Women's History: About

Women's History month celebrates the often overlooked accomplishments and contributions to society that women have made throughout history, as well as their strength and resilience in their historic (and ongoing) fight for equal rights under the law.

Selected to correspond with International Women's Day (March 8th), the celebration and commemoration of women was originally executed as "Women's History Week", in 1978 by the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women.  The following year, a consortium of women's rights historians and groups lobbied for an official national recognition of the week.  President Jimmy Carter made a Presidential Proclamation designating the week of March 8th as "National Women's History Week."

In 1987, Congress passed a public law designating March as "Women's History Month."  Every U.S. President has issued proclamations each year (since 1995) recognizing the month of March for women (National Women's History Museum, n.d.).

Source: National Women's History Museum Editors. (n.d.). Women's history month. National Women's History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/womens-history/womens-history-month

Image Credits: 

• President Jimmy Carter with prominent women’s groups in the Cabinet Room, immediately after signing the week into existence. 1980. Courtesy of Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum / NARA
• The First Picket Line - College Day in the Picket Line. 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection, Washington, D.C., USA.

• 1848 - The first women's rights convention, The Seneca Falls Convention, is held in New York state.
• 1869 - Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found the National Woman Suffrage Association.
• 1869 - Wyoming territory passes America's first woman suffrage law.  When Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the 44th state, it was the first state to grant women the right to vote - in 1890.
• 1916 - The first birth control clinic in the United States is opened by Margaret Sanger.
• 1920 - With the passing of the 19th Amendment, women win the right to vote in America.
• 1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give her seat to a white man on a public bus, which helps launch the Civil Rights Movement.
• 1960 - The F.D.A. approved the first ommercially produced birth control pill in the world.
• 1963 - The Equal Pay Act is signed into law by President John F. Kennedy.
• 1964 - The Civil Rights Act is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.  Title VII of the law bans employment discrimination based on sex, race, religion, and national origin.
• 1966 - The National Organization for Women is founded by Betty Friedan (author of The Feminine Mystique).
• 1971 - The National Women’s Political Caucus is formed by Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and Betty Friedan.
• 1971 - Gloria Steinem starts Ms. Magazine, the first magazine to address and discuss women's issues.
• 1972 - President Richard Nixon signs Title IX of the Education Amendments into law.
• 1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Roe v. Wade case declares that the U.S. Constitution protects a woman's legal right to abortion.  This ruling was overturned in 2022.
• 1994 - President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act.
• 2013 - The U.S. military removes a ban on women serving in combat positions.
• 2016 - Hilary Clinton becomes the first woman of a major political party to receive a presidential nomination.
• 2021 - Kamala Harris becomes the first woman to hold the office of the Vice President of the United States.  She is also the first woman of color to hold the position.