Women’s History Month is a holiday throughout the month of March instilled by a proclamation in 1981 to celebrate everyday women that contribute to a difference in American history.
Today it celebrates all the progress in America driven by the suffragettes and feminists over the years earning women the right to vote, talk in a room full of men, learn math in the same room as men and even write an article in a newspaper.
In reality, I feel that Women’s History Month was important for reflecting on the past and growing, but became an excuse for companies to flaunt what (few) women work there. If not that they perpetrate a select few female icons as the only powerful women to look up to.
To celebrate with ‘cute’ Instagram stories or highlight one of two strong female characters that are not a love interest spits in the face of those who have achieved what little women have. With no real progress towards equal wages, political positions and medical choices there is much more to be done than simply celebrating.
Essentially it has become a bandwagon for corporations to provide surface-level support for an entire group they still don’t pay as much as men.
Since gaining the right to vote in 1920, there has been an overt and continuous 101-year fight for equal rights in the 243 years of American history. And that’s including the added struggle for women of color.
I do understand what the holiday stands for in terms of celebrating the past strong women who make a difference. I just wish it was used for a bigger movement instead of another one of those silly little national holidays.
Not to mention that I get to write this article for my comfy college dorm room in America, where it’s not perfect for women but better than it may be in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Korea. There, women are still treated as objects used for reproduction, cleaning, cooking and raising kids. In these communities, the stereotypical housewife gets no opinion because of her gender label of female.
In Mexico for national Women’s History Day, March 1, females took to the streets to stand up for the voice of women ignored. They made the holiday an opportunity for the equal rights of women in their country, instead of taking advantage of American comfort to raise a glass and repost strong women to Instagram.
The world has changed, but not enough. It won’t be enough until a woman gains power without being labeled as the first to hold that position; when a woman breaks the glass ceiling she is celebrated, not ostracized by the media for what she was wearing or asked a question that would never be asked if they were a man.
Next Women’s History Month it would be nice to see a company donate to a women’s shelter, rape victims advocates or another country’s program for women’s education. It would mean more than any fancy social media infographic.
