Newswise — Women have played an important part in the history of the University of Maryland for nearly a century. Celebrating our 150th anniversary gives the institution a chance to look back at what women students, faculty and staff have accomplished, and provides an opportunity to look to the future with even higher expectations. As Maryland Journalism Professor Maurine Beasley reminds us, "Women need to know their history to take charge of their lives."
The latest exhibit at the Maryland Room Gallery, in fact, highlights "Testudo's Troops" - the men and women students - who have helped build this institution from a small agricultural college into a top 20 research university. The first women students were admitted in 1916. University Archivist Anne Turkos says, "Women changed life at the university almost immediately."
"Very quickly," she says, "they began organizing their own sports teams, student government, and other activities. They established the first sorority only four short years after their arrival. They have fought steadily for recognition and equality in the classroom and lab, in the arts, and on the playing field. Their numbers have risen to the point where they now comprise close to 50% of the student body, and they form a vital part of every academic discipline on campus. We have many female alumni of whose accomplishments we can be justly proud."
Maryland's new documentary, " Keeping the Promise: the Rise of the University of Maryland" highlights the accomplishments of women on campus, and is mirrored in a companion book, called "Maryland - Reflections on 150 Years."
But even as the university, and the nation, celebrate women's history, the month is also a way to take a longer look at where women are today - and where they should be going in the future, or as Richard Eaton Professor of Broadcast Journalism Lee Thornton says, "dwell, focus and meditate on the past as well as on what's to come."
"Women still labor under big disabilities that need correction," says Emerita Economics Professor Barbara Bergmann. She points to severe discrimination in the labor market as one prime example, along with the unfair sharing of housework by working couples and domestic violence.
Maryland began its Women's Studies Department in 1977. Today, courses on women are regularly offered by twenty departments and programs throughout the university. The department chair - Professor Bonnie Thornton Dill - says the month provides an opportunity to focus on rewriting history, to give a more comprehensive account of the impact women of color have had on our history. She says that women's experiences have often been "ignored and distorted."
Fellow Women's Studies Professor Lynn Bolles adds that the U.S. has a short memory. "It is important for people of all ages to remember the women, who directly or indirectly, made a difference in their lives by their actions as artists, scholars, teachers, policy makers or the person next door," she says.
Distinguished Professor of Sociology Harriet Presser says, "We've come a long way but there is a long way still to go." "Women's contributions," she adds, "are often constrained by gender norms and institutions that limit educational and occupational opportunities."
See the entire release online at: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/release.cfm?ArticleID=1240
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