White House Celebrates Women's History with Executive Order and Over

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The White House was abuzz yesterday with a celebration of Women’s History, where top administration officials announced comprehensive measures to recognize the vital role of women in shaping America. President Biden's March 2024 Executive Order is at the heart of these announcements, which bolsters the National Park Service’s (NPS) commitment to women's history.

Big money is also talking, with a hefty $1.3 million injected by the Mellon Foundation to kick off a Women's History Theme Study for the NPS. The study is bankrolled as part of a gargantuan $500 million Monuments Project. In comparison, a separate $2 million commitment from the National Park Foundation is poised to grease the wheels for more inclusive storytelling of American history in parks nationwide. Officials from the Biden-Harris Administration waxed eloquently on the recent identification of sites such as Pond Farm Pottery in California and the Sam and Ruth Van Sickle Ford House in Illinois as National Historic Landmarks due to their significance to women's achievements.

Noteworthy is the National Park Service's $19 million splurge under the current administration to upgrade parks that honor the ladies of our land. The Department of the Interior is not far behind, having doled out $2.1 million in grants for historic preservation of sites laying out women's narratives through various programs such as History of Equal Rights and African American Civil Rights.

Among the names graced the event were notables like Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Jennifer Klein, Director of the Gender Policy Council; and Brenda Mallory, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. They were joined by leaders from historical and conservation societies, museum chiefs, members of Congress, and academics, all in the foreground of women's history studies. According to a White House press release, the assembly spotlighted myriad ways women and girls stamp their influence on the American saga.

Significant gestures were not limited to refurbishing old landmarks but extended to creating new monuments, like the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument spanning Mississippi and Illinois. This monument is a testament to Mamie Till-Mobley's courage, which fanned the flames of the Civil Rights Movement following her son's heinous murder.