Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month, first celebrated in 1987, gets little attention. Local TV stations no longer even bother to run public service spots about notable women during March. Yet how much do we know about women’s achievements–past and present–and how much are our children being taught about what women have accomplished?
Anthropologists agree that it’s been about 12,000 years since the first women arrived in North America via the Bering land bridge from Asia. That would seem to be long enough time for women to have established themselves historically.
But the efforts of historians and feminists in the past few decades notwithstanding, there are many accomplishments by women that may never come to light. How many more undiscovered women who should have been famous have yet to be revealed because until very recently history was written by men about men?
The feminist theologian Mary Daly, who died in January, wrote extensively about the importance of uncovering the heretofore hidden achievements of women and devoted her academic life to that end. Daly also cited the importance of cataloguing the work of women as it happens, as well.
Nevertheless, how many singular women have our schoolchildren, female and male, been taught about?
One of the most important women in American history is Jane Addams. The founder of the modern social work movement, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, co-founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and first American woman to win the Nobel Peace prize, Addams revolutionized American life with her Settlement movement.
Sojourner Truth was a former slave who became one of the leading abolitionists and women’s rights advocates of the 19th century. Her speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” became a rallying point for both abolitionists and suffragists.
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman doctor in the U.S. and with her sister Emily, also a doctor, founded the first women’s health clinics. Dr. Alice Hamilton’s work in occupational health led to the founding of OSHA. Hamilton investigated the health problems faced by factory workers and also worked extensively with immigrant populations in tenement housing to get them much-needed health care.
Maria Mitchell was the first woman astronomer in the U.S. But it would be 140 years later that Sally Ride would become the first woman astronaut to enter space. It was another 12 years–1999–before Lt. Col. Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
Anne Bradstreet was the first woman writer to be published in the U.S.–in 1650. But it was nearly three centuries–in 1921–before a woman writer would receive a serious literary award in the U.S. That year Edith Wharton became the first woman to win the most coveted American literary award, the Pulitzer Prize. And it was 1992 before the first woman, Mona van Duyn, was appointed Poet Laureate of the U.S.
In Philadelphia in 1795, Anne Parrish established the first charitable organization for women in the U.S. In 1881, a nurse, Clara Barton, founded the American Red Cross.
There are many other names to list of notable women. Madame C.J. Walker was an African-American entrepreneur whose line of beauty products became so successful that Walker was the first woman in the world to become a millionaire through her own work.
As profound as these achievements are, it’s important to note that women are still struggling to break through various barriers because discrimination has held women back for centuries. (It wasn’t until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that discrimination on the basis of race and gender was made illegal.)
Consider, for example, that Elizabeth Blackwell received her medical degree in 1849, but that it would be 1960 before the first woman, Sofia Ionescu, became a neurosurgeon.
In 1707, Henrietta Johnston became the first American woman professional painter, but it wasn’t until 1848 that the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia became the first art college to admit female students. It would be another 20 years before women would be allowed to attend life classes at the school.
In 1896, Alice Guy Blaché, the first American woman film maker, shot the first of her 300 films. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director.
In 1916, Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. It was 1922 before Rebecca Felton of Georgia became the first woman senator. In 2010, a record number of women are currently serving in the Congress–74 in the House and 16 in the Senate. That number is far less impressive, however, when one considers that there are 435 members of the House and 100 senators–and that women represent 53 percent of the U.S. population.
It wasn’t until the Clinton Administration that the two most important posts in the Cabinet–Secretary of State and Attorney General–would be held by women for the first time. Bill Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright for Secretary of State in 1996 and Janet Reno as A.G. in 1993.
In 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president in the U.S. She was nominated by the National Radical Reformers and women had yet to win the vote–that wouldn’t come until 1920. Yet it was 2008 before a woman, Hillary Clinton, would be a candidate from a major political party, winning the popular vote but losing the delegate count in the closest political primary in U.S. history.
March 18, one more first was added to the list of women’s achievements when Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool became the first lesbian to be consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church in the U.S.
Women continue to struggle against discrimination, which makes achievements like these all the more impressive. But unless we teach our children–and ourselves–what women are and have been capable of, then Women’s History Month is nothing more than lip-service to equal rights and March is more about NCAA basketball than it is about what women have done for America and the world. —VAB
