6 Articles to Read:
To Enhance Your Knowledge of Women’s History and Gender Inequality
March is Women’s History Month! Women’s History Month began in 1987 and is a dedicated month to celebrate the often-overlooked contributions of women to United States history. Here are 6 articles to get you started on enhancing your knowledge of women’s history.
1. Women’s History Milestones
Women’s history is full of trailblazers in the fight for equality in the United States. From Abigail Adams imploring her husband to “remember the ladies” when envisioning a government for the American colonies, to suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fighting for women's right to vote, to the rise of feminism and Hillary Clinton becoming the first female nominee for president by a major political party, American women have long fought for equal footing throughout the nation’s history.
2. Feminism’s Long History
Feminism, a belief in the political, economic and cultural equality of women, has roots in the earliest eras of human civilization. It is typically separated into three waves: first wave feminism, dealing with property rights and the right to vote; second wave feminism, focusing on equality and anti-discrimination, and third wave feminism, which started in the 1990s as a backlash to the second wave’s perceived privileging of white, straight women.
3. Women’s Suffrage
The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. But on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
4. History Vault: Women of History
Women’s History Month can trace its origins to a small-town school event in Sonoma, California, in 1978. That year, presentations were given at dozens of schools, hundreds of students participated in a “Real Woman” essay contest and a parade was held in downtown Santa Rosa. A few years later, the idea caught on within communities, school districts and organizations across the country, and in 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, as National Women’s History Week.
5. 50 Female Entrepreneurs Everyone Should Know
For Women’s History Month, we are highlighting 50 female entrepreneurs to watch in 2019. These women are solving problems and producing innovative solutions, for all members of society.
6. Economic inequality by gender
In this entry we present data and research on economic inequalities between men and women. Whenever the data allows it, we also discuss how these inequalities have been changing over time.
As we show, although economic gender inequalities remain common and large, they are today smaller than they used to be some decades ago.
Education is not only for the four walls of your school! Take it upon yourself to learn and educate yourself on the events that may not be covered in your school. Women’s history is not only for March but every month. Celebrate the women in your life and leading in our country!