Women’s History Month is an annual celebration honoring the contributions of women to American history, culture, and society.
Women’s History Month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978. The organizers selected the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women’s Day. The weeklong event included a series of presentations at several schools, a “Real Woman” essay contest, and a parade held in downtown Santa Rosa. The following year, several other communities initiated their own Women’s History Week celebrations, and soon the movement spread across the country.
In 1980, the Molly Murphy MacGregor and National Women’s History Project ( now Alliance) organized a coalition of women’s groups and historians to lobby the government for national recognition. Their efforts were successful, and In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th, 1980 as National Women’s History Week.
National Women’s History Week was designated each year by presidential proclamation until 1987, when Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March as “Women’s History Month.” Since 1995, each president has issued an annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” While there is still much work to be done, the years since the first Women’s History Week and Women’s History Month celebrations have seen significant milestones in the advancement of the rights and equality of women in the United States.
(Sources: WomensHistoryMonth.com and History.com)
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