Women s History Month

Written By Zachary Wong and Trinity Luu

The month of March is set aside to honor women ’ s accomplishments in American history. In 1978, The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women held a “Women ’ s History Week” celebration.[2] The movement began as a local celebration within the county and quickly spread across the country. Two years later, the National Women ’ s History Project and a consortium of women ’ s groups and historians successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation marking the week of March 8th, 1980 as “National Women ’ s History Week. ”[1] It was not until 1987 that

March was designated as “Women ’ s History Month. ” Since then, the National Women ’ s History Alliance has selected and published a yearly theme. Due to the fact that many of the women's suffrage celebrations originally scheduled for 2020 were curtailed, the 2021’ s theme is "Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced. ” This theme commemorates the battle for women's suffrage, where women fought for the right to vote for 100 years until it was granted in the passing of the 19th amendment in 1920. One can celebrate Women ’ s History month by recognizing the often-overlooked contributions of women, being aware of the issues women still face today, spreading awareness of Women ’ s History Month, and much more!