The Origins of Women’s History Month: A Legacy of Advocacy

In 1978, a group of visionary educators from Sonoma County, California—Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett, and Bette Morganto—founded the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) in Santa Rosa. They were motivated by a crucial realization: women’s historical contributions were frequently overlooked or missing from school textbooks. Determined to change this, they sought to ensure that women’s historical roles would be recognized and celebrated.

After successfully establishing Women’s History Week in Sonoma County, the NWHP led a coalition that effectively urged President Carter to issue the first Presidential Proclamation, designating the week of March 8, 1980, as the inaugural National History Week. March 8 is also recognized as International Women’s Day. With support from Representative Barbara Mikulski and Senator Orrin Hatch, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month. This milestone has since transformed into an annual celebration. From the beginning, the project established a theme each year and provided essential educational resources and materials to honor the trailblazing women who shaped history.

In 2018, the project evolved into the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA), expanding its mission to promote women’s history all year long. Today, NWHA is the premier national organization dedicated to providing information, training, and resources on multicultural women’s history—supporting educators, community leaders, and anyone eager to enhance their understanding of women’s roles in U.S. history. You can explore their initiatives and the significance of Women’s History Month on their website: nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org.

Honoring a Hidden Figure: Dusty Roads

One of the remarkable women honored by the NWHP was Dusty Roads, recognized in 2017 as a Trailblazing Woman in Labor and Business. Roads was a resident of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, where the NWHP was located. As a former American Airlines stewardess, she played a pivotal role in the women’s rights movement before it had a name. In the 1950s, she took a courageous stand against widespread discrimination, advocating for fair working conditions for stewardesses as a union leader and congressional lobbyist.

For 15 relentless years, she fought against and overturned policies that mandated stewardesses to retire at the age of 32 and barred them from working if they were married. In 1963, she captured the nation’s attention by leading the first-ever union protest for stewardesses, and in 1965, she helped a colleague file the nation’s first sex-based discrimination complaint with the newly established Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Dusty Roads’ fearless advocacy paved the way for the women’s movement that followed. To learn more about her groundbreaking story, check out my book, “Dusty Roads: Meet the Hidden Figure Who Ignited the Women’s Movement.” I’m honored that Molly MacGregor, a key figure behind the National Women’s History Project, wrote the Foreword, further solidifying Dusty’s rightful place in history.

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https://www.facebook.com/MAKERSboldanduntold/videos/1012075932299946/

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On October 23rd, I finished transcribing the Dusty Roads and Jean Montague interviews. It was important to me that I do this work myself so I could capture the inflections, tones, and emotion in their voices as they were speaking about their experiences as flight attendants. I also annotated each interview on what facts and details need further corroboration.

These notes will help during my research visits to the Library of Congress (LOC), the EEOC, the FAA, Cleveland Recorder’s Office, Gates Mills History Museum, and the APFA union archives in Dallas. The LOC Women’s Studies Dept. mentioned that all the information I need there is still on microfiche! That ought to be a blast to the past when I get there.

There were over 150 hours of 85 interviews to transcribe. Hardcopies of the over 550 pages now reside in two 3-inch binders in my office, and the MS-Word files and recordings are on multiple backups. I have more material than I probably need but that sure is better than not enough. As frustrated as I was at how long it was taking, I now know it was worth every minute I spent which was about 2 to 3 hours per interview.

By New Year’s Day 2020, I accomplished another major milestone. I finished indexing 598 topics of varying lengths, covered in the interviews I had with Dusty and Jean. Now I can look up any topic on her life by interview number and page number on my computer or in the printouts. Reading and annotating every interview to create the index was some of the most tedious work I’ve ever done but, it will serve as a handy guide to her life. Now, I’m culling, cutting, and pasting the information into the Chapter structure of the book—and I even added a new Chapter.

Biography, as a genre, is not for the faint of heart as it takes a long time to interview, research, and write with historical accuracy. Read Robert Caro’s “Working” to get an idea of what it takes. It took over four years to get all the information I needed from Dusty and Jean. But that was just the beginning. I wish I realized that sooner. So, I know I am doing the right thing in taking my time with all the details and minutia. I’m excited I finished creating such a valuable historical archive on Dusty’s life as a flight attendant, labor rights leader, and legislative lobbyist.

Now, I can move forward on writing and rewriting what I’ve already written, including query letters and the book proposal to send to interested literary agents. It was the right thing to do to stop hunting for an agent until I had all this done. It won’t be until after my editor edits what I’m writing now, though, that I’ll be looking again. Stay tuned for more on that and my plans for pre-publicity soon.

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Here’s a photo of her on her 95th birthday in April of 2023.

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https://www.pbs.org/video/trailer-fly-with-me/

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The Points Guy posted a great review, written by Harriet Baskas, about tonight’s PBS American Experience documentary. She mentions how Dusty and Jean entered the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission after the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title VII passed Congress and filed the first discrimination complaint in the country based on gender discrimination.

In the 1950s and ’60s, “stewardesses were glamorous. They were beautiful. They were poised,” says former Delta Air Lines flight attendant Casey Grant at the beginning of a new documentary film about the history of flight attendants.

But over time, thousands of stewardesses, as these workers were called then, were also angry and exasperated by the working conditions they had to endure in the sky and on the ground.

“Fly With Me,” premiering Tuesday, Feb. 20, on PBS’ “American Experience,” tells the story of women hired as stewardesses when airline policies dictated everything from their weight to their marriage status who went on to fight — and win — battles for equal pay, gender and race equality and workplace reform.

“So many of the women who became flight attendants were young, ambitious, and adventurous,” says Sarah Colt, who directed the film with Helen Dobrowski. “Some thought they’d do the job for two or three years and then follow societal norms of the ’50s and ’60s and then get married and move on. But the job became much more of a career for them.”

Here’s a link to read her complete article.

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