THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

INTRODUCED BY MANN, BISHOP, BOBACK, BOYD, B. BOYLE, K. BOYLE, BRADFORD, BRENNAN, BRIGGS, BROOKS, V. BROWN, BROWNLEE, BUXTON, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, CONKLIN, D. COSTA, DALEY, DAVIS, DAY, DELOZIER, DeLUCA, DENLINGER, DiGIROLAMO, EVERETT, FABRIZIO, FLECK, GEIST, GEORGE, GILLESPIE, GINGRICH, GOODMAN, GRELL, HAHN, HARHAI, HARHART, HARPER, HENNESSEY, HICKERNELL, HORNAMAN, JOSEPHS, KAVULICH, KILLION, KIRKLAND, KORTZ, KOTIK, KULA, LONGIETTI, MAHONEY, MAJOR, MATZIE, MICOZZIE, MILLARD, MIRABITO, MOUL, MUNDY, MURT, MUSTIO, MYERS, OBERLANDER, M. O'BRIEN, O'NEILL, PASHINSKI, PAYNE, PAYTON, PETRI, PICKETT, PYLE, QUIGLEY, QUINN, RAPP, RAVENSTAHL, READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROEBUCK, ROSS, SAINATO, SANTARSIERO, SANTONI, SCAVELLO, SONNEY, STABACK, SWANGER, THOMAS, TOEPEL, VEREB, VULAKOVICH, WAGNER, WATSON, WHITE, YOUNGBLOOD AND HESS, FEBRUARY 17, 2011

INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, FEBRUARY 17, 2011  

A RESOLUTION

Recognizing the month of March 2011 as "National Women's History

Month" in Pennsylvania.

WHEREAS, From the August 18, 1587, birth of Virginia Dare,

the first child born to English parents in the Americas, through

the first decade of the 21st century, Pennsylvania women and

women nationwide have made and continue to make historic

contributions to the strength and greatness of our nation and

this Commonwealth in many recorded and unrecorded ways,

including the struggle for enfranchisement and women's rights;

and

WHEREAS, In a March 31, 1776, letter, Abigail Adams, the wife

of the second President of the United States and mother of the

sixth, wrote to her husband, "I long to hear that you have

declared an Independency -- and by the way in the new Code of

Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I

desire you would remember the Ladies, and be more generous and

favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited

power into the hands of the Husbands.... If perticular care and

attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment

a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in

which we have no voice, or Representation"; and

WHEREAS, In her letters and writings, Abigail Adams planted

the ideas that made both women and men of her time start to

think about the rights of women in a country founded on the

ideals of life, liberty and equality; and

WHEREAS, Generations later, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady

Stanton and Pennsylvanian Lucretia Mott embodied the first

generation of women's rights activists by working to secure

women's enfranchisement; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania played a prominent role in the suffrage

movement with Philadelphia being a hotbed of feminist agitation;

and

WHEREAS, In 1868, Susan B. Anthony read her "Declaration of

Rights of the Women of the United States," modeled after the

Declaration of Independence, in front of Philadelphia's

Independence Hall; and

WHEREAS, It was the lesser-known suffragists, such as

Pennsylvanians Dora Kelly Lewis and Caroline Katzenstein, who

inherited the struggle from Anthony, Stanton and Mott and

oversaw the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the

Constitution of the United States, which gave women the right to

vote on August 18, 1920; and

WHEREAS, Other lesser-known Pennsylvania women who were

active in the suffrage movement included Ann Davies, Florence

Kelley, Ann Preston and Emma Guffey Miller; and

WHEREAS, Pennsylvania women and women nationwide paved the

way by suffering violence and threats of violence, jail and

public ridicule during their struggles to eliminate gender,

racial, social and cultural barriers to economic and political

participation; and

WHEREAS, From civil rights activists Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary

McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks to lesser-known

Elizabeth Jennings Brown who, not unlike Rosa Parks, became

frustrated with her inability to freely use privately owned

public transportation in New York City, women have long

struggled to secure equal and fair treatment for all; and

WHEREAS, The commitment of women to gender and racial

equality has resulted in the ascension of women in politics and

government; and

WHEREAS, Martha G. Speiser, Alice M. Bentley, Helen Grimes

and Sarah M. Gallaher were among a group of eight women first

elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1923;

and

WHEREAS, Crystal Bird Fauset, who helped establish the

Swarthmore College Institute of Race Relations, became the first

African-American woman to be elected to the Pennsylvania House

of Representatives, at the time representing Philadelphia's 13th

Legislative District; and

WHEREAS, In 1916, Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first

woman to be elected to the United States House of

Representatives; in 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii became

the first Asian-American woman so elected; and in 1969, Shirley

Chisholm became the first African-American woman elected to the

United States House of Representatives; and

WHEREAS, Shirley Chisholm was an outspoken advocate for women

and people of color during her seven terms in Congress; and

WHEREAS, In 1959, Juanita Kidd Stout became the first

African-American woman in the nation to win election to a court

of record when she won election to the Philadelphia Municipal

Court; and

WHEREAS, Juanita Kidd Stout made history a second time in

1988 when her appointment to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made

her the first African-American woman to serve on a state supreme

court; and

WHEREAS, In 1964, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine became the

first woman nominated for President of the United States by a

major political party, and, in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro was

selected to run for Vice President, followed by Sarah Palin in

2008; and

WHEREAS, In 1990, Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as United

States Surgeon General, becoming the first woman and the first

Latina appointed to that position; and

WHEREAS, From the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, who became

the first woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United

States Supreme Court in 1981, to the Honorable Ruth Bader

Ginsburg, who was appointed as an Associate Justice to that

court in 1993, to the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, who rose from

the public housing projects of the Bronx to nomination and

confirmation as the first Puerto Rican-American to serve as an

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 2009,

and to Sandra Schultz Newman and Debra Todd who were the first

and second women elected to Pennsylvania's highest court,

respectively, women have broken the glass ceiling in all

branches of government; and

WHEREAS, Currently, 72 women hold statewide executive offices

nationwide; and

WHEREAS, Women hold a record number 1,718 seats in state

legislatures nationwide; and

WHEREAS, In 2009, the New Hampshire State Senate was the

first state legislative chamber to have a female majority with

thirteen women and eleven men; and

WHEREAS, With her election as State Treasurer in 1988,

Katherine Baker Knoll became the first woman in this

Commonwealth to be elected to a Statewide row office and the

first woman to serve as Lieutenant Governor when she was sworn

in as Pennsylvania's 30th Lieutenant Governor in 2003; and

WHEREAS, From Madeleine Korbel Albright, the first female

Secretary of State, to Condoleezza Rice, the first African-

American woman to serve as Secretary of State, and to Hillary

Rodham Clinton, the first First Lady to win a United States

Senate seat, to run for the United States presidency and to

later serve as Secretary of State, American women continue to

reach for pinnacles of elected and political office nationally

and internationally; and

WHEREAS, In 1987, the United States Congress, encouraged by

petition of the National Women's History Project, adopted the

first resolution to recognize the entire month of March as

"Women's History Month" in order to commemorate the

accomplishments and contributions of women; and

WHEREAS, In 1998, President William J. Clinton signed the

"Women's Progress Commemoration Act" into law on the 150th

anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first national

congregation on the condition of women in the United States, for

the purpose of commemorating, celebrating and preserving women's

history; and

WHEREAS, American women, including many Pennsylvania women,

have been leaders, not only in securing their own rights of

suffrage, but also in the abolitionist movement, the

emancipation movement, the suffrage movement, the labor movement

and the civil and equal rights movements; and

WHEREAS, 2011 marks the 31st anniversary of the National

Women's History Project; and 

WHEREAS, The National Women's History Project began with a

proclamation by President Jimmy Carter that declared the week of

March 8, 1980, as the first National Women's History Week; and

WHEREAS, The recognition of March as "Women's History Month"

has highlighted the numerous contributions of women to the

progression of American society and their position at the

forefront of movements that created a more fair and just society

for all people; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize March

2011 as "National Women's History Month" in Pennsylvania and

invite the women, men and children of this Commonwealth to

continue to explore the many roles women played and continue to

play to secure a just and fair democracy, to explore the

contributions of women to the greatness of this Commonwealth and

the nation and to celebrate "National Women's History Month

2011" with the theme of "Our History is Our Strength."