Women's History Month

Tells the story of Alene B. Duerk, the first woman to earn the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy.. Admiral Duerk served in World War II and during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. (9:14 min.)

And She Could Be Next tells the story of a defiant movement of women of color who are transforming American politics from the ground up. The documentary series, filmed from 2018 through 2019, follows forward-thinking candidates and organizers across the country, asking whether democracy itself can be preserved —and made stronger— by those most marginalized.

This program contextualizes that struggle by comparing women’s rights in the U.S. with the status of women in China, Afghanistan, and Kenya. Hopeful signs such as rising levels of education for girls, female representation in government, and business opportunities for women are contrasted with the continuing practice of age-old antithetical abuses that have yet to be eliminated—nonconsensual marriage and severe domestic violence, to name two—and the demoralizing effect of seeing hard-won rights overturned.

Though virtually forgotten today, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a household name in black America during much of her lifetime (1863-1931). This film is a stirring biography of a crusading journalist, anti-lynching campaigner, and black suffragette during the most repressive years of the Jim Crow period.

This program traces the rise of suffrage militancy, a direct-action approach to politics inspired by Britain’s notoriously militant suffragettes. By 1911, “votes for women” had become, as one journalist noted, “the three small words which constitute the biggest question in the world today.” While galvanizing to many, such radical action was also divisive. Produced by PBS.