March is Women’s History Month

Put on your Wonder Woman cape and get out your favorite books, movies, slogans and bumper stickers about amazing women!  March is Women’s History month!  In no way wanting to diminish the historically acknowledged accomplishments of men, March is the month to learn about and celebrate the often dismissed and even unknown contributions  of women. It’s been a long journey to obtain the opportunities and recognition afforded to women today, since most all of the world’s developed nations only began to allow full rights and citizenship to women about one hundred years ago.  

The legal battle for Women’s Suffrage in the US and Great Britain began in the mid 1800’s when women who were attending an abolitionist convention in London were denied access to the auditorium because they were women.  In this moment they realized that their plights were little better than that of the enslaved peoples for whom they were fighting.  Indeed, after the Civil War, black men had the right to vote, more or less, but no women did. Women were legally viewed as chattel, like livestock, the property of their husbands or fathers. They could not vote, hold office, own property, seek a divorce, sign legal agreements, etc. 

For over seventy years, women around the world worked to obtain the right to vote, with the knowledge that this would afford them a much greater measure of opportunity and equality.  They undertook public protests, held parades, used the power of their pens to present their cause in newspapers, and even picketed President Woodrow Wilson’s White House. When arrested for these public displays, they were imprisoned, went on hunger strikes and were force fed. They were threatened with losing custody of their children. Still, they persisted. 

 After decades of working toward and presenting the suffrage amendment in the USA, it was passed into law in 1920 as the 19th amendment.  With this amendment, women became actual citizens, with the rights of citizenship, and they have been steadily gaining in equality ever since.

For those readers under fifty it is difficult to imagine a time when women were not included in all aspects of life in the United States.  Until the 1940’s, women teachers in many areas of the country had to resign should they decide to marry.  Women were told not to even bother to apply in certain college disciplines, a woman minister was generally unheard of, women physicians and scientists were scarce.  Before 1972, when Title IX was enacted, there were few, if any,  girls’ sporting events taking place between schools.  Imagine--no Soda Springs or Bear Lake High School girls basketball, volleyball, softball or track teams!

An Idaho statute gave preferential treatment to men when there was a challenge as to who would handle a legal matter, such as being the executor of a will.  This resulted in the case Reed v Reed, and in 1971, the wrongfulness and unconstitutionality of this preferential treatment was argued by lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg and subsequently struck down by the US Supreme Court. This was a landmark case stating that a person’s gender could not be used to deny equal rights. 

The battle for equality has continued. There are many vocations that traditionally had been out of a woman’s grasp that are now filled with capable women, such as veterinarians, military personnel, physicians, artists, composers, writers, scientists, astronauts, political and religious leaders.  And often, they handle these jobs while being caregivers, mothers, wives and homemakers! It is somewhat curious that the United States is one of the few powerful nations of the world which has never elected a woman as head of state! 

So, this is the month to learn about astronaut Sally Ride, Native American tribal leader Wilma Mankiller, first female Congressional Representative Jeannette Rankin (4 years before women had the right to vote), President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, scientist and Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, Nobel Prize winner and crusader for women’s rights Malala Yousafzai, suffragette Alice Paul, writer Maya Angelou, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, newspaper editor Katharine Graham, writer and scientist Rachel Carson, civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, first female rabbi Regina Jonas.  Celebrate these and the multitudes of inspiring women, including many you know personally!