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According to About.com, Women’s History Month started as a day, progressed to a week, and in 1987, became a month of celebrating the contribution of women to our world throughout history. March 8, 1911, was the first International Women’s Day in Europe. After the two world wars, women came back into focus. There was a growing awareness that history taught in schools was just that: “HIS”-story and knowing that needed to be changed, as well as trying to change their situations and inferior status in society. The United Nations began sponsoring International Women’s Day in 1975. The first “Women’s History Week” was celebrated in California during the week of March 8, 1978, to coincide with International Women’s Day.

Three years later, a bipartisan effort in the United States Congress established National Women’s History week. A group was formed called the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) to distribute materials regarding fairness in history and to promote it throughout the year. 1987 brought a resolution to the floor of the US Congress to expand the week to a month, thanks to pressure from the NWHP.

There are many events on campus throughout the month. On March 14, there will be a women-only self-defense class from 4 to 6 p.m. in Manor Hall lounge and a lecture by Alexandra Minna Stern, Ph.D. entitled ‘The Lingering Legacies of Eugenic Sterilization in the United States” at 7:30 p.m. in Sundin Music Hall. A session advertised as “Great for anyone with a pregnant loved one or anyone who plans on having children!” is taking place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the WRC on Alternative Birthing Options with Jaimie Bennett, RN, which will be an informal discussion about option beyond hospital births. On Friday, March 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., there will be another presentation by Stern, an “International Roundtable,” on the topic of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and what we have learned since then. The last event before the big tea takes place at the State Capitol on Monday, March 27th from 12 to 1 p.m. It is entitled “Lessons for the Twenty-first Century Learned from a Nineteenth-Century Feminist.” For more information on any of these events or to RSVP for the tea, contact the WRC. Their office is in the basement of the Student Center and their email is wrc@hamline.edu.

Let’s use this month as a chance for us all to remember and recognize the influential women in our own lives: moms, sisters, aunts, professors, grandmothers, or friends.

The purpose of Women’s History Month is “to increase consciousness and knowledge of women’s history: to take one month of the year to remember the contributions of notable and ordinary women, in hopes that the day will soon come when it’s impossible to teach or learn history without remembering these contributions.” In this day in age, equality is extremely important. Just as Black History and Asian Heritage Months teach us about the struggles and triumphs of these groups of people, this month can also teach us about Women and what they have gone through to get to where they are today.