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2. Women’s History

UU Women from History

Women’s history is important for many reasons, but especially because a good understanding of history can help young women appreciate that the rights they enjoy were earned by the hard work of the women who lived before their time. Many women in our congregations were born after the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe versus Wade which invalidated state laws prohibiting abortion for women up to six months pregnant. They may not know about the women who flew to New York or Mexico for back alley abortions, sometimes with disastrous results. This and other such gaps in experience can be bridged by bringing history alive. Women versed in the history of women’s rights are more likely to value and support other women and to strive to maintain the rights that women have gained.

Given the long history of the subjugation of women, women’s groups are rarely frivolous—even when our programs or activities are lighthearted. Community among women readily shifts from friendship and support to cooperation and collaboration for social and political change. History shows us the importance of women working together in the continuing struggle for equality in our communities and the world.

Women’s history can easily be incorporated into women’s regular group meetings. In addition, many UU congregations provide a special women’s service during March, National Women’s History month, established in 1980. Other appropriate times to focus on women’s history include the anniversaries of historic events.

At First Universalist Church, dramatic monologues and dialogues have brought history to life at the annual Mother Daughter Banquet and other special programs. One year, at such a meeting, teen church member Elinor Anderson-Genne, dressed as Sojourner Truth, and delivered a poignant monologue that vividly depicted Truth’s personality and life. Elinor had conducted research in school about Truth and knew her character well.

At another meeting, a number of young women in the church came dressed up as UU women from the past. Before the meeting began, the women mulled around in their long dresses and hats while members of the women’s group posed questions about the historical figures. The immediate goal of this game is to have fun and to guess as many of the female characters as possible. The broader, underlying goal is to extend the knowledge of women’s history to women’s group members of all ages.

To get information about historical figures, search the Internet. Materials from Beacon Press and the Unitarian Universalist Association are also available, and the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Heritage Society publishes papers and wall calendars about notable UU women and has published the book Notable Unitarian Universalist Women, which describes 400 historical UU women.

The Unitarian Universalist Heritage Society (UUWHS, uuwhs@aol.com) suggested a short list—twenty of the names below, among hundreds, of notable UU women. Here is that list, to which Lydia Marie Child has been added.

  1. Abigail Adams, first lady who lobbied her husband on behalf of women
  2. Louisa May Alcott, author
  3. Susan B. Anthony, major reformer and feminist
  4. Clara Barton, America’s most famous nurse
  5. Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman doctor in the U.S.
  6. Olympia Brown, first woman to be ordained as a minister
  7. Lydia Marie Child wrote the Thanksgiving song, “Over the River”
  8. Dorothea Dix, early advocate of the mentally ill
  9. Fannie Merritt Farmer, pioneer in dietetics and health
  10. Margaret Fuller, early feminist writer and critic
  11. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, poet whose work reflected her views on the abolition of slavery, women’s rights and other social ills of her era
  12. Julia Ward Howe, writer and reformer
  13. Mary A. Rice Livermore, nurse and feminist
  14. Maria Mitchell, first woman astronomer
  15. Judith Sargent Murray, essayist and playwright in colonial Boston
  16. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, public speaker and author who influenced early education
  17. Lydia E. Pinkham, inventor of herbal mixtures to improve health
  18. Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator
  19. May Sarton, poet and novelist
  20. Lucy Stone, founder of the American Women Suffrage Association
  21. Mary Wolstonecraft, author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”

For a list of costumed women’s history performers in your state, go to the following web page associated with the National Women’s History Project: http://www.nwhp.org/perform.html.