Women’s History Month
Zahra Anjum
Staff Writer
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Women’s History Month is dedicated to celebrating women and their contributions to history every year. There are many heroes like Bill Gates, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, and Nelson Mandela who are remembered for making an impact. Women’s History Month helps us remember the hidden figures, women like Jane Austen, Marie Curie, Margaret Thatcher, and Emmeline Pankhurst who also made history.
Women’s History Month is celebrated in March in not just the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and Australia. However, in other countries like Canada, Women’s History Month is celebrated on a different date. Women’s History Month has a different theme each year to focus on a certain aspect of Women’s History.
Due to COVID-19, the theme that was originally for 2020 has been extended and is “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to be Silenced”. According to the National Women’s History Museum, “The theme for Women’s History Month in 2021 captures the spirit of these challenging times.”
International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th. It is also celebrated to recognize female figures on that day and is why Women’s History Month is coordinated with it. Women’s History Month dates back to March 8th, 1857 when women from many factories in New York protested against poor working conditions. The first Women’s Day celebration was held in 1909. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared March 2nd to March 8th as Women’s History Week. However, eight years later, petitions were being pushed by the National Women’s History Project and Congress officially claimed the month of March, “Women’s History Month”.
Women’s History Month was founded by Gerda Hedwig Kronstein, also known as Gerda Lerner, and the National Women’s History Alliance where it was first recognized as Women’s History Week and then Women’s History Month. Lerner was born April 30rd, 1920, in Austria. She was a feminist and historian who helped to make the study of women legitmate; she also created the first graduate program in women’s history in the United States. The first Women’s History Month celebration took place in Santa Rosa, California.
Lerner and so many other women hoped Women’s History Month could help honor women’s contributions and achievements during the month of March. This is a time to recognize the hidden heroes in history and to understand the hardships they went through as well as women’s empowerment and gender equality issues.
There are many ways we can celebrate Women’s History Month like learn more about women’s history and women’s issues today. Purple is the official color for Women’s History Month. Purple represents justice and dignity. Help by supporting women-owned businesses, support women authors, watch movies directed by women or with female leads, or write a thank you card to an inspirational woman.