Three Things Most People Don’t Know About Women’s History Month
Sorry, it not about equality or women’s rights.
Theresa Malkiel was a 35 year old garment worker when she made up a crazy idea and then published it in a daily newspaper. She said Feb 23, 1909 would be the very first “National Women’s Day” and asked readers to meet her on 34th Street.
She made that up. There was no nationally declared holiday.
As a garment worker, she was sick of the dangerous working conditions and lousy pay she got because she was a working woman at the turn of the century. She was an early suffragist, screaming for equality and fair working conditions for women and she’d been moonlighting as a writer for a while. So she called out to women to unite.
No one double checked if there really was a nationally declared holiday.
Two thousand people showed up.
That’s not what women’s history month is about.
Sorry.
Yes, suffrage is part of womens’ collective history. We all know about suffrage, about women picketing and demanding more rights, including the right to vote.
But it’s not what Women’s History Month is about.
Sorry, it’s not a Hallmark moment, either…
Did you know there are cards?
Some people think “Women’s Day” and Women’s History month is about empowering women. Yay girl power. Women can do anything! Bring on the cards!
Nevermind that all those slogans are gender biased to begin with. You think little girls don’t notice that little boys don’t wear “boy power” and “boys can do anything” shirts? That observation alone speaks louder than girl-power shirts.
March isn’t about equality or woman power, either. Sorry.
We’ve been celebrating Women’s History month since 1980 and even women don’t seem to know what it’s about. So, here are three things most people don’t know about Women’s History Month.
1. It’s not a celebration, it’s an apology
Women’s history month started as “Women’s History Week” in Santa Rosa, California in 1978. And then the women who organized Women’s History Week started lobbying to make it nationally recognized. Two years later, the president agreed.
In Feb.1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation. The Week of March 8th 1980 would be National Women’s History Week!
Here’s what he said…
“From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian familied who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often, 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.” — President Jimmy Carter (source)
It was not a celebration of women.
It had nothing to do with saying women are equal.
It was an apology. For writing women out of history.
Like Rosalind Franklin who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA only to have two men take credit and win the Nobel Prize for her work.
Like Lise Meitner who discovered nuclear fission, only to have Otto Hahn remove her name from the paper and win the 1944 prize in chemistry from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. For her work.
To all the women who invented stuff you don’t even know about.
Alice Parker who invented central heat.
Margaret Wilcox, who invented car heaters.
Florence Parpart, who invented the electric refrigerator.
Melitta Benz who invented the coffee filtration system and was a woman before she was brand.
Without a bunch of women, man would not have walked on the moon and every vaccine is injected with a syringe invented by Letitia Geer. All those and more. Women who invented things that changed the world with their work but they were not credited for their work or taught in history classes.
It was an apology. For erasing women from history.
2. It must be sanctioned by a man. Every year.
For seven years after Carter’s Presidential Proclamation, Women’s History Week was a week. Not a month.
Seven years later, in 1987, Congress passed Public Law 100–9, designating every March as “Women’s History Month.”
But like Goldilocks and porridge, that wasn’t quite right.
Didn’t quite sit right with Congress.
In 1994, congress amended the law to say that every year the president must sign a document proclaiming that March will be women’s history month again.
“Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March as Women’s History Month” (source)
Every year, we celebrate Women’s History Month in America because the man in the big office gives his permission.
Doesn’t matter if he’s rolling back women’s rights.
Doesn’t matter what he’s doing, politically.
Only matters he signs that paper.
Gives us permission.
Oh, the irony.
3. Women’s History month is a statement of inequality
At Harvard, there’s an office for equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
Every year, they publish a list of heritage months. The Harvard website says their heritage calendar is created “in celebration of the histories and contributions of historically marginalized identities…”
February: Black History Month
March: Women’s History Month
May: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
June: Pride Month
July: Disability Pride Month
September: Latinx Heritage Month
October: LGBTQ+ History Month
November: Native American Heritage Month
Marginalized, if you didn’t know, is defined as a person or group that’s treated as insignificant or peripheral. There we are, on the list. Insignificant. Peripheral.
Fact is, most marginalized groups are minorities.
And the many have a tendency to steamroll over the few. For example, 80% of the world identifies as heterosexual, which is why we need to protect the rights of people in the LGBTQ community. Black people are about 25% of the world’s population, and Indigenous people comprise 6% of the world’s population.
So we fight to protect the rights of minorities and the marginalized. Because a human is a human and we should all be treated equally.
But women? We are not a minority. We’re half the world.
50.5% of Americans are women and girls.
49.6% of the world are women and girls.
It’s 2025. Why aren’t little girls taught that women invented chemotherapy, computers, CRISPR gene editing, electric water heaters, electron microscopy, fire escapes, globes, home security, immunosuppressive drugs, laser cataract surgery, and the birth control pill?
Why aren’t little girls taught that women invented the Space rocket propulsion system and the Hydyne rocket fuel that put men into space? And for the alpha males out there, women also invented beer and the refrigerator that keeps your sandwich cold.
But hey, why teach this to our children? Much easier to buy our little princesses a bright pink “girl power” tshirt and tell her she can do anything, right?
“I do not wish women to have power over men but over themselves."
– Mary Shelley
If you write online, you might also enjoy my other Substack, Hello Writer
"Every year, we celebrate Women’s History Month in America because the man in the big office gives his permission."
Gag reflex reading this. Especially considering the demented, despotic, dark, spineless, sycophantic, broken party in charge in the US. However, even if the Prez were a man I venerated, I'd still have dry heaves. We should issue an emancipation proclamation replete with patriarchal apology, sign it, and be done with it. Moving on to the Light.
I'm not transgender but I'm beginning to think that if a dick and balls are what gets me there maybe I better buy a set. I've heard Musk and Trump and Marco Rubio are selling there's cheap.