I salute to you, pioneers of women

Monday night, I went to the video and discussion event, “Century of Women,” at Western Wyoming Community College. The video titled “Image and Popular Culture” was the last installment of a three-part series event celebrating Wyoming Council for Women’s Issues’ 50th anniversary.

The WCWI was started in Wyoming by Governor Clifford Hanson in 1965 to “improve the quality and equality of life for women in Wyoming.” It was a time when there were many women’s issues to contend with. Education for women was especially lacking. There was a lack of any technical training at all. The main careers were waitressing, cooking, and caretakers of other families’ children. Women weren’t allowed to be bartenders or work in mining. Work promotions weren’t given to married women.

It’s easy to say Wyoming has come quite a way since the Council’s birth in the 1960s. No doubt, there were many hard-working women on the council who fought for things we don’t think twice about now.

Such is the way for image and popular culture for women in the nation over the decades. The video discussed many influential women who pushed boundaries and helped to shape the way we look at women now.

The video started by showing a commercial for women to beautify themselves.

“It’s your duty to be lovely,” the commercial said. “Take care of your charms and you will always be in someone’s arms.”

This was the time of the corset, or “torso prison” as some called it.

One of the first influential women the video mentioned was Caress Crosby, who invented the first bra.

Next was Amelia Earhart, who pushed multiple boundaries at once. Not only did she fly her own plane, and was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she also helped change the way women wanted to look. To no fault of her own, women were watching her and were inspired.

Many didn’t follow her into the sky, but they did follow her fashion sense, or lack of?

Earhart would recall women asking her about her flights. Two questions they would ask her were, if she was afraid and what she wore. The latter of the two questions would always surprise her. She would wear “flying clothes” of course.

She eventually came out with her own clothing line.

“I want my clothes to be comfortable clothes women can be active in,” she said.

Earhart continued to break boundaries when she married, keeping her name and independence, the video said.

She had no desire to be in an “attractive cage,” she said.

After Earhart broke multiple fashion boundaries, others followed.

There was Clair McCardell, an influential women’s clothing designer, then came Madam C.J. Walker, an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the first female self-made millionaire in America. She started by making her own hair product for “black women’s hair,” opened up the first salon, and started her own beauty school.

“To succeed, women need the confidence of looking good,” she said.

She was the “richest black woman in America.”

The video continued, touching on various other influential women through the century, pushing boundaries in their fields.

The video and event made me appreciate the women of our past so much more than I already did. These women not only made a difference in their perspective fields at the time but paved a way for future women to come as well. I salute to you, pioneers of women.