Celebrate Women's History Month with Austin PBS

This month we are celebrating Women's History Month! Check out our PBS programs highlighting women: The Cancer Detectives, Hidden Letters, Breaking The News, Nolly & more!

Sunday, March 24th and 31st.

8:00 pm Nolly On Masterpiece Explore the reign and fall of soap opera star Noele "Nolly" Gordon, one of the most famous faces on British TV in the 1960s and 70s, whose unceremonious firing from her hit show at the height of her career was front-page news.

Sunday, March 24th

3:05 pm Composer: Amy Beach Amy Cheney Beach was born September 5, 1867, in Henniker, New Hampshire. A child prodigy, she would become one of the most respected and accomplished American musical composers of her time. Beach debuted as a pianist at 17 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At age 23, with no formal training, she began composing her acclaimed "Gaelic Symphony." In 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, her commissioned choral piece premiered at the opening of the Women's Pavilion. Throughout her career, she would also write hymns, chamber music, a mass, a piano concerto, an opera, and more than 150 songs. Beach toured the United States and Europe as a concert pianist, and co-founded and led the Society for American Women Composers. A pioneering composer, pianist and teacher, Beach was a national symbol of women's creative power and helped redefine the role of women in music.

5:00 pm Story of the D-Day Forecast: Three Days in June Discover how Maureen Sweeny played a pivotal role in one of the most important events in history.

Tuesday, March 26th

8:00 pm American Experience: The Cancer Detectives. In the 1950's, survival rates from cancer of any kind were low. Damaging surgery and unsophisticated radiotherapy were the main treatments, assuming the disease was detected in time for anything to be done. Cervical cancer was often asymptomatic until it was well advanced, and by that time, it was often a death sentence. This dramatic story of the fight against cervical cancer revolves around three main characters: Dr. Papanicolaou, a Greek immigrant whose single-minded pursuit of the development of a diagnostic test saved hundreds of thousands of women; Hashime Murayama, the exquisitely talented artist who became National Geographic's first inhouse illustrator, but because of his Japanese heritage, was fired, interned in a WWII camp, then released to work on the project; and Helen Dickens, a groundbreaking Black female surgeon, who overcame deep distrust between the Black community and medical professionals to save the lives of thousands of women. The work of these three true life savers slashed death rates of this previously unfightable cancer by more than 60 percent.

10:00 pm Jane Addams - Together We Rise: American Stories Jane Addams, born into wealth and privilege, became intrigued by social reform after visiting a settlement house in London's impoverished East End. An inheritance made it possible for her to bring that concept to Chicago with the creation of Hull House in 1889.JANE ADDAMS - TOGETHER WE RISE: AMERICAN STORIES is a documentary that profiles this Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist and the cadre of persistent women who joined her to enrich the lives of thousands of immigrant women and children, inspiring others around the world to follow their lead.

Friday, March 29th

10:30 pm Renaissance Woman Restored RENAISSANCE WOMAN RESTORED documents the restoration of a magnificent mural created by a 16th-century nun who is considered the first great woman artist of the Renaissance. As the half-hour documentary follows the restoration of the mural by a team of female art conservationists,experts speak to the scope of the art Plautilla Nelli created, the significance of her work, and the importance of highlighting women artists who have largely been ignored.