5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Women’s History Month

Here at 1Huddle, we are dedicated to celebrating and uplifting women all year long, and March gives us a special opportunity to step back and recognize some of the women who have made an immeasurable impact on our society. 

For the 31 days of Women’s History Month, we are recognizing a new woman each day who has made lasting contributions to our workforce in every industry — from leaders who are making a social impact in the world now, to women from decades past who helped us get to where we are today. Women’s History Month gives us a chance to celebrate these remarkable women, but it’s also important to look back on how Women’s History Month first came to be. 

You might be wondering: Why is Women’s History Month in March? Or maybe you’re wondering: Who invented Women’s History Month? Or, where was the first place to officially recognize Women’s History Month? If you’ve been pining to learn more about the history and origins of Women’s History Month, then we’ve got you covered. 

Read on to find out five facts you probably didn’t know (but need to) about Women’s History Month:

1. How did Women’s History Month start?

Women’s History Month began as a single day in 1908 when more than 15,000 women marched through the New York City streets demanding shorter working hours, better pay, and the right to vote. 

A year later, on February 28, 1909, suffragists and members of the Socialist Party came together in Manhattan to celebrate the march that had taken place a year ago, and they called that meeting  the first International Women’s Day.

While the day first took place in America, it actually gained international recognition before circling back to the U.S. That’s because of a German activist named Clara Zetkin who was attending the International Conference of Working Women in 1910. Seventeen countries were attending the conference in Copenhagen, and Zetkin suggested that they should all recognize International Women’s Day at the conference. The idea was unanimously agreed upon, and a year later, on March 8, 1911, the first official International Women’s Day was celebrated in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Denmark. 

The celebration spread throughout much of Europe in the early 1900s, but the U.S. didn’t begin widely celebrating it until 1975. That’s because the Socialist Party of America was the group that declared the first National Woman’s Day, back in 1909, which made it unpopular and polarizing for many Americans at the time. 

But in 1975 it became widely celebrated in the United States after the United Nations began sponsoring it as an official international celebration.

2. How did International Women’s Day turn into Women’s History Month?

So, now you know about the history of International Women’s Day, but you’re probably wondering: When did it become a month-long celebration?

You’ve probably heard of Title IX, which is a federal civil rights law in the U.S. that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal money, but at the time of its passage many schools were not actually enforcing it. 

So in 1977, a task force in California created Women’s History Week as a way to persuade school principals to comply with the recently passed Title IX Act. The week was intended to celebrate women’s accomplishments, and it soon spread much further than just California. By the Spring of 1980, celebrations had spread across America, and President Jimmy Carter declared March 8 as the official start of National Women’s History Week. 

That same year, two members of Congress — Barbara Mikulski and Orrin Hatch — co-sponsored the first bipartisan legislation that officially declared the week of March 8, 1981, National Women’s History Week.

Seven years later in 1987, Congress declared the entire month of March as Women’s History Month. Since then, every U.S. president has followed suit and declared March as Women’s History Month.

3. Does Women’s History Month Have a Theme?

Yes it does! Every year, the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA) chooses an annual theme for Women’s History Month. This year’s theme is a continuation of last year’s — since many of the women’s suffrage centennial celebrations originally scheduled for 2020 were affected by the pandemic.

The 2021 official Women’s History Month theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.” 

NWHA chose this theme because “the National Women’s History Alliance is determined that the important roles of multicultural suffragists and voting rights activists continue to be recognized and honored. We refuse to allow their voices to be silenced, even by a pandemic.”

4. What historical dates should you know during Women’s History Month?

• March 8, 1911: International Women’s Day, which was established in 1911, is celebrated on March 8 by countries across the globe.
  
• March 3, 1913: The Woman Suffrage Procession, which was the first large, organized march on Washington, happened on March 3, 1913. It was organized by leading suffragists including Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. The parade was created to “march in a spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded.”
  
• March 1917: The National Woman’s Party, which was dedicated to getting women the right to vote, was formed in March 1917.
  
• March 1, 1972: Title IX was passed on passed on March 1, 1972, and it remains one of the most important anti-discrimination laws in higher education today.
  
• March 22, 1972: The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was designed to guarantee the “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex,” was passed in the Senate on this day. It was written and introduced to Congress by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman in 1923. Now, nearly a century later, the ERA still has not been ratified. However, there is still an ongoing movement to finally pass the ERA and guarantee women equal rights with men under the Constitution.
  

5. The 5th fact you need to know about Women’s History Month is…

Want to find out our fifth and final Women’s History Month fact? Then all you need to do is correctly answer this question from 1Huddle’s Women’s History Month game, and we’ll send you the fifth fact plus VIP access to play the game, which was recently added to the 1Huddle Game Shop.

Here’s your question:

Which state was the first to grant women the right to vote?

A. Connecticut

B. Virginia

C. Wyoming

D. Pennsylvania

Think you know the answer? Email your guess to dana@1huddle.co with the subject line ‘WHM Trivia’ for your chance to win!