From Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad to Susan B. Anthony and women’s suffrage, women have influenced history for generations.
Americans celebrate the history of women during March, Women’s History Month, to memorialize women’s roles in many events and areas such as politics.
“Countless women have steered the course of our history, and their stories are ones of steadfast determination,” said President Obama in his Women’s History Month Proclamation March 2. “Women’s History Month is an opportunity for us to recognize the contributions women have made to our nation, and to honor those who blazed trails for women’s empowerment and equality.”
The theme of 2010’s Women’s History Month is “Writing Women Back into History.”
Celebrating women’s accomplishments stretches back nearly a century to the first “International Women’s Day” March 19, 1911. The day was for all women to leave the household and gather at meetings that supported women’s rights. The supporters later changed the date to March 8.
The United States began recognizing women’s history during many women’s rights movements in the 1960s. California introduced “Women’s History Week” in the late 1970s.
President Jimmy Carter eventually issued the first presidential proclamation that declared the week of March 8, 1980, the first “National Women’s History Week.” The week also included International Women’s Day.
The goal of the week was to introduce new curriculum into classrooms and also bring more awareness of women’s importance in history to communities.
In 1987, several women’s organizations, including the National Women’s History Project, petitioned Congress to change the week to the whole month of March. Congress then declared March Women’s History Month.
“When I started working on women’s history about thirty years ago, the field did not exist,” said Gerda Lerner, in “Women and History,” 1986. “People didn’t think that women had a history worth knowing.”
In today’s communities, schools include women’s history in March history lessons in thousands of schools in many states. People also continue to observe the month with local activities and ceremonies. On the air station, Marines will set up 2010 women’s history observance posters at the beginning of March.
Although women historically have been through many challenges, they continue to represent generations of people who fought for simple rights such as voting and being treated equal among men in the military and in the office.
For more information on Women’s History Month, visit the Web site www.nwhp.org.
-30-