[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 1, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H1055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

  (Ms. SCHAKOWSKY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Women's 
History Month by highlighting the exemplary life of Frances E. Willard.
  Frances Willard earned her place in history by pioneering the 
temperance movement, breaking barriers in the field of education and 
leading the movement to obtain women's right to vote. Her suffrage 
arguments hinged on her feminist interpretation of Scripture. She said: 
``God sets male and female side by side throughout His realm.''
  Although Frances was born in Churchville, New York, in 1839, she 
quickly made her way to my hometown of Evanston, Illinois, where, among 
other things, she was the first woman college president in the country 
to confer degrees, the second president of the national Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union, and a founder of the National Council of 
Women.
  In 1905, the great State of Illinois chose to honor her memory by 
making her the first woman whose statue appears in the National 
Statuary Hall Collection. That statue still stands today--just a few 
feet from us--where she is now a constant reminder of the powerful role 
of women in American history.
  This Women's History Month, let us honor the lives of women like 
Frances Willard who came before us to create equality for women by 
helping to give us the right to vote, and let's do it by expanding that 
role.
  When women succeed, America succeeds.

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