Events
The Kentucky Commission on Women organizes annual events that promote, encourage, and honor women around the commonwealth.
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Kentucky Women Remembered |
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In 1978 the Kentucky Commission on Women (KCW) initiated a campaign to bring attention to the outstanding contributions women make to Kentucky. The scope of this effort included women in Kentucky’s history who had made significant contributions to life in the commonwealth, but who had been generally omitted from historic accounts. “Kentucky Women Excel” began with a commission-sponsored exhibit at the 1978 Kentucky State Fair, which included watercolor portraits of six women who had different interests and worked in non-traditional ways, particularly in the eras in which they lived.
Through research and contact with descendants, commission staff found a diverse group of women from all over the state who, with courage, ability and determination, accomplished what would have been deemed impossible by conventional wisdom of their time. The collection hung in the commission office and occasionally, when funds allowed, traveled to libraries and elsewhere in an effort to establish women’s rightful place in Kentucky history.
In 1996, nearly 20 years after KCW director Helen Howard Hughes and her staff commissioned 17 of these portraits, they now hang in the Capitol – providing a more appropriate balance to the statues and busts of men who impacted Kentucky’s history. More than two years of work by KCW, initiated by director Marsha Weinstein and completed by her successor, Virginia Woodward, has gone into establishing this permanent exhibit which Governor Paul Patton and First Lady Judi Patton have enthusiastically supported.
Acknowledging that there is no shortage of women contributing mightily to Kentucky, KCW plans to add up to 50 additional portraits to the “Kentucky Women Remembered” exhibit in the future.
The Kentucky Women Remembered Ceremony also includes a proclamation declaring March, Women's History Month in Kentucky.
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