Dr. Rita Smith-Wade-El Center for Intercultural Student Engagement

CISE

March is the beautiful, mean mug of spring. It is the blooming of the daffodils under a crisp morning sun as the temperature snaps from 60℉ to 20℉ and back again, all while some seriously wicked winds are trying to blow you off the road. 

It also happens to be Women’s History Month, with March 8th specifically being International Women’s Day! 

Clara Zetkin was an influential feminist and political activist from Germany. She was close friends with the likes of Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin, actually helping with the Bolshevik revolution which overthrew the longstanding reign of the Czars. It was Zetkin, as well as other leaders of the Socialist Conference of 1910, who wanted to better highlight working women and their efforts to achieve equal pay, equal opportunities, and equal respect. 

Capitalist nations, the United States amongst them, hesitated to accept the holiday. Many were fearful of anything Socialist or Communist, and did not acknowledge the event until circulating stories of striking French and American working women overrode the narrative. Only then was International Women’s Day actually international. 

After much pressure from second-wave feminists and activists, America started to create the legislation that would ultimately lead to Women’s History Month. In 1981, under President Ronald Reagan, Congress started with Pub. L. 97-28 which designated a Women’s History Week. Later, in 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to designate March as  Women’s History Month, which they would with Pub. L. 100-9. From there forward, March has been proclaimed as Women’s History Month every year. 

There have been huge strides in women’s rights since Zetkin and her fellow activists created International Women’s Day, and even more since 2nd wave feminists in the American 1980s. However, that doesn’t mean the work is done. . 

As it currently stands, efforts to remove certain protections women had previously secured are underway, including (but not limited to) the right to bodily autonomy and the right to vote. Beyond that, there are also the small violences against purely living, such as the way women present themselves, move through public spaces, and receive the care that they need. 

Too often in these discussions, the voices of working class women, women of color, disabled women, and queer women are not included, or, worse still, are outright ousted. Their viewpoints and concerns are not being addressed, and so long as that trend continues, the fight for women’s rights is more a fight for the rights of the few.

This March, as we here in America celebrate Women’s History Month, we must honor the age-old tradition of doing nothing half way. We must take strides to include all women in this celebration, to uplift all presentations and aspects of womanhood, to bring our sisters together so as to cherish them and to fight for their rights. We, collectively, have the power and the obligation to not just uphold the beautiful work of a democratic nation, but to make it better, for everyone. 

If you would like to find out more about various cultural events here on campus, please feel free to check our events section, where we post information, goings-on, and resources for all Millersville students.