Women’s History Month is an example of how such an essential celebration was once not even considered anything more than just a local tradition. As of today, everyone expects Women’s History Month, or they at least know that in March, they have to get their mom and the other women in their life something like a flower bouquet. So, what is Women’s History Month? Why is it so important, and why do we commemorate it?
It all started in Santa Rosa, California, in 1978, when the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a “Women’s History Week.” This small tradition in the county quickly spread across the country. Fast forward to the 1980s, a consortium of women’s groups and historians, with the lead of the National Women’s History Project, lobbied for recognition of the commemoration. They completed their mission, and in February 1980, former President Jimmy Carter officially declared the Week of March 8th as National Women’s History Week. Fast forward to 1987, Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March as “Women’s History Month” (womenshistory.org). Something so normal these days as commemorating women is actually pretty recent.
This month is a celebration, a commemoration, and recognition of what women all over the world have gone through and, most importantly, what they have done for themselves and the world. Let’s celebrate the women in the world, from your mom, the lunch lady, to the women in the math field. Let’s commemorate and remember their history and their struggles because they deserve it. Women have fought for everything since the beginning of time, and they are still fighting every day.
Another very important point of this month is to make a change for everyone, not only women, rather than making it seem like men haven’t done anything for the world. Women are fighting for equal human rights, not to be better than men.
So let this month be full of appreciation to every woman in the world, not only to their history and their struggles, but also to their contributions and projects that have played an essential part in the world as culture and knowledge, because every woman deserves to be celebrated and heard.
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women” – Maya Angelou (American memoirist and essayist).
