01 Mar Women’s History Month

1. The first Women’s History Day was held in 1909.

Feb. 28, 1909 marked the first Woman’s History Day in New York City. It commemorated the one-year anniversary of the garment workers’ strikes when 15,000 women marched through lower Manhattan. From 1909 to 1910, immigrant women who worked in garment factories held a strike to protest their working conditions. Most of them were teen girls who worked 12-hour days. In one factory, Triangle Shirtwaist Company, employees were paid only $15 a week. History.com describes it as a “true sweatshop.” Young women worked in tight conditions at sewing machines, and the factories owners didn’t keep the factory up to safety standards. In 1911, the factory burned and 145 workers were killed. It pushed lawmakers to finally pass legislation meant to protect factory workers.

2. The day became Women’s History Week in 1978.

An education task force in Sonoma County, California, kicked off Women’s History Week on March 8, International Women’s Day in 1978, according to the National Women’s History Alliance. They wanted to draw attention to the fact that women’s history wasn’t really included in K-12 school curriculums at the time.

3. In 1987, it became Women’s History Month.

Women’s organizations, including the National Women’s History Alliance, campaigned yearly to recognize Women’s History Week. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8 Women’s History Week across the country. By 1986, 14 states had declared the entire month of March Women’s History Month, according to the Alliance. The following year, in March of 1987, activists were successful: They lobbied Congress to declare March Women’s History Month.

4. The president declares every March Women’s History Month.

Since 1995, every president has issued a proclamation declaring March Women’s History Month, usually with a statement about its importance.

5. Every Women’s History Month has a theme.

The 2020 theme was “Valiant Women of the Vote,” according to the National Women’s History Alliance. “In recognition of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, we will honor women from the original suffrage movement as well as 20th and 21st century women who have continued the struggle (fighting against poll taxes, literacy tests, voter roll purges, and other more contemporary forms of voter suppression) to ensure voting rights for all,” the Alliance wrote in a statement. The Women’s History Alliance is extending the 2020 theme since “most 2020 women’s suffrage centennial celebrations were curtailed.” The 2021 theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.” They will focus on women’s political involvement and leadership.

6. Wyoming Territory was the first place to grant women the right to vote.

The Wyoming Territorial legislature gave every woman the right to vote in 1869, according to History.com. They elected the country’s first female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross, in 1924.

7. The 19th amendment didn’t give all women the right to vote.

The 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was signed into law on Aug. 26, 1920. But at the time, a number of other laws prohibited Native American women, Black women, Asian American women, and Latinx women from voting, among others. It wasn’t until 1924 that Native women born in the United States were granted citizenship, allowing them to vote, according to PBS. But even after that, Native women and other women of color were prevented from voting by state laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests. It wasn’t until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, that discriminatory tactics such as literacy tests were outlawed.