The Latin American Studies & The Women's Center at Grand Valley State University present: No Más Bebés, a documentary about Los Angeles County General Hospital's sterilization abuse against Latinas. The film tells the story of Madrigal v. Quilligan, a historic lawsuit filed by 10 Mexican-American women who had been sterilized in the early '70s after […]

Presenter: Melissa Fox, President, Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council Upon U.S. entry into WWI, national women's groups transformed their organizational structures for war work. Grand Rapids women are among the midwestern leaders whose pioneering efforts have been too long neglected. Get ahead of history--credit them! Co-sponsored by the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, […]

START the new year with new women's history! On Saturday at 1:30pm, "The Wives (and Lives) of Early Dutch Pastors" -- Unlike the biographies of early male ministers of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, which have been well documented and honored, the stories of their wives, who were important community builders in their […]

At History Detectives, the Grand Rapids Public Library’s day-long offering of local history programming, Julia Bouwkamp and Jo Ellyn Clarey will report on how the charting of 19th-century local women’s candidacy for public office is upending conventional wisdom and offering surprises about dates, the numbers of races, and the identities of losers. This unique historical […]

At History Detectives, GGRWHC’s Ruth Van Stee will present African Americans in Early Grand Rapids—including, of course, more women’s history. From 1850 to 1920 African Americans here were a steady one percent of the city’s rapidly growing population. After an overview of this vibrant community as a whole, Van Stee will provide snapshots of individual business, […]

The last female owner of a Negro League baseball team will talk with former Grand Rapids Press columnist Jaye Beeler at Taste of Soul Sunday about playing softball at fifteen for Cook's Brown Dolls, a traveling team from Grand Rapids, and playing baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs against the Grand Rapids Black Sox. When […]

The historical charting of Grand Rapids women's runs for public office upends conventional wisdom and offers surprises about dates, the numbers of races, and the identities of women who participated in local politics beginning in 1887. Julia Bouwkamp and Jo Ellyn Clarey will report on how the national crowdsourcing project Her Hat Was in the […]

Open to the public on March 2!  During the twentieth century, women throughout the country took great strides toward equality and began abandoning their traditional roles, as well as restrictive fashions, in search of greater opportunity and comfortable clothing.  “Atmosphere of Distinction” displays how the emergence of the women’s rights movement impacted West Michigan fashion trends […]