Why We Celebrate Womens History Month In March

Why We Celebrate Womens History Month In March On February 28, 1980, President Jimmy Carter wrote: 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. These words, part of his message establishing the first Womens History Week in 1980, marked the beginning of a new chapter in American history; one in which recognition of women and their work, and the promotion of their rights became a more explicit concern. That initial effort was expanded in 1987, when March was designated as Womens History Month. The Beginning: Womens History Week In 1978 in California, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women began a Womens History Week celebration. The week was chosen to coincide with International Womens Day, March 8. The response was positive. Schools began to host their own Womens History Week programs. The next year, leaders from the California group shared their project at a Womens History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Other participants not only determined to begin their own local Womens History Week projects, but agreed to support an effort to have Congress declare a national Womens History Week. Three years later, the United States Congress passed a resolution establishing National Womens History Week, which had ample bipartisan support. This recognition encouraged even wider participation in Womens History Week. Schools focused on special projects and exhibitions honoring women. Organizations sponsored talks on womens history. The National Womens History Project began distributing materials specifically designed to support Womens History Week, as well as materials to enhance the teaching of history through the year, to include notable women and womens experience. Womens History Month In 1987, at the request of the National Womens History Project, Congress expanded the week to a month, and the U.S. Congress has issued a resolution every year since then, with wide support, for Womens History Month. The U.S. President has issued each year a proclamation of Womens History Month. To further extend the inclusion of womens history in the history curriculum (and in everyday consciousness of history), the Presidents Commission on the Celebration of Women in History in America met through the 1990s. One result has been the effort towards establishing a National Museum of Womens History for the Washington, D.C., area, where it would join other museums such as the American History Museum. The purpose of Womens History Month is to increase consciousness and knowledge of womens history: to take one month of the year to remember the contributions of notable and ordinary women, in hopes that the day will soon come when its impossible to teach or learn history without remembering these contributions. Sources National Womens History Week Statement by the President. February 28, 1980.