Inspiring Places to Celebrate Women's History Month
March is Women's History Month, and if you're looking for a great way to celebrate, plan a trip to one of these places full of incredible history and museums, monuments, and educational experiences. Across the country, these inspiring sites highlight women's involvement in abolitionism, the suffrage movement and fight for political equality, labor rights and strides made in the workforce, and other incredible accomplishments.
Learn about Harriet Tubman in Maryland
Harriet Tubman was perhaps the most famous American abolitionist, guiding nearly 70 slaves up the East Coast to freedom in the north through the Underground Railroad. One of two park locations dedicated to this amazing woman, Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Maryland is a tribute to her daring and important work to rescue enslaved African Americans.
Escaped slave Harriet Tubman made 13 trips back to Maryland before the Civil War to help free over 70 slaves on the “Underground Railroad.” Follow her path on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for 125 miles and 36 sites, including station houses, secret meeting places, and spots where daring rescues and escapes occurred. The Byway also includes the visitor center at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Church Creek, which houses exhibits about Tubman’s rescue missions and later activities as a spy during the Civil War.
About an hour east of Washington, D.C., the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center is dedicated to preserving her memory and continuing her work of fighting for the rights of women, minorities, and the disabled.
Revisit the women's suffrage movement in New York
On July 16, 1848, Mary Ann M'Clintock hosted a planning session for the First Women's Rights Convention. At this session she, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and perhaps several others drafted a document they called the Declaration of Sentiments. It was ratified on the second day of the First Woman's Rights Convention and signed by 100 men and women. Modeled on Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, this document proclaimed that "all men and women are created equal." The Women’s Rights National Historical Park tells the story of the first Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848. It includes to homes of early women's rights activists, such as the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, the M'Clintock House, and the Richard Hunt House, and includes an up-close look at artifacts and stories of the women’s suffrage movement.
Conveniently located just a short drive from Seneca Falls is the town of Auburn, where tourists can learn more about Harriet Tubman’s work for both civil rights and women’s suffrage after the war at her former home, now a national historic site. After emancipating herself and members of her family, she moved them from Ontario, Canada to Fleming and here in Auburn, New York in 1859. Central New York was a center for progressive thought, abolition, and women’s suffrage where Tubman continued to fight for human rights and dignity until she died in 1913.
About an hour away from Seneca Falls and Auburn is Rochester, New York. A National Historic Landmark, the Susan B. Anthony house at 17 Madison Street was the headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and Anthony was even arrested in the house’s front parlor for voting illegally in 1872. Anthony was also an abolitionist and an advocate for equal education and pay for women. In 1906, she died in the house, 14 years before the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920.
See Amelia Earhart's Birthplace in Atchison, Kansas
Before Amelia Earhart took to the skies, she grounded herself in her family home in Atchison, Kansas. Called the Otis House, after her grandfather, Judge Alfred G. Otis, Amelia was born in the southwest bedroom and raised there until she was 12. Earhart would grow up to be the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Even though she lived in many different cities, she considered Atchison her hometown. The Amelia Earhart Birthplace, which is on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places, stands to be one of the few remaining tangible associations with this aviation legend.
Visitors who tour her home not only get a glimpse into life in the early 20th century, but they also learn about the Ninety-Nines, an organization of 99 female pilots who elected Amelia Earhart as their first president.
In addition to touring Earhart’s birthplace and childhood home, don’t miss the opportunity to meet Muriel, the last surviving 1935 Lockheed Model 10 Electra airplane, located in the Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum. It’s identical to the one flown by Earhart on her fateful quest to fly around the world — a quest on which she lost her life. Visitors are invited to try their own navigation skills and pilot Amelia’s historic 1932 flight across the Atlantic Ocean via virtual reality. The experience mirrors obstacles Amelia overcame to become the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic. Visitors will be provided a virtual reality headset that will place them inside the cockpit of Amelia’s “Little Red Bus”, a Lockheed Vega 5B.
Discover Rosie the Riveter's legacy in Richmond, California
When World War II began, millions of American men left their jobs and joined the military. The shrinking workforce and growing war industry led to more diverse hiring practices and huge social changes. Initially white women were recruited, followed by minority men, and finally minority women. Doing their jobs well and supporting the war effort, women earned a new respect and "cracked open" the door to equal rights. This would have a profound impact on the Women's Movement and change American culture forever. During World War II, six million women entered the workforce. "Rosie the Riveter" and her "We Can Do It" motto came to symbolize all women Home Front workers and is remembered at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park.
Visit historic sites and museums across Washington, DC
The nation's capital is home to several sites and places honoring the legacy of women in America. Be sure to stop at some (or all!) of these places below in you find yourself in town:
- Mary McLeod Bethune was a renowned educator, organizer, national political leader, president of the National Association of Colored Women and founder of the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune’s house became the first headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women where Bethune and the council spearheaded strategies and developed programs that would advance the interests of African American women and the black community in D.C. Today, this location is preserved as the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.
- Constructed in 1800 on Capitol Hill, the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument stands as a testament to the community of women who dedicated their lives to winning women’s rights. The National Woman’s Party used the building as their headquarters for nearly 90 years. Named after Alva Belmont (National Woman’s Party President from 1920-1933) and Alice Paul (one of the most prominent members of 20th-century women's rights movement), the monument tells the story of those who advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment and equality for women.
- As an extension of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial is a statue of three uniformed women tending to a wounded soldier. The memorial was erected in 1993 to honor the contribution of women in the Vietnam War, many of whom were nurses.
- Just a few blocks northeast of the White House, easily recognized by the large sculptures displayed on the median of New York Avenue, the National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only museum in the world that exclusively celebrates female artists. Visit to see the only Frida Kahlo paintings on display in Washington, D.C., along with a wide range of paintings, photographs, sculptures, and other works of art by female artists.
- The table where the Declaration of Sentiments was signed is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
- A statue of Eleanor Roosevelt stands at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.
