Houston’s Powerful Women

For centuries in Western society, patriarchal violence and ideology defined generations of socialization. Children and adults were trained by these ideals to ensure a hierarchical binary between men and women, in which women were the default subjugated gender. The maintenance of this hierarchy came from the enforced isolation and persecution of women. Existing as part of a community of women, rather than just an individual woman, became a radical act against the backdrop of male social and political domination. Therefore, a woman existing as a woman and embracing femininity and womanhood in predominantly masculine and male spaces is an important and radical act that actively makes social, political, and even physical space for other women to continue in this radicalism of sisterhood.

From the arena of politics, to the field of community organization, and to the courtrooms, women throughout history have been making space for women, for embracing womanhood and identifying with femininity. Our focus points of this exhibition, Billie Carr, Glenda Joe, and Judge Clarease Yates, are all pivotal individuals in their fields and have created tangible pathways for other women to succeed them and continue their work.