International Women’s History Month

Written by Judy W Bell on March 22, 2011. Posted in Philosophy Statements

International Women’s History Month is celebrated each year in March. Europe first celebrated the occasion with an International Women’s Day on March 8, 1911. The United States then joined with other countries… celebrating the right of women to vote.

The depression of the early 1930s as well as World War II saw women’s rights quickly fall by the wayside. The liberation of the 1960s saw a regained interest in women’s rights and women’s issues that culminated to a broader field of academic studies focused on women’s rights as well as women in history during the 1970s.

California formed a “Women’s History Week” in 1978 that was selected to run concurrently with International Women’s Day, already being held annually on March 8. This was followed in 1981 with a resolution from Congress honoring the week as well as the establishment of a National Museum of Women’s History in Washington, DC.

“A better world awaits the generation that absorbs what women and men have to share about life from a joint perspective. Together, all things are possible.”

Karen Staser Founder, National Women’s History Museum

Remember… women’s history is not just for women!