WWOHP Co-Chairpersons, Maureen Ryan Doyle and Charlene L. Martin, co-authors of Voices of Worcester Women and In Her Shoes, are interested in obtaining the oral histories of women who currently serve or who have served in the military. In addition, they are also seeking the stories of women whose spouses were deployed while they remained on the homefront.
Please join us for WWOHP’s annual event on Wednesday, December 7, at 5:30 p.m. at the Worcester Public Library, 3 Salem Square, for a presentation entitled, "Women Unheard…No Longer! Hearing the Voices of Deaf Women in the Community," by Judy Freedman Fask.
An overflow crowd of 140 people spilled out of the Saxe Room of the Worcester Public library on December 1 to hear readings from the new book, In Her Shoes: A Compilation of Inspiring Stories from the First Decade of the Worcester Women’s Oral History Project. Co-authors and Co-Chairpersons of the Project, Charlene L. Martin and Maureen Ryan Doyle, read three selections from each of the book’s chapters, answered questions from the audience, and signed books for those in attendance.
Maureen Ryan Doyle has worked as a freelance writer for many years and is also the owner of a small property management company in Central Massachusetts. She was the winner of Good Housekeeping Magazine’s New Traditionalist writing competition. Maureen earned her BA degree in history from Assumption College where she was a member of the first under-graduate class of women. She received the Outstanding Alumnus/Alumna Award from Assumption in 2013. She has pursued graduate study at Emerson College in Boston and Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.
A new book, In Her Shoes: A Compilation of Inspiring Stories from the First Decade of the Worcester Women’s Oral History Project, by the Co-Chairpersons of WWOHP, Charlene L. Martin and Maureen Ryan Doyle, will be launched on December 1, 2015, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Worcester Women’s Oral History Project.
State Senator Harriette L. Chandler is the first woman from Worcester to be elected to the Massachusetts State Senate and has also served on the Worcester School Committee and the Massa-chusetts House of Representatives. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley Col-lege in 1959, a Ph.D. from Clark University in 1973, and an M.B.A. from Simmons Graduate School of Management in 1983. She is married to Atty. Burton Chandler and has three children and four grandchildren.
The Worcester Women’s Oral History Project is pleased to host a presentation by Dr. Carl Keyes of Assumption College on December 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the Worcester Public Library. Dr. Keyes’ lecture is entitled Under-graduates Doing History: Integrating Oral History Projects into Humanities Courses. In this presentation Dr. Keyes will discuss the value under-graduate students in humanities courses derive from not only conducting oral history interviews, but also from the preparation of transcriptions and other documents for deposit in an archive.
WWOHP Co-Chairs, Charlene L. Martin and Maureen Ryan Doyle, presented a workshop at the 2014 Mass History Conference at the College of the Holy Cross on June 2. Their presentation focused on the importance of recording, collecting, and sharing the personal and historical memories of women throughout Central Massachusetts.
Dr. Lucia Knoles, Professor of English at Assumption College, enthralled her audience in the Saxe Room of the Worcester Public Library on December 3 with her presentation of Telling Our Stories is What Saves Us: Why Autobiographies, Oral Histories, and Family Stories Matter.
When I first came to Worcester it was [challenging]. The colleges didn’t hire women. I sent my resume to WPI, Holy Cross, Assumption. I mean Clark was accepting women, but my husband already worked there so that didn’t work. I sent my resumes around and they didn’t even answer. They didn’t respond or acknowledge. I remember, I thought I’d call up WPI and talk to the Physics guy and he said, “Well, we do have an opening for a Molecular Physicist” and I said ‘I am a molecular physicist!’ And he said, “Really?” I never got an interview. So I did get a job finally, at Worcester State.
