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!

NYC & Co.: Discovering Hidden History and Opportunities

Opening the Way is excited to announce its new partnership with NYC & Company, the city’s largest marketing, tourism and partnership organization. With an expected spike in tourism this year due to the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks and the ongoing development of the National September 11th Memorial and Museum, we hope that this collaboration will offer new opportunities to reach out to a greater number of constituents.

NYC & Co. offers the best of travel in New York City, including suggestions on entertainment, attractions, dining, transportation, and accommodations. It’s a useful resource for both tourists and locals alike to go beyond the major landmarks and explore the lesser known gems of the city. As New York regains its title as the number one tourist destination in America, sites like this one are integral to getting the best deals in cultural events and the arts. We anticipate that this pairing will allow us to network with other historical venues and open the door to bigger events.

Visitors explore the NYC & Co. Information Center. © NYC & Company

Have you taken the Women’s History Walk? Please rate and write us a review under Opening the Way’s new venue listing! If you have yet to take the walk, be on the lookout for future dates—Opening the Way tours are thus far being scheduled during two major parts of this year: Women’s History Month in March, and the recognition of 10-year anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th. We encourage you to check out the other events NYC & Co. has to offer as well!

Ernestine Rose: An Advocate for the Rights of Married Women

Today marks the birthday of Ernestine Rose, a pioneer women’s rights advocate in the nineteenth century. Born to Jewish parents in Russian Poland in 1810, Ernestine led an unconventional life devoted to social and political reform. After her mother died when she was 16, Ernestine’s father—a rabbi—attempted to arrange his daughter’s marriage without her consent. Ernestine refused, got the marriage dissolved in civil court, and sued successfully for her mother’s inheritance. She left home in 1827 at the age of seventeen, and traveled on her own throughout several European cities, including Berlin, where Jewish entry was severely limited.

In 1832, Ernestine married a Christian man named William Ella Rose, and the two came to New York four years later. She was one of the first people in America to speak publicly about women’s rights, and the first to petition for women’s rights, beginning in 1840. Twelve years after she’d begun her activism, New York State passed the first married women’s property law in the country. Opening the Way pays tribute to the time she spent at the Broadway Tabernacle in 1853, where she spoke at the New York State Women’s Rights Convention on married women’s property rights.

Ernestine formed lifelong partnerships with other women’s rights activists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Paulina Wright Davis, and Susan B. Anthony, who often praised her efforts. Ernestine Rose was considered one of America’s first Jewish feminists, and was also a dedicated abolitionist. She died in England in 1892. 

Watch our new video footage with Gloria Jacobs, the executive director of the Feminist Press, speaking the words of Ernestine Rose at the New York meeting in 1853: