March is National Women's History Month
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
To address the absence of information about women in America's
schools, the National Women's History Project led a movement to have
Congress designate a celebration to recognize women's historic
achievements. The goal was to ensure that information about the myriad
ways women have changed America would be part of our children's
education.
In 1980, President Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation
calling on the American people to remember the contributions of women.
By 1987, fourteen governors had declared March as Women's History Month,
and that same year, Congress and the President followed by declaring
March as National Women's History Month.
This March, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the multicultural
women's history movement. Designated by Joint Resolutions of the House
and Senate and Proclamations by five American Presidents, March has
become a huge opportunity for the nation to recognize women as a force
in history.
This year's theme, "Women Change America", celebrates and honors the
role of American women in transforming our culture, history, and
politics.
"Women Change America" also recognizes the 85th anniversary of women in
the United States winning the right to vote.
The purpose of women's history is not to idealize women. On the
contrary, the stories of women's achievements present a full view of the
complexity and contradiction of living a full and purposeful life.
Learning about the extraordinary achievements of women helps diminish
the tendency to dismiss and trivialize who women are and what they
accomplish. In celebrating women's historic achievements, we present an
authentic view of history. The knowledge of women's history provides a
more expansive vision of what a woman can do. This perspective can
encourage girls and women to think larger and bolder and can give boys
and men a fuller understanding of the female experience.
How are our children --girls and boys alike --going to understand the
importance of women to American culture and history if their education
includes little or nothing about the significance of women's
contributions?
We know from research and from anecdotal studies that learning the
stories of women's success, talent, and accomplishments expands a sense
of what is possible for girls and women. Information about women and
their successes gives males and females alike a perspective that
challenges some of our cultures' most unconscious and archaic
assumptions about women.
Thus, women's history becomes a story of inspiration and hope. A
story of courage and tenacity. A story of promise, possibility and
purpose.
Women's history is our nation's story. It is the story of how Women
have Changed America and how they will continue to do so.
For more information contact:
Web: The National Women's History Project
Email: nwhp.org@aol.com
Call: 707-636-2888
All information from:
National Women's History Project (NWHP)
http://www.nwhp.org
