Delta students take a walk through women’s history

Have you noticed the cardboard cutouts of women around Delta lately? The women are there for a walking tour called Women Who Dared. The women who are in the tour dared to break through the confines of their individual cultures.

“Some have fought for civil rights, some are athletes that challenged the male-dominated sports fields they are in,” said Amy French, history professor and co-chair for the Women’s History Month committee. “Some are religious leaders, some are political leaders.”

The cutouts portray the women in the way in which they are known, such as Joan of Arc wearing armor, artist Frida Kahlo being shown with a nude self portrait, or activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony being on the same cutout.

The tour is at your leisure, so you can walk through at any time. Brochures are at the Library and in racks by the S-wing.

The women are scattered across the campus with some of them being at the satellite campuses. The women are in different locations every year, so that people get a diverse view of who they’re seeing.

Two women are added to the tour every year. Last year the presidents office helped them to get 14 new women.

“Now we have a real exhibit,” said French. Now we have lots of women we can put around campus.”

There are 30 women in the tour this year. This year’s new additions are Kathrine Switzer and Billie Jean King.

Switzer was a runner which goes into this years theme for women’s history month. The current theme for women’s history month is ‘Who Run the World? Girls.’

French won a grant to digitize Women who dared and is working on a website with OIT division. French plans on having the website done in time for next years Women Who Dared.

The website will include more women and expand to include local women. French hopes to eventually have QR codes to link to the website.

French is excited to get the website up, because it’s not as expensive as buying cardboard cutouts. “I can go a lot further once I have the website up and running,” said French.

The walking tour started when Laura Dull who at the time was a co-chair for the Womens History Month committee, went to subway and saw a cardboard cutout of Jared and came up with an idea to use cardboard cutouts for women’s history month.