A MOMENT WITH THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND CELEBRATION OF WOMEN

INTERNATIONAL & NATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It is a day where women are recognized for their achievements without regard to division, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, or political. Since those early years, this day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike.

The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender equality. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.

The first National Women’s Day was observed in the United States on the 28th day of February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honor of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested unfavorable or distressing working conditions. Outraged relevant to women being barred from speaking at an anti-slavery convention, Americans Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott assembled a few hundred people at the nation’s first women’s rights convention in New York.

Together they demanded civil, social, political, and religious rights for women in a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. It was at this point a movement was born. It is also important to know that in 1920, during the first known campaign of its kind, the Egyptian Society of Physicians defied tradition, by declaring the negative effects of female genital mutilation.

We can all challenge gender stereotypes, call out discrimination, draw attention to bias, and seek out inclusion. Understand that collective activism is what drives change. From grassroots action to wide-scale momentum, we can all embrace equity. To sincerely embrace equity, it is essential to genuinely believe, value, and seek out change as an indispensable and positive element of life. To embrace equity means to understand the journey necessary to achieve women’s equality.

Although IWD commenced in 1911, it remains an important moment for working to advance women’s equality with the day belonging to everyone, everywhere. Everyone everywhere can help forge women’s equality. Collective action and collaborative support for forging women’s equality matters, and all groups should be delighted to advance women’s equality by whatever appropriate means they choose.

NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Each year, the month of March is designated as Women’s History Month by presidential proclamation. The month is set aside to honor women’s contributions in American history.

Women’s History Month initially started as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County California Commission on the Status of Women designed 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. The movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women’s History Week celebrations the following year.

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the following five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which 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. Since 1995, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States, inclusive of the specific achievements, women have realized over the course of American history in a variety of fields.

The week of March 8th, International Women’s Day was chosen as the focal point of the observance. The local Women’s History Week activities were met with enthusiastic response, and dozens of schools organized and arranged special programs for Women’s History Week. More than 100 community women participated by organizing and performing special presentations in classrooms