Women's Museum of California

To educate and inspire current and future generations about the accomplishments and contributions of women, past and present. Women's Museum Website

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First in Their Field: Rose O’Neill

She was the first illustrator to build a merchandising empire based on her work.

As a teenager Rose O’Neill started her career as an illustrator in New York City, eventually becoming the first women published cartoonist in the United States.

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Playwright, Cast and Director Speak Out on “Speaking Out”

The stories systematically visit and revisit the way our nation’s military has instinctively covered up the epidemic of Military Sexual Trauma

This intense play is the true-to-life stories of 16 Military Sexual Trauma survivors. Written by survivor Rachel Carter, it has been a vehicle of healing for both her and those whose stories she collected.

Rachel says she collected the stories from around the world, and encouraged fellow survivors to send their story in whatever way they felt comfortable. In poems, raging remembrances and hopeful pleas for a better future, the stories began to pour in and Rachel began to compile them into 16 monologues.

Not an easy show to watch, the stories systematically visit and revisit the way our nation’s military has instinctively covered up the epidemic of Military Sexual Trauma. Each story painfully shows the ways in which survivors’ pleas for help and justice are routinely ignored, along with the way in which many military commands force survivors out of the service due to mental instability. Stories of women, children and men scream from this script, with an intensity that cannot be ignored.

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Heroines in Arms: Women of the American Military

In January 2016, the Department of Defense announced that for the first time in U.S. history, women could fight in combat missions and serve on special operations teams such as the Navy SEALS, Air …

In January 2016, the Department of Defense announced that for the first time in U.S. history, women could fight in combat missions and serve on special operations teams such as the Navy SEALS, Air Force Pararescue, and the Army Rangers. This historic announcement signaled a change for women in the U.S. military who had often served silently and without recompense.

Although this decision was crucial for the equality of female service members, it is important to note that women have been serving in the U.S. military for hundreds of years.

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From Our Archives: Alice Park and the Peace Ship

In November of 1915 famed motorist, Henry Ford invited California suffragist, Alice Park to join him aboard the Oscar II as his guest and help end World War I.

In November of 1915 famed motorist, Henry Ford invited California suffragist, Alice Park to join him aboard the Oscar II as his guest and help end World War I.

The goal of Henry Ford’s mission was to establish an international conference dedicated to negotiating a peaceful end to the Great War, “Out of the trenches by Christmas, never to return,” he had told the press before the expedition to Europe had left. “With twenty thousand men killed every twenty-four hours, tens of thousands maimed, houses ruined, another winter begun” Ford was motivated to gather notable American representatives such as Jane Addams and Thomas Edison and travel to Europe. Park was invited aboard the Oscar II, also known as the Peace Ship as a member of the Press Club as a representative of the Women’s Journal

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Give the gift of Herstory today and provide underserved schools, community organizations, or other deserving groups with a speaker from our Speakers' Bureau, a Tour of the Museum, a Historical Clothing Show, or a Traveling Exhibit. Your donation takes the Museum out into the community and allows greater access for those who might not otherwise be able to enjoy these programs.

Give the gift of Herstory here: http://womensmuseumca.org/give-herstory

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The History of the Handbag

Bags are not a new invention, as long as humans have had items to carry, we have created bags in which to carry them. As early as 38,000 BCE, hunter-gatherer, humans were using bundles and pouches …

The first handbags were essentially women’s pockets with handles attached to them, but women’s pockets, because they were worn under a woman’s skirts and close to her skin, were considered undergarments. So, when bags for women first became popular, many viewed them as vulgar or risque. As Caroline Cox notes in Bags: An Illustrated History:

These early handbags were also daring, one of the first examples of underwear as outerwear—and thus for many a rather absurd affectation. The idea of a woman parading her personal belongings in a visible pocket was an act akin to lifting up her skirts and publicly revealing her underwear.

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Kate Rees Davies On Being a Woman Director in Hollywood

As far back as I can remember I’ve wanted to be in the movie business!

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Refugee Women Leading Women Worldwide

from Abuse to Economic and Social Empowerment . . . a panel presentation at the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women

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Join us as we screen films that will educate and inspire future generations about the experiences and contributions of women through the art of film. The Women's Film Festival San Diego is back and better than ever! Every film selected for the Festival this year was directed by a woman. The films range from scripted comedies to issue focused documentaries, from short 10 minute films to full-length 90-minute features.

The selected Festival films will be screened at THE LOT in Liberty Station. Panel discussions about the films and VIP receptions will be held at THE LOT and the Women's Museum of California.

Purchase Festival Passes Here

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Click here to support Fund refugee women panelists @ U.N. by Anne Hoiberg

With a population of almost 200,000 refugees, San Diego County has benefitted immensely from their many contributions to our region’s economic and social well-being. Many refugees have established nonprofit organizations to help in the resettlement of other refugees and asylum seekers. The purp...

The Women's Museum of California has been invited to give a panel presentation at the annual session of the United Nations' Commission on the Status of Women (March 13 - 14, 2017). Funding for the four refugee and Native American panelists is needed for them to participate in presenting their organizations' work in socially and economically empowering newly arriving refugee women.

With a population of almost 200,000 refugees, San Diego County has benefitted immensely from their many contributions to our region’s economic and social well-being.  Many refugees have established nonprofit organizations to help in the resettlement of other refugees and asylum seekers.  The purpose of this GoFundMe is to provide funds for refugee and asylee women to travel to New York City to be panelists at the annual session of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, March 13 – 24, 2017. Three panelists will share their harrowing stories of fleeing their home country, surviving in a refugee camp, resettling in the U.S., and establishing a nonprofit organization designed to help other refugees and asylees. The fourth panelist, a Native American, will discuss her programs within the indigenous community that address its unique problems. All four panelists will use the donations to fund airfare and hotel accommodations. If possible, the funds should be provided before the departure to the United Nations.

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First in their Field: Bertha von Suttner

Baroness Bertha von Suttner was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, making her the second female Nobel laureate after Marie Curie who was awarded her first prize in 1903. Von Suttn…

In the 1870s she met Alfred Nobel and after meeting they corresponded briefly on the subject of peace.

“Inform me, convince me, and then I will do something great for the movement”, Alfred Nobel once wrote to von Suttner.

And convince him she did. von Suttner continued to correspond with Nobel until he died in 1896 and in his will he included a peace prize as part of the five prizes he established with his estate.

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Collection of political buttons from the Women’s Museum of California Archives

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GOLD MOUNTAIN SISTERS

I grew up in New Zealand, the southernmost white settler post on the Pacific Rim – a place known by my forebears as the “New Gold Mountain” 新金山.

I grew up in New Zealand, the southernmost white settler post on the Pacific Rim – a place known by my forebears as the “New Gold Mountain” 新金山.

In the 1860s, my great-great-grandfather left his home in Toi Shan 台山 county in Kwangtung (now Guangdong) Province, South China to work on the North American railroads. He died in 1874, when the ship he was returning home in was ambushed by pirates in Hong Kong harbour. His eldest son, my great-grandfather, unable to enter the United States due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, ventured to New Zealand in 1884, where he established a laundry business in the capital city of Wellington. His only son, my grandfather, founded a bank, a whisky distillery, a grocery business and a pharmacy, and raised a family of five sons, of whom my father was the third. I treasure this family history, for it affirms my Chinese New Zealand origins, but I have long wondered why my foremothers don’t feature in this narrative.

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Changing Lives by Sharing the Sea

Sylvia Bate-Swall: A San Diego “Woman on the Water”

When asked about being a woman in what has traditionally been a man’s sailing world, Sylvia reminisces about how annoyed she was that she couldn’t become a member of any local yacht club until the late 1970’s. Prior to this time, only her husband could be the “member” as she tagged along as his guest. However, after about 40 years of waiting, the rules changed and she and her husband, Mike, agreed that she would be the “member” and he would be the one to tag along as her guest!

Another memory, Sylvia, like other women would like to forget, is the era when private clubs, in addition to yacht clubs, would not allow women to enter what was considered the “inner sanctum” – causing the men to get the drinks and deliver them to the women waiting in the club’s “open areas”.

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Who is Mrs. Claus?

This holiday season read about one of the most famous women of Christmas! Introducing a brief history of Mrs.Claus.

One of the first times the wife of Santa is mentioned is in the short story A Christmas Legend by James Rees published in 1849 but it is not until 1851 when she is first mentioned by name. “He seemed to have done his best; and we should think, had Mrs. Santa Claus to help him”, a student writer for the Yale Literary Review.  Throughout the 19th century, more references to Mrs. Claus appeared and the grandmotherly figure who helps run Sanat’s workshop in the North Pole was formed.

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Lois Weber in Early Hollywood

Can you name the “three great minds” working Hollywood 100 years ago?

Can you name the “three great minds” working Hollywood 100 years ago?

If you guessed filmmakers D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, you are correct. Both have long been celebrated as the “fathers” of American cinema. But did you guess the third “great mind,” Lois Weber? Probably not: Weber is not as well known as her male contemporaries. Yet her legacy as one of early Hollywood’s top filmmakers is especially important to remember now as we discuss the roles women play onscreen and behind the scenes in Hollywood today.

It is a substantial legacy. In a career than spanned three decades, Weber wrote and directed more than 40 features and over 100 shorts. She was the first woman to direct a feature film, 1914’s The Merchant of Venice, the first woman admitted to the Motion Picture Directors’ Association in 1916, and she was the first woman to run a Hollywood studio in 1917.

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10 Memorable Moments in Women’s History During the Month of December

The Holidays are upon us! Before we get too distracted trying to find the perfect gifts for our family and friends, we should take time to remember and appreciate highlights of women’s history and …

The Holidays are upon us! Before we get too distracted trying to find the perfect gifts for our family and friends, we should take time to remember and appreciate highlights of women’s history and powerful and influential women, who took strides to eradicate injustices and advance gender equity in the month of December.