The 10 U.S. National Parks Devoted To Women's History

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- Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, Richmond, Calif. Honors the estimated 18 mill women who joined defense & support industries during World War II. Park employees also carry the mission of female empowerment forward into the 21st c. through an innovative summer program for middle-school girls.
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- The 8 National Parks Devoted to Women’s History, 2016, *Updated 2021, Natl. Parks Conservation Assn., NPCA.

-- Women comprise more than half of the population and make history virtually everywhere. Yet, only eight U.S. national park sites specifically commemorate some aspect of women’s history. ~ Editor’s note: Since NPCA published this story, 2 new park sites devoted to women’s history, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in NY & the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Wash., D.C., have become part of the National Park System. Information on more sites is included in the original story below. --

National park sites devoted to women’s history may be few in number, but the lives these places honor are groundbreaking and inspirational.

1. Clara Barton National Historic Site, Maryland. Clara Barton is best known as the founder of the American Red Cross, but this pioneering humanitarian also distinguished herself as a dedicated Civil War nurse, an educator, and a government clerk. After the Civil War, she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers, helping to reunite wounded soldiers with loved ones and properly identify and bury the remains of thousands of men who died in battle.

2. Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, Washington, D.C. Mary McLeod Bethune rose from a childhood of poverty and hard work to become the only child in her family to receive an education. She went on to start a school for African American girls, serve as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and found her own influential civil rights organization, the National Council of Negro Women.



- Educational & civil rights pioneer Mary McLeod Bethune, c. 1905, with students at the school she founded in Daytona, Fla.

3. First Ladies National Historic Site, Ohio. Though numerous national park sites honor presidents, none explored the lives of their influential wives until Mary Regula, wife of a former Ohio congressman, helped establish a bibliography on these leaders. Her efforts led to a national library and eventually a historic site, which archives a wealth of information on the women who served in this rare and distinctive role in American politics and society.

4. Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, New York. America’s longest-serving first lady distinguished herself during her husband’s presidency as a newspaper columnist and an outspoken proponent of human rights. In the years following her husband’s death, Eleanor Roosevelt served as American ambassador to the United Nations and chair of its Human Rights Commission, helping to write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

- Read More,
https://www.npca.org/articles/1142-the-8-national-parks-devoted-to-women-s-history



- Eleanor Roosevelt holding a Spanish translation of the Declaration of Human Rights she helped to write, 1949. (Photo from NARA, the National Archives & Records Administration).
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~ Visit and support your local, state and national parks. They're wonderful resources for recreation, enjoying nature and the environment and learning about history:

- FIND A PARK, National Park Service
https://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm

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1. I wanted to mention:

At the site of the suffragists imprisonment-
https://www.workhousearts.org/lucyburnsmuseum/


Also, the Alice Paul Institute-
https://www.alicepaul.org/about-the-institute/

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2. Great to see the history preserved & interpreted. The film

'Suffragette' (2015) with Carrie Mulligan is an education in the struggle for womens rights in the UK and the appalling conditions and treatment endured by female factory workers.

- Lowell, Mass. Historic Site of the 'Mill Girls,' NPS
https://www.nps.gov/lowe/index.htm

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3. Unpleasant parts of history

https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/2019/03/utah-and-native-american-voting-rights/

"..a group denied the effective exercise of the vote is necessarily deprived of the ability to protect its rights. Because elected officials are free to disregard its needs and concerns, a disfranchised group is denied an effective voice in policy-making decisions and is relegated to second-class status."

Utah women were the first to vote in the modern nation, but the state has an unfortunate track record with Native American voting rights. A Utah law, passed shortly after statehood, prohibited Native Americans who resided on a reservation from voting. The law remained in place until 1957. The law stated that "any person living upon any Indian or military reservation shall not be a resident of Utah, within the meaning of this chapter, unless such person had acquired a residence in some county prior to taking up his [or her] residence upon such Indian or military reservation."

Native American women are among the most oppressed, victimized and least represented people in the US.