Texas A&M: The Origins Of Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month, a national recognition of the vital roles women have played throughout history.

This recognition began in one town in 1978 when the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women celebrated “Women’s History Week” in Santa Rosa, California. The week was chosen to include International Women’s Day, March 8.

The movement spread to other communities, so in 1980 a consortium of women’s groups and historians asked the federal government for recognition. President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the week of March 8, 1980 to be National Women’s History Week, citing in his proclamation that the “achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”

The recognition was renewed by later presidents until 1987, when Congress designated March as “Women’s History Month.”

This year’s theme is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” which according to the National Women’s History Alliance, is “both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.”