Feminist Majority Foundation

Suffragist Parade in New York

Women's history had long been ignored in cirricula from kindegarten to higher education - until the U.S. feminist movement pushed for wider recognition of women's contributions to history in education and in the culture at large.

The celebration of women's history in the U.S. began officially in 1978 when the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women initiated "Women's History Week" in its community. The week centered around March 8, International Women's Day, observed since 1911. In 1981, U.S. Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) cosponsored a Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming the week of March 8 National Women's History Week. In 1987, the National Women's History Project (founded in 1979 by Molly MacGregor) helped expand the celebration to the entire month of March. In 1987 and subsequent years, the National Women's History Month Resolutions have been approved with broad-based, bipartisan support in both the Senate and House, and signed by the President.

150th Anniversary of the convention on women's rights in Seneca Falls

Today, schools and communities celebrate the month with special curriculum and events, and many states and cities have extended the observance year-round by creating Women's Halls of Fame. Someday, when women's accomplishments take their place as an integral part of society and are included in the everyday curriculum alongside the accomplishments of men, Women's History Month will serve as a time to look back and reflect on the road to equality.