I don’t write often in this space, but when I do, it tends to be the time of year when we are pulling away winter’s icy grip and looking towards spring. This is the season of hope. I plant seeds in March, and sometimes it feels like the only thing that gets me through. Seeds are the epitome of hope: tiny magical gems that hold the promise of life, rebirth. The cycle of seasons and the cycle of life have a lot in common and it’s impossible, at least for me, to ignore how powerful a connection we have to these cycles.
Maybe because March is the season of birth and rebirth and hope, it is the month we dedicate to celebrating women. In my day job, I work to empower women in agriculture to overcome barriers and be as successful in their farming careers as men. I don’t see this work as women’s lib or woke but centering women’s perspectives as a core value is inherently feminist. Women in our society face extraordinary challenges, and many of them are invisible. They are shouldering caregiving responsibilities and managing the household, they are balancing the finances and marketing on their social feeds. They put tremendous time, energy, and effort into farming but still, they don’t call themselves farmers. Still, we don’t see them as farmers.
I was asked to write something providing historical context to Women’s History Month. How did it start and how does it feel today? I’m sharing it here so it has a home online and hoping I can find more ways here to be a voice for these issues. No one can hear us if we don’t speak up.
Women’s History Month: How it Started
Celebrating women in American society began as a movement in the 1970s on the tails of Second Wave Feminism. For those unfamiliar with American feminism, this was the era defined by Roe v. Wade and the fight for reproductive freedom. The movement also sought to pull women out of traditional domestic roles and elevate them as equals in society. Along with Roe, landmark victories included the Equal Pay Act (1963) and Title IX (1972). It started conversations about women’s roles and social equity that we are still having today, two generations on.
To recognize this movement, President Jimmy Carter established Women’s History Week in 1980, stating, “Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
Carter went on to celebrate women in politics, referencing Jeannette Rankin, who, in 1917 at the height of the Suffrage movement, became the first woman ever elected to congress. Rankin was a Republican from Montana and is to this day, 109 years later, the only woman ever elected to congress from that state. In the past decade, women have twice earned the nomination for president and been twice defeated, both times by the same man.
Of course, progress rarely moves in a straight line. The journey towards equity is messy business, often lurching forward through catalytic turning points in the status quo. Sometimes, it regresses. Four years ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe, stripping away all federal protections of women’s reproductive rights. The 19th Amendment, granting most women the right to vote, wobbled last month when the House passed the SAVE America Act. The SAVE Act aims to overhaul voter registration requirements which could make it more difficult for women to vote. It disproportionately affects those on the margins and with intersecting identities. By my count, we are now in the fourth wave of feminism still fighting to regain ground that was won and lost by those who came before us.
…And How it’s Going
On the eve of the First World War, Virginia Woolf wrote, “The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.” It’s tempting to be afraid of darkness because it hides the unknown. But even in the most desperate times, it is rich with possibility. It is the work of visionaries to see what cannot yet be seen. The future feels dark right now, but out of darkness comes light.
This moment is hard. But one thing is clear: when women rise, change happens. Women’s History Month reminds us to reflect on the movements that led us here and to celebrate the women leaders, activists, caregivers, and changemakers who shape our society. Take this month as a call to action. Lift up the women around you so that together we build a thriving future for all of us. And above all, never lose hope.
“The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.” | Virginia Woolf