Celebrating Women's History Month

Well, it’s March Madness, and for some of us, that means more than basketball mania (though we surely ALSO chant “Go, Jays!” as our men and women athletes head into tournament play). March is National Women’s History Month (WHM), which means that various groups around campus will be busy hosting events for the campus community in weeks ahead (more on that shortly). As WHM gets underway today, first, I want to wish the Creighton community “Happy Women’s History Month!” We here at Creighton have marked Women’s History Month for a number of years, but since some students recently asked me how it got started and what it’s about, here’s a mini-history.

Women’s history was an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum and in public consciousness as recently as the 1970’s. To rectify this, the Commission on the Status of Women in Sonoma County California initiated Women’s History Week in 1978. Leaders of organizations for women and girls soon initiated local observances of Women’s History Week throughout the country, and in 1981, the original California organizers, spurred by the interest spreading across the country, secured a Congressional Resolution, sponsored by Representative Barbara Mikulski (Dem – Maryland) and Senator Orrin Hatch (Rep – Utah), declaring a “National Women’s History Week.” Throughout the 1980’s state departments of education encouraged celebrations of National Women’s History Week, seeing them as a means to pursue equity goals within classrooms. The week-long celebration was extended to a month in 1987, when the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) petitioned Congress to expand the celebration to the entire month of March, resulting in a Resolution passed in both houses of Congress with bipartisan support. Since 1987, then, six American presidents have issued Proclamations in support of National Women’s History Month. Every year the month of March affords an opportunity to learn more about women’s experiences and to honor their achievements and contributions to our world.

Each year the National Women’s History Project selects a theme for the national celebration and recognizes national honorees whose lives and work testify to that theme. The theme of WHM 2012 is Women’s Education, Women’s Empowerment. That theme is especially meaningful for us here at Creighton, given our identity as an educational institution. The history of Creighton, once an all-male institution but now co-educational, reflects the advance of women’s education that was achieved nationally thanks to the efforts of previous generations of women in partnership with men who shared their vision. Those efforts culminated in 1972 with Title IX of the Education Codes of the Higher Education Act Amendments. This legislation, passed in 1977, prohibited gender discrimination by federally funded institutions and facilitated women’s fuller participation in all aspects of education, from scholarships to athletics to classes formerly closed to women. To learn more about this year’s theme and the women being honored for their contributions to the advance of women’s education, visit www.nwhp.org.

Women’s History Month, then, affords an opportunity for us to learn, to celebrate, to reflect and give thanks, to advocate, and to renew our commitment to that precious gospel and Ignatian ideal of justice (right relation), in this case, gender justice. There are lots of ways to do so; for example, attend some of the WHM organized by various campus groups - the Lieben Center, Women’s and Gender Studies, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Kenefick Chair in Humanities, among others. These include a celebration of Women’s Words of Wisdom, lectures (e.g., the Tenth Annual Women and Religion lecture which this year focuses on the REAL “First Lady,” biblical Eve), films about women and body image, panel discussions, even a Women’s Summit. And/Or . . . organize your own celebration with some friends or your sorority sisters, or watch a film about women. Since this is an election year, Iron-Jawed Angels, about the women who won us women the right to vote, would be a good choice; or to learn more about the struggles of women around the world, watch Academy Award winning Saving Face, or read books like A Thousand Sisters or Half the Sky. To get involved in advocacy on behalf of women, check-out the websites of organizations committed to the advancement of women; they are listed at the back of the book Half the Sky. Other ideas: think about taking a WGS course next fall or declaring a WGS minor (yes, that “MINOR that makes a MAJOR difference”); support our women athletes during March Madness by taking a seat in the stands and cheering for our ‘Jays; celebrate the women who grace your life; express your thanks to a woman mentor; be a mentor to a girl or woman who needs and wants what you have to offer. Above all, let’s be thankful for the education that empowers us to be ourSELVES . . . for OTHERS. 

Kindly,

Dr. Susan Calef

Assistant Theology Professor

Director, Women's and Gender Studies