The remarkable relationships we share with the women in our lives help shape us into the people we are today. Throughout history, incredible women have fought for equality and justice for all, paving the way for a brighter future.
From the women we are lucky enough to call our dearest loved ones to our ancestors whose stories we pass on, looking back is what propels us into the future. To honor these women’s impact and legacy, we share the stories of the brave women who came before us and paved the path we walk today.
Women’s History Month is a time to honor important women from our nation’s history and celebrate the key part that women played in writing the grander narrative that changed our society for the better. It’s also a thoughtful time to celebrate the women in your own life who have impacted you, your family, and your community.
What Is Women’s History Month?
Women’s History Month takes place during the month of March. It is a time to honor the women who have played vital roles in American History and celebrate their incredible achievements, as well as women who are special to you. You can use the holiday as a chance to show the remarkable women in your life how much you love them as you celebrate historic women together.
Women’s History Month is also a time to explore the great strides society has made by reflecting on how far we have come. While there is still plenty of work to be done, these courageous women opened the door to many opportunities and freedoms that many take for granted today.
You may know women who devote their lives to bettering their communities and society as a whole — or you are one yourself. These difference-makers are just as much a part of Women’s History Month as the historical figures whose impact and legacy we’re celebrating.
There are many ways to embrace Women’s History Month and honor the remarkable women who came before us and are still with us. Today, we’re exploring ways to honor Women’s History Month in the workplace, in school, and in our homes this year.
How Did Women’s History Month Originate?
Women’s History Month began as Women’s History Week in 1978. What started as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California, gained traction as other surrounding communities heard about this opportunity to share the story of the brave women who came before us. The movement of Women’s History Week spread until it became a nationally recognized holiday.
The National Women’s History Project — now known as the National Women’s History Alliance — lobbied for Women’s History Week to be celebrated collectively as a nation. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced that the week of March 8, 1980, would be the first recognized National Women’s History Week.
In 1987, congress passed a public law that designated March as Women’s History Month. As of 1995, every March has been recognized presidentially and nationally as Women’s History Month.
Why Do We Celebrate Women’s History Month?
Unfortunately, the accomplishments of women in our nation’s history are often overlooked or not given the attention they deserve. Evolving from a country where women were not able to vote to today’s strides towards gender equality did not happen overnight — or without sacrifice.
Although we still have plenty of ground to cover before our work is truly done, we celebrate Women’s History Month so that we always remember the stories of the incredible women who paved the way for modern women’s rights. We celebrate these historical women so that we can cheer on our present-day loved ones better.
Ideas For Personal Celebration
Women’s History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the lives of the remarkable women who paved the way for today’s great female thinkers, artists, activists, and scholars, but it’s also a chance to honor the lives of the incredible women who have touched our lives personally and profoundly.
There are many ways to honor women during this month-long observance, from group activities to personal reflections. First, let’s explore ways you can celebrate women through personal reflection with friends and family.
Read Books by Female Authors
Literature can be a clear window into a writer’s heart and soul. It allows the reader to see the world through the lens of the author, putting themselves in her shoes and walking through life as she did. Choosing to spend Women’s History Month by reading books by female authors is a great way to honor women and better understand the paths they’ve carved out for each of us.
This Women’s History Month, start your journey by creating a reading wish list of books by female authors.
You can even take your experience deeper and gather friends for a book club. This is a great way to spend more time reflecting on the book and the author’s point of view.
Create a Playlist
Creating a playlist of women artists is another way to honor women all Women’s History Month long. A fun and creative way to make a playlist is to include women musicians spanning different decades and eras of music.
You can listen to this playlist wherever you roam, combining old favorites with new discoveries for a deeper understanding of women’s emotions spanning all walks of life.
Listen To a Podcast
Podcasts are fun and interactive ways to hear different perspectives. If you want something you can listen to on the go, a podcast is a great way to dive deeper into topics ranging from history to technology to celebrity gossip. Spend Women’s History Month giving attention to podcasts hosted by women and supporting new female podcasters.
Listening to podcasts by women is a great way to lift female voices in our society. Focusing on the empowerment of women today is a great way to pay tribute to incredible women in history you may not have heard of before. The more we support women, the more this will encourage other women to make their voices heard.
Write Cards for Impactful Women in Your Life
One of the best ways to honor Women’s History Month is by highlighting the impact of women you know and love. You can do this by writing meaningful, personal cards and sending them in the mail or delivering them by hand.
If you want to make a special woman in your life feel celebrated, writing them a card is a perfect place to start. Use this simple gesture as an opportunity to recognize and affirm their hard work as a mother, spouse, friend, sister, co-worker, teacher, or community member.
Explore Women’s History
Refreshing your knowledge of women’s history is a wonderful place to start when preparing to enter Women’s History Month. Exposing your mind to the sobering realities of the limitations once faced by American women allows for greater celebration and appreciation of women’s rights today.
Take some time this month to read about the history of women’s rights in America and spruce up your knowledge of the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement.
A fun idea to dive into your newly refreshed knowledge could be to host a women’s history trivia night. Gather some friends and have fun learning about women’s history together. This encourages those around us to spend time studying women’s history for themselves and provides an opportunity to share stories about the remarkable women in history whose stories have touched our hearts.
Spread Awareness
In an age where news travels instantaneously through social media platforms, spreading awareness in an online post is an incredible way to celebrate Women’s History Month. Remind those in your e-community of the importance of this celebration and take some time to spotlight an important figure in women’s history.
Encourage those who follow you to do the same, and continue spreading these remarkable stories all month long!
Host an Event
There are plenty of ways you can encourage your friends and family to come together to reflect on the achievements of the remarkable women in history and in your communities.
You could choose to host an event in which each one of your guests dresses up as their female role model in American history. You could also choose to role play important events in women’s history, such as the Seneca Falls convention or the first election in which women were allowed to vote. No matter what we choose, this is an incredible opportunity to share stories about our loved ones and the women who shaped us into the people we are today.
Support a Women’s Nonprofit Organization
Partnering with a local nonprofit that supports women is a great way to give back during Women’s History Month. This could look like contributing financially, giving your time to help with projects, or finding other ways to support the nonprofit’s efforts in your city.
Nonprofits working with women and girls encompass causes from supporting girls rescued from trafficking to mentoring teen girls aging out of the foster care system to supporting homeless women and girls. Investing in the women and girls in your community is an important way to empower them and inspire the great activists of the future.
Support Female Entrepreneurs
Supporting women in the marketplace is also a fantastic way to celebrate Women’s History Month. Shop at women-owned local businesses for the month of March. If you have a chance to meet any of the business owners, take time to hear their stories about how they accomplished all that they did. Ask them about any hurdles or challenges they faced along the way to entrepreneurial success.
Honor the Remarkable Women You’ve Known
While many women throughout history have touched our lives, Women’s History Month is also an opportunity to remember our incredible female loved ones who have passed on.
Whether we choose to host a celebration of life to share the stories of our remarkable loved ones or create a portable memorial to carry their memory with us wherever you roam, Women’s History Month can help us honor the impact and legacy of the diamonds in our lives.
Celebrating in the Workplace
Celebrating Women’s History Month doesn’t have to end at home. Take time to spread awareness about the importance of this occasion with your coworkers. Here are a few ways to bring Women’s History Month festivities to the office:
Quote of the Day
Perhaps your office enjoys daily encouragement or motivational quotes. Consider honoring the incredible women in history by keeping their words alive in your workplace. Take time to print out a quote of the day and put it up on the office bulletin board, or send a daily email to your coworkers with the quote of the day.
You can also take this opportunity to highlight the incredible women you know and love in your office by giving them a platform to share wisdom and words of encouragement.
Invite Guest Speakers
Inviting female guest speakers into the office is a wonderful way to uplift women’s voices during Women’s History Month. You can choose guest speakers who specialize in your field for the purpose of professional development or have guest speakers present on topics such as women’s empowerment and equality in the workplace.
Bulletin Boards
Decorating bulletin boards for Women’s History Month is an easy and effective way to spread awareness throughout the office. Take time to honor the lives of influential women in history by posting their pictures on the bulletin board and sharing their stories.
Bulletin boards can also include interactive activities for coworkers to celebrate their remarkable loved ones. Have each employee write about or put up a picture of the most influential women in their lives. Together, the office can take the time to share memories and honor the women who have impacted their lives.
Office Parties
If office life is getting a little too mundane, you’re probably looking for any excuse to throw a party. There’s no better reason to celebrate than sharing the stories of the remarkable women in your lives. Set aside some time (or the whole day!) on International Women’s Day to throw a party honoring women.
Spend this time spotlighting the women in your office and the strengths that they bring to the team. Bring in women caterers in the area to provide the food or small office gifts from female-owned businesses, and encourage the women in your office to speak about the mentors and relationships that have inspired them over the years.
Notes of Encouragement
A practical and simple way to honor the women in your workplace is by writing notes of encouragement. Create a system so that each woman in the workplace receives a small note or word of encouragement each day of Women’s History Month to show how much you care.
Celebrating in Schools
If you are a teacher thinking about ways to teach or raise awareness during Women’s History Month, here are a few ideas:
Hall of Fame
Creating a classroom hall of fame is a thoughtful way for students to conduct more in-depth research on historical figures in women’s history. At the beginning of March, have each student select one woman who played a significant role in American history.
Depending on the grade level, provide appropriate assistance in researching the women of their choosing, then provide outlines of key facts that students should include in their presentations.
Once students have completed their research, have them write a summary of the life and accomplishments of their historical figure. Finish by having each student draw a portrait of the woman they chose.
Aim to slowly work on this project throughout the month of March and have students share about the historical figure they chose. Once all students have presented, post each picture with a blurb summarizing their achievements.
By deeply reflecting on the achievements of these remarkable women, we can continue their impact and legacy in the hearts and minds of an entirely new generation.
A Timeline of Achievements
Constructing a timeline as a classroom visual is an effective way to highlight important events and dates in women’s history. Have students draw pictures to represent key events in American history regarding women’s rights. Highlight events in the Women’s Suffrage Movement as well as women’s accomplishments and contributions to our nation’s history.
Include the date, a picture, and a short description of each event on the timeline. Once your class has collectively completed the timeline, hang it up in the classroom for the remainder of Women’s History Month.
Letters to Historical Women
Writing letters to famous women in history is a fun and creative way to engage your students during Women’s History Month and help create an emotional connection to these remarkable women from the past.
Have each student select an important figure in women’s history as their recipient. Their letter should acknowledge the accomplishments and contributions of the historical figure they are writing to, as well as an understanding of the emotional impact their work has left on women throughout the generations.
Field Trips
If you are looking for an interactive activity to engage your students in for Women’s History Month, consider taking your students on a field trip. An idea for an in-school field trip would be to create a mock election for students. Have students fill out a ballet and imagine what it would have been like to be a woman voting for the first time.
Reflecting on the experience together as a class is a thoughtful way to have your students stand in the shoes of the women who came before them and better understand their impact on our rights today.
Important Dates in Women’s History
As you plan your Women’s History Month celebrations, it’s important to know the vast history of women’s accomplishments in the United States. Sharing the stories of these remarkable women helps keep their legacy and memory alive.
While not an all-encompassing list, here are a few major dates in history to remember as we enter Women’s History Month:
- July 19th and 20th, 1848: Seneca Falls Convention. This convention was the first Women’s Rights Convention that was organized by women for women. At this convention, the Declaration of Sentiments is signed, a document that paved the way for decades of activist movements.
- May 29, 1851: Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. This Women’s Rights Convention is where Sojourner Truth delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. Truth was a formerly enslaved woman who became a strong voice for women’s rights.
- December 10, 1869: Women’s suffrage in Wyoming. Wyoming becomes the first state to pass a law allowing women to vote and hold office. This is the first step in the national women’s suffrage movement.
- May 15, 1869: National Woman Suffrage Association is founded. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began this group that started the national women’s suffrage movement.
- April 2, 1917: First Woman Elected to The House of Representatives. Jeannette Rankin, an activist from Montana, was elected as the first woman member of Congress.
- August 18, 1920: Ratification of the 19th Amendment. On this day, it was declared that the right to vote should not be determined by the gender of an individual. Nationwide, women were granted the right to vote on this day.
These important dates in history gave way to many after them. Fast forward to dates like July 26, 2016, when Hilary Clinton became the first woman to receive a presidential nomination, or January 20, 2021, when Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman and first woman of color to be elected Vice President — even today, history is being made by remarkable women across the country.
Important Women In History
Now that we have shed light on some important milestones in women’s history, we’ll highlight some key female figures in the Women’s Rights movement.
Female Activists
Voices only become stronger when they come together in unison. The women’s suffrage movement that gave way to voting rights and the Civil Rights Movement that brought the Equal Pay Act into being were the life’s work of many remarkable women. These women went against the grain of their society to make a better nation, one where every voice had the right to be heard. A few of these voices and other remarkable women across the globe are highlighted here.
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony was a women’s rights activist born in 1820. She became one of the leading voices in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and traveled across the country to deliver speeches about equal pay, labor rights, and a woman’s right to vote.
Anthony also co-founded the American Equal Rights Association and became co-editor of The Revolution, a newspaper written by the American Equal Rights Association to spread ideas about women’s suffrage and equality for women.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white male in 1955, although her long history of activism ahead of this iconic moment is often overlooked.
Park’s refusal sparked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by her actions, Martin Luther King Jr. led what was known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This boycott lasted a year and ended in the Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional.
Parks was a trailblazer and an inspirational voice for both women and Black Americans.
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai is a female education activist who paved the way for women in Pakistan to receive an education after this opportunity was taken away by the Pakistani Taliban. At the age of 15, Malala Yousafzai survived an assassination attempt against her after being targeted due to her activism.
Her bravery gained global recognition, and she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in history at the age of 17.
Her fight for the rights of education for young girls resulted in global renown, including a prolific speech to the United Nations and a book called I am Malala detailing her activism thus far and educating the public on the realities of life and politics in Pakistan.
Female Authors and Artists
Beyond the activists who fought for the rights of women worldwide, we celebrate the female authors and artists whose work shed light on women’s internal worlds and paved the way for female creatives to share their voices.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was an American civil rights activist, poet, and author born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up in Arkansas with her grandmother, Angelou experienced racism and discrimination that led her to selective mutism throughout her childhood.
Finding her voice once again, Maya went on to excel in her acting career, receiving a Tony Award nomination for a play called Look Away as well as an Emmy Award nomination for her role in Roots.
Amidst all her accomplishments, Angelou is perhaps most well-known for her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This became the first bestselling nonfiction work written by an African American woman.
Frida Kalo
Frida Kalo is a Mexican painter who lived from 1907 until 1954. Frida Kalo was known for creating beautiful and bright-colored self-portraits that represented topics such as identity and death. Kalo was injured in a serious bus accident in 1925 and became disabled after contracting polio when she was six. She was known for painting her disabilities and injuries.
Using a style of painting called surrealism, Kalo’s art was an attempt to represent ideas of the subconscious mind. They were often at the intersection of realistic and abstract ideas. Kalo never hid her imperfections — in fact, she proudly embraced them, becoming known for her unapologetic and uncompromising work.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe was a famous painter born in 1887. O’Keeffe predominately painted florals and landscapes, and she paved the way for women artists as one of the first recognized female painters in the art world in 1920.
O’Keeffe was known for a style of art called realism, which aims to represent the world in an authentic manner. Many referred to her as the first female American modernist.
O’Keeffe became the first woman to have her work showcased at the Museum of Modern Art, and she was a recipient of the Gold Medal of Painting, the Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of Arts.
Moms, Spouses and Sisters
Some of the most impactful women in history aren’t celebrities at all. Instead, they’re your mother, sister, spouse, or another remarkable woman in your life who has loved you unconditionally for years or decades.
These life-changing women deserve to be celebrated year-round, but Women’s History Month provides a unique opportunity to highlight your loved ones more than ever. Use the month as a time to remind the women in your life of your love for them, how they’ve impacted you, and how proud you are to know them.
Celebrating Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month is a time to honor the women in our lives and famous trailblazers in women’s history. It is a time to remember how far our nation has come in terms of freedom for women and equal rights, and it’s a time to celebrate the incredible loved ones who inspire us every day. Remind the women you love this March just how valuable they are through gifts, celebrations, and education.
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Women's History Month | Women's History Month
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