March is Women’s History Month: 31 days dedicated to remembering and celebrating the achievements of women, past and present, and acknowledging the impacts they had on history.
Starting with local celebrations in the 1980s, many communities designated the week of March 8 as “Women’s History Week”, leading President Jimmy Carter to issue the first Presidential Proclamation that declared the week of March 8, 1980 as National Women’s History Week.
This continued with subsequent presidents until March of 1987 when Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March as “Women’s History Month”. Since 1995, every president has issued annual proclamations establishing March as National Women’s History Month.
But why do we still need Women’s History Month? Don’t women already have the same rights as men?
While it’s true that tremendous progress has been made for women’s rights since the days of suffragettes, historic inequalities still have lingering effects today.
Many modern women are still fighting to be seen as equals to men. In many countries, women are working to gain opportunities we in the US see as basic–think education and political participation.
And even in our own backyard, women are seeking greater equality; they take to the streets protesting unfair wage gaps, seeking reproductive freedoms, and speaking against sexual abuse, to name a few. For many women, the fight for equality is far from over.
Flipping through a history or science textbook might give the impression that women simply weren’t involved in many historical events, but this is not accurate.
“Women have done so much in history that isn’t recognized or was put under the name of a man,” history teacher Andrea Marquez said. “When we teach history, trying to include perspectives from all different types of people and groups is so important.”
When such a big portion of the population is ignored in education, it can lead to women feeling discouraged in these fields.
“Computer science is very male dominated, and that kind of breaks my heart. I wish more women would go into it,” said Raksha Ravishankar, senior and co-president of Girls Who Code.
Marquez agrees, arguing that “women’s history” is not just about women.
“Women’s history involves not just issues for women, but all different kinds of things. Women are involved in business, in governments around the world. They’re involved in social justice and music and all of these fields,” Marquez said.
So what is being done to support women today? After all, appreciating historical figures can only do so much for modern women.
“An area where we could make women feel more welcome is in female-led sports or clubs, making sure that they get as much representation and recognition as their male counterparts,” Marquez said.
Liberty has made efforts to do this with extracurriculars.
“Liberty has done a really good job introducing girls sports,” said Ravishankar. “For example, this year we got flag football and badminton, which is fantastic and gives us more opportunities.”
Outside of school curriculums, biology teacher Erin Stephens had a suggestion:
“Find an unsung female hero in any field and read about her; that’s one of the best ways to celebrate women; it’s just a really good way to expand your point of view.”
Sometimes it’s easy to think of gender inequality as a problem of the past, a black and white photograph of a woman with a picket sign and a determined smile. But this ignores the struggles women continue to face in fields they have historically been overlooked. Looking at the big picture, women in the United States have only been able to vote for around a hundred years.
That’s why Women’s History Month exists: to tell the stories of these women and prove that women deserve a place in our history books.
In appreciation of Women’s History Month, students from the Patriot Press have made comics celebrating the achievements of 6 trailblazing women.
