|
GGRWHC Board of Directors
Mary Seeger,
Jo Ellyn Clarey,
Co-Presidents
Ruth VanStee,
Secretary
Connie Ingham
Treasurer
Jo Ellyn Clarey
Susan Coombes
Falinda Geerling
Sharon Hanks
Connie Ingham
Kyle Irwin
Mary Seeger
Ruth Stevens
Julie Tabberer
Ruth VanStee
|
|
| |
Celebrate Women's History Month With Us
Wednesday, March 30, 5-7 p.m.
5:30 Brief annual meeting followed by
a celebratory program at the WCC
Free and open to the public
Complimentary hors-d'oeuvres
Wine: $5/glass
email info@ggrwhc.org, or call 616-574-7307
Shattering Glass Ceilings
Women's Elective History in Grand Rapids, 1888-2015
presented by Deirdre Toeller-Novak
|
|
 |
| Deirdre Toeller-Novak |
|
Join GGRWHC and speaker Deirdre Toeller-Novak at the beautiful Women's City Club on March 30th for camaraderie and to hear about women who have run for and held elective office in Grand Rapids. Meet special guest Rosalynn Bliss, Grand Rapids' first woman mayor!
Between 1888 and 2015,
Harriet Cook, Eva McCall Hamilton,
Grace Ames Van Hoesen, Evangeline Lamberts, and Rosalynn Bliss each shattered another of the glass ceilings impeding the full participation of women in government. Their stories are laced with perseverance in the face of scorn, personal sacrifice, fraud, and high adventure. The work of these women points to the importance of having an accurate record of women's elective history in the greater Grand Rapids area.
|
|
|
Since 1948, this portrait of Eva McCall Hamilton, the first woman elected to the Michigan Senate, is one of six large portraits hanging in the Senate Chamber of the Michigan Capitol. |
Grand Rapids is one of a few, if not the only, American city to have a
complete history of women running for and elected to office. This data proves that Grand Rapids women ran for office as early as 1888, decades before second-wave feminists believed that they were running for the first time.
Through the stories of women who were the first to be elected to their respective offices, we will examine the remarkable strategies and accomplishments of trailblazers whose work is far from complete.
Deirdre Toeller-Novak is proofing a compilation of Grand Rapids women's elective history, in whose pages she can be found. Her election to the boards of the Grand Rapids Public Schools and Grand Rapids Community College in the 1980s places her in the line of women elected to local school boards begun in 1888. She will share data from the Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council's unique electoral history and illustrate its importance in 2016.
Special Guest: Mayor Rosalynn Bliss
Wednesday, March 30, 5-7 p.m.
Women's City Club (lower level auditorium)
254 East Fulton Street
Parking: on the west of the building or in the lot on the east side of Lafayette SE, just south of Fulton Street
Free and open to the public
To make a Reservation: click on
Eventbrite, or
email info@ggrwhc.org, or call 616-574-7307
For more details about all these events and programs,
|
| Join us or Update your Membership! |
Not a current member of GGRWHC?
Register or renew your membership and
help offset the expenses associated with annual research and programs. Your membership helps to set the record straight on the women who've made history here in our community.
|
Board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the Vanderveen Center for the Book at the Grand Rapids Public Library. If you have suggestions for programs, oral histories, or other items, please
email us
or plan to attend a meeting.
|
| Share the Newsletter with Your Friends |
|
Forward this newsletter! Friends can sign up to receive it by clicking the button in the left hand margin. Don't assume they are with us--with every technological shift, we miss people.
|
|
| |
|
