History of Women's History Month
A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform. A woman knows that nothing can come to fruition without light. Let us call upon woman's voice and woman's heart to guide us in this age of planetary transformation.
-- Diane Mariechild
In the early nineteenth century, women were considered second-class citizens whose existence was limited to the interior life of the home and care of the children. Women were considered sub-sets of their husbands, and after marriage they did not have the right to own property, maintain their wages, or sign a contract, much less vote. It was expected that women be obedient wives, never to hold a thought or opinion independent of their husbands. It was considered improper for women to travel alone or to speak in public.
With the belief that intense physical or intellectual activity would be injurious to the delicate female biology and reproductive system, women were taught to refrain from pursuing any serious education. Silently perched in their birdcages, women were considered merely objects of beauty, and were looked upon as intellectually and physically inferior to men. This belief in women's inferiority to men was further reinforced by organized religion which preached strict and well-defined sex roles.
The Women's suffrage movement was formally set into motion in 1848 with the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The catalyst for this gathering was the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in 1840 in London and attended by an American delegation which included a number of women. After years of struggle by many great women, the United States government finally recognized the importance of women and Women's History.
Women's History Month had humble beginnings when a single week in March was recognized as “Women's History Week” in Sonoma County, California in 1978. At the time an education task force in Sonoma recommended that in order to help school principals meet Title IX regulations they celebrate a Women's History Week. Women's History Week included school and community events highlighting important contributions of women.
The original Women's History Week in March was chosen in part to coincide with International Women's Rights Day (March 8th). Women's History Week went national in 1981 when Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, and Representative Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, presented a congressional resolution to recognize Women's History Week across the country. In 1987, Congress agreed to extend Women's History Week to include the entire month of March.
Women have made many important gains in social and economic equality in the U.S. over the past century. Women's History Month draws attention to the women who helped lead the way in fighting for those rights.
Women's History Month also helps draws attention to current struggles for women's equality, such as ensuring economic and educational opportunities for all women, ending violence agains t wo men, and addressing the harms to women and girls caught up in the criminal justice system.
- Article Sources: http://www.history.com/
http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/
