won't come. so it's hard to have a debate

when nobody is there. but we continue to look for ways to actually make it easier for the public to watch debates in a sort of critical thinking style, because we all know and observe these that it's hard to actually figure out. the second thing will be tone courage our local leagues to tell their own stories how they make their own leagues better. i know the arlington league was very -- played an important part in the integration of the first school in virginia. the arlington league was working for the school and the african-american families. and the theme when we're doing this is to highlight parts of our history so we continue to tell our story now even though everything we do in these communities is not always as

momentous as passing the 19th amendment was. and the final thing we'll plan to do is basically some self-reflection and assessment about our internal processes, our uses of technology to try to ensure that we will be as vibrant and effective in the next 100 years as we have been to date. >> how are we on time? >> one of the things i noticed, if you want to talk about a common theme with all of us are sitting up here as professional women. we've gone to school for numerous, numerous years. and we've all chosen our respective professions. maybe we could take a minute and

go just very quickly and talk a little bit about what drew you as a professional woman, what drew you to the area that you're in now. what do you think has changed over the course of your career that has now made it easier for you to help younger women and the new emerging professional women come to the forefront. so for instance, historic preservation, cindy, you mentioned -- not to put you on the spot -- but you mentioned the first ceo of the national trust is a woman. and we were very happy to see her appointed just a few years ago now. so maybe you could talk about historic preservation. and are you seeing a lot of changes, not only from the site level but also to the national trust level? the larger level? and how do you think that's impacted your career and others that are coming after you?

>> wow. i'm not sure how much oaf an historic preservationist i am as much as someone who loves stories and memory. i do love architecture, i will say that. i love to study and think about architecture. but these places are powerful. they hold stories that, whether it's your -- your grandmother's kitchen or anything in between, they reflect who we are and they are place where is we can learn more about ourselves. so that, i think, is what drew me to the field. certainly as i mentioned, i have seen women, it's the same as law school, as any of these fields. as women were able to start to go to graduate school, go to school and start to dip their big toe in the water, just by hook or by crook, we've been

able to just kind of make our way through. but certainly, any young woman that comes to me, i'm very excited to talk to them and be helpful any way i can. certainly steph fee is a manifestation of that where she's now the ceo. as i mentioned, i've seen women move into the directorships at our sites and certainly, you know, other sites across the country. they are stepping into leadership roles that are visible. they are not necessarily just behind the scenes as well. so it is heartening. it's very heartening. >> cindy gave me my first job out of graduate school. let me just say thank you very much. a thousand years ago in coronado, california.

>> would we like to talk about haley in diapers. >> she's now in college. >> that's great thing about women. you know you're going through. >> exactly. libby when we talked a little bit ago, you talked about the cable industry and the history channel in burglar, and you were talking about how it's such a great emerging professional space for women. maybe you could tell everyone a little bit about that. because i was very intrigued by that, because i didn't make that connection right away. >> i was studying history. there seems like there was lots of women in academics, not as many as men. i taught history for a few years. and then a&e announced they were going to start a new network called -- they weren't sure, but

it was going to be about history. i said in my resume, and i got the job, which was very nice. but i didn't think gee, are there opportunities for women there? because when i first visited the network, there were a lot of wom women, they were programmers and women who worked in production. and different types of jobs. there were no women over in engineering. and in the cable companies, those are the people who bring the signal to you, very few women in senior management at that time. but in television, television is a little bit like publishing. there had been a place for women for a long time. our ceo for years who just recently retired. and she, as a present ceo guided the company, helped grow it.

it was very, very formative for the company. and then she has been the new ceo, a woman named nancy dubuque. and she's a dynamo. she's about 45 and is really taking these whole networks to exciting places. but more interesting than just sort of the ceo level is the amount of opportunity for women to climb up in the company and go to senior management. so i think that television has actually been a pretty welcoming space for women for a long time. i didn't fight any battles. the one bat that will i saw among my friends was when we were growing up, women seemed to me to feel like they had to dress more like men. so they wore suits. do you remember those things? like bow tie? really? and now, in television, women

come to work dressed more like i am am, you know, much more casually. that's something that's very generational. and it's interesting to me th flexibility for how women present themselves professionally as really widened. >> talk about um empowerment for girls, maybe you can jump in here and talk a little bit about what you're seeing as far as your programs and how you're seeing the -- because you've been with girl scouts now for quite a long time. maybe you could talk a little bit about the change in programs or, as you said earlier, science technology and certainly economic empowerment for young women. and economic knowledge is very important. so maybe you could talk a little bit about how the difference between you were a girl scout versus these enough younger girl scouts today and the programs you're trying to put out for them? >> that's great. and everything i love to talk about.

one of the things we really emphasize on a national level and local level is science, engineering, arts and math. of n learning for s.t.e.m. nationally there's a large focus on girl scouts on economic empowerment, financial literacy, the cookie business is our best known program that addresses that. every time you see those cute little girls selling those cookies they are learning a very valuable lesson on how to run a business and budget. we educate the girls when they set their goals they are planning something. we need to sell 3,000 boxes in order to achieve this goal of going on this trip. i think that emphasis, that emphasis on the planning, really looking at what skills the cookie program brings is one of the biggest change i've seen in my ten years with girl scouts.

the emphasis on nontraditional careers has increased a lot. listening to you talk about television i'm excited about how i can share that with girls. the emphasis on career preparation is something we've done as well. i'm working with group of women to give educational program to girls about building, the building industry both from careers you might not think about the legal careers but careers in construction to look across the board and we're hoping to get a hard hat tour for girls. i think getting that kind of look at all of the possibilities is what we're really trying to do as girl scouts. >> excellent. i'm taking notes. i knew this would be a fantastic panel and i don't want to forget any of this. let me switch gears a little bit and ida if i can turn to you. academia is interesting but what drew you to it and if you feel

like it is -- if it has been successful at bringing more young women in or if there are things you can do to be more success pul. >> that's a good synergy. thank you for the question. i have a california as well as a young women's point to make. we have the first african-american attorney general for the state of california. so she's representing a lot of possibilities in that field running a political and using the synergy of a law background. on campus we have a group called women as change agents. it's from our freshman to seniors our graduate students to or senior administrators to come together to put a safe space to discuss women's issues and learn we're three-dimensional. so the janitor is doing that job she's not a janitor or a mop she's a human being who has other opportunities. we have a lot of conversation about knitting, sewing, bungey

jumping. so it has harmonized our staff. we had a workshop last semester with our faculty. we have six women danes in the professional schools that has never happened before. and lisa did kind of advocate for a female president to see a female president at howard university. we had a temporary woman during the mid-2000, maybe the '90s. but nevertheless kind of helping our students understand the possibilities, always been female majority on the campus of howard university but we don't represent ourselves in the senior administration in that level. to reflect the demographic as it's presented or to harmonize those two pools. excellent. so are you seeing -- what are the numbers that you're seeing

as far as -- as far as the younger generation. >> we're almost 65% female population in our undergraduate student program. howard university student association has been predominantly male led. the girl got together and created a synergy to say how do we get ourselves elected. how do we vote on the issues. and see beyond the popularity of big man on campus. to see how are you issues whether it's safety or the idea of any kind of issue that might affect the students. safety is a big issue. so they came together and they actually held this workshop. so successful generations of former presidents came back and administered how to win and these girls are passing on this baton in organized forms and sessions and mentoring each other so we're seeing our students, faculty and staff

doing that. it's very good to have that conversation because at times there's some competition between women for whatever reason whether it's real or imagined. i might admire your brooch and can't have you i have to deride you on that. we find a way to nitpick. once we see we're dieded divid lose the capacity to be successful. >> and taking your place. >> exactly. you want to replace yourself. >> so nancy one of the thing you and i have been talking about coming from suffrage, former suffrage associations, we've been talking for a couple of years saying this anniversary is coming up and we should really put our heads together and figure something out because as two organizations that were there and still around we should probably come up with something and make sure we're talking to

each other. but one of the thing i found fascinating when you and i were talking very recently is you had talked about the fact that it is the league of women voters but that you have changed the way that you are seeking out and finding new ways to enfranchise different groups and not just women. maybe you can talk to us a little bit about that because that's a very interesting component to the league that at least i didn't realize right off the bat and probably some other people haven't as well. >> we were founded to help educate women on tissues. after about 50 years we realize the men weren't too well educated either and we shifted our focus and men can be members. all you men can feel free to join. so we're still primarily a woman's organization but men can be members and we have one man on the board recently. so we have these numbers going a

different way. but what we have certainly focused on always but particularly i would say in these last ten years is a real focus on underrepresented populations in the american electorate. ever since of course so much more attention was put on american elections in the 2000 election and there's been federal legislation and a lot of state legislation, all sorts of changes are going on and frankly we're concerned that a number of those trends are not going in the right direction. so we have increased our emphasis on what we generally call voter protection. so it's very important to us that the american electorate look, the voting -- so the electorate voters look as much like america as possible so that they can elect representatives at all levels who reflect their views and, therefore, policies

would emanate that would be consistent with those views. so we do quite a bit on all of those issues, the national league works closely with 27 state leagues at the state legislative level, fighting some of these laws in some cases, suing in some cases, we are supporting as actively as we can ways to improve the vote rights act after the recent shelby decision by the supreme court. so we've taken the notion of what was and of course during the last century where the civil rights issues and then young people getting the vote, the league was, you know, concerned with all of those things. but because all of america, i think, thought that our and americans do think that our election system is the best in the world and certainly -- i'm not going to argue with anybody about the quality of the

american democracy in general but in fact our election system because it's so decentralized does allow for or has been allow forge some manipulation that we feel has disenfranchised certain populations including young people. and people of color. and lower income people. that's a major concern of ours and that's where a lot of our current work is focused. >> excellent. switching gears just a little bit i want to talk -- i want to start talking about partnership, collaborations, and different ways we can expand our network. i happen to think that women are particularly adept at this. we tend to have a rolodex in our head. doi. so i try to go through and think who are some of those people we can be reaching out to. one of the things that i think has stymied a lot of organizations is this stove pipe theory.

you get so -- you get so wrapped up in talking to yourself all of the time and you don't branch out and hear what others are saying and try to figure out what some of those intersections are between what do you. maybe we can talk a little bit about that and also are there any interesting collaborations that you all are coming up with or that you think not just for 2020 and suffrage but for moving the organizations forward. let's talk a little bit about a little outside of those boundsryes natural we may normally have. i will start by saying, cindy, you're with the national trust for historic preservation and i also sit on the board of directors for national collaboration for women's history sites and the national trust and national collaborative are entering into a memo of understanding in the coming days and weeks because as the national trust is moving forward with this new initiative of national treasures it wants to

make sure women's history is told at all of the sites as possible. so it's not just those that are named for women's history or women themselves but women stories like you pointed out at every site. i think that's a particularly wonderful partnership that we're going through but maybe you can talk a little bit about some of the others because i know the national trust has 20 -- i won't remember, 23, 25 -- >> 26. >> 26 different nationwide partnerships and different sites. >> the national treasures program you mentioned is the strategic focus of the trust which is to kind of expand, expand our nationwide reach beyond the 25 sites we either own or operate. and so we recently entered into conversations with the national collaborative to think about expanding that national

treasures portfolio to not only geographically but to think about women's issues, places where there was significant women's history. and particularly around education and interpretation. so i look forward to hearing more how that progresses, and the national collaborative is also, obviously, a women's historic sites is an important place for the national trust to reach out to because even though it's a nationwide powerful that we have, you know year 2025 is not huge. but i mention the wilson house and the woodrow wilson house and the work that bob has been doing with you and with other, you know, with other women sites. you know, i'm thinking about decatur house when i actually was doing research and looking into, what kind of research and archives and documents you all had. so all of our sites have the opportunity and do reach out within their own communities or

even across, you know, splints. i'm thinking about our site in charlottesville at montpelier where they hold ceremonies so there's a lot of opportunity to think about outside of just like the four walls or the man and we're doing that in a lot of different places. >> ida, maybe you can expand a little bit. one of the concepts you brought up right in your beginning remarks was that we certainly had a rocky start to suffrage. suffrage and the national women's party was largely a middle class white women's organization absolutely. so much so that when we give tours of t s sewall-belmont houk

who don't you see. it's a great way to start the conversation because, again, it's about telling the story about where there was difficulty and difficulty often springs back and forth. it's not just something that's in the history books, it's certainly something we see all over america even today. so, maybe you can talk a little bit more about that and then give me some advice as we go forward 2020 who are some of those organizations i should be reaching out to that i might not be and i don't want to make that same mistake. >> you have me on your low decks so that's a good start. >> i do. >> we would like to see our interns do more than the grunt work although they are under graduates. to get back to your question the

concern to build collaboratives. she would go to new york and run for congress. adam clayton powell wouldn't have to worry about me. there's enough room for all of us. that small vignette would help you understand even though there was some issue of coming together whether it was the women's right in 1913 we still came together out of necessity as women to accomplish the goal. and in that regard where you see the absence of certain images of certain faces then we have to find those names and add them. dr. rosslyn has a new database out talking about black suffragettes. she's an excellent person and she's semiretired she would be a good human resource to include as well as some of your more actively predominantly black colleges where they have

students working in that kind of literature. i represent the association of black women historians which is lay and professional historians. we would like to collaborate with you to tease out some stories or link our websites together. i can't think of any one particular organization, definitely this black women's research initiative that i mentioned. so i think if we kind of link up ourselves to individuals we can bring our organization with us. definitely i think we have to coalesce over these issues because there are certain environmental issues and economic issues that affect all of us. we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room so to speak but if the elephant grows too large there's no room for us opinion >> the toxics waste issues are huge. we need toe find these issues

that affect all of us. women are being recruited. they are coming back in pieces. >> exactly. excellent. let me ask you, one of the interesting things about this panel is that we're all coming from different areas, but i want to point out that, that libby and certainly the history channel and a & e network has been a wonderful supporter of not only the programming that you obviously do but also smaller sites around the country. she mentioned just very casually the wonderful small five minute film that history channel did for us but that was a game changer for us. the sewall-belmont house has an operating budget of $500,000 a year. a 50,000, 60,000 dollar in kind gift from history channel makes a difference and those are the types of partnerships that i'm

happy to have you be a part of with us because it really moves us forward but you also do far more than just the little bit that it talked about with us. there are many, many organizations that you support and really that is -- it is going to take those types of partnerships, not just nonprofit to nonprofit and sharing and resources and rolodexes and that sort of thing but it will take partnerships that go across from nonprofit to front so we can move these stories forward. maybe you could take just a minute and spotlight a few of the other ones that you've worked on. >> well, national trust. we've done a lot of work with the national trust. we've done a lot of work, for example, at the statue of liberty since sandy they really have to limit -- the park service has to limit how many people can go up the statue of liberty. so we were offered to produce a

video for them so people can experience what it's like to go up the statue and what the view was like as well as tell the story and include info graphics and get people excited. lot of people want to know, how tall is it, how long did it take to build, what were the french doing giving us a statue. we try to keep it compelling and engage and share a history story and we work closely with the cura torch curators to make sure we address the issues they face with their visitors. it's a lot of fun. i can just talk about, a couple of years ago when i was at the annual luncheon at sewall-belmont house i spoke about what a great opportunity we have in the next six years to build a women's history

discovery trail, and work -- they can -- there's a wonderful black history discovery trail, there's civil war discovery trail. but you could do them regionally -- i could imagine starting at seneca falls -- stopping at claire barton house, sewall-belmont. visit your congressman or woman, excuse me. i can't name all the sites. i don't know them. the idea of linking them would make a great intergenerational road trip. thelma, louise and grandma. that would be wonderful. before i came here tonight my daughter called me and she said, you know, mom would be so happy you were talking on a panel about women's equality and i

thought, i was just really thinking my daughter is about to get married maybe she and i and whoever will do the women's discovery trail. i just think it would be a nice opportunity. there's so many stories out there that you said you weren't sure about history but loved history. david mccullough say the best stories are based on history. and i think making them more available and uniting them because there's lots of information out there on websites, league of women's voters have great history to share with the public but also with students, with people looking national history day. we can unite this and god knows the collection here at the national archives is a gold mine of riches. i know i'm jumping all over the place but i'm saying there are wonderful stories that people don't know them and it's really important that we collect the

information and get it out there, it's one of the wonderful things about an anniversary like a centennial because it raises the availability of a topic and gives you a platform to reach out to the public in a new and exciting way. >> absolutely. >> well, i think we've discovered another what do you think 10, 15 things to do on our to-do list. i have all of my notes because i'll be following up with everybody when we're done. i think it's a good opportunity for us to open it up to audience questions and comments. and it's not just as i said not just questions please talk about comments. is there a particular women's history site or story that you find very compelling that you think maybe others haven't even seen or enough people haven't seen, is there a way for you all -- is there something within the programming of our various organizations that you would like to talk about, ask questions about and, again, just make comments for. there are microphones on either side of the aisle. please just help yourself and

we'll let the first one -- how about -- he seems like he was faster to the microphone so i'll let him go first. >> yeah. john whitmore from maryland. women league voters of maryland made gerry mandering and redistricting one of their priorities. how has gerrymandering affected women voters and women candidates over the years? >> well, as you may know, because you sound knowledgeable about it, gerrymandering which is the contorting how the districts are drawn in the states is usually done to protect the incumbent politicians. so both parties do the same to the extent that they can control it. so where in general the leagues around the country are pushing for reforms in the process so that we have a system where the voters get to pick their

politicians and so the politicians pi s are not pick voters. women do extremely well in races when they are running for an open seat. when they are running for an open seat at any level they win at the same rate as men. of course, there are more -- most elections actually are incumbents running and always harder to beat an incumbent, particularly when they've drawn these lines so their supporters are based right around them sponsorship there are fewer and fewer competitive seats in the united states congress than there used to be sign general that is going to hurt women who have even a harder time than men raising the money and so forth to challenge an incumbent. the more you protect the incumbent the harder it would be in most cases for women to win. thank you for asking. that's a good political question. >> very. right over here. >> my name is miss louise

holton. and i'm from boston. i'm in washington from massachusetts because my son who i bore is kidnapped and i'm being violated. it's been covered up for 12 years and he's been kidnapped from boston to massachusetts and they are internationally to great britain and the cover up as a native from washington. i want to note three things it wasn't my congresswoman or man that helped me at all. and it wasn't the presidents or the fbi director as i'm a witness to the felonies. it's actually one person at the u.s. supreme court, chief justice roberts who seems to have the most heart in washington that i might make women's history that paternity going forward has to be proven.

and i just want you to know that women's suffrage hasn't ended. i've been thrown in jail. i've been sent to mental hospitals and drugged unlawfully and it's horrendous. i'm lucky i'm still alive and it's still going on today that these people were so malevolent to cover it up and peg me as a crazy woman is shock. lastly what i want to say when i hear you talking hope in these next few years that you're going to broaden women's suffrage air this marked history women's bodies and their right network. my grandmother started library at princeton university called the miriam young holton library.

i'm so proud of her. she put together a collection of books and pamphlets that when the suffragettes spoke at seneca falls they wrote what women wanted. she got those pamphlets and preserved them at princeton university. i hope that in the future once i get my matter settled and my son back to start a speaker series at her library about women's issues and how society is changing and continue her work because what i've learned is education and sharing is so important and not only to take what we've learned from the past but also to think outside-the-box, beyond what we normally -- the way we normally think, don't ever think that

you're thinking is wrong. you actually could be right with one very simple idea and it might astound people and yet it might be a break through for all of us. so, i really want to thank you for sharing what you're going to be doing because it sounds wonderful and i think it's so important that we share with one another and i think there's great opportunities ahead of us. so i don't really have a question other than i hope that, if i ask you will you think about giving all the people that are coming to your historical sites or league of women voters if you can give out little certificates to people that they can hang on their walls and it's like an educational course when they go to these events you'll be planning because when they go home and they put that on the wall and more people see it and it marks the time and place i think it would be best for all of us not only presently but

going forward. do you think you could do that? >> thank you so much. >> there are many ideas popped in my head since you started your comments. i want to thank you as well. you have a remarkable story and i'm so happy that you were here tonight and could have your voice and make sure that that story or at least in this small audience has a little bit, got a little bit of voice for you tonight as we move forward. you are exactly right in that all of the history organizations and different sites that are out there, all have contemporary stories that go into them. it's not just about alice paul, lucy burns, elizabeth stanton, the list is long of these wonderful women who did all of this amazing work for suffrage, not to mention just the ones that go unnamed that we simply don't know and it wasn't something that happened 100 years ago. all of these size and stories that we have and are privileged to tell every day really do make

an impact on policy today, on how we educate not only young people as they come through but also grown ups or women in their 40s and 50s have come through sewall-belmont and said i never knew. how did i not know this. how did my mother not know this. i'm making sure my daughter knows this. thank you for sharing that with us and also of course gives us all something else to deed our to-do list not to make it light but that we also absolutely need to keep those courageous current stories in our heads as well. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> hello. i am a volunteer with smithsonian including american history which is planning a centennial exhibit and of course i'll be giving a copy of the program tonight to the curators. hopefully they will be

contacting you related to the exhibit which, of course, will be seen by millions of people starting in 2020. but my other comment was one of the smithsonian programs, we have a lot of programs that feature women and one that i took my niece to because it's important to include young people i took her to see supreme court justice sandra day o'connor at a smithsonian program. but sandra day o'connor very gracious lady said she was the first female supreme court justice and she had to change robes in the ladies room because they didn't have a changing room for females since she was the first one and so the attorneys who would come in to present their cases to the court would be going into the ladies room

and seeing a judge changing into her robes. so i just thought that was funny when the restroom was mentioned at uva my niece, of course, was completely outraged that sandra day o'connor had to go to a ladies room to change into her judge robes. after bader ginsberg game then they have their own changing room which no, it's the same size as the men's so it's very nice. basically i was just going to mention that i think it will be nice -- i'm going to talk to our curators because i think it would be very helpful especially about minority women and league of women voters definitely want those to be in our exhibit. it's going to be seen by millions and millions of people, of course, right on the mall, one of the top museums in the world. most visited museum of the world. definitely this was a good

program and i'm going to senator along with the link for the film. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> i'll also say that there are some materials that were put out in the main lobby right here. if you don't see something that you wanted or a reference that somebody has made my business cards are out there. please grab one and shoot me a quick e-mail and i would be happy to ping somebody and find the link or something else so we can share it. >> i would like to respond. i think once you start thinking about how the environment reflects access it gives you a new way to look at historic places or what we've experienced in our life and you were talking about the changing rooms at the supreme court and i was talking about the bathrooms at the law school at uva. think about handicap access. that's still an issue. you go to other countries a lot of countries do not provide

handicap access and for any of you who have ever been on crutches you have a new appreciation for what you find in many public buildings in america that ease of access makes a big difference, the sloping curve. the whole idea of kitchens being set apart from the house, you know, we said we didn't want the heat in the main house in the south. but really what you do, you don't want to see the people who were cooking. and in the big houses, the kitchen was in the servant's wing. it means we don't want to see the cook. today you have an open plan. i have a book coming out on the history of food in the united states. and one of the things you see, as you go through american history is how the kitchen is laid out to make it more inclusive. so all of these things are

relevant to the way we understand history. we just don't train ourselves to look at built environments statement, what they are telling us about the role of people within the houses but the national trust is an expert at that. >> do we have time for two more quick questions? right here. >> good evening. i'm diana bailey managing director of the maryland women's heritage center. for those of us that are in a state that may or may not have access to southeast national resources or collaborations or whatever what are some things that perhapsu of us in a state trying from most women's history in our state but the policy shifts and education for students and adults because we're trying to do it again at the level -- at the local level, community level. >> i'll jump in. talk to your local girl scout

council. >> of course. >> girl scouts of central maryland is wonderful.oi girl scouts of chesapeake bay. i'll give a shout out to my own oh, girl scouts of national capital. >> girl scouts that come to our center, we're reinforcing career preparation for girls. my biggest need, frankly, is resources. human resources but also physical resources just like the national. any support, ideas for that would be very welcomed. >> i would bet that your sites near your locale would be delighted to have you and most of these places will charge nothing or nominal fee. so getting people -- getting your young people to the places, to these places might be are you on l-- might be your only

expense. you'll find wonderful places that to share your local history in your area and i know they would be delighted to have you. often, you know, there's small staff. they have small capacity but that's why they are there and they are passionate about it and they want to share. so i can imagine that they wouldn't be interested in opening literally their front doors. >> we have some partnerships with the heritage areas. again they are sort of in the same situation we are but, again, they are great partners. >> absolutely. yes. >> yes. my name is garmin. i'm involved with the maryland women's heritage center and i have two or three comments on some of the things that you have said tonight. i would like to know if the archives as an institution has a

plan for celebrating the anniversary of suffrage. the second thing is to suggest that in order to get momentum and get people interested in celebrating something that happened such a long time ago, we need to sort of have a national calendar of what different people may be doing. i'm not quite sure which organization would be the right one to do that, but it's very important that we do censuses on different things that pertain to women. the department of interior was doing a, not scientific census but trying to collect information as to how many women were honored in some way in the

states and they were engaging women's organizations into sending information and if they have been to a place where the woman has been honored to take a picture and send to it them so they can accumulate that kind of information. i think that would give a lot of fuel, particularly for the young people and to restate, i was on the advisory committee to that first league of women voters participation in the debates, and i thought that was the greatest thing the league had done up to that moment. but it would be also very interesting to have something that says, okay, we got suffrage on such and such a date and all the little things that women have done to really make

elections really viable because we were the ones that served as election judges, we were the ones that distributed all the literature for parties outside the polls, we were the ones that really encouraged registration, and all the things that we did, would being a great to have a program that said, you know, we used to do things with machines, the young people haven't seen. we used to communicate with people the hard way, calling everybody, and so that people don't think that the ea