Window Shopping at Falvey

An exhibit in recognition of Women’s History Month, sponsored by Falvey Memorial Library and the Gender and Women’s Studies program, is currently in the large window display near the library entrance. Honoring Villanova University’s women faculty book authors, this colorful display was mounted by Joanne Quinn, a member of the Falvey Events and Outreach team, who also created the graphics.

The exhibit was organized by Lisa Sewell, Ph.D., and Seth Whidden, Ph.D., co-directors of the Gender and Women’s Studies program, and Elise Scioscia, a graduate assistant.

In the large center window is a selection of books by faculty. Joanne explained that faculty members have written many more books than are shown in the display and that the exhibit is “a work in progress;” faculty are welcome to submit additional books.

The photos of the authors with their name in italics are suspended from the top of the display case in front of colorful pink and white striped fabric panels.

At the far left and right are posters announcing the Twentieth Annual Elizabeth Cady Stanton Student Research Conference and Women’s Studies Events for Spring 2009. This cheerful, color-coordinated exhibit helps us recognize many of our faculty authors and their works as well as celebrating Women’s History Month.

Women’s History Month, celebrated each March, began in Europe in the early twentieth century as International Women’s Day. Interest lagged during the Great Depression and World War II, but interest in women’s issues and history revived in the 1960s. In the 1970s universities began offering courses in women’s studies and women’s history, and in 1981, a Congressional Resolution established National Women’s History Week. In 1987 the National Women’s History Project, founded in 1980, successfully petitioned Congress to expand the week to a month.

Villanova’s Women’s Studies, an interdisciplinary program, changed its name to Gender and Women’s Studies last month “to create a new understanding of gender and how it is constructed,” according to Dr. Whidden, who hopes that the program will expand into a major. Gender and Women’s Studies “forms an integral and essential part of the scholarly tradition” of Villanova University.