Women’s History Month was created to honor the women of the past who have impacted the world through their work.
It lasts throughout March, each year with different themes. This year’s theme is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations.” It has been celebrated since 1995 and the National Women’s History Alliance determines themes to highlight challenges for women worldwide, according to Dr. Sunita.
“So that we do not forget the challenges that still exist for women,” said Sunita Manian, a professor of philosophy and liberal studies at GCSU. “For example, globally women only have two thirds of the legal rights that men do.”
Several local women have made significant impactson the world, such as Flannery O’Connor, Sallie Ellis Davis, Susan Myrick, and Tasha Butts.
GCSU’s 12th president, Cathy Cox, is a woman currently making an impact not only on Milledgeville but also on Georgia as a whole.
Starting her career as a journalist writing for The Times of Gainesville, Cox covered the local crime and courts. Inspired by her father’s career in government, she went on to study law and practiced law throughout Atlanta and her hometown Bainbridge.
“He was a city councilman and mayor of my hometown down in South Georgia from the time I was in elementary school into high school,” Cox said. “I’m the oldest of four girls and when we were in elementary school I learned how to campaign for my dad.”
Her father held his position for 16 years and this gave Cox a front-row seat to the legislature throughout her time in high school and college. This is where she fell in love with legislative politics.
“Every morning, back in the day when you could get newspapers delivered to your house, it was another reason I fell in love with the news,” Cox said. “I would read the newspaper with my dad and he would tell me stories. If the story was about the legislature, he would explain what the story says but also say ‘here’s what’s happening behind the scenes,’ and so I learned a lot about the process, how the giveand- take of the legislature worked, how the structure of it worked, and how powerful the speaker and the governor were.”
Being raised to focus on what she can give back to her community, Cox decided to run for office.
“[My mother] was always participating in all kinds of community activities, so as children, we all knew you don’t just live your life for yourself. You live your life as part of a big community,” Cox said. “You do everything you can, even if it takes up your own personal time to make things better in your community. That’s always been a part of my DNA.”
Cox later ran for the Georgia House of Representatives won, holding her position from 1993-96. After retiring in 1996, Cox became the assistant secretary of state. Then, she ran for the Georgia secretary of state position and won in 1998, becoming one of two women to ever hold this position. She was reelected in 2002 and finished her term in 2007.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to have become one of the, again, sadly only three women that have ever been elected to constitutional offices in the state of Georgia I think that is a tragic statistic here in 2024,” Cox said.
She spent her time working to reform Georgia’s voting system in hopes of ensuring all votes are counted properly through an electronic voting system. She later moved into a career in the education field and works to help the community.
“I grew up in an era where I don’t think a lot of women’s history got its credit,” Cox said. “I don’t think a lot of history of African Americans or Native Americans were justly told or justly taught in this country, so it’s never too late to focus more on women’s history.
“I always love to see young women not try to replicate me but to see that women can be leaders. Women can be independent thinkers,” Cox said. “Women can stand up for themselves against pressure and against a lot of the traditional structures of leadership that casts women to the side. Women can lead just as effectively as any man can.”
Rebekah Tobar, executive director of Allied Arts, also works to bring Milledgeville together and empower women.
Tobar started out working in early childhood education across different grades. After moving to Milledgeville, she went in search of a job and found Allied Arts, which intrigued her as a freelance artist. She eventually became the executive director of Allied Arts and has been working to connect with the community through art and photography.
“When I think of the time period and the culture that they grew up in, and my mother-in-law grew up in El Salvador, so it was a very different culture, especially for women, and the mindset of women’s roles in society was very different,” Tobar said. “Even with my mom, who grew up in California, just that role of what the women were supposed to play, they went to college to find a husband, not to have a career of their own, but to find a husband, get married, have kids, take care of the family.”
Through her position, Tobar has been able to connect the community to local artists and their different mediums, such as Janice Westfall, Christina Mansfield, Audrey Crumbly and Portia Luca. Being able to display their work in the Allied Arts house and tell their stories through their work is one of the main things Tobar wants to do.
“I want the focus to be on what women can bring to the table, not what we think they’re supposed to bring to the table,” Tobar said. “There is such a unique strength and mindset and power that each woman brings. Learn who you are as well as about the world and how you work in this world.”