Columnist Susan Snyder: Women make history at library

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | 8:06 a.m.

Late Saturday afternoon state Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Becker stood before a group of women in UNLV's Lied Library archives.

Singing.

"Sis-ters are doin' it for themselves," Becker belted out, as the group of Soroptimist International members joined her in the chorus.

Becker and members of three local Soroptimist chapters -- of Greater Las Vegas, Las Vegas Valley and Metropolitan Las Vegas -- had gathered to tour the Nevada Women's History Project at UNLV's special collections.

They also celebrated a $1,000 gift from Soroptimist of Greater Las Vegas to help preserve Southern Nevada women's history and talked about how important it is to discover and recognize the contributions women have made.

"It depends very much on who's writing (history) and their perspective," Becker, the event's keynote speaker, said. "There's a collective forgetfulness of women. History will only remember women when women remember themselves."

Women need to encourage each other to write their stories, gather information about each other and disseminate it to the public so society will understand the key political, economic and social roles women have played in American history.

She challenged the group to take a hard look at the history curriculum being taught in public schools and find ways to add accurate information on women's contributions. Women also should take the lead in putting comprehensive civics instruction back into classrooms.

Children, Becker said, need to understand the important role the average citizen plays in government. Girls whose mothers may not remember the women's rights movement of the 1970s or whose grandmothers don't remember what it was like for women to finally secure voting rights in 1921 may be destined to lose interest and passion for their civic duty.

"It is up to women to push for the curriculum," Becker said. "If women don't promote that, we will continue to lose our portion of the vote, and we will not be any better off than we were in the '20s."

The Nevada Women's History Project is a collection of histories about individuals, along with the programs they started and the issues Silver State women faced in general. It started 10 years ago as the pet project of Joanne Goodwin, now director of UNLV's women's Research Institute, and Jean Ford, a former Nevada assemblywoman and senator.

"This is the muscles, bones and blood of what historians do," Goodwin said of the women's archives. "You can't do work without sources."

Su Kim Chung, special collections archivist, said they constantly are looking for information. She encouraged people to submit stories, photographs and letters about Southern Nevada's women. For information call Chung, 895-2241.

"We've all lost opportunities," Becker said of the chance to talk to women about their history. "It never occurred to me to talk to my grandmother when I was growing up about what it was like to vote the first time."

She encouraged women to gather stories while they can.

"Ring a bell. Spread the words," Becker said. "Never forget."