• Happy Women’s History Month!

     

    Theme 

     

    “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”

     

    History

     

    The humble roots of Women’s History month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County California  Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978. The organizers selected the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women’s Day. Word got out and the movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women’s History Week celebrations the following year. https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history/womens-history-month 

    In 1980, the National Women's History Alliance, a Women’s organization that is also actively committed to the fight against racism, successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th 1980 as National Women’s History Week. 

    Since 1975 the United Nations has sponsored International Women’s day. At its inception, the reasoning cited by the General Assembly of the UN was,“To recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security.”

     

    Women’s Suffrage From a Diverse Lens: 

     

    While Susan B. Anthony was the nationally accepted public face of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, Black and Brown women were the hidden feet that helped spread the message across the country. Though for centuries left out of the U.S. school curriculum, Black and Brown women from all diverse backgrounds helped to actively lead the Women’s Suffrage movement.

     

    Oftentimes at their own expense and safety, national and international women came together, and changed nations forever. From Indigenous, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Queer ,Differently abled to cultural and religious, these courageous women risked their livelihoods and lives to help empower all women national and foreign women.

     

    Impacts

    Passing of the 19th Amendment 

    Passing of the 15th Amendment   

    Feminism

    Black Womanism 

    Brown Feminism  

     

    The Work Continues 

    Gender Pay Gap

    Gender Bias

    Racism 

    Toxic Feminism 

     

    Photo credit 

    Bottom:Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jovita Idar, Maya Angelou

    Middle:Gerda Lerner, Gloria Steinem, Winona La Duke, Lillian Hellman

    Top: Betty Soskin, Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, Marjory Stoneman Douglas ​

     
Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories