“‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’ is really about every woman who really had to use her tenacity and courage to accomplish whatever she set out to accomplish. It’s universal,” said Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director and co-founder of the National Women’s History Project. “You think about our mothers and grandmothers — they’ve been persisting for a very long time.”
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March is Women’s History Month, so now would be a great time to watch these 11 films that celebrate and encourage women and are available on Netflix. (Please note: you’re welcome to watch movies about women the rest of the year too!) “Princess Cyd” Wolfe Video ‘Princess Cyd’ (2017) Metacritic score: 71 “Princess Cyd” completely knocked my socks off. The premise is simple: Cyd, a 16-year-old girl, spends a few weeks visiting her aunt in Chicago. I usually mitigate my expectations for performances in low-budget independent films, but “Princess Cyd” features some of the most realistic portrayals of women I’ve ever seen on screen. The dialogue perfectly captures the way my own family members might speak to one another, and there’s nothing self-serving about the film. It merely champions, quite successfully, the importance of positive female role models in a young woman’s life. ‘Moana’ (2016) Metacritic score: 81 The tide has turned, so to speak. Instead of the helpless “rescued by a prince” princesses of yesteryear, Disney has made a sincere effort in the last decade to tell stories that will inspire young girls to be strong and independent. Moana plays a Polynesian teenager who sets out on an oceanic mission to […]
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In 1987, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) helped lead a campaign to launch Women’s History Month, a time designated for recognizing accomplishments made by women throughout history. In honor of the month-long celebration, seven inspiring facts about women today.
The National Women’s History Project helped to launch a month-long celebration of women’s history in 1987. Above, Actress Natalie Portman is pictured attending the Women’s March on January 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
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Continuing our celebration of Women’s History Month, this week we’re featuring Women, War & Peace: A five-part PBS television series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain.
The vast majority of today’s conflicts are not fought by nation states and their armies, but rather by informal entities: gangs, insurgent groups and warlords using small arms and improvised weapons. The series reveals how the post-Cold War proliferation of small arms has changed the landscape of war, with women becoming primary targets and suffering unprecedented casualties. Yet they are simultaneously emerging as necessary partners in brokering lasting peace and as leaders in forging new international laws governing conflict. Women, War & Peace spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan, and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security and reframing our understanding of modern warfare.
Featuring narrators Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Geena Davis, and Alfre Woodard, Women, War & Peace is a comprehensive global media initiative on the roles of women in war and peace. The series will utilize all forms of media, including U.S. and international prime time television, radio, print, web, and worldwide community screenings, and will be accompanied by an educational and outreach initiative designed to advance international accountability with regard to women and security. Women, War & Peace is a co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films.
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, Women Of Green will be featuring each week a film about woman of vision who has dedicated her life to the health and well-being of this Big Beautiful Planet and the beings that live on it. First up is the legendary environmental activist, Wangari Maathai, who became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
Three decades ago, she suggested to rural women in her native Kenya that they plant trees for firewood and to stop soil erosion — an act that grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, defend human rights, and fight government injustice. The tree-planting groups that formed gave the women a reason to come together and become involved in resolving their communities’ challenges.
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai tells the story of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement and follows Maathai, the movement’s founder and the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize. Maathai discovered her life’s work by reconnecting with the rural women with whom she had grown up. They told her they were walking long distances for firewood, and that clean water was scarce. The soil was disappearing from their fields, and their children were suffering from malnutrition. “Well, why not plant trees?” she suggested.
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