Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Women's History Museum Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the National Women's History Museum has a rightful place in our Nation's Capital, and it is very appropriate that we are considering this legislation the week of Mothers' Day.
I believe we should all be able to agree that, when our children and their children visit our Nation's Capital, they should be inspired by the stories of the men and women who helped shape this country. Sadly, today, that is not the case.
Women's contributions to our country are largely missing from our national museums, memorials, statues, and textbooks. The bill before us today seeks to finally change that.
It would be the first National Women's History Museum in Washington and the first in the United States of Americas and, I believe, the first in the entire world that would chronicle the important contributions of American women to America.
H.R. 863 would create a bipartisan, eight-person commission to develop a plan and recommendations for a National Women's History Museum in our Nation's Capital.
The commission, which would be funded entirely with private donations, would have 18 months to submit its recommendations to Congress and the President.
Congress will then have to consider these recommendations, and a second bill would be needed to support the establishment of a women's museum, so the bill before us enables a commission to study this and for Congress, then, to react to their proposals.
Now, I would like to stress that this has been a very strong, bipartisan effort. I am proud to have worked on this bill with Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who has been a wonderful partner and has done so much to get us where we are today. She has been outstanding.
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has been a great champion of this effort for years, along with Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis and many, many other Members from both parties whose support has been absolutely essential.
I would like to thank Speaker Boehner, Democratic Leader Pelosi, Majority Leader Cantor, and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer for their support as well.
Thank you to the leadership and members of the House Administration and Natural Resources Committee for ushering this legislation through their committees with unanimous support, Congressmen Brady and Miller and Congressmen DeFazio and Hastings.
We are all working on this together because we believe that ensuring our country's full story is told, not just half of it, is part of our patriotic responsibility that rises above party lines, and we are working hard to make sure that this is a bill that can be supported by Members of both parties.
As I mentioned, no public funds would be used to support this commission, and the commission is required to consider a plan for the museum to be constructed and operated by private funds only. No taxpayer dollars will be involved.
Most importantly, neither this bill nor the commission it would create would set the content of this museum. That part will come later, after Congress acts on the commission's recommendations and the museum is finally established.
One could imagine a museum featuring original women thinkers ranging from Ayn Rand, who authored ``Atlas Shrugged,'' to Mary Whiton Calkins. Ms. Rand, I suspect you may know about her, but you may not have heard of Ms. Calkins.
She was born in 1863 and studied at Harvard, under the influential American philosopher, William James, who believed her Ph.D. to be the most brilliant examination for a Ph.D. that he had ever seen; but Mary was not granted a degree because, at that time, Harvard had a policy against conferring degrees on women.
Despite the setback, she went on to become a charter member of the American Philosophical Association and the first woman president of the American Psychological Association.
But most people have never heard of her or her accomplishments because when the story of America has been told, the story of many remarkable women has all too often been left out.
Currently in the Nation's Capital and near The Mall or on The Mall, there is an Air and Space Museum, a Spy Museum, a Textile Museum, a National Postal Museum, even a Crime and Punishment Museum and a media museum. These are all wonderful, enriching institutions that are destinations for millions of visitors every year. But there is no museum in the country that shows the full scope of the history of the amazing, brilliant, courageous, innovative, and sometimes defiant women who have helped to shape our history and make this country what it is.
Even though women make up 50 percent of the population, a survey of 18 history textbooks found that only 10 percent of the individuals identified in the texts were women; less than 5 percent of the 2,400 National Historic Landmarks chronicle the achievements of women; and of the 210 statues in the United States Capitol, only nine are of female leaders.
As an example, while nearly every high school student learns about the midnight ride of Paul Revere, how many of them learn about Sybil Ludington? She is the 16-year-old whose midnight ride to send word to her father's troops that the British were coming was longer than Paul Revere's, just as important, and, in many ways, was even more remarkable. But her ride has been long forgotten.
On display in our Capitol Rotunda is a statue of three courageous women who fought so hard for women to gain the right to vote. And it is my hope that in 2020, on the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, that we will open the doors to this important museum.
I urge the passage of this long overdue legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, this bill, as we all know, if you read it, will not cost taxpayers one single dime. It will not cost taxpayers one single cent. It didn't cost it in the past, it doesn't today, and it will not in the future use any Federal funding. It is written into the legislation.
And the commission is not at all about determining the content of the museum. That part would come much later if the recommendations were approved by this body. The content would be determined in the future by professional curators that would chronicle the history of this great country and the great women that are a part of it. The commission would have 18 months to prepare and submit their recommendations to Congress, and then Congress, this body, would have the final say. So if Congress decides favorably, then, and only then, would a second bill be needed to support the museum and move forward.
So to vote ``no'' on this bill would basically be voting ``no'' on a cost-free, no-strings-attached conversation by a bipartisan panel on the important contributions of women to this country.
I now yield such time as she may consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and I thank her for her extraordinary leadership on this issue and so many, many other issues.
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Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I want to underscore that no taxpayer money will be used now or in the future. In fact, there is a National Women's History Museum organization with a 501(c)(3) that is headed by Joan Wages, and they have already raised well over $10 million privately to support the commission and the commission's work.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from the great State of Tennessee for her statement on the floor today and her hard work in passing this bill.
My good friend, Mrs. Bachmann, said there were 20 other women's museums. Well, there is not one comprehensive women's museum that chronicles the achievements and the contributions of women. There are many niche museums. There is a museum in Seneca Falls that pays tribute to the founding mothers of the first women's rights convention, the abolitionist movement, and the right for women to gain the right to vote. There are museums in the Capital for women artists. There is part of the Smithsonian that focuses on the first ladies and the gowns that they wore in their inaugural. There are niche museums out West for the pioneering great women who led the effort in the West. But there is not one comprehensive museum, and I find it astonishing in the United States that chronicles the many outstanding women contributions. If you Google all the women that have won the Nobel, it is astonishing, but there is no place that displays this.
So, I think it is long overdue to have a national women's history museum. Quite frankly, I can't even find one in the entire world that chronicles women's contributions.
I would now like to yield 1 minute to the gen tle lady from the great State of New York, Congresswoman Meng, my distinguished colleague, which she has requested, but she can have more if she wants it.
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Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, I would like to just point out and build on what my good friend and colleague, Marsha Blackburn, said. It was Seneca Falls in New York that was the birthplace of the suffrage movement to grant women the right to vote.
In 1920, when the 19th Amendment granting that right to vote was at last in the process of being ratified by the States, it was the State of Tennessee that put that effort over the top. Now Tennessee and New York have come together again, and we are working very hard to create a women's museum that will talk about this great achievement and many others in all fields that have empowered this country and moved this country forward--not only achievements by individual women, but I would say collective achievements by women and their hard work, such as the effort by women to create pasteurization of milk, the immunization of children, increased health care, improved health care, and improved education. These are all efforts that collectively women have worked together on.
So I ask my colleagues today to vote ``yes'' on this bill and to vote for allowing an idea to be examined and to come forward before this committee again, and let's see how it can work.
A ``yes'' vote will cost this country nothing, and it could mean everything to our young people, to our girls and our boys and our children and their children to be able to come to their Nation's Capital and to learn many things, including the many important contributions of half the population, women.
I would like to remind my colleagues that this is Mother's Day week, and I cannot think of a better present to our mothers than to recognize the contributions that they have made to the American family and to this country.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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