Since 1995, March has been a month to celebrate the great women who’ve contributed to American history. Women’s History Month is a time to learn about and honor the important women in history, as well as inspire young girls to dream big.
The most important part of celebrating Women’s History Month is education and representation.
There are so many great women in history who have made the United States a better place, from political figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Susan B Anthony to mathematicians such as Katherine Golde Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson to civil rights activists like Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks. All of these women made a tremendous impact on our society that is still felt today, and these are only American women. There are so many other incredible female figures around the world and one of the best ways to honor them is to learn about them and what their achievements meant for us.
Representation is another crucial part of Women’s History Month. It is important that young girls and women have role models other than just celebrities; they need to see and learn about women who are scientists, inventors, CEOs, doctors, authors and more. We need to show girls the women who’ve done it, so they believe that they can too. When young girls grow up in full confidence that they can be whatever they put their minds to, they will have a better chance at success, and if young boys grow up hearing about more women who’ve made huge contributions to society, they will be more likely to view women as equals in adulthood. The public education system, especially at the elementary level, has never been good at telling women’s stories as much as they tell men’s. As a result, many students may not even know some of the women listed in the last paragraph. Some great ways to get more representation in schools and even homes are for more English teachers to assign classical and modern books written by female authors like Jane Austen or Mary Shelley, and history teachers to teach students about just as many women as they do men. There are also a great number of documentaries and movies made about real women that students can watch at home such as Hidden Figures and RBG.
Some people will say that there’s already plenty of representation of women in schools and that the concepts of feminism as a whole are harmful to men, but this take is missing the point completely. Women have not always had the same rights that men have, and society has had harmful double standards for centuries that still affect women today. While there may be more representation of women than there was forty years ago, it still isn’t equal, and that is what feminism is at its core, equality. Women should be seen as just as capable as men and just as hard-working. The goal of feminism is for men and women to lift each other up and support one another’s achievements, it is not an attempt to villainize all men or oppress them.
Women’s History Month is important because it inspires young girls to be whatever they want and empowers them to work hard for their dreams. Above all, it is a beautiful celebration of the thousands of women who’ve made a difference for this country and the future.
