Women’s history month is celebrated annually in March. It is an international celebration commemorating all that often-overlooked women have contributed to various fields including history, science, and politics. Women have long been ignored in too many areas. In the 1970’s, women’s history was sparsely talked about, especially in schools. The Education Task Force of Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women was the first to tackle this situation by creating a “Women’s History Week” starting in 1978, 9 years before becoming a month long observance, on the week of March 8th to correlate with International Women’s Day, a celebration of the movement for women’s rights.
For that initial week of celebration, many students took part in an essay contest on the subject of “Real Women”, and many presentations and parades took place during that time. The movement spread to other places around the country, who held their own observances in 1979. In 1980, the National Women’s History Project (now called the National Women’s History Alliance) pushed Congress to give the occasion nationwide awareness. In Congress, Representative Barbara Mikluski (D-MD) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) victoriously promoted a Congressional decision making Women’s History Week a national observance that was set to happen later in the year. Their promotion of the legislation in a very divided Congress showed just how much bipartisan support there was for the remembrance of achievements made by women throughout the history of our country. On February 28th, 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a statement saying that the week of March 8th, 1980, would be the first National Women’s History Week.
Although it was always observed in March, the dates for Women’s History Week varied from year to year, and every year it required more persuasion in Congress to stay afloat. This usual occurrence of complications made women’s organizations press even harder for Women’s History Week to become Women’s History Month and span throughout all of March. From 1980 to 1986, many states began holding observances of Women’s History Month. In 1987, Congress bipartisanly decided to make all of March officially known as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, Presidents have made proclamations every March calling on all Americans to reflect on everything women have accomplished in our history.
Women’s History Month serves to celebrate the obstacles women all over the world have overcome. From voting rights to job opportunities, women like Harriet Tubman and Jane Austin all the way to modern female icons like Malala Yousafzai and the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg have done so much for our world. No matter where you look, women have been influencing the world since as early as 69 B.C.E. Ranging from sports to politics to civil rights, women have influenced the course of history and changed the world for the better.
Over the course of this March, the CCB will be writing about many women who have been widely overlooked in their contributions to science, politics, history, and our society as a whole. We will be pushing out posts on influential women such as Maya Angelou, Marie Curie, Kamala Harris, Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank, and many more incredible women who persisted and defied everyone who told them they couldn’t accomplish anything because of their gender.
And, to close out, we’d like to share with you the inspirational poem written and recited by Amanda Gorman at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration called “The Hill We Climb”.
“When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn't always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn't broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn't mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we'll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we're to live up to our own time
Then victory won't lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we've made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it's the past we step into
and how we repair it
We've seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children's birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it
If only we're brave enough to be it”