The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has announced an exciting lineup of new initiatives for Women’s History Month March 2024 that will further the museum’s mission to make women’s history more visible. These initiatives mark an important step as the museum enters the next phase of research and programming that will eventually inform the collection and a physical site in Washington, D.C.
The museum’s headline program for Women’s History Month will be “Becoming Visible,” an interactive digital exhibition launching March 8 on International Women’s Day. The exhibition will invite audiences into the work of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum that spotlights how women’s histories have been recorded, remembered, lost and recovered.
Five remarkable stories of women from the past will come to life through objects from the Smithsonian’s collection, archival records, recorded interviews and original illustrations and animations. Curators will narrate each of the five stories, alongside an introduction narrated by actress, designer and producer Rosario Dawson, who serves on the museum’s advisory council. The exhibition will demonstrate how women’s history is often obscured or forgotten—and the critical need to uncover these stories to create a more accurate and inclusive record of American history.
The lack of women’s representation in major databases is another key obstacle to ensuring women’s history is not lost as less than 20 percent of biographies on English-language Wikipedia are about women. To confront this issue, the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum will host a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon March 27 where attendees will edit and create Wikipedia articles about the women represented in “Becoming Visible,” among others.
“This Women’s History Month we are excited to introduce audiences to the future of what will truly be the first national museum to honor American women’s history,” said Melanie Adams, interim director of the museum. “While our museum is still in its early stages, we are already activating our digital platforms, championing new research and engaging the wider Smithsonian community to begin the critical work of making women’s history fully visible. We invite everyone, from all backgrounds and walks of life, to collaborate with us as we build a museum that will inspire generations to come.”
The museum’s other initiatives throughout Women’s History Month include the launch of the Spotlight Program that will invite filmmakers to collaborate with the museum to share women’s stories from their communities and a charter membership program for the public to get involved with the museum as it is built from the ground up. Further details on the Women’s History Month initiatives are included below.
Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum celebrates Women’s History Month 2024 with inaugural digital exhibition and new initiatives
 "Sewing a fine seam—finishing touches are applied to one section of the new spacesuit for NASA's Apollo lunar missions on this long-arm sewing machine, built specially for manufacturing the spacesuits." Hazel Fellows, seated, machine-sewing pieces of an Apollo A7L spacesuit on the production line at International Latex Corporation (ILC), Federica (Dover), Delaware; released Aug. 9, 1968. (Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.)