Women's History Consortium
About the WHC
The Women's History Consortium, created by state statute (RCW 27.34.360)
in 2005 as a Washington State Historical Society-led initiative, is dedicated to preserving and making
available resources about Washington women’s history.
Located at the State Capital Museum and Outreach Center in Olympia, the Consortium
promotes the preservation of materials related to women’s history and improvement of
access to women’s history statewide. The Women’s History Consortium is partnering
with the
State Library,
State Archives,
Western Washington University, the
University of Washington,
The Evergreen State College,
Central Washington University,
Eastern Washington University,
Washington State University, and the
Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
in Spokane to launch a unique website, washingtonwomenshistory.org, part of a larger online portal to
Washington State Historical Society
resources that lists and catalogs sources of information about Washington women’s history.
The Consortium, advised by a 15-member board appointed by the Governor and
Washington State Legislature, is also charged with making recommendations on the
2009-2010 commemoration of the
Women's Suffrage Centennial in Washington.
Goals of the WHC
- Improve the availability of historical information about women's achievements in Washington.
- Promote the preservation of materials related to women's history.
- Create a website devoted to listing and cataloging sources of information about themes, diversity, and eras of Washington Women's History.
- Emphasize women and women's issues in the last decades of the 20th century by collecting, preserving and documenting materials related to that era.
- Lead the commemoration of Centennial of Women's Suffrage in Washington in 2010. Women in Washington won the right to vote 10 years before the National Constitutional Amendment in 1920.