Women’s Achievements Take Center Stage in March
March 21, 2022
During Women’s History Month this March, CoolSys is celebrating the success of women everywhere — and saying a special thank you to the talented and hard-working women who make a difference every day in our organization!
It is exciting to see women forging a path into positions in work and society that were only a dream a few years ago. Our own CoolSys CEO, Anesa Chaibi, is a great example of this progress. It is important to note, though, that today’s triumphs in cracking the “glass ceiling” are the result of decades of tireless work, creative strategy, persistence and determination by women who often took great risks to make new opportunities available to the women who came after them.
Celebrating the Contributions of Pioneering Women
In 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month, and it has been celebrated every March since then. However, public recognition of the unique history and contributions of women began decades earlier — on March 8, 1911 —as International Women’s Day. Many countries around the world continue to celebrate this day, which has been sponsored by the United Nations since 1975.
The roots of Women’s History Month in the U.S. are in a one-week event in Santa Rosa, California, organized in 1978 by the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women. The group chose the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women’s Day.
In the following years, interest in similar events grew throughout the country, and in 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation marking the week beginning March 8 as Women’s History Week. The U.S. Congress formalized the observance the following year. Thanks to the work of the National Women’s History Project (now known as the National Women’s History Alliance), Congress expanded the weeklong celebration into the entire month of March in 1987.
A Focus on Healing and Hope
Each year, the National Women’s History Alliance announces a theme for Women’s History Month. For 2022, the theme is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.” According to the group’s webpage for this year’s celebration, the theme is “both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.”
Resources for Celebrating Women’s History Month
Here are some ideas to help you learn more about Women’s History Month and the pioneering women who represent the spirit of the celebration:
- Read President Biden’s proclamation for Women’s History Month 2022.
- Watch a short video about Women’s History Month, presented by Good Morning America.
- Take a journey through the timeline of women’s history milestones, compiled by the History Channel.
- Explore an entire website devoted to Women’s History Month, created by some of the top educational and cultural institutions in the U.S.
- Get inspired by five famous firsts achieved by women.
- Do some fun and educational Women’s Month activities with your students and/or children. Here are suggestions from the We Are Teachers website and from mommynearest.
- Learn about four female leaders at CoolSys. See their stories elsewhere in this issue.