In honor of International Women’s Day, the award-winning series Unladylike2020 is launching its content for viewing and streaming with Spanish subtitling. The series tells the inspiring stories of little-known heroines and the women who follow in their footsteps. IDRA is partnering with Unladylike2020 to give students access to inspiring stories representing diverse cultural backgrounds. The subtitled digital series and supporting educational resources, that focus on women who accomplished great things before women had the right to vote, is available starting now for Women’s History Month. 

The digital short films, and the free digital learning resources created for each, are available with Spanish translation and closed captioning on the American Masters YouTube channel, PBS LearningMedia, and the PBS Documentaries channel on Amazon Prime.

Narrated by Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife; ER; Billions) and Lorraine Toussaint (Selma; Orange is the New Black; The Equalizer), Unladylike2020 spotlights 26 diverse change makers in 26 documentary shorts. A one-hour TV special, American Masters – Unladylike2020: The Changemakers, including five trailblazing female politicians who initiated social justice initiatives more than 100 years ago, premiered on PBS in the summer of 2020, the centennial of the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. 

The Unladylike2020 stories focus on intrepid women from the turn of the 20th century who managed to break into new professions, step into leadership roles, and fight for suffrage and an end to discrimination. The materials include free lesson plans for middle and high school, as well as guides for hosting your own screening, to generate dialog about women in your community. Two prominent Latinas are featured in the series. 

Unladylike2020 also profiles Bessie Coleman, the first African American to earn an international pilot's license; Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American physician who also founded a hospital on the Omaha Reservation; Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress; Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel; and Lois Weber, the first woman to direct a feature-length film, among many others.

A team of producers will present at the Alamo STEM Ecosystem Educator Conference on March 26 on using Unladylike2020 content as a teaching tool. The Alamo STEM Ecosystem Conference is committed to providing teachers with innovative resources and relevant professional development. This year's theme is “Innovation in a Connected World: Past, Present and Future.” The conference is free and available virtually.

Unladylike2020 also includes a nationwide campaign of community events, and the convening of a Where Are the Women? Summit, in collaboration with PBS LearningMedia, and in partnership with PBS’s flagship biography series American Masters, WNET, National Women’s History Museum, National Council for the Social Studies, National Council for History Education, National Women’s Hall of Fame, and National Women’s History Alliance, to investigate why women are vastly underrepresented in U.S. history and social studies curriculum.

Press materials in English and Spanish, including subtitled trailers and promotional images, are available here.