Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month! Did you know Women's History Month started as Women's History Week right here in California? In the 1970s, women's history was not included in K-12 public education curriculum. Because of this, in 1978 the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women planned a "Women's History Week" celebration. The activities were scheduled for the week of March 8th to coincide with International Women's Day. The week ended with a parade and program held in downtown Santa Rosa. 

The program was met with enthusiastic support and spread across the country as other communities and schools initiated their own Women's History Week celebrations the following year. A group led by the National Women's History Project (now the National Women's History Alliance) began to lobby for national recognition. President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8th, 1980 as National Women's History Week.

Subsequent Presidents continued to proclaim a week in March as National Women's History Week. By 1986, 14 states had already declared the entire month of March as Women's History Month and in 1987 Congress passed a law designating March as National Women's History Month in perpetuity. A Presidential Proclamation is issued each year declaring March as "Women's History Month" and the National Women's History Alliance selects and publishes a yearly theme.

Source:

Molly Murohy MacGregor, "Why March is National Women's History Month," National Women's History Alliance, accessed February 23, 2021. https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/womens-history-month/womens-history-month-history/.

"Women's History Month," National Women's History Museum, accessed February 23, 2021. https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history/womens-history-month.