Mid-March: We're Just Getting Going!

The flurry of programming during March might tempt us to forget that the GGRWHC works all year fostering research that can be used later as programming, brochures, radio spots, and photo essays-and in books and articles and documentaries. Don't forget that the end of March marks the beginning of a new membership and work year for GGRWHC. We reinvest your generous dues and donations in women's futures by unfolding our past. Please be part of the effort!

Join as a member-and RSVP early for the final event of Women's History Month on Thursday, March 31st. Current members of GGRWHC will receive a complimentary wine ticket!  Reserve early at KSIrwin73@aol.com or 616-454-2425!

Women's History Month Finale:  An Eye on the Past/An Ear to the Future

Thursday, March 31st, 5:00-7:00 pm - Complimentary hors d'oeuvres & wine ticket bar ($5/glass); 5:30 pm - program.

Women's City Club, Lower level auditorium, 254 Fulton Street

Free & Open to the Public

Women Leaders During Hard Times: The Kent County Commission

WGVU's Shelley Irwin will host a celebratory reception and brief program on the challenges to women leaders on the Commission during economic downturns, featuring current chairwoman Sandi Frost Parrish and the first female Commission chair Marge Byington Potter.  We will honor all the women who have run for the  Commission during the last hundred years and will celebrate the very first woman to be seated. Grace Ames VanHoesen served on the Kent County Commission during the Great Depression from 1930 to 1938.

Hope to see you and your guests at the Women's History Month Finale on March 31st! 

*** On Thursday, March 17th, Professor Kristin Du Mez will present "Masculinity, Militarism and Modern American Evangelicalism," on  how understandings of femininity and masculinity have contributed to a culture of militarism among evangelicals beginning in the 1970s. If you're not quite sure of the difference between "gender history" and "women's history," this program will provide a fine example! 3:30 pm, Covenant Fine Arts Recital Hall, Calvin College: http://www.calvin.edu/news/archive/women-in-calvin-history

*** On Sunday, March 20, 12:20 pm, the GGRWHC's Jo Ellyn Clarey will present for the Fountain Street Church history series a report on the state of women professionals in 1890s Grand Rapids. We had surprising numbers of women physicians. Besides women teachers, principals, and education board members, we had journalists and a woman whose fascinating story is a complication to the emerging portrait of our nation's earliest women attorneys. 

Free & Open to the Public. Lunch can be ordered onsite.

Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain Street NE, (616) 459-8386

*** Following is fascinating report on a unique cache of information about Grand Rapids' women in 1918. Your support helps us discover and disseminate such data-here through the virtual history of the Grand Rapids Historical Commission:

Photo Essay of the Week: When the United States entered World War I, a government-appointed Woman's Committee was appointed as a division of the Council of National Defense. A voluntary survey taken during one week in May of 1918 registered the skills women could contribute to the national war effort on the home front. In Grand Rapids alone 20,000 women (roughly half the adult female population) registered. Michigan overall registered 900,000 women. The cards have virtually disappeared-but we have ours. And they are indeed a treasure: http://www.historygrandrapids.org/explore.php?cat=12&essay=7

*** Catch up with the month! On March 2nd, associate professor of women's history at Calvin College Kristin Kobes Du Mez explored women's roles in history from colonialism to feminism on the Clarice Drew Show (WPRR 1680AM/93.5FM). Move your cursor to 15 minutes in:  http://www.publicrealityradio.org/programs/the-clarice-drew-show/episodes/women-the-movement  

Keep checking our calendar on the GGRWHC website. Even now we're adding events as we become aware of them.  Friend GGRWHC on Facebook for updates during the week, and help us spread the word about the second half of March programming by clicking on the "Forward to a Friend" button at the top of this newsletter. If you have received this as a forward, click on the "Join Our Mailing List" button in the left column and receive the next newsletter directly from us. Now mark your calendar for the rest of this week!