2020 is the Year of the Woman and the Centennial of Suffrage. Southern Oregon is celebrating Woman’s History Month in March 2020 with events throughout the Rogue Valley, including A Day of History on Sunday, March 15, 2020 at the Ashland Public Library.

Travel back through time at A Day of History to hear what life was like for women who lived here in the 1970s and 1980s. Connect, converse, celebrate and remember where you were in the days of second wave feminism. Meet the young women who are working towards a better future and who are carrying the work forward. 

Dr. Linda Schott, President of Southern Oregon University will open the day, and put local events into a national context and run through the timeline of the Rogue Valley Women’s Movement. Rosemary Dunn Dalton and Sue Lopez will tell their herstories, and invite the audience to share theirs.

Dr. Carey Jean Sojka, Southern Oregon University, will explain why pronouns are so important and how language affects perception and behavior.

Mary Bergstrom, who has been teaching physical fitness at the Ashland YMCA for 50 years will give us all a stretch break mid-afternoon, and then Colleen Curran and Ashland High School Senior Lille Morrish will give us the then and now of equal rights for women, and the status of the ERA.

At the Women in Politics and Power of the Vote session, meet Ashland’s first woman mayor, Cathy Golden Shaw, who served three terms in office and brought about many of the environmental protections and sustainable urban practices we now enjoy. Today Shaw is a successful and canny political strategist. Barbara Klein will talk about voter reform, and Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett will share her experiences in in grassroots campaigns and organizing for the 2020 census.

Historian Mary White Gently will moderate the final panel of the day, Women Working For the Future. Four young women will talk about their vision for the future and how they and we can work towards a better world. On the panel are: thirteen year old Ashland Middle School student Mira Saturen, Ashland High School Senior Taylor Mortensen, Southern Oregon University Senior, Cassandra McDade and recent SOU graduate, Alessandra de la Torre.

To cap off a day of learning and celebration, Jeannine Grizzard will perform her one act play, “Pankhurst” about the trials, tribulations and successes of one of Britain’s most effective suffragist.

All Day of History events are free and open to the public with no registration required. Free will donations are accepted to benefit Dunn House, now managed by Community Works.

Rogue Valley, Oregon women were roused to action in the 1970s, spurred by national events and cultural transitions to organize social services that protected families and enabled women. Women were recognized as powerful change agents and gained the confidence to speak out about injustice, inequality and sexuality. Women listened and women acted, establishing Women in Transition in Ashland, Oregon at Southern Oregon University, Dunn House, the Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team and many other agencies and services. Women wrote poetry, created art and some asserted themselves, with pride and confidence, as lesbian. Over the next 20-30 years, a generation of women created social systems and a cultural environment that sheltered and gave new opportunities to women, a movement that celebrated women, welcomed change and gave rise to a broader acceptance of gender diversity.

Thanks to funding from the Oregon Heritage Commission, the Rogue Valley Women’s Movement  project organizes a series of 2020 events in March 2020 -- including A Day of History on March 15, 2020 -- that celebrate Women’s History Month, the Year of the Woman and the centennial of women’s suffrage. These events – a women’s art exhibit at SOU on March 6, evenings of spoken word and performance at SOU on March 12 and at Dunbar Farms on March 18 and a day of history and more – serve to launch and propel a community documentation project that is centered on the Rogue Valley Women’s Movement of the 1970s through the 1990s, the Stories of Southern Oregon Women.

The Rogue Valley Women’s Movement documentation project and related events are made possible through funding from the Oregon Heritage Commission and the support of Jackson County Library Services, AAUW Ashland and Southern Oregon University.

For more information including a full and growing list of Rogue Valley events for March 2020, visit StoriesOfSouthernOregon.com or email  Maureen Flanagan Battistella, Southern Oregon University Sociology/Anthropology, at battistem@sou.edu