By Erendy Torres |Staff Writer|
March is Women’s History Month.
It is the month in which we honor all the humanitarian and memorable women who have made a difference and fought for equal rights.
Notable women who are often mentioned are Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, but all women are celebrated during this month.
More specifically, March 8 is the globally recognized “International Women’s Day.”
“International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for celebrating accelerating gender parity,” as stated on the website InternationalWomensDay.com.
The idea of celebrating women emerged during the early 1980s.
Initially, only one week of March was designated to celebrate women.
“Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as ‘Women’s History Week,'” as stated in the “Women’s History Month” official website.
For the next five years, Congress assigned a week of March for women’s history celebration, since an official week was never established.
In 1987, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) petitioned to have the full month of March dedicated to women.
“Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as ‘Women’s History Month,'” as declared in the WHM official website.
The Women’s Resource Center at CSUSB is celebrating the month of March by putting out several events honoring women, such as daily trivia about women’s history on social media and a Feminist Comedy Night.
“I think it is awesome that we have a month dedicated to women. Not only do they bring us into this world, but they are all in one: mothers, sisters; professionals, cooks, nurses, counselors […] they basically take on every role in our lives,” said student Makenna Doyle.
Reserving a month or even a day to celebrate women remains important to this day.
Though women have accomplished several important goals and milestones throughout history like voting rights and the liberty to use contraceptives, there are many more milestones that need to be fulfilled.
“It’s unfair how we often talk about women being equal to men, yet that ‘equality’ is not reflected in our salary,” continued Doyle.
There are still some countries that do not recognize equality for women.
Even here in the United States, a gender pay gap still exists.
“Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not the main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men,” as stated on the website, Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).
Though women have come along way throughout history and that itself is a reason for celebration, recognition should be reflected by establishing full equality between both genders.
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