Editorial

Have you noticed? Women are making history

Posted

It is surely a positive sign for our society that women are no longer celebrated only for the help they give men. Rosie the Riveter, symbolic home-front laborer who built World War II airplanes and ships that men used to fight our enemies; Betsy Ross, who sewed the flag that men waved; first ladies who supported their husbands — all praiseworthy, no doubt. One of the most heroic in recent years was Nancy Reagan, who died last weekend at 94.

But for a long time now, women have been heroes in their own right: soldiers, pilots, astronauts, journalists, doctors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, school chancellors and superintendents, champion athletes, governors, senators, prime ministers and seasoned presidential candidates.

Although we’ve had many examples in the past of women with courage and leadership skills whose triumphs owed nothing to men — Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Margaret Thatcher, Marie Curie and Mother Teresa, to name a few — we now live in a time when outstanding achievements by women have become as widely accepted in our cultural landscape as those of men.

We celebrate Women’s History Month in March, thanks to the grass-roots efforts of a handful of Californian women who, in 1980, founded the National Women’s History Project, which successfully lobbied Congress for the designation. They had noticed that less than 3 percent of textbooks referred to the roles women have played in our history. Their project honors women of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and their aim is to teach as many people as possible about how women have shaped history through their work with schools, colleges, companies, churches, service clubs, government offices, unions and the media. They are, in essence, retelling history, and no doubt helping shape the future as well.

Each year, the NWHP selects a theme for the month, and this year it is “Working to form a more perfect union: honoring women in public service and government.” The focus is on women who have taken leadings role in changing public policy and in championing citizens’ rights — not only for women, but for all Americans.

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