Keepers of women’s history are included in writers’ series

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

What: Mount Charleston Writers Series.

When: 4:30-6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Community College of Southern Nevada's West Charleston Campus, 6375 W. Charleston Blvd., Building D.

Cost: Free.

Information: 651-5000.

On a recent afternoon at UNLV's Foundation Building a screen behind Joanne Goodwin flashed still photos of Nevada women.

They were pictured smiling beside their husbands at dedications of buildings in their names, and alone with serious looks on their faces as they peered into the camera at an event in honor of a community act they had accomplished.

"This is an event to honor the women who have made a difference in Nevada and (who) are still around to be appreciated," Goodwin said at the Nevada Women's History Project's reception last week. "This is to preserve their history and honor them at the same time."

As director of the Las Vegas Women's Oral History Project and UNLV's Women's Research Institute of Nevada, Goodwin's goal is to collect, preserve and present the women who pioneered Nevada, and also those who worked silently to make better the world around them.

Goodwin will speak Tuesday as part of the Mount Charleston Writers Series at the Community College of Southern Nevada's West Charleston campus. Joining her will be University of Nevada, Reno history Professor Anita Ernst Watson, who recently authored "Into Their Own: Nevada Women Emerging into Public Life" (Nevada Humanities Committee).

The year-old writers' series features authors and lecturers who discuss subjects relating to Nevada.

Goodwin and Watson will present photos and histories of women who have shaped Southern Nevada such as Helen Stewart who, as owner of the Las Vegas Ranch from 1884-1902, was one of the first women to own and run a business in the valley.

And Jean Ford, who was the first woman attorney in Las Vegas in 1947 -- 20 years behind most states, which had begun hiring women attorneys in the early part of the last century. Ford was also a founder of the Nevada Women's History Project in the 1980s, and felt that there was a great need to collect and preserve the hard-won accomplishments of Nevada's women.

Others include Maude Frazier, the first woman to be the Las Vegas superintendent of schools from 1927-46, who rallied to bring education to outlying areas of the valley.

Frazier is quoted in Goodwin's untitled upcoming book as saying: "I was well aware that when a woman takes over work done by a man, she has to do it better, has more of it to do, and usually for less pay."

And then there's Florence McClure, honored recently by the NWHP. She began the local Community Action Against Rape foundation in the 1970s.

Watson and Goodwin are a part of a growing number of historians who are revealing the past through the perspective of women.

Local historian Frank Wright, of the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society, said there has been a recent surge in interest in women's roles in U.S. history.

"Not just in Nevada history, but generally women in history have not been given the attention they deserve," Wright said. "People are beginning to realize it's an important subject."

Important, he said, because women have a different perspective than men, especially in the days before women were allowed to vote, own land or were considered property in some states.

From some of the diaries and oral histories that have been collected, there is a marked difference in women's view of history compared to men's, Wright said.

Women tended to view American Indians with a more sympathetic eye. Women also tended to keep journals to relieve some of the fear and trepidation they felt on the journey west.

"People always talk about men and women in history in their conversation, but when you reach for the history books, where are the women?" Goodwin said. "If women have been partners, where are they?"

Goodwin said that there is a need to preserve women's roles in local history now while it is still alive in the memories of those who grew up in Southern Nevada.

"We have to catch it before it disappears," she said.

Kimberley McGee

is an Accent feature writer. She can be reached at mcgee@lasvegassun.com or 259-4096.