Happy first day of Women’s History month!!!

              Happy first day of Women’s History month!!! This month of March celebrates the roles women have played in history, from sciences, literature, war, and etc. I suppose you could celebrate your mother and your female ancestors, as well. In 1987 Congress officially declared the month of March for the National Women’s History. So why do we even have this month in the first place? What about Men’s history month? Well there is a day called International Men’s day, so don’t get to down trodden for men. The reason we have these months, in the United States at least, is just for remembrance of minority groups. Most schools teach about…well…white men, I would say straight men but some of the famous men were not even close to being straight. Often the influences of minority people’s like African Americans and women are ignored by textbook writers, which creates this blackhole of representation. There have been numerous men who took credit for women’s work in sciences, like in DNA. Women created the computer field and wrote some of the most important code.

              No one is saying that men like Washington or King Henry or whomever, were not important people and shouldn’t be taught. On the contrary, these peoples are very important, but what about other important people in history? These months help people reflect upon histories that most people are not taught in school. It allows for us to go…oh, maybe I should read a book with a female character this month. It is a wonderful month to celebrate women, like your mom or a scientist and learn something new. What I can’t wrap my mind around is the people who complain about these history months as being unfair. How are these months unfair? The history taught in schools are on white Christian men, sometimes with a speck of a Black man like Fredrick Douglas or Martin Luther King Jr. Most school textbooks do not discuss the importance of the Harlem Renaissance to the world, or even have kids read Fredrick Douglas’s narrative or any African American work. Women also glossed over in history books, and female authors may get their due in school curriculum. In my school the only book that was required to read that was written by a female was To Kill a Mocking Bird. It’s obvious that most women were not writing in Shakespeare time, but there were plenty of women writing in the 1800s and on, many are classics too.

         Teachers do not have to teach children black history or women history in these months either. A teacher may decide to show a video or have children do a fun worksheet to learn about someone new. The truth is, these months are really more for remembrance and for the average person not in school. Maybe in the future schools will be able to write a textbook, that includes important historical moments that include all Americans. Maybe when children take world history in Highschool or Middle School, they actually learn World History and not just the bare minimum of European history. So, to those people who hate these months, you literally have no point because no one is forcing anyone to teach solely on these topics. Another point is, why do you hate learning something new?


So anyway happy Women History Month!