My Story

I first heard about women's history in 1975. As a college student at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, I discovered that there was a day called "International Women's Day" commemorating women around the world, and held on March 8. A girlfriend and I decided to organize a celebration on the college campus. We threw together some food — coffee and tea — and some music — a guitar-playing friend — and put up a few signs. We were totally overwhelmed when a huge crowd showed up. There were tons of people wanting to honor women throughout history.

That day opened a door for me: I realized that there were many women in history and people were hungry to learn about them.

Women's history became even more important to me when I had a daughter of my own. I wanted to show her that history is chock full of women, not just the 2 or 3 mentioned in her history books. I wanted to teach her that there was a female role model for every activity she could imagine. I wanted to prove to her that we come from a long line of fearless — famous and infamous — fantastic women!

Jeanne at home in Northern California

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got."