March is Women's History Month

Provided by Prince William County:

Every year since 1987, March is set aside as Women’s History Month to recognize and celebrate women’s contributions to society, culture, science, the arts and history.

The origins of National Women’s History began in 1981 when the U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing and requesting the president to designate the week of March 7, 1982, as Women’s History Week.  At Congressional request, President Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation to recognize the first Women’s History Week, according to the Library of Congress website.

Over the next five years, Congress passed joint resolutions to request and authorize presidents to issue proclamations to designate a week in March as Women’s History Week.

In 1987, at the request of the National Women’s History Project, the U.S. Congress asked President Reagan to proclaim March as Women’s History Month to honor the struggles American women have made to achieve rights for themselves and for other disenfranchised and under-represented groups in the United States.

The proclamation read:

“American women of every race, creed and ethnic background helped found and build our Nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways … As leaders in public affairs, American women not only worked to secure their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also were principal advocates in the abolitionist, temperance, mental health reform, industrial labor and social reform movements, as well as the modern civil rights movement.”

Since 1987, Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump declared March as Women’s History Month and issued proclamations to inform the public and recognize the contributions women have made to the United States.