The National Women’s History Museum Act was reintroduced last week in the House of Representatives. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Mary Fallin (R-OK) introduced the bill (see PDF). Senator Susan M. Collins (R-ME) is expected to introduce a companion version of the bill in the Senate.
In a press release, Representative Maloney said “the museums and memorials in our nation’s Capitol demonstrate what we value… We have museums dedicated to flight, postage stamps, law enforcement and many other people and causes, but nothing for women. Less than five percent of the 2,400 national historic landmarks chronicle women’s achievement. And of the 210 statues here in the U.S. Capitol, only nine are of female leaders. This bill would provide women, comprising 53% of our population, a long overdue home to honor their many contributions to building our great country.”
Representative Norton also said “the women who have persevered for years to develop the idea of a National Women’s History Museum have shaped a vision that I am proud to co-sponsor as legislation. They deserve the support of the American people in the task of raising a museum in the nation’s capital that places the history of the women in our nation front and center in the nation’s capital.”
