The Smithsonian Women's History Museum will have a vast and challenging mission: the legislation approved by the Senate stipulates that it should "to present the diverse range of experiences and viewpoints of all women in the United States. Photo: AFP Relaxnews
The idea isn't new, but it has made it all the way to US Congress, where legislators recently passed a proposed bill authorising a national museum dedicated to women's history.
The initiative is destined to redress the underrepresentation of women in the country's memorials, monuments and museums.The Smithsonian Women's History Museum will be created as part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, which already counts around 20 museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The proposed legislation also includes the establishment of a National Museum of the American Latino, which will "illuminate Latino contributions to the story of the United States."
The idea of a museum of women's history has been before Congress since at least 1998, when the Democrat senator Carolyn B. Maloney introduced legislation to study the idea of establishing one.
But it wasn't until 2014 that a Congressional Commission was created to study the potential for establishing an institution dedicated to women's contributions to the American nation. Its findings were categorical: it was high time for a museum to tell the stories all too often untold in school books and national monuments. In fact, only 10% of statues in the famous National Statuary Hall Collection represent women.
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