Sharing Women's History Month facts and the stories of historic women isn't insignificant — it helps celebrate those women who paved the way, and those who are fighting for and representing women now.
Every Women's History Month has a theme.
The 2022 theme is "Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." This theme is "both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history. National Women’s History Alliance
More women are earning college degrees than men.
Women are outnumbering men in earning postsecondary degrees. According to 2021 data from the Education Data Initiative, 59% of women continued their education after high school, compared to 50% of men.
BUT THE PAY GAP STILL EXISTS
Despite the ever-growing number of women getting degrees, and the gender pay gap narrowing by less than half a cent per year since the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, according to Forbes.com. Women are paid 82 cents for every dollar that a man makes, with that gap widening even more for women of color.
Women make up 57.8 percent of the labor force.
And nearly a million women returned to the workforce in 2021, almost double that of men. According to the 19th, 3.3 million of all the jobs added to the economy went to women, while 3.1 million went to men.
The 19th amendment didn't give all women the right to vote.
The 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was signed into law on August 26, 1920. But at the time, a number of other laws prohibited Native American women, Black women, Asian American women, and Latin women from voting, among others. It wasn't until 1924 that Native women born in the United States were granted citizenship, allowing them to vote. It wasn't until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, that discriminatory tactics such as literacy tests were outlawed, and all women could vote.
Women’s History Month became a permanent in 1987
While the celebration remained just a week at the federal level, nearly a third of U.S. states took it upon themselves to extend the recognition to a full month by 1986. As more and more states moved to create Women’s History Months of their own, the federal government followed suit.
Notable women it honors
Among the notable figures often spotlighted during Women’s History Month are Sacagawea, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought for equality for women in the mid-19th century, more than 70 years. Harriet Tubman, Madeleine Albright, who became the first female Secretary of State in 1996; and Misty Copeland, the first African-American woman to be named a principal dancer—the highest level—in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theatre in 2015.
March is a time to honor the trailblazers of the past—including suffragists, politicians, inventors, and artists—as well as discuss the pressing issues women face today.
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