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Women's History Collections at HSP 

Women's voices and actions can be found throughout HSP's large collection of manuscript and published materials.

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Learn more about materials or subjects that are particularly rich sources for learning more about women's experiences at different points in history.

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“Who’d Be Against Equal Rights for Women?”
New Perspectives on 1972–1973

“Who’d Be against Equal Rights for Women?” New Perspectives on 1972–1973  is a document display on view at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania through March 31, 2023

 

The display showcases the twelve-month period between January 1972 and January 1973, which was unlike any other in the history of the women’s rights movement. In January, Shirley Chisholm announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the first woman and the first African American to run for a major party’s presidential nomination. Two months later, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), nearly fifty years after the measure first appeared before that chamber. Title IX of the Higher Education Act, which Congress enacted in August, barred sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds. Finally, as part of a series of decisions that applied the concept of privacy to the realms of sexuality and reproduction, the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (1973) overturned state abortion bans. 

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Visit us at 1300 Locust Street in Philadelphia to view this display covering women in sports, Black feminist thought, economic equality, and health and reproduction.

“In Her Own Right: Women Asserting
Their Civil Rights, 1820-1920”

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“In Her Own Right: Women Asserting Their Civil Rights, 1820-1920” showcases Philadelphia-area collections highlighting women’s struggle leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment.


In Her Own Right is a pilot project carried out by members of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) and funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Council on Library and Information Resources. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a primary contributor for the project, and is one of the largest repositories for material related to women's history in the United States.

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