Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-New York) recently introduced H.R. 1329, or Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act, to build it on the National Mall.
Plans for the women's history Smithsonian have been around for several years, being authorized in Congress in 2020, and have received bipartisan support with 230 cosponsors. Malliotakis' bill continues this process by advocating for the National Mall as the location of the museum.
Nearly a year after the bill was introduced, an amendment was adopted by Republicans to ensure that only biological women are exhibited. Fox News reports Democrats in the House Administration Committee then voted against the measure.
Malliotakis posted on X regarding the Democrats’ vote against her bill, writing “What a way to celebrate #WomensHistoryMonth!”
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-New York) was one of four Democrats to vote against advancing the measure. He told Fox News that Republicans replaced the bill at the last minute and inserted “ideological poison pills aimed not at building a museum, but at generating cheap political talking points” among other accusations.
Maggie McKneely, legislative strategist at Concerned Women for America, thinks that is silly.
"If we're going to be spending taxpayer dollars on a women's museum, we need to make sure that there are only women featured, that real women are celebrated for their accomplishments and their contributions to American society and that we're not highlighting men who are confused," McKneely says.
Concerned Women for America urges women and men to contact their legislators and let them know how they feel.
"Men's voices are so important in this conversation, especially ones who are girl dads or who are married to strong women who do amazing things," McKneely states. "Men are stealing the accomplishments of women when they are pretending to be women and competing in their spots, categories or participating in their industries as women and not as men.”
But it’s not just men that need to speak up.
“We really just need more people to speak out whenever they see this sort of thing going on because that's really the only way we're going to stop it in the end," McKnelly concludes.
