Racial, Social Justice Imbued in Women’s History Month

While many battles have been fought to establish women’s rights in the United States, Dr. Pat Arneson, associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies, notes that the struggle is not over, even as March celebrates Women’s History Month.

Women suffragists, 1917. Library of Congress

Pittsburgh women who have courageously pushed for change include civil rights leader Dorothy Height, dancer Martha Graham, environmentalist Rachel Carson and writer Gertrude Stein, along with others whose names are less well known.

Arneson considers the lives of women who are unfamiliar to many people. Her work in civil rights has introduced her to many “sheros” who are living as well as those whose influence continues to be felt after their deaths. Her scholarship examines the lives of women who have made a positive impact on society through their work in social justice, including:

  • Myrtilla Miner, an abolitionist who opened a school to educate African-American girls in 1851, starting what is now the University of the District of Columbia
  • Mary White Ovington, a founder of the NAACP in 1909
  • Jessie Daniel Ames, a suffragist and civil rights activist during the 1930s, one of the first Southern women to speak out against lynching
  • Juliette Hampton Morgan, a librarian and seventh-generation Southerner who promoted racial justice in the 1940s and 1950s.

“These women lived in a way that modeled for others their belief in social justice and equality,” said Arneson, who studies free and responsible speech. “They sought to alleviate the injustices of society where differences of opportunity existed, including education, applications of the law and civil rights.”

Each individual who finds the courage to step out makes a difference, Arneson believes. Paraphrasing a time-honored quote, she said, “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”