March is Women’s History Month, did you know that? It is an annual month dedicated to honour the contributions of women to historical and current events. Of course, this is not just because of March 8, Women’s Day, but in addition to the world holiday that traces back to the first International Women’s Day in 1911.
Women’s History Month started as Women’s History Week
More than a hundred years ago, women’s rights activists (the women’s rights they fought for were limited to the right to vote) fought to establish March 8 as “Women’s Day” in many Western countries. Shortly after the “establishment of the Day,” the First World War, the Great Depression and the Second World War followed, and men’s rights were not yet preserved (the vast majority of those who died in battle and the financial markets were men), so Women’s Day was inevitably forgotten, (i.e., The rights other than the right to vote were seldom mentioned during this period).
By the late 1950s, the capitalist economies were booming, and society had room for maneuvering; together with the educated women who became professional housewives after marriage and were influenced by the “Feminine Mystique” theory of B. Friedan (1921-2006), one of the pioneers of the women’s movement.
Inspired by the theory of “women’s liberation,” they came out of the kitchen, put down their babies, and fought for all aspects of women’s rights, finally establishing women’s social status on an equal footing with men. However, the so-called “equality between men and women” refers to the “present” reality, and the role of women in history, which has certainly been much explored, is obscure because almost all the books about the development of history are overwhelmingly (almost entirely) focused on men.
In other words, women’s participation and achievements in the course of historical progress have been ignored by a male-dominated society! In 1978, the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women’s Education Task Force organized and conducted a “Women’s History Week” celebration. The organizers chose the week of March 8 to coincide with International Women’s Day. Many groups began their own Women’s History Week celebrations the following year, spreading the initiative around the world.
In 1980, the National Women’s History Project (now the National Women’s History Alliance) led a coalition of women’s organizations and scholars in successfully lobbying for national recognition. President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation recognizing March 8, 1980, as National Women’s History Week in February 1980.
Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed other resolutions requiring and authorizing the President to declare March as Women’s History Month each year. Since 1995, each President has issued annual proclamations designating the month of March as Women’s History Month.
The yearly theme is chosen and published by the National Women’s History Alliance. In 2021, the theme for Women’s History Month embodies the spirit of these difficult circumstances; the annual theme for 2021 is Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.
Click here for more: https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/