Category: Women

The Origin of Mother’s Day

MOTHER’S DAY PROCLAMATION
Boston, 1870

Arise, then… women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage,
for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says:  Disarm, Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
nor violence vindicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
at the summons of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home
for a great and earnest day of council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace,
each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality,
may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient,
and at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.

~ Julia Ward Howe

(Re)making the World: A “How-to” Conference on Feminist, Crip, and Decolonial Worldmaking

by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU

The 25th Women’s & Gender Studies Conference at Southern Connecticut State University April 17–18, 2026, Southern Connecticut State University, School of Business Building, 10 Wintergreen Ave., New Haven

We are excited to welcome you to join us for our 25th Women’s & Gender Studies Conference at SCSU featuring our keynote speaker, Dr. Nirmala Erevelles, as well as three of our plenary speakers, Jen Deerinwater, JuPong Lin, and Souksavanh Keovorabouth.

Dr. Erevelles is a professor of social and cultural studies in education at the University of Alabama. Her work focuses on disability studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, sociology of education, and postcolonial studies to examine how disability intersects with race, class, gender, and sexuality, particularly in relation to students in U.S. public schools and disabled people in transnational contexts.

Jen Deerinwater is a bisexual, Two-Spirit, multiple-disabled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an award-winning journalist and organizer who covers the myriad of issues their communities face with an intersectional lens.

JuPong Lin is an independent artist, practice-led researcher, writer, and cultural worker who dances with horseshoe crabs and makes ceremony with cranes. Her mission is to hospice the dying colonized world, serving as a death doula through the arts and poetics to create futures of joyful interspecies co-becoming. JuPong was a faculty member in the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College for nearly 20 years before the College closed in 2024. She recently completed her doctorate in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England.

Souksavanh Keovorabouth is from the Diné (Navajo) Nation and second-generation Laotian, Queer, Trans, Two-Spirit, and Nadleeh. They come from a lineage of survivors of the Navajo Long Walk, Native Boarding Schools, Relocation, Indian Placement Program, and Urbanization. They call Chinle, Arizona home and work as an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University in Women and Gender Studies & Applied Indigenous Studies.

Please register for the conference by visting: https://inside.southernct.edu/womens-and-gender-studies/conferences/2026.

4th Annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program: A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement, March 1, 2026

by Rhoda Zahler Samuel, Jewish Historical Society

The 4th Annual Judith Ann Schiff Women’s History Program will take place at the New Haven Museum, on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m.  In A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement, we will hear in person and on video from women who participated in the massive New Haven teachers strike of 1975 and in the historic victories of Yale University clerical and technical workers in 1983-84. They will describe the issues that motivated them to join the “wonderful struggle,” the difficulties they encountered, what helped them succeed, the results that followed the strikes and creation of new unions, and the ways these activities influenced their future work experiences. The program will be streaming on Facebook Live. In the case of inclement weather, the event will be recorded for social media. For more information and to register, please go to https://bit.ly/4ruFsQJ.

In the words of Edie Bartman Fishman, who was active in unions ranging from electrical workers to teachers: “Life is a struggle. But it’s a wonderful struggle when you’re fighting for the right things.” Our speakers include Joelle Fishman, talking about her mother, and Barbara Greenwood and Helene Sapadin who participated in the 1975 Teachers Strike in New Haven.

The New Haven Museum is located at 114 Whitney Ave. and is wheelchair accessible.

In the case of inclement weather, the event will be recorded for the Museum’s YouTube channel.

Register

 

Call for Proposals for the 25th SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Conference

by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU

(Re)making the World: A “How-To” Conference on Feminist, Crip, and Decolonial Worldmaking, April 17–18, 2026, at Southern Connecticut State University

In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (2017), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:

Resurgence is not a metaphor. It is the flight out of settler colonialism, towards something we have been taught is impossible.

This conference takes Simpson’s call for radical resurgence seriously — positioning “how-to” as a feminist practice, politic, and theorizing.

The 2026 Southern Connecticut State University Women’s & Gender Studies Conference invites communities to gather for a feminist, crip, and decolonial practice of refusal, survival, and worldmaking.

In an era of rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and technological dispossession, we ask

How do we refuse extractive systems of labor, knowledge, and identity?

How do we create alternative economies of care, access, justice, and decolonial business?

How do we unlearn oppressive epistemologies and forge liberatory practices?

How do we crip, queer, Indigenize, and decolonize institutions not built for us?

How do we resist algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and technocratic ableism?

How do we (re)imagine feminist futures?

The 2026 conference offers a space to explore the pedagogies, practices, and possibilities embedded in the question of “how to?” across disciplines, communities, and movements. We seek proposals that move beyond critique to praxis — embracing failure as pedagogy, interdependence as resistance, and joy as a radical act.

Submission Guidelines: Individual papers, workshops, roundtables, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, skill-shares, activist toolkits, and other creative or non-traditional formats are welcomed.

We encourage proposals from caregivers, community organizers, entrepreneurs, artist-activists, and others whose work centers lived experiences, collaborative strategies, and collective visions for justice and inclusion.

The deadline is January 5, 2026 (earlier submissions encouraged). Notifications will be sent by January 30.

Send proposals to wgs@southernct.edu with the subject “2026 SCSU WGS Conference Submission” and include the name of the proposer, email, phone number, affiliation (if any), and any accessibility needs. The proposal should be approximately 150-250 words and should include a 50-word bio for each presenter and a separate section with a description of the proposed format of the session.

Registration details will be available shortly. Please email or phone the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at wgs@southernct.edu or 203-392-6133.

Call for Proposals for the 25th SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Conference

by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU

(Re)making the World: A “How-To” Conference on Feminist, Crip, and Decolonial Worldmaking, April 17–18, 2026, at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven

In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (2017), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:

Resurgence is not a metaphor. It is the flight out of settler colonialism, towards something we have been taught is impossible.

This conference takes Simpson’s call for radical resurgence seriously — positioning “how-to” as a feminist practice, politic, and theorizing.

The 2026 Southern Connecticut State University Women’s & Gender Studies Conference invites communities to gather for a feminist, crip, and decolonial practice of refusal, survival, and worldmaking.

In an era of rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and technological dispossession, we ask

How do we refuse extractive systems of labor, knowledge, and identity?

How do we create alternative economies of care, access, justice, and decolonial business?

How do we unlearn oppressive epistemologies and forge liberatory practices?

How do we crip, queer, Indigenize, and decolonize institutions not built for us?

How do we resist algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and technocratic ableism?

How do we (re)imagine feminist futures?

The 2026 conference offers a space to explore the pedagogies, practices, and possibilities embedded in the question of “how to?” across disciplines, communities, and movements. We seek proposals that move beyond critique to praxis — embracing failure as pedagogy, interdependence as resistance, and joy as a radical act.

Submission Guidelines: Individual papers, workshops, roundtables, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, skill-shares, activist toolkits, and other creative or non-traditional formats are welcomed.

We encourage proposals from caregivers, community organizers, entrepreneurs, artist-activists, and others whose work centers lived experiences, collaborative strategies, and collective visions for justice and inclusion.

The deadline is Jan. 5, 2026 (earlier submissions encouraged). Notifications will be sent by Jan. 30.

Send proposals to wgs@southernct.edu with the subject “2026 SCSU WGS Conference Submission” and include the name of the proposer, email, phone number, affiliation (if any), and any accessibility needs. The proposal should be approximately 150-250 words and should include a 50-word bio for each presenter and a separate section with a description of the proposed format of the session.

Registration details will be available shortly. Please email or phone the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at wgs@southernct.edu or 203-392-6133.

Bullets, Bandages, and Making Waves: Jewish Women in WWII New Haven on Sunday, March 2, 2 p.m.

by New Haven Museum

WWII changed the lives of American women, who were essential to the war effort. In honor of Women’s History Month and the 80th anniversary of the war’s end in 1945, Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven (JHSGNH) will share the stories of seven such women: Lucille Wolfe Alderman, Mitzi Fenster Bargar, Rose Rosenberg Dubin, Edith Londer Gillman, Ruth Grannick, Laura Small Levine, and Rita Small Melman. Their stories illustrate the ways American women in the Elm City contributed to the war effort.

JHSGNH volunteers, writer Carole Bass and oral-history interviewer Rhoda Zahler Samuel, will present video memories of these local women, following a historical overview and discussion by Jennifer Klein, Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University, of the ways WWII influenced women’s roles.

The lecture is presented in memory of Judith Ann Schiff, a founder of JHSGNH and the Ethnic Heritage Center, a New Haven Museum board member, Yale University’s chief archivist and New Haven’s city historian. In person and streaming on Facebook Live.

Join us on March 2 at 2 p.m. New Haven Museum is located at 114 Whitney Ave. It is wheelchair accessible.

Our Bodies. Our Futures: People’s March, Jan. 18, 2025

The Women’s March

We are not done. With Trump set to return to the White House early next year, we’re facing a moment that calls us to act boldly. It’s time to march. Join us at the PEOPLE’S MARCH—Jan. 18, 2025—DC & Everywhere.

We will unite in a feminist-led day of action. We will demand and defend our freedoms against fascism. We will demonstrate our collective strength, sending a clear message: Our freedoms are inalienable, and we will not allow them to be threatened.

The mobilization is being organized by a coalition of organizations across the movement landscape through a broad committee structure. Amongst the coalition members are Abortion Action Now, Time to Act, SisterSong, Women’s March, Popular Democracy, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, The Feminist Front, NOW, Planned Parenthood, National Women’s Law Center, and the Frontline. Women’s March is anchoring the logistics of the mobilization. The role of coordinated infrastructure and these convos have been moving since July 2024.

[Full text at womensmarch.com and peoplesmarch.com. Also see https://tinyurl.com/t22j9hvm.]

24th Annual Women’s & Gender Studies Conference seeking proposals

The SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Department is looking for proposals for our 24th Annual WGS Conference: Continuities, Ruptures, Resurgences: Still in Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Proposals can be on a wide variety of topics and in a wide range of mediums. We are happy to announce that the deadline for submissions has been extended until January 18, 2024!

Five decades after publication, Alice Walker’s womanist essays In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens … continue to be a vision for those of us engaged in feminist studies and intersectional justice work: “Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and a respect for strength – in search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.”… Fifty-plus years later, we are still in search of our mothers’ gardens, sites and sources of our nourishment. Urged by Walker’s search and guided by Haudenosaunee and other Black, Indigenous, Latinx, women of color, and queer feminist visionaries (“for the next seven generations”), we ask ourselves questions for our collective futures:

  • Why are we still in search of our mothers’ gardens?
  • How do we recognize/embrace our feminist legacy/ legacies while staying vigilant/attentive to/around old and new challenges? What are some collective strategies?
  • How do we continue to create/innovate despite the legal/social setbacks we have recently experienced?
  • How and when does a body become a subject in the eyes of the law, the public, communities, institutions, corporations, nation states?
  • What can we do to support communities struggling to align with the feminist agendas of peace, justice, and unity while honoring differences?
  • How is the feminist body involved in community, conflict and the pursuit of peace and justice?
  • How does feminism contribute to the pursuit of equity and equality?
  • How has feminist storytelling narrated these struggles and contributed to/reshaped intellectual discourse?

WGS Graduate Assistant Team, Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU. Office Email: wgs@southernct.edu; Web: www.southernct.edu/wgs; Phone: 203-392-6133; Fax: 203-392-6723. Call for Proposals: inside.southernct.edu/womens-and-gender-studies/wgs-2024/call-for-papers

Texas and the Women’s March October 2

In September, the state of Texas passed a law that is close to a full ban on abortions. In response to this, a Women’s March will be held in every state on Oct 2. As we go to press, PAR received the following information for a march in Middletown: https://www.facebook.com/womensmarchct for more info.

CONNECTICUT WOMEN’S MARCH. We are in solidarity with those marching all over the country on Saturday, Oct. 2, as a refusal to allow the government to make choices for female reproductive rights.

At 10 a.m., the march will start at South Green, Main St., Middletown, CT 06457. Bring signs and posters. We will march to reinforce that women’s bodies are not up for political decision-making. Masks required when not able to keep a distance of 6 feet.

In Memory of Caroline Bridgman-Rees and Lula White

The PAR Planning Committee mourns the passing of Caroline Bridgman-Rees (Dec. 31, 1922-Aug. 28, 2019) and Lula White (died at the age of 80 on Sept. 10, 2019), two women with deep ties to the greater New Haven peace community and the world who dedicated their lives for peace, equality and justice for all humanity.

Caroline was an NGO representative of the United Nations and member of a multitude of peace organizations — international, national and local. She was involved with the Progressive Action Roundtable right from its beginning in 1993.

Caroline’s memorial service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 11:30 a.m., at the Unitarian Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden.

Excerpt from Lula’s obituary notice in the New Haven Register, Sept. 16, 2019

Most people knew Lula White as a retired New Haven school teacher, board member of the Greater New Haven Labor History Association and member of the PAR mailing committee. For many of us in New Haven, we didn’t realize the scope of her bravery and profound sense of justice until she told us her history of being a freedom rider.

Family members have set Lula’s memorial service for Saturday, Dec. 14. Inquiries should be directed to Lulamwhitememorialservice@gmail.com.

We cherish the friendship, wisdom and inspiration Caroline and Lula shared with us. Our condolences to the families of these two remarkable, brave women who gave so much of themselves for a better world.

We are Each A Precious Entity: The Activist Life of Caroline Bridgman-Rees

The following is an edited version from the tribute written by PJ Deak for the Unitarian Society of New Haven.

Caroline Bridgman-Rees

Caroline was born on New Year’s Eve, 1922 and grew up on Staten Island. Her father, a Yale graduate, was a history professor at NYU for 29 years. A decorated war veteran, he came home from WWI in 1918 traumatized by the horrors of war, its barbarism, death, and destruction.

As a result of her father’s experiences, Caroline became very aware of the toll and folly of war – and of the importance of working for peace. In 1945, Caroline, 22, a Phi Beta Kappa and recent graduate of Smith College, joined the Red Cross. She sailed on a ship to the Philippines where she worked with the Red Cross until 1946 when she went to Korea. Why did she do it? To see the world and “to see life with the soldiers.”

She remembered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with horror and condemnation – a bombing that in her words “was totally against moral and international law and which began a frightful new era that threatened all life on earth.”

In the 1960s, Caroline began her teaching career at Bradford College in Massachusetts – teaching Asian History and Philosophy. Caroline became increasingly concerned about the conflict between the US and both the Vietnamese liberation forces and all of Indochina.

Caroline Bridgman-Rees, Nancy Eberg and Jim Pandaru (l-r)

She joined a number of prominent peace organizations: The American Friends Service Committee; Sane/Freeze – later known as Peace Action; The Women’s International League for Peace And Freedom; The War Resisters League; Mobilization for Survival; and because of her service in the Red Cross, Veterans Against The War.

“I felt then, as I do now, that non-violent direct action is a citizen’s responsibility when the government is committing major war crimes against humanity!”

In 1972 Caroline was one of 171 American peace leaders chosen to attend the Paris Peace Talks. Also in 1972, she was part of a team of women who traveled to India and conducted interviews with Indian women about the role of women in the world – Caroline even had the privilege to interview Ms. Ghandi. In 1973, Caroline, her husband and 10-year-old son traveled through India, Burma, Thailand, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Caroline became involved with the United Nations as an NGO representative, and also was active with the Greater New Haven Peace Council. In 1991-1992 she spent a year in England giving 45 separate lectures on Nuclear Disarmament and attended an international peace conference in the Netherlands.

When the first Iraq War began, Caroline was active as the anti-war movement surged anew – seeking avenues for mediation and diplomacy rather than violence.

Caroline attended meetings to discuss and take action on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke out about the size of the US military budget, the number of US military bases around the world (over 1,000) and the pollution they are allowed to create. She wrote letters to the editor that were published in the New Haven Register and participated in the New Haven Peace Council and the Unitarian Society of New Haven Peace Task Force.

“We need community, not guns. We must create a world with love, and caring and cooperation.”

Read Caroline Bridgman-Rees’ obituary on Legacy.com.

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