Sarah Harder… a woman that made a difference. And how many people truly know about her? Very few. I want to tell people who Sarah Harder is. Throughout my research I have discovered many things about Sarah Harder. This bringing me to the conclusion that my research question is Who is Sarah Harder?  There is enough information on just that. The question “What did Sarah Harder do?” has an endless amount of answers. I’ve read many different newspaper article that have explained what she was doing at the time, everyone back then knew who she was. Her impact on women should never be forgotten. Being a student at UWEC and being a woman, I take interest on who she is because she made such a difference at this school and such a difference for women everywhere.

My research has brought me to understand the awakening moment Sarah Harder had into feminism. Yes, she indeed became a feminist and never gave up in fighting for equality by the year 2000. Many students at UWEC who are a part of women’s studies look up to Sarah Harder, she still serves as president of the National Peace Foundation. This gives women over many different countries an opportunity to become something. Sarah Harder served on the National Women’s Conference Committee, and the American Association of University Women. She co-created the Choices & Challenges program for young girls giving them different career opportunities.

Sarah Harder was very involved when it came to women’s rights. She went to an endless amount of meetings and conferences. She wrote and spoke and endless amount of speeches to make a difference by the year 2000. That’s just what she did. She made a difference and given women opportunities that they never would have had without her help. Many people may not know who Sarah Harder is, but they should. She has gained my interest and I look up to her and thank her for all that she did. I would like to do further research to get a better understanding of what she accomplished. She made such big changes overall, but I’d like to dig a little deeper. Sarah Harder, is and was a hard-working and dedicated woman who never gave up fighting for equality. Women everywhere should give thanks for her successes. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the changes she made.

For my third source I have chosen a document written by Sarah Harder herself titled “Equity by 2000 Meeting the Nairobi Challenge”. I chose this source because it helps explain where Sarah Harder wanted to go and what she wanted to change by the year 2000. She put her heart and her soul into the women’s movement and wanted to make a change. That is just what she did.

Attending many different forums and meetings, Sarah wanted to prove to the people what women not just in one city but everywhere, deserved equality. This document explains her experience to Nairobi Kenya where she attended a forum. This forum helped women gain confidence and showed their maturity. They wanted to prove that women were just as good as men. In this document Sarah tells how the Nairobi Challenge was indeed a challenge. Yet fighting for equal rights was going to be a long road, but Sarah Harder would not give up. She states the it’s overwhelming and won’t be easy. But she never doubts her self for a second that Equity by the year 2000 would be met.

Sarah had many experiences at forums and with her experiences she came up with a new plan. This plan was designed to build a new political base for the feminization of power. To be most effective the power base would need three components. It would need active collaboration among increasing numbers of women in elective and appointive office. Next on the outside of the government they would need networks of advocacy organizations that support good public policy decisions. And last, inside the government they would need an agency responsible to executive and legislative branches, which assures effective implementation and program delivery. This would all be accomplished.

At the end of her document Sarah states that leaders show others how something can be done. Its 1986 and she has not a doubt in her mind that equity would be met in just 14 years. She is persuasive on getting others to jump onto her bandwagon and give women equal rights. This is accomplishes. It’s all starting to make sense now… Sarah Harder made a huge impact in the women’s rights movement. She never gave up.  This document is a bit confusing because it was then and not now. I’m hoping that I can find something that explains all that she accomplished before my explanatory essay. This helps me know who she was and partially what she accomplished. At least what she wanted to accomplish. Now what did she accomplish at UWEC? That’s my next step.

My second source that I have chosen is an article of exclusive profiles that was written by students at UWEC called “Vision”. This article includes interviews of many past UWEC faculty members that have made a change at our University. The main interview within this article is Sarah Harder. A student writes this article however; the information comes from Sarah herself. This is why I find this source such a credible one. There is nothing within this article that I can necessarily disagree with since it came right from the subject I am researching. After reading this, I have a better understanding of who Sarah Harder is.

Sarah Harder was born on September 9^th in 1937 in Chicago Illinois. Growing up she seemed to but heads with her parents quite often however, her parents always supported her in what she was doing. Her father was Swedish who ran a small hardware store in their town. He was also an active member in the Lion’s Club. Sarah’s mother was Irish. She was a ballerina who founded her own dance school then ended up helping out with the family hardware store. Sarah’s mom put on local school operettas.

At the age of 9 Sarah moved to a small town. In 1958 she married her first husband. Then after two years of school she moved to LaCrosse WI with him. They had two kids together. Shortly after, they divorced. Sarah then went on to finish her undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse where she had earned a BA and BS double majoring in History and English in 1963. In 1966 she earned her Master’s degree in English at Bowling Green State University. Soon she had met and married her second husband and they had another child. In 1986 her and her new husband joined the UWEC English department. She would start as an instructor and he would begin on a tenure track. This is where Sarah states that she had her “awakening” to feminism.

In 1971 Sarah would have her fourth child. She had requested to have two weeks of sick leave. Her request being denied, she contacted the chancellor to challenge the ruling. Once again, her request still denied. She then went to the chancellor one more time and stated that if things did not change before she went to the hospital that she would bring press back with her and show the world how discriminating it was to women. Shortly after the UW system for maternity leave policy would be changed.

This is just the beginning; the article goes on about the different organizations that Sarah was in. It states that she still lives in Eau Claire WI today and had 4 children and 11 grandchildren. She is still very active in her community today. I believe that this article is super helpful for my research. It gives me such a better understanding of who Sarah Harder is and where she came from. These are all new things I learned about her. It will only inspire me to look further into the other changes that Sarah Harder made throughout the years.

Work Cited

Korb, Marci. “Sarah Harder”. Vision. n.d. Pages 3-5. www.uwec.edu/Wmns/news/upload/Vision-Sarah-Harder.pdf. Wed 30 Oct. 2013

Looking through access.newspaperarchives.com I thought that there was very valuable information. I have decided to use this webpages as my primary source. I am going to start with a newspaper article that I found on this website. The reason that I am starting with this source is because it really grabbed my attention. Considering that it was in a few newspaper articles, I have a feeling that I will be able to find valuable information on it pertaining to my topic and giving myself a better understanding of what I am looking for.

The newspaper article I have chosen is from the Oshkosh Advance Titan titled “Sex bias problem at UW-EC – Officals strive for equality at Eau Claire campus.” There was no author found on this article but I believe that it was written to all of the residents of Wisconsin considering it was written about UW-EC but published in Oshkosh WI. The purpose of this article is to inform those around Wisconsin that UW-EC had a problem that needed to be fixed.

The article starts off by stating the problem that had arises at UW-EC. There are many faculty members that state a quote within this article of their own viewpoints. One of these faculty members being Sarah Harder. Sarah Harder states “It’s almost a kamikaze mission to undertake the appeals process because people rarely, rarely win. Careers are either jeopardized of destroyed.” Here she is referencing that at the times UW-EC had 20% of their faculty to be female. Women earned on average $1,315 a year less than men in comparable jobs (2).

This part of the article I agree with and find helpful with my research and was a bit surprising. The part that I did not agree with in the article stated, “We have absolutely no rights, and the people who have been outspoken about the need for rights in our contract are being non-renewed,” Johnson said. “It’s retaliation” (2). I believe that they had to have had rights. There had to be some way that they got around this. This is what got me interested. This is what made me want to learn more. This is all new information that I learned and I believe it will further help me narrow my research question down. There isn’t a whole lot of information one this one newspaper article, but it will hopefully give me more key words when reaching my topic. I now have a better understanding of what Sarah Harder was fighting for. However, I know there is more behind her then just this.

Work Cited

“Sex bias problem at UW-EC – Officials strive for equality at Eau Claire campus.” Oshkosh Advance Titan. 29 Apr. 1993. Page 2. Access.NewspaperArchive.com. Wed 29 Oct. 2013.

For our project I have decide to research Sarah Harder. Sarah Harder was a staff member at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire from 1868-2000. My research question is What did Sarah Harder accomplish in her years as faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire? The reason I am interested in this topic is because it’s not a topic that many students know about and there is so much information about her. Sarah Harder had such a huge effect in establishing the women’s studies program at our school. I’d like to know what else she did and how she came about to doing it. This seems important to me because its a part of our schools history and she had a huge impact on Women’s rights and many different aspects of the UW school system. I believe that Sarah Harder accomplished a lot over the years that she was faculty at UWEC. I do not know all that she had accomplished or what her intentions were. But I’d like to know some history of establishing the Woman’s Studies program at our very own school and the difference she made for women.