Women’s History Month is a national recognition and celebration of the significant role of women in U.S. history and contemporary society. It is held in March and provides an opportunity to educate the general public about women’s accomplishments and influence in the United States. Women’s History Month has its origins in International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated on March 8, 1911, in Europe. Unfortunately, with the economic depression of the 1930s, women’s issues, woman suffrage among them, decreased in popularity and remained so until the 1950s and 1960s. It was the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s that regenerated interest in women’s issues and history.
In 1978 in California, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women began a Women’s History Week celebration. The week was chosen to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8. The response was positive, with numerous schools hosting their own Women’s History Week programs. The next year, leaders from the California group shared their project at a Women’s History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Other participants not only determined to begin their own local Women’s History Week projects but also agreed to support an effort to have Congress declare a national Women’s History Week.
Three years later, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution, cosponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Representative Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), establishing National Women’s History Week; that was followed by a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as the first National Women’s History Week. Over the next five years, joint resolutions of Congress designated a week in March as Women’s History Week and authorized the president to issue a proclamation informing the country of this recognition and urging the study of women’s contributions to U.S. history. In 1987, after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9, which designated the month of March as Women’s History Month. This law requested the president to issue a proclamation calling for observation of this month with appropriate activities and ceremonies. Subsequently, an annual presidential proclamation was announced to celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States.
Description from:
Pankake, A. (2011). Women’s History Month. In M. Z. Stange, C. K. Oyster, & J. E. Sloan (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World (Vol. 4, pp. 1575–1577). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX1959900938/GVRL?u=berea&sid=GVRL&xid=fe13ed43
Description from:
Check out the titles below for more info on Women's History Month:
Herstory by Deborah G. Ohrn (Editor); Gloria Steinem (Introduction by); Ruth Ashby (Editor)
ISBN: 0670854344
Publication Date: 1995-06-01
This book contains 120 biographical sketches of women who changed the world, placing them in the context of their times, & taking the viewpoint that women's history has largely been ignored. The section on Mead's anthropological work also includes two lesser-known female anthropologists: Elsie Clews Parsons & Ruth Benedict. Introduction by Gloria Steinem, extensive bibliography, & three indexes: geographical, alphabetical, & occupational.
Sisters of the Yam by Bell Hooks
ISBN: 0896084566
Publication Date: 1993-01-01
Hooks explores how black women's emotional growth and development is affected by daily assaults of racism and sexism.
Women, Power, and Political Change by Bonnie G. Mani
ISBN: 0739111213
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Contemporary women face barriers as they try to balance family and careers, choose the most promising education and employment options, and run for elected office. Women, Power, and Political Change analyzes the lives of sixteen American women who facilitated social and political changes in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. These women were entrepreneurs--a small group advocating policies that imposed costs on some Americans but generated benefits for women. Using qualitative and quantitative data, Bonnie G. Mani describes the social and political context of the times when each of the women lived and worked. What she uncovers regarding the similarities and differences between these women demonstrates how women can influence public policy without holding elected office and without personal wealth. This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the evolution of women's political roles in American history.
A Lab of One's Own by Patricia Fara
ISBN: 0198794983
Publication Date: 2018-03-01
A Lab of One's Own describes the experiences of some extraordinary but sadly neglected scientific women who tasted independence, responsibility, and excitement in World War One. Understanding the past is crucial for improving the future, and Patricia Fara examines how inherited prejudices continue to limit women's scientific opportunities.Suffragists aligned themselves with scientific and technological progress. Defying arguments about intellectual inferiority and child-bearing responsibilities, during the War they won support by mobilizing women to enter conventionally male domains, including science, industry, medicine, and the military.A Lab of One's Own reveals these women's stories, celebrating successes and analyzing setbacks. In 1919, the suffragist Millicent Fawcett declared triumphantly that "The war revolutionised the industrial position of women. It found them serfs, and left them free." She was wrong: although women had helped the country to victory and won the vote for those over thirty, they had lost the battle for equality. Men returning from the Front reclaimed their jobs, and conventional hierarchies were re-established - although now the nation knew that women were fully capable of performing work traditionally reserved for men.
Called to Question by Joan Chittister
ISBN: 1580511430
Publication Date: 2004-04-27
Called to Question is Sr. Joan Chittister's most personal and intense writing to date. Centered around a series of conversations with spiritual writers featured in her private journal, Sr. Joan looks at the common questions or dimensions of life as we know them in our daily lives-not answers as we've been given them-in an attempt to unravel their many meanings, to give them flesh, to honor their spiritual import now and here, in our time and in our own lives. By sharing the questions, doubts, and convictions in her own heart, Chittister explores the heart of faith itself and nurtures a spirituality that pushes readers beyond superficial questioning and unexamined faith. The paperback edition includes a new Prologue about the power of questions in today's society. Following a moving prologue on the nature of faith, Called to Question is broken into six parts that explore key themes- the inward life, immersion in life, resistance, feminist spirituality, ecology, dailiness. Within each theme is a wide array of topics that embody Sr. Joan's life's work as a sociologist, theologian, Benedictine nun, rights activist, and spiritual guide to countless people throughout the world. Alive with the raw energy of a journal and polished with the skill of a master storyteller, each chapter is an engaging dialogue between Sr. Joan and many different wisdom sources about such topics as God's existence and call, experience, struggle, justice, the role of women and men in society and church, living through doubt, and celebrating life. Called to Question is a rare and powerful invitation to look into the center of our own souls, name our questions about God and life, admit the worst, and pursue the best--even when we are unsure where that pursuit will take us.
Herstory by
Sisters of the Yam by
Women, Power, and Political Change by
A Lab of One's Own by
Called to Question by
