"Women’s History Month began in 1978, in Sonoma, California as a weeklong celebration of women and their contributions to history and society. In the following years, this idea caught on, and spread to other communities throughout the nation. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter became the first president to declare a National Women’s History Week, during March 8th. The next year, Congress passed a resolution for the week-long celebration of women. Six years after that, after efforts by the Women’s History Project, Congress expanded the celebration to the entire month of March.

What is the purpose of National Women’s History Month? It was implemented because the narrative of women and the culture and history they have built in the United States is so often left out of what we teach. Our government recognizes Black History Month (February), Women’s History Month (March), Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), National American Indian Heritage Month (November), and more, because they are not a part of our mainstream education. And many of these months aren’t recognized as much as they should be in schools. The majority of our education system in the United States teaches a very white-washed version of history. Not to say that isn’t history, but it definitely isn’t all of it. We recognize these months to pay tribute to the history and culture these groups have added to enrich the United States.

We recognize Women’s History Month to teach what women have done, and to help inspire women to fulfill their true potential. Women were at the forefront of the gender-based violence, domestic violence, and sexual violence prevention movements, and continue to lead the way to a world without violence. Break the Cycle featured a few of those incredible women in their TRAILBLAZERS series about the activists that began and continue the movements, highlighting how their identities influence their work. Women make up about 51% of the population in the United States so when women succeed, we all succeed."

-Quoted from Break the Cycle. To learn more, please visit https://www.breakthecycle.org/