Women’s History Month: Why we celebrate it and where it began – The Cauldron
International Women’s Day, Women’s History Week and Women’s History Month are all celebrated each year during the month of March. Sharing much of the same history, the celebrations have the combined goals of aiming to honor the women of the past and inspire the women of the future.
International Women’s Day
The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911 between Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, inspired by the one-time celebration of National Women’s Day in 1909 hosted by the Socialist Party of America. Celebrated annually throughout Europe after 1911, International Women’s Day largely went unacknowledged in the United States until 1969, when women’s rights advocate Laura X organized a march in Berkeley, California in honor of the day. In the heart of the second wave of the feminist movement, the march set off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the celebration of Women’s History Month.
Laura X, legally Laura Shaw Murra, graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1971 and contributed to many social movements while at the University. The march she led in Berkeley served as a stepping stone for her founding of The Women’s History Research Center, an organization that would serve as an archive for the women’s movement and a resource for many early feminist publications through 1980.
Women’s History Week and Month
A few years after the march, the school district of Sonoma, California celebrated Women’s History Week, an extended event surrounding International Women’s Day, on March 8, 1978. The district served as inspiration for women’s rights advocates to push for National Women’s History Week.
The movement grew across the country, spreading quickly through community and activist efforts until President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week in February of 1980. Though it was not yet a permanent holiday, presidents that followed continued to proclaim and support National Women’s History Week until Congress passed a resolution in 1987, which officially designated the month of March as Women’s History Month.
Prior to 1987, fourteen states had already declared March as Women’s History Month, and it was widely celebrated in school districts nationwide. However, the official declaration has allowed for increased encouragement to use the month to teach about women’s rights and history in schools nationwide.
Women’s History Month 2024
With each yearly proclamation of Women’s History Month comes a new theme declared by the National Women’s History Alliance, with this year’s being “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.”
Founded as a continuation of The Women’s History Research Center in 1980, the National Women’s History Alliance is based in Santa Rosa, California, the same district where Women’s History Week first began. The Alliance was one of the leading advocates for the acknowledgement of Women’s History Month by the federal government.
According to the National Women’s History Alliance, the 2024 theme aims to recognize “the example of women who are committed to embracing everyone and excluding no one in our common quest for freedom and opportunity.”
This year’s theme is especially notable in light of the fact that the women’s movement has historically failed to properly include and acknowledge women of color and the intersectional discrimination they face. Despite there being over 35 years of themes for Women’s History Month, this year’s is the first to discuss the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion in any way, though still failing to acknowledge women of color directly.
Today, the National Women’s History Alliance continues its work, going beyond Women’s History Month to ensure women’s history is included in K-12 school curricula throughout the country.
Join in the celebration of Women’s History Month at CSU with these events.