Working Women’s History Project

Connecting Today with Yesterday and Making Women’s History Come Alive

Past Events

Events provide a platform to fulfill our mission of telling stories of Chicago women who have fought for justice and equality and of offering Chicago women the opportunity to tell their own stories. Explore below to see photos of performances; women telling stories about their work lives; women displaying and selling their artwork; celebrations of May Day and Mother Jones; events on childcare, the importance of voting, and more.

  • Media Matters: Chicago Women Journalists Working in Non-Traditional Media
    A panel of women spoke of their experiences of having worked in traditional media and their current positions with newer media outlets.
  • Exploring Progressive Women & Political Values
    In 2021, Working Women’s History Project co-hosted a three-part series of Zoom webinars exploring the 2020 election and progressive women.
  • Recognition Delayed: African American Suffragists and Why Their Stories Matter
    On March 8, 2020, a diverse, enthusiastic and engaged audience met at the University of Illinois Library to hear a lecture on African American suffragists delivered by Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium.
  • Mother Jones in Heaven: A Musical by Si Kahn
    Over the course of the performance “Mother” Jones looked back over her life, sifting through her storied past, balancing the scales, telling her stories both in words and song.
  • Addie Wyatt: Life Can Be Better
    On April 13, 2019, Addie Wyatt: Life Can Be Better by Alma Washington had its first performance by a community group, Women Empowered for Civic Engagement.
  • Radical Ideas! Women and the Vote
    The play written by Mary Bonnett of Her Story Theater and originally performed in 2013 was performed three afternoons in 2018 at DANK Haus, the German American Cultural Center in Chicago. Each performance was followed by a panel discussing the importance of the vote.
  • Wreath Laying at the Mother Jones Marker on Route 66
    The Consul General of the Irish Consulate General of Ireland was a special guest. Carrying the wreath with him is Brigid Duffy Gerace, who regularly portrayed Mother Jones.
  • Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest In Twentieth-Century America
    WWHP co-sponsored the book launch of Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest In Twentieth-Century America by WWHP board member, Emily E. LB. Twarog, Assistant Professor of Labor Studies and American History in the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • WWHP Donates Over 20 Years of Archives to UIC
    WWHP donated 20 years of its papers, programs, plays and photos to Special Collections at the Richard J. Daley Library of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
  • Mother Jones Through Chicago
    Autumn Guillotte wrote and led a walking tour on July 22 & 23, 2017, celebrating Mother Jones as a part of Chicago’s labor history. On July 23, ‘Mother Jones’ in the person of Brigid Duffy Gerace joined Ms. Guillotte on the tour.
  • May Day Celebration
    WWHP hosted a May Day celebration at the Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive, co-sponsored with the Mother Jones Museum and Heritage Project.
  • Handle With Care
    Handle With Care, was written by Tracy Walsh, an ensemble member of Lookingglass Theatre. The material for the play came from the videotaped and transcribed interviews collected by the Child Care Committee of WWHP. 
  • Never Too Late: A Glimpse into the Life and Legacy of Ethel Percy Andrus
    WWHP produced, and AARP co-sponsored, an event about the fight for financial security, health care, and other services for older Americans.
  • A Salute to “The Most Dangerous Woman in America”
    200 people gathered at the Irish American Heritage Center for WWHP’s benefit to raise funds for the new Mother Jones Museum in Mount Olive, Illinois. 
  • Spoken Art: Celebrating Womens Stories
    On, October 25, 2014, WWHP held its third annual fundraiser, Spoken Art. We heard from woman artists, speakers, musicians, and WWHP board members.  
  • Childcare in Chicago: A Working Woman’s Issue
    Parents, child care practitioners, SEIU members, and interested listeners gathered to hear experts speak on child care centers in Chicago and how they compare with earlier times.
  • Spoken Art: Celebrating Womens Stories
    Spoken Art Celebrations are joyous celebrations with food, wine, and live music, each featuring 5–8 community activists who give short speeches on their work and women artists who sold their wares.
  • Radical Ideas! Women and the Vote
    Written by Mary Bonnett of Her Story Theater, the play describes the work of three suffragists who secured partial suffrage for Illinois women in 1913, seven years before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granted U.S. women suffrage in 1920. 
  • Taking Teachers to Task: Facing Chicago’s Challenges Over Time
    Actors delivered key historical speeches of educational leaders from 100 years ago–focusing on Chicago battles over public schools, teacher rights, community involvement and democracy in public education.
  • The Ninth Floor Door: Blocked Justice of the Triangle Factory Fire
    The performance tells the story of the 1911 tragedy in New York City in which 146 people died when fire erupted in a shirtwaist factor in a loft building. The nation’s horror sparked a change in the regulations governing safety and conditions in the U.S. workplace.
  • The Dangerous Working Conditions of Laundry Workers in Chicago
    Daisy Sewell, a union steward at an Angelica laundry plant in Chicago and a former Workers United organizer, spoke about laundry workers, safety, union membership, and the good and bad union representation.
  • Conversations with the Playwrights
    A conversation about the process of writing performance pieces with historical and living women. Four WWHP playwrights, Mary Bonnett, Brigid Duffy Gerace, Joan McGann Morris, and Alma Washington, participated.
  • From Bonnets to Law Briefs: A Journey of Chicago Women in Law
    This performance features stories of three pioneering lawyers: Myra Bradwell, Mary Bartelme, and Violette Anderson.
  • Women in Policing, Educational Awareness
    Two police officers and an attorney presented on gender relevant issues in policing.
  • Breaking Barriers: Women and Health
    This presentation discussed early Chicago female physicians who broke down barriers to women in medicine and the medical breakthrough in detecting and curing cervical cancer.
  • Women and Work, Climb That Ladder to Equality!
    This conference featured the stories of seven women, all of whom had worked to improve the lives of women workers.
  • Tradeswomen: Past, Present, and Future
    Tradeswomen, from retirees to apprentices, described their experiences working as women in the trades and testified to the importance of Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT) in their working lives.
  • Lady Labor Sluggers: A Forum on Education and Democracy Then and Now
    The event featured reenacted historical speeches and a panel speaking on present-day education issues.
  • K is for Courage, J is for Justice: A Tribute to Katie Jordan
    The play, written by Mary Bonnett and based on interviews by Joan McGann Morris, tells the story of the first African American tailor fitter at Lytton’s department store.
  • We Unite Here! Stories from the Congress Hotel Strike
    The play honors the UNITE HERE Local 1 strikers of Chicago, presenting five characters who are composite figures based on interviews with 11 separate strikers.
  • Si Se Puede! It Can Be Done!
    A play by Mary Bonnett in tribute to Dolores Huerta, co-founder and Secretary-Treasurer of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO.
  • Alice Hamilton – Fighting for Worker Safety
    The play by Mary Wehrle tells of Dr. Hamilton’s long fight for worker safety in industry. 
  • An Evening of Women’s History: Lucy Parsons, Alice Hamilton and Agnes Nestor
    The play was performed at Women Alive! A Legacy of Social Justice, an exhibition honoring contemporary Chicago-area women.
  • Addie Wyatt – Life Can Be Better
    The play tells the story of a Chicago leader, Addie Wyatt, who was active in the Civil Rights movement and the women’s movement after becoming a force in the labor movement.
  • Working Without Uniforms
    Working Without Uniforms is a moving performance piece featuring stories of Chicago Public School Nurses.
  • Hungarian Heartbeats in America: A Tribute to Yolanda Hall
    This staged reading honored Yolanda (Bobby) Hall, the major founder of the Women and Labor History Project, which later became the Working Women’s History Project, and a lifetime activist for social justice.
  • Women of Heart and Steel
    Women of Heart and Steel featured the stories of three trade union women, Florence Criley, Alice Peurala, and Sylvia Woods, in a multi-media piece.
  • Penned in a Suitcase: A Tribute to Marjorie Stern
    Penned in a Suitcase: A Tribute to Marjorie Stern, the first chairperson of the American Federation of Teachers Women’s Rights Committee and founding member of CLUW, was written by Mary Bonnett based on oral history interviews by Paula O’Connor.
  • Union Train
    Union Train is a musical play by Joan McGann Morris, presents the 1997 Teamster’s union UPS strike and the story of Vicky Starr, lifelong labor activist.
  • The Thread that Binds
    The Thread That Binds, a play by Mary Bonnett, tells the stories of Agnes Nestor from the Women’s Trade Union League in Chicago and Lillian Herstein from the Chicago Teacher’s Union, the first woman on the Executive Board of the Chicago Federation of Labor.
  • A Spotlight on Oral
    WLHP together with the Chicago Area Women’s History Conference and the Center for New Deal Studies held a workshop at Roosevelt University on conducting oral histories.
  • Come Along and Join
    Come Along and Join, a play by Kathlyn Miles, is based on the histories of Chicago’s Lucy Parsons, Jennie Curtiss, Bessie Abramowitz-Hillman, Margaret Haley and Mother Jones.