by MITCHELL COTE
Staff Writer
It’s likely you’ve seen them at this point. Posters plastered onto almost every door on campus, with slogans such as the straightforward “The Future Is Female” and the humorous “A Woman Without a Man Is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle!” – but at the end of the day, you’re left wondering. Who put them there? Why have they chosen March? What makes this month different from all other months?
Well, the posters were put there by Ms. Garcia’s Empowering Women Club alongside some help from her math classes. The club made them to celebrate Women’s History Month. This was an upgrade to the original Women’s History Week, first held nationally in 1980 – and even that in itself was just International Women’s Day adjusted for inflation.
International Women’s Day is held on March 8th – the same day a women textile workers’ strike was held back in 1857. Even though the strike may not have even occurred, it was still seen as a big gain for women – so fifty years afterward, women marched through New York to demand equal rights. 2 years later, at the Second International Socialist Women’s Conference, women’s rights advocate Clara Zetkin shared her idea for some kind of day that would celebrate women internationally. Everyone thought it was a good idea and greenlit it – although no one could decide when it should’ve been held at first.
So now it’s 1967. 110 years after that strike that did/didn’t happen, the feminist movement discovered that socialists had come up with a holiday that aligned with their goal to fight for equal rights. So they decided to join the ranks and hold their own celebrations of International Women’s Day. A few years later, the UN decided that they’d celebrate it as well.
The White House issues a proclamation every Women’s History Month and has since 1988. Back then, Reagan stated that the month was “…a time for us to recognize and salute
women’s contributions to the American family and to society.”, while Trump says in 2020 that the month was meant to “…honor the women who have changed our Nation and the world, and… reaffirm our commitment to supporting the next generation of female trailblazers and dreamers as they carry forward this distinguished legacy.”
Some students may not like them, even arguing that true equality would mean not celebrating specifically men or specifically women, but all of humanity. But Women’s History Month will more than likely keep being celebrated into the foreseeable future. And at the end of the day… where’s the harm in that?