Women’s History Month, which just finished its annual March run, has only been around since the 1980s. It was International Women’s Day first, and then Women’s History Week, until Congress decided that, like Beyonce belts out in her song “Run the World (Girls),” girls do in fact run the world, therefore, there should probably be a month dedicated to the mothers of mankind.
They celebrate it in Australia, Canada, and the US. Each year and each country has a theme; in the past, it has been “Women’s Education- Women’s Empowerment” and “Women in the Business of Food” in the US and Australia, respectively. I had no idea about any of this information until I started researching for this article.
As much as the government tries to promote the month, incorporating it into curriculums and sponsoring lectures through-out the country, the truth is that people don’t really care to notice just how awesome women are, including women themselves.
We as females are blessed not only with the ability to act crazy once a month and get away with it, but we also get to perform the most important act of all: giving birth to scrunchey-faced, pudgy-armed babies that will one day grow up to be the next Barack Obama, Russell Brand, Jesse James or Ke$ha (well, hopefully we won’t produce another Ke$ha).
While many in the Women’s History Month crows want to focus solely on the same female accomplishments in traditionally male-dominated fields like math and engineering that we always hear about, we are forgetting about all the other important ladies out there who found their calling in other areas the same way that Marie Curie and Elizabeth Blackwell did.
Australia has realized this, naming many of their themes with mothers, musicians, and unconventional females in mind. In 2005, their month focused on “Celebrating Racy Women” like writer and and divorcee Jessie Couvreau “Tasma” and jockey Wilhelmina “Bill” Smith, who lived her entire life as a man in order to accomplish her horse-riding goals. These are the kind of women we should be learning about!
Yes, it is important to learn about the scientists and the engineers and the mathematicians, but the United States’ history month should also include some badass mamas breaking rules and celebrating their femininity (because, though Bill dressed as a man, her success showed the jockey world that women can do anything men can do).
Next year, let’s bag the “Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” and focus on some famous ladies like Georgia O’Keefe and Julia Child, successful females who expanded traditionally “feminine” crafts, as well as fascinating “racy” women like Smith.