Before it was a full-month celebration, there was Women’s History Week. In 1978, a group of women in Santa Rosa, California, recognized that women’s history was largely overlooked in academics, so they organized a week in March to celebrate and educate others about women’s contributions in the U.S.
During the week of March 8, over a hundred women participated in essay contests, distributed curriculum materials at local schools, and held a parade. The event's success soon inspired women’s groups nationwide to hold similar events.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week. Seven years later, Congress designated March as Women’s History Month.
A protester holding a poster with an image of women’s rights activists Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes during a rally against the killing of George Floyd in 2020. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
Why We Celebrate in March
The group from Santa Rosa, now known as the National Women’s History Alliance, selected the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women’s Day, officially recognized by the United Nations in 1977.
This month’s celebration is also rooted in socialist and labor movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first Women’s Day on Feb. 28, 1909, honored the first anniversary of the garment worker’s strikes that saw thousands of women take to Manhattan’s streets. That strike was timed to honor another garment worker’s rally from March 1857. On March 3, 1913, thousands of suffrage activists marched in Washington, D.C., to fight for a woman’s right to vote.
In 1911, inspired by the day of recognition held in the U.S., more than a million people rallied in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland to hold the first International Women’s Day rally. On March 8, 1917, many women went on strike during the Russian Revolution, which many believe led to the selection of March 8 as the international day.
This year’s theme is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.” Here are some ways to honor women this month.
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