March is Women's History Month

Women's History Month traces its beginnings to the first International Women's Day in 1911. IWD, as designated by the United Nations, is an event where the political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

As recent at the 1970's, women's history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women initiated a "Women's History Week" celebration for 1978. The week of March 8 was chosen to make International Women's Day the focal point of the observance. Word spread like wildfire, and event started springing up across the nation. Responding to the growing popularity of the event, in 1981 Congress passed a resolution making Women's History Week a national holiday. Within a few years, thousands of schools, communities, and organizations began participating in events, educating people, as well as celebrating Women's History Week. In 1987, National Women's History Month Resolution was approved with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate legally expanding the focus to the whole month of March.

*The theme of National Women's History Month for the year 2008 is visionary female artists. See the honorees.*

In honor of Women's History Month, throughout the course of the month I plan on highlighting some extraordinary women who have made an impact in our world. I look forward to sharing sharing the stories and contributions of some amazing women, both past and present, and hope they inspire you as much as they do me.

Women's Contributions Blog Column

I am proud to announce that I just posted my first column about Women's Contributions at the Women's Empowerment (WE) Etsy Street Team Blog! When the WE Street Team was just organizing, the idea of including this column came up and I was immediately drawn to it. I absolutely love learning about these amazing women (both historical and contemporary) who have made a difference in the lives of women, men, children, humanity at large. My favorite genre book to read is historical fiction with strong female characters. Needless to say, I signed on.

Choosing the first woman to feature was a daunting task, so I hope I did good! You'll have to check it out in order to find out who she is. The hardest part of the whole thing was really limiting the amount of information to give. I kept finding out more and more and wanting to tell her whole story, but had to remind myself that it's a blog post, not a biography. I only hope that there's enough of a snippet of information that it peaks the interest of others to learn more about her and all of the other women I plan to feature.

WE & Women's Equality Day

WE Etsy: Women's Empowerment Street Team

Recently, there was much discussion on the Etsy forums of starting a Women's Empowerment Street Team and I, of course, immediately jumped on board. We are not yet recognized by Etsy as being an official team yet, but there is already so much good stuff going on. You can check out our mission statement at our official blog. I am so excited about this team and look forward to all of the good that will come of it.

As a member of WE, I have volunteered to do a once monthly (probably mid-month) blog profile of a notable woman (either historical or contemporary) who has made contributions to the lives of women. You can look for the first installment mid September at the WE Blog.

Sunday, August 26 is Women's Equality Day

It took women 72 years of ceaseless campaigning to finally win the right to vote in 1920. This Sunday, August 26, Women's Equality Day, marks that anniversary.

I am forever grateful to our foremothers and suffrage leaders such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Victoria Woodhull, Frances Wright, Ernestine Rose, Lucretia Mott, Margaret Fuller, Virginia Minor, Paulina Kellog Wright Davis, and so many others. Through much hardship, these amazing women led the way to secure our right to vote and gave us our voice in our democracy today.

The WE blog will feature these women who gave so much of themselves to secure our freedoms as well as many others who have made enormous contributions to many other aspects of women's lives. I look forward to exploring these women and their lives with all of you as a source of inspiration and, of course, empowerment.