History of Women's Herstory Month
Did You Know? Womens History Month started as Womens History Week
Womens History Month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a Womens History Week celebration in 1978. The organizers selected the week of March 8 to correspond with International Womens Day. The movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Womens History Week celebrations the following year.
In 1980, a consortium of womens groups and historiansled by the National Womens History Project (now the National Women's History Alliance)successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th 1980 as National Womens History Week.
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Subsequent Presidents continued to proclaim a National Womens History Week in March until 1987 when Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March as Womens History Month. Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Womens History Month. Since 1995, each president has issued an annual proclamations designating the month of March as Womens History Month.
The National Womens History Alliance selects and publishes the yearly theme. The 2019 Womens History Month theme is Visionary Women: Champions of Peace & Nonviolence. The theme honors "women who have led efforts to end war, violence, and injustice and pioneered the use of nonviolence to change society."
https://www.womenshistory.org/events/womens-history-month