Welcome to Women’s History Month!
International Women’s Day expands into a month that celebrates how women shape the world.
March 8, 2022
Women get March.
The month of Mars. God of war. Fitting?
On first thought: No… Not really.
If we were to choose Women’s History Month solely based on eponym it seems unlikely we’d pick a month associated with a speared and glaring representation of toxic masculinity.
But fret not, Romans, we haven’t entirely disgraced the efforts of your calendar-making.
After all, the Roman calendar begins with March.
And, therefore, March is the beginning.
Women are the beginning.
Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, then attending the Continental Congress, to “remember the ladies” and their voices when shaping the newly independent America.
Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book that was a road sign on the path to the Civil War and final abolition of slavery.
The U.S. Senate sent the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the states for ratification. An amendment designed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender.
And those are just beginnings that took place in March.
Beginning, however, should be emphasized.
Abigail Adams may have demanded that women be part of the framework of the United States, but not until after a Declaration of Sentiments, 143 years, and a suffrage movement where women in the U.S. were granted the right to vote with the passage of the 19th amendment.
Harriet Beecher Stowe may have helped turned the page on slavery, but it was not until centuries later that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by an America still working to weed out the roots of racism.
Congress may have passed the Equal Rights Amendment, but the necessary states did not. As it is, Abigail Adams’ demand that the framework governing the United States include women remains neglected.
March is a start. But as the Romans marched forward to battle at the month’s arrival each year, from it the woman marches forward.
March brings Spring. And with it a renewal of last year’s strength, blossoming into this year’s determination.
March is named after Mars. Yet, let’s face it, did you really know that before I told you? Women’s History Month eclipses it.
March is the start of a growing movement to replace the glare of Mars with a handshake with Minerva.