Rediscovering Women's History and Opening the Way to New Stories: Join Our Next Walking Tour on March 27!

Tourists enjoy warm weather and women's history

Women’s eNews is excited to host the next Women’s History Walk of downtown Manhattan just in time for Women’s History Month and the beginning of spring. “Opening the Way” will be led by Women’s eNews founder and editor-in-chief Rita Henley Jensen and Women’s eNews Women’s History Associate Angela Dallara on Sunday, March 27 beginning at 11 AM. The walk will begin at the Women’s eNews office, wind over toward City Hall Park and through Park Row, go down Nassau and Wall Streets, and come up Broadway again. It lasts about an hour and a half.

After the walk, visitors will gather back at the Women’s eNews office for a special documentary screening of PBS’s “Triangle Fire,” directed and produced by Jamila Wignot. The film marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, in which 146 people tragically died. All but 23 were women, and nearly half were teenagers. Many were also immigrants. On the Women’s History Walk, we visit a site associated with Frances Perkins, who witnessed the fire while drinking tea with a friend in Greenwich Village. Perkins later set up hearings in the Singer Building at 165 Broadway where she investigated fire hazards.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Our last stop on the tour, St. Paul’s Chapel at Vesey St. and Broadway, pays tribute to the female first responders to the attacks. We speak in particular about Brenda Berkman, who was one of the first female firefighters in the FDNY and is still active in the women’s rights movement today.

Therefore, this year’s Women’s History Month is an especially good time to recall the sacrifices and contributions of both exceptional and everyday women in American society. Please join us! RSVP at events@womensenews.org. Tickets will be $20 per person for the walk and the documentary screening will be free, but spots are limited for both events, so plan in advance!