Women’s History Month, Education and Politics

I’ve been busy blogging on Women’s Memoirs lately, but wanted to get back to Rosie’s Daughters as we enter March — Women’s History Month. In our book, Kendra and I provide information on many “First Woman To” Generation women, famous and not famous, who are making important contributions to society. Their contributions continue and they seek new challenges with a wonderful openness and enthusiasm. Personal politics aside, I was rooting for Kay Bailey Hutchison, a FW2 woman. Having met the challenges of being a senator, she took up the task of running for governor of Texas. Yesterday, she lost in the primary. But I don’t think that will be the end of it. She may continue as the senior Senator from Texas (the most senior Republican woman in the Senate) or resign as she indicated when she began her run to be the governor of Texas. Or, she may turn to her next goal. Either way, like so many FW2 Generation woman, she will pursue her passion and make her contribution.

Well, I got off my topic: Women’s History. So often a movement gets started for political reasons. However, the story of Women’s History Month shows that it grew out of a combination of political and education needs. If you don’t know the story, here’s a little information:

1. In the US the Socialist Party organized the first National Women’s Day in 1909. Now before you roll your eyes at the mention of the Socialist Party, remember that in 1909 women did not have the right to vote and the Socialist Party was one of the organizations that took up that cause. They wanted to draw attention to the right to vote that was denied to women.

2. Merely a year later, the Socialist International Party declared an International Women’s Day with a message of the need for universal suffrage. The first celebration was held in 1911 with a continuing emphasis on the women’s right to vote, but also calling for the end to job discrimination. The celebration of International Women’s Day was on March 19. Then, tragically, only six days later, the now infamous Triangle Fire in New York City killed 140 young women working in the garment industry. Locked in the work room, they were unable to escape. The fire brought additional interest to the agenda of the International Women’s Day to protect female workers.

3. Continuing with the international emphasis, Russian women held peace rallies in 1913 and 1914 in conjunction with International Women’s Day. And in 1917, they organized and carried out a stroke for “bread and peace.”

Although some of these celebrations were held on the last day of February, most were held in March.

4. Fast forward to 1978. Obviously, women now had the right to vote in the US. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also included the statement in Section 703 (a) that made it unlawful for an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

So with voting rights ensured and workplace discrimination official ended, you might wonder about the need for an new emphasis on women’s history. In 1961, Ester Peterson was the Director of the Women’s Bureau that collected data about many aspects of women’s work lives. She persuaded President Kennedy to establish a non-partisan Commission on the Status of Women, which he did, naming Eleanor Roosevelt as Chair. The Commission issued its report in 1963 that documented discrimination in many areas of women’s lives. As a result of that report, many states and counties established their local Commissions. Many of these had committees looking at the status of women in education.

My personal story gets intertwined with history at this point. I was active in establishing several committees to investigate the role of women in my field, communication. I went on to write a book called Women and the Mass Media: Sourcebook for Research and Action that summarized all the studies available of the presentation of women in the media, including textbooks.

I make the point about textbooks because many of the commissions on the status of women began to document the invisibility of women in the K-12 curriculum. In an effort to draw more attention to the roles women have played in history, Sonoma County’s Commission organized a Women’s History Week for 1978. Many of the schools in the county eagerly participated with guest speakers and new materials used.

This marked the beginning of a new effort to recognize the importance of women in society.

5. The following year, Molly Murphy MacGregor, a member of the Sonoma County Commission’s Education Task Force, was included in a program at The Women’s History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. MacGregor’s description of Sonoma county’s successful program excited the other national leaders who agreed to start similar efforts through their organizations. But more importantly, they saw the need to work together to establish a National Women’s History Week.

6. The next step forward came in 1980. At that time, President Jimmy Carter issue a Presidential Proclamation making the Week of March 8th, 1980 National Women’s History Week. At this point, we’re back to politics again. Carter’s resolution was specifically for 1980. Representative Barbara Mikulski and Senator Orrin Hatch worked together to co-sponsor a Congressional Resolution for 1981 establish National Women’s History Week.

Each year, organizations banded together to lobby for National Women’s History Week because each proclamation and resolution was only for one specific year.

7. By 1987, while national efforts were still initiated on a yearly basis, 14 states had declared March as Women’s History Month. In that same year, Congress declared the entire month of March as the permanent National Women’s History Month.

As you read this summary, I hope you noticed that it began in 1909, 11 years before women had the right to vote. That was the same year that my mother was born. I always have to stop to remind myself of the not-too-distant past when women couldn’t vote.

Then I hope you also noticed how recently there was recognition of National Women’s History Month. This was established on a permanent basis only in 1987.

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