ARTICLE/ Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with International Women’s Day on March 8, and during October in Canada, corresponding with the celebration of Persons Day on October 18.

The commemoration began in 1978 as “Women’s History day” in Sonoma County, California, and was championed by Gerda Lerner and the National Women’s History Alliance to be recognized as a national week (1980) and then month (1987) in the United States, spreading internationally after that.

History

In the United States, Women’s History Month traces its beginnings back to the first International Women’s Day in 1911. The holiday had been largely forgotten in the US until the late 1960s when an activist calling herself Laura X organized a march in Berkeley, CA, on International Women’s Day.

The march led to the U.S. rediscovery of International Women’s Day; and the creation of The Women’s History Research Center; a central archive of the Women’s movement from 1968 to 1974. Laura X thought it unfair for half the human race to have only one day a year; and called for National Women’s History Month to be built around International Women’s Day.

In 1978, the school district of Sonoma, California participated in Women’s History Week, an event designed around the week of March 8 (International Women’s Day). In 1979, a fifteen-day conference about women’s history was held at Sarah Lawrence College from July 13 until July 29, chaired by historian Gerda Lerner.

It was co-sponsored by Sarah Lawrence College, the Women’s Action Alliance, and the Smithsonian Institution. When its participants learned about the success of Sonoma County’s Women’s History Week celebration; they decided to initiate similar celebrations within their organizations; communities; and school districts.

Jimmy Carter’s Declaration

In February 1980, Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society.

The proclamation stated; “From the first settlers who came to our shores; from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed.

As Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted; ‘Women’s History is Women’s Rights.’ It is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision.

I ask my fellow Americans to recognize this heritage with appropriate activities during National Women’s History Week; March 2–8, 1980. I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality –Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul.

Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality; under the law for all our people. This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution; which states that ‘Equality of Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

Final

In 1987, after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project; Congress passed a bill that designated the month of March 1987 as Women’s History Month. Between 1988 and 1994; Congress passed additional resolutions requesting; and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. From 1988, U.S. presidents have issued annual proclamations designating the month of March as Women’s History Month on occasion.

The month’s theme each year 

Annual themes of Women’s History Month, declared by the National Women’s History Project in 2010:

The theme for this month in 2023, is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”. The reason behind this theme is yet to be known; yet it seems to be quite irrelevant to the actual problems that women are facing today.

Domestic violence; online harassment; poverty, etc., are all issues that women experience more every day. If international women’s month and international women’s days are supposed to help recognize more of what women face every day; themes and slogans for these occasions should be according to what women need and require.

Furthermore, if women’s issues were a concern for western governments and officials; after decades of raising awareness and shouting for justice; there would have been a progress in women’s status until now. Women are suffering more every day and all these feminine groups haven’t had the least benefit for women.

Source: Wikipedia