In March, the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics launched an update to its Archives of Women’s Political Communication website. Now following the Iowa State University website theme that was introduced in 2022, the archives website offers several new features.
“We’re excited to move the archives website to match the university’s web theme,” said Sue Cloud, communications specialist for the center. “In addition to offering a fresh appearance, the new platform will also allow us more flexibility to continue to expand the functionality of the archives moving forward.”
One change for the archives is that the search tool for speeches, political ads and speakers is now located at the top of each of those webpages. Also, when multiple words are entered in the Search field, the search results now include only those speeches, ads or speaker profiles that contain all of those words, helping to narrow down the number of hits for each search.
On the Speakers page, information such as a speaker’s political party, state and political role are now displayed along with the speaker’s photo.
On pages for political ads and speeches, the video (if available) now appears in a larger frame and at the top of the page.
Launched in 2007, the archives houses speeches and political advertising of U.S. political figures; international women leaders; and historically significant activists and other women who have used a position of celebrity to advocate for political causes. Currently, the archives houses nearly 3300 speeches and 4000 political ads, and profiles for more than 840 women.
The archives is made possible through a generous gift from the late Richard and Mary Jo Stanley of Muscatine, Iowa, who were longtime supporters of Iowa State University and the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.
Please feel free to contact the Catt Center with any suggestions for additions to this collection by emailing cattcntr@iastate.edu.