Why is Women’s History Month celebrated in March?
Women’s Day was originally celebrated on 8 March. It started in 1909 when the Socialist Party of America celebrated this day when around 15,000 women came along and protested low pay, long work hours and lack of voting rights in New York. It was in the year 1911 when Russia started celebrating the day on 8th March. International was added to Women’s Day.
Women’s History Month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. In California, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978. The organizers selected the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women’s Day. The movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women’s History Week celebrations the following year.
In 1980, a consortium of women’s groups and historians—led by the National Women’s History Project [now the National Women's History Alliance] - successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th 1980 as National Women’s History Week.
In 2021, the month-long celebration is focused on women’s suffrage centennial. Originally schedule for 2020, but the COVID pandemic delayed the celebration. The National Women's History Alliance is extending the annual theme for 2021 to "Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.”
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