Pasadena Unified Celebrates Women’s History Month

Lori Toulomian, principal of Eliot Arts Magnet Academy, and PUSD Board Member Jennifer Hall Lee were excited to announce that Eliot will host the fourth annual celebration honoring the women’s movement on March 24 – virtually – at 6:00 pm.

By Laura Hackett

The theme will be “Women in Leadership”. The prompt for the essay contest is: “For the first time in American History we have a female Vice President of the United States. What does having a woman in the second highest office mean to you?” Students representing every PUSD middle school will read their essays and present their art before a panel of distinguished guests and local elected officials.

Toulomian read part of this resolution with excitement and enthusiasm at the PUSD Board Meeting:

American women of every race, class, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the expansion of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways.

Women have persisted in creating positive changes in education, sports, science, engineering, health care, politics, art, and more despite significant backlash and American women have played and continue to play a critical cultural, political, economic and social role in every sphere of the life of the nation by constituting a significant portion of the labor force and were particularly important in the establishment of early governmental, charitable, philanthropic, and cultural institutions.

In addition, American women have played a unique role in the history of the nation by providing the majority of the volunteer labor force in our nation. American women of every race, class, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnic background served as early leaders in the forefront of every major progressive social change movement. American women of every race, class, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnic background served as early inventors in the scientific and technical fields of our nation. American women have been leaders, not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also during abolition, emancipation, the industrial labor movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the environmental movement, the Women’s Liberation Movement, LGBTQ, and #MeToo, which create a more fair and just society for all; and despite these contributions, the role of American women in history has been overlooked in American education and cultural memory and the inclusion of women in our political leadership has been long to realize. Finally, the election of the first female Vice President can assist us in teaching the history of women in America.

PUSD will commemorate Women’s History Month with appropriate and meaningful activities.

Women in Leadership

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ying Ying Goh, Director of Pasadena Public Health. Dr. Goh will be introduced by Congresswoman Judy Chu who will be present for the third year. The closing remarks will be given by PUSD’s own Dr. Blanco. For more information, contact Eliot Principal Lori Touloumian at touloumian.lori@pusd.us.

The updated Women’s History Month resolution was passed unanimously by the PUSD board of Education on February 25, 2021.