Women’s History month cause for rememberance and celebration
Whether a woman considers herself an empowered feminist of the 21st Century or a princess to be adored by all, what she is first is a woman.
The month of March, designated as National Women’s History Month, allows women to celebrate the struggles and accomplishments their predecessors have made so they can be an equal in today’s society.
The history of the National Women’s History Month, however, began as a week-long celebration when leaders of women’s organizations through out the country attended the Women’s History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College in order to discuss the importance of such a week.
Securing an official Congressional Resolution, former President Jimmy Carter made the week of March 8, 1980, the first Women’s History Week. It was made National Women’s History Week in 1981.
However, many women felt the entire month should honor the historical achievements of women.
Begun by Molly Murphy-MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett and Bette Morgan, the National Women’s History Project successfully lobbied Congress into declaring March of 1992 the first National Women’s History Month.
The NWHP, founded in Santa Rosa, Calif., in 1980, is an educational, non-profit organization whose mission is to recognize and celebrate women’s historical accomplishments through the dispersing of information, educational materials and sponsoring programs.
The theme for this year’s National Women’s History Month is “Women Sustaining the American Spirit.”
The six women honored for the 2002 celebration are Alice Coachman, the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field; Dorothy Height, a former President of the National Council of Negro Women for more than 40 years; Dolores Huerta, co-founder and leader of the United Farm Workers Union; Gerda Lerner, a Nazi terrorism survivor and the first woman in 50 years to be elected president of the Organization of American Historians; Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink, the first Asian-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; and Mary Louise Defender Wilson, a storyteller for the Dakotah/Hidatsa people.
Many women on campus will be celebrating this month as well with visits to women-honored programs and by taking notice of the literature supplied for them.
“I would suggest [women] go check out the women’s center on campus,” said Dawn Baggett, a kinesiology junior.
While the month is celebrated throughout the nation to honor women, such as the six listed above, with special programs and informational sessions, today’s women have found alternative ways to celebrate their womanhood – by enjoying the company of the women they call friends.
Rachel Landry, a kinesiology freshman, suggests spending time with friends and watching the movies males generally don’t want to watch.
[“Fried Green Tomatoes”] is a really good friendship movie,” Landry said.
She adds that hanging out with the girls is a good way to catch up on old times.
Like Landry, Mary Cronin, an English senior, also plans to find her camaraderie through her girlfriends.
Cronin has plans to visit Downtown New Orleans with her friends this weekend in lieu of a Pre-St. Patty’s Day get-together.
“I’ll call that celebrating women’s month,” Cronin said.
Cronin also suggests, for a more stay-at home celebration, watching a movie like “Charlie’s Angels.”
“The whole movie is based on how [women] are strong and smart,” Cronin added.
Another movie women may find intriguing this month is “French Kiss,” suggested by secondary education senior, Danielle Graham.
Though the woman in the film, played by Meg Ryan, loses her fiancé, she finds in the end that she does not need him in order to be happy – and the film has a happy ending.
While most of the films may be romantic comedies, each has an overtone that relates to the celebration of National Women’s History Month.
A woman can make it in life without a man and still make way for a future that will be brighter for the women who will follow her.
While not blatantly stated in the film, “French Kiss’s” audience can come to that conclusion on their own.
“It’s a self-realization [movie],” Graham said.
Women’s History month cause for rememberance and celebration
February 20, 2002