Three women who deserve to be recognized for Women’s History Month
March 23, 2021
Ever since 1987, the month of March has been devoted to appreciating the critical responsibilities women had throughout history and to this day as well.
Women’s History Month started as Women’s History Week in Sonoma County, California, in the year of 1978. The drive was acclaimed nationally, which led to President Jimmy Carter declaring the week of March 8 as Women’s History Week. Eventually, in 1987, Congress passed Public Law 100-9. The law officially assigned March as Women’s History Month.
Over the span of hundreds of years, there have been many ladies who impacted the future for women. One of the people that made a huge change in women’s rights is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg began her fight for equal rights in 1963, once she realized she was being paid less than her male colleagues. In the 1970s, she volunteered at the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, where she then became the director of the Women’s Rights Project. Later, former President Bill Clinton appointed her to the Supreme Court in 1993. During her time in the Supreme Court, Ginsburg played a role in the passing of five women’s rights laws. These laws include: no employers can discriminate against their employees based on gender or reproductive choices, the right to financial independence and equal benefits for women, juries must include women, state-funded schools need to admit women, and men are entitled to the same Social Security and caregiving rights as females.
Another woman who helped shape our world is Rosa Parks. Parks is known for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white man in 1955, but afterwards, she did more than just that. Due to her standing her ground, she inspired the leaders of the close Black communities to orchestrate the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott lasted for a year and it ended when the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the bus segregation was unconstitutional.
Lastly, Florence Howe was an underappreciated feminist born in 1929. She participated in the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s, before founding The Feminist Press in 1970. She dedicated the press to emphasizing the voices of struggling women and to promote women’s rights.
