Every year, in the month of March, we celebrate the amazing women who have contributed to history, culture, or society. But, it wasn’t always a month-long celebration. It started as a week-long celebration, which was celebrated on the week of March 8th. The week-long celebration was organized by the school district of Sonoma, California, in 1978. The celebration spread between communities and in 1980 president Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8th as National Women’s History Week. A year later, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution establishing it as a national celebration. Six years later, the event was extended to a month, after the National Women’s History Project petitioned to make the celebration longer.

Every year The National Women’s History Alliance announces a theme for Women’s History Month. This year’s theme was “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced”, which is a continuation of last year’s theme. This theme was chosen for 2 consecutive years because the centennial celebration of women gaining the right to vote was last year, 2020, but the celebrations had to be canceled which is why they decided to make it the theme for this year as well.

Another event that happens yearly in March is National Equal Pay Day. This is a day that brings awareness to the gender pay gap. This occurs on a different day each year but this year it was on March 24th. This has to be brought up into focus, especially on Women’s History Month, because women earn less than men, women earn $0.82 per dollar men earn.

There are plenty of women even today making an impact in history. Kamala Harris, for example, is the first woman and Asian-African American vice president in history. We also have Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC. She is the youngest woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. There are women all around the world making an impact not only in history but in culture and economy. There is Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh. Lee Boo-jin is president and chief executive of Hotel Shilla which is one of Seoul’s top lodging and conference centers. She has also served as an advisor for the trading department of Samsung C&T. Stacey Cunningham is the first female president of the New York Stock exchange, the world’s largest stock exchange. These are just some of the many women making an impact in the world today.

Every day we move closer to gender equality with the help of these powerful women. During this month let’s celebrate and appreciate the women we admire.