Profiles of Women Past & Present: Women's History Monologues for Group Presentations

Profiles of Women Past & Present contains fifteen inspiring women's history monologues to present to school-age or adult audiences. The monologues are designed to introduce children and adults to the wealth of women's history often missing in history books. Created, researched, written and published by members of the Thousand Oaks California Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Profiles of Women Past & Present enables parents, teachers, students, librarians and others to make women's history come alive for audiences in their communities. Included in this volume are monologues for Elizabeth Blackwell, Amelia Earhart, Grace Murray Hopper, Barbara Jordan, Emma Lazarus, Annie Oakley, Sandra Day O'Connor, Georgia O'Keeffe, Beatrix Potter, Sally Ride, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sacagawea, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth and Babe Didrikson Zaharias. PUBLISHER COMMENTS: Profiles of Women Past & Present was inspired by an innocent comment made a young girl to her mother. In 1985, seven-year-old Stacey Hindy broke her arm. While waiting in the doctor's office, Stacey said she could be a nurse when she grew up because "only men could be doctors." Her mother, Sandy Hindy, an AAUW member, immediately saw a need to show her daughter and other children that women's aspirations need not be limited by gender stereotypes. She researched, wrote and then presented several first person monologues highlighting the lives of women in history for students in grades one through six at her daughter's elementary school. One of the women she presented was Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first woman physician, demonstrating that girls could, indeed, be doctors.

The following year, the Thousand Oaks Branch of AAUW decided to build on what Sandy had done at one school. During National Women's History Month in March 1987, AAUW members portrayed five notable women in all of the public elementary schools in Thousand Oaks, California. The project has continued over the years and, with the publication of Profiles of Women Past & Present, has been duplicated by AAUW members and others in communities across the country.