Note—Back in 2017 I seemed to have
awakened channeling a Trumpista…
Well,
that was close! The country just escaped the
annual ordeal of Black History Month. There
should be an investigation into
that. Clearly a Barack Hussain Obama Muslim Commie Plot to bring this Great Country to its knees. We have to endure those smug Black History Minutes on our TVs and other assaults on White goodness.
Now
no sooner is that nightmare behind
us than we discover the whole damn
month of March is supposed to be
given over to Women’s
History! Don’t get me wrong, I adore women. Love ‘em to death! I always open
the door for Ladies and tip
my MAGA cap to them. My sainted
Mother was a woman and my wife—when she is not in one of her moods—is an angel on earth.
But lately it like Satan has taken possession of most of them! They have forgotten their proper duty as obedient wives and pure
daughters waiting to be the vessel of
the race.
A
lot of the blame goes to this
Women’s History Month which has filled their airy heads with ridiculous
notions, holding up harpies and nags as heroines, and making examples of women pushing their way into the God-given realms of men. The whole thing even
started with those damn socialists and
was pushed by the black helicopter crowd
at the United Nations! Look it up yourself.
I
say we put an end to this now! Let’s
declare this White Man’s
History Year. It’s
always been that way before. Let’s make
it official. That’ll shut ‘em all up!
Phew! That was exhausting and draining. I can’t keep it up even in the tradition of internet snark. Let’s play
it straight now for a look back at the real origins of Women’s
History month.
***
The
loonytoon I was channeling got one thing
right—we owe it to trade unionists and
members of the Socialist Party in New York City who on February 28, 1909 organized a Women’s Day to celebrate the anniversaries of
a garment workers’
strike the year before and a march by
women in the needle trades for the 10 hour day back in 1857. The event was such a success the Socialists
made it an annual event and took it national the next year. In 1911 the Socialist International took it up and spread it across Europe.
After the interruptions
of all solidarity movements caused
by World War I, the celebrations
resumed and spread. They were also
adopted by the new Communist
International (Comintern.)
In
America, however, the post-war period was marked by a Red Scare and a wave of the greatest
repression in U.S. history aimed
squarely at Socialists, Communists, anarchists,
and militant unionists. Despite the long-fought-for victory of women’s
suffrage in those same years, the mostly middle class women who had led the struggle did not want to identify their movement with the radicals. Even as Women’s Day spread globally, its
observance here was limited to a
kind of labor ghetto.
It
took decades to regain a foothold in this country spurred by the new wave of feminism in
the ‘60s and ‘70s the rise of Women’s
Study and History in the colleges and universities. They
got a boost in 1975 when the United Nations officially adopted International Women’s
Day on March 8.
First
to act were educators at the Sonoma, California school district in 1978 who added Women’s History Week centered on International
Women’s Day to the official curriculum. It mostly centered on age appropriate projects highlighting
leaders of the suffrage movement. The press
picked up the story and spread it. Sonoma teachers
took the idea to state and regional conferences and by the next year school districts across
the country were adopting or adapting the idea and curriculum.
Sonoma’s
Molly Murphy MacGregor brought the
idea to a 15 day conference of the Women’s History Institute at
Sara Lawrence College in September
1979 organized by Professor Gerda Lerner. The idea of Women’s History week caught fire and Lerner became a vocal national spokesperson for creating an official national event.
President Jimmy
Carter acted
quickly. In February of 1980 he
proclaimed National Women’s
History Week centered around National Women’s Day on March 8. His proclamation read:
From the first
settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who
befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too
often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed.
But 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. As
Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted, “Women’s History is Women’s Right.” It is an
essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort,
courage, and long-range vision. I ask my fellow Americans to recognize this
heritage with appropriate activities during National Women’s History Week,
March 2–8, 1980. I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to
focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality—Susan B.
Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet
Tubman, and Alice Paul. Understanding the true history of our country will help
us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people.
This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment [Equal Rights
Amendment] to the United States Constitution, which states that “Equality of
Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by
any state on account of sex.”
School
Districts, municipalities, and states began making proclamations. Politicians
of both political parties were eager to curry favor with the growing women’s movement realizing that women
not only made up a majority of the electorate but also actually went to
the polls in significantly greater
numbers than men. Even Carter’s explicit endorsement of the ERA
was not then as partisan an
issue as we might now believe. Republican Party platforms from the
1920’s on had endorsed the ERA. Many Republican women—and some male
politicians—even supported the Roe v. Wade decision and reproductive choice. In fact, middle class suburban white women were a major force
in the GOP.
Conservative icon
Ronald Reagan was
comfortable annually renewing Women’s History Week proclamations. Republican First Ladies Betty Ford and Barbara
Bush were both vocal supporters of the ERA, abortion rights, and other feminist
issues. Although not so vocal during her Born Again Christian husband’s Presidency, Laura Bush was known to hold similar views.
The
non-partisan nature of support for
women’s issues was illustrated when Utah
Senator Orin Hatch and Maryland
Democratic Representative Barbara Mikulski co-sponsored the first Joint
Congressional Resolution proclaiming a Women’s History Week for March of
1992.
The
movement to expand the one week observation into a whole month was taken up by some of the states. By 1986 14 states had adopted Women’s History
Month. The same year the National Women’s History Project
conducted a massive petition campaign to
Congress urging to make the Month National.
And they did annually from 1984-94.
By
the latter year Congressional Republicans were in full retreat on women’s issues
as they became more and more
beholden to the Religious Right
who opposed both the ERA and reproductive choice. But Bill
Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all continued to issue
Presidential proclamations.
Under
the influence of the Tea Party,
Congressional Republicans abandoned virtually
any semblance of supporting women’s rights and became actively hostile to the point of prideful and open misogyny
while Republicans in control of state
legislatures propose ever more bizarre
attacks on women. The elevation of an exposed sexual predator and
open misogynist Donald Trump to the Presidency
and his alliance with the hard core Religious Right made the transformation of the Republican Party
into a bastion of White male privilege and hostility to women complete.
Meanwhile
on the Democratic side the Obama
administration initiated the landmark
2011 Women in America: Indicators of
Social and Economic Well-Being
report and advanced women’s causes and defended their interests via appointments and executive orders when Congress has blocked action.
The bitter and hard-fought contest between Hillary
Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders for
the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2016 largely centered on which
candidate was best for women, and whether women owed their support to the possible first major party female presidential candidate. There was a bitter and divisive split between
older women and traditional feminist leaders on one hand and many younger, poorer women on that hot
button issue.
However, women on both sides of that divide were spurred to run for office creating a mighty surge that swept women into power at every level of government in 2018.
They were largely responsible for the Blue Wave that gave Democrats a firm majority in the House
of Representatives. And they hit the
ground running with a bold progressive
agenda. Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously stared
down the Cheeto-in-Charge over
the Government shutdown and his
beloved vanity project, the Border Wall and ultimately brought the House to vote to impeach him. Freshmen stars
including Alexandra Ocasio-Ortiz, Ilhan Omar, Sharida Davids, and Illinois’
own Lauren Underwood struck terror in Republicans.
The dramatic events following the 2020
election victory by stanch women’s rights ally Joe Biden and Vice
President Kamala Harris including the attempted January 6, 2021 insurrection
and siege of the Capitol, renewed attacks on voting rights
and access, draconian state anti-abortion laws have place women’s
rights in greater jeopardy than ever.
Never was Women’s History Month so desperately needed.
This year the National Women’s History Project has proclaimed Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories as the 2023 Women’s History theme:
Throughout 2023, the NWHA will encourage
recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of
media and storytelling including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs,
podcasts, and more. The timely theme honors women in every community who have
devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and
reflecting the human condition decade after decade.
From the earliest storytellers through
pioneering journalists, our experiences have been captured by a wide variety of
artists and teachers. These include
authors, songwriters, scholars, playwrights, performers, and grandmothers
throughout time. Women have long been instrumental in passing on our heritage
in word and in print to communicate the lessons of those who came before us.
Women’s stories, and the larger human story, expand our understanding and
strengthen our connections with each other.
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