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History of Joan Bixby Award
The Joan Bixby Award recognizes a Florida Tech student, staff or faculty member (male or female) who enhances the climate for women’s participation and development on campus. The Joan Bixby award is named in honor of a Florida Tech alumna, a former university administrator and Melbourne resident. Bixby, who earned a master’s degree in contract and procurement management in 1975, started her university career as development director in 1965. She left Florida Tech’s employ in 1975 for a career as a government contracting officer and remains an active member of the university community. The Nomination form for the Joan Bixby award is noted on the right side bar.
In 2009, the Florida Tech Alumni Association partnered with the Women's Business Center at Florida Tech (WBC), the Brevard County Woman newspaper and the Business and Professional Women's Association (BPW) to recognize a community leader that supported the national Women's History Project theme. The national theme for 2009 was "Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet". Nomination forms were distributed throughout Brevard County and the winner was selected based on specific criteria.
The joining of these two events, the Joan Bixby award and the community themed award, will continue annually during National Women's History Month.
The National Women's History Project theme for 2010 is "Writing Women Back in to History". To nominate someone that you think has helped make women more visible, please complete a Nomination form which can be found on the right side bar. The person does not have to be a graduate of Florida Tech. For this award, we are looking for members of the community who have shown leadership in perserving women's history.
To see past award recipients, select "Award Recipients" on the right side bar.
History of National Women’s History Month
As recently as the 1970’s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration for 1978.
By 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to expand the national celebration to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women’s History Month Resolution has been approved with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. Each year, programs and activities in schools, workplaces and communities have become more extensive as information and program ideas have been developed and shared.
To read full details, go to http://www.nwhp.org/whm/history.php.