This article appears for archival purposes. Any events, programs and/or initiatives mentioned may no longer be applicable.
March is Women's History Month! This is a time for us to look back on and honor the remarkable achievements and "herstory" of women around the world. The event began as Women's History Week in 1981 until 1988 when the U.S. Congress designated March as Women’s History Month. Since then each year has offered us a month to reflect on the great strides women have made in forwarding human progress.
Celebrate Women’s History with Rio Salado College & APUS
Rio Salado, in collaboration with American Public University (APUS), will be presenting a webinar on Thursday, March 30, from 11:00am-12:30pm. This online National Women’s History Month: Mentorship & Belonging event will explore the generative power of mentorship in the lives of women.
More information forthcoming!
Learn More About Women’s History Month
Our library staff have put together a guide on Women’s History Month that features podcasts and resources on women's history, mentorship, and other information about the cultural, scientific, and political achievements of women throughout history.
Reading Recommendations
One way to celebrate Women’s History Month is to add more female authors to your media diet. Here are a few recommendations for both modern and classic works of literature by women.
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The great grandmother of horror and science fiction. Still radical and unsettling after all these years.
- The Dangers of Smoking In Bed by Mariana Enriquez. A collection of haunting and surreal short stories by one of Argentina's greatest writers.
- Nightwood by Djuna Barnes. Along with James Joyce, Barnes was one of the great modernist writers. Her most famous work is slim but incredibly poetic that features a toxic relationship.
- The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. Fairy tales reimagined as sensual, mysterious, and lyrical short stories.
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin. One of the major works of science fiction, LeGuin expresses political divide in this fascinating story about an expatriate trying to adapt to the strange ways of another planet.
- No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood. Few writers have more deftly explored what it’s like to “live” online like Lockwood. An essential novel for anyone who’s spent too much time on Twitter.
- Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki. Sci-fi short stories by one of Japan’s most heralded underground authors. Published in the late 70s, Suzuki’s observations on technology, culture, and how humans will behave in the future feel more relevant than ever.
- Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. This award-winning murder mystery doubles as a beautifully rendered depiction of isolation, old age, and the struggle to form community.
- Unquenchable Fire by Rachel Pollack. A brilliant speculative novel about an America much like our own, but one where all the gods are real, magic and miracles are a fact of life, and where a woman has to come to grips with an unexpected pregnancy.
- The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender. A touching and mysterious novel about a daughter coming to terms with her history with her mother, it blends poetic language with flights of magical realism.
Women’s History On The Big Screen
Celebrate Women’s HIstory Month by adding some of these classic films by female auteurs onto your watchlists:
- Merrily We Go To Hell (Dorothy Arzner, 1932). A dark romantic comedy made in Pre-Code Hollywood that explores subject matter that's still shocking today.
- Cleo From 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962). A bubbly and moving classic French New Wave film about an actress who spends the day in Paris while waiting on a call from her doctor.
- Daisies (Vera Chytilova, 1966). One of the most famous films of the Czech New Wave, this wildly anarchic film features two women who start food fights, rob old men, and treat the world the way Bugs Bunny treats Elmer Fudd.
- Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975). Recently voted the No. 1 film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine, this challenging and ambitious film looks at the life of a stressed-out housewife.
- Starstruck (Gillian Armstrong, 1982). A punk musical set in Australia that’s full of incredible costumes, sets, and high-energy music.
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 1982). One of the best high school movies of all-time, a fact all the more remarkable for Heckerling also writing and directing the OTHER all-time great high school film (Clueless).
- Variety (Bette Gordon, 1983). A film made about one woman taking tickets at a theater in the dingy, skid row of New York City in the early 80s. A vivid snapshot of a long-lost point in time, and also a feminist counterpoint to Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014). A skateboarding vampire terrorizes and protects certain people in a shadowy Iranian town.
Article by Austin Brietta