Campaign for Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month is a time to acknowledge the achievements of women throughout history. For the Purdue University Office of Research, the observance gave us an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women researchers and send a message to prospective students and faculty members that the university was a welcoming and supportive environment for all women.

Each day of March, we featured a different researcher, linking to news releases or their faculty pages. We sought out unsung heroines on campus who were engaged in significant research but were not always the subject of media attention. Whenever possible, we used environmental portraits showing women in labs, offices and out in the field. We also mixed in throwback posts about women from the university’s history, using images from Purdue’s archives.

Each post included tags for the researcher’s department and college, as well as their professional account on X if they had one. Using the hashtag #31PurdueWomen allowed us to aggregate and share thumbnails of the posts on a web page for people without social accounts.

We received an American Advertising Award (ADDY) for the campaign that first year.

The campaign sparked buzz on campus that led to the university’s daily newsletter, Purdue Today, running a feature story linking to our social accounts. In succeeding years, we worked with the editor on a preview story inviting people to suggest colleagues (or themselves) as featured researchers, along with a launch story on the first of March.

In addition to gaining followers on Facebook and X, the series generated a sense of community and engagement on our social pages.