The importance of Women’s History

March is national Women’s History Month; if you had asked me, “What month is National Women’s History Month?” before this year, I probably would not have been able to tell you. That’s not good.
I also have a suspicion that I am not the only man on campus who has really never given it a second thought. Yet we’re supposed to be expanding the way we think and what we think about, right? Women’s history is everyone’s history and like any other history that does not follow the hegemonic canon we don’t know enough of it.
One of the reasons that I have never paid much attention to it is because I have the “privilege” of being able to ignore issues brought to a special spotlight this month. I don’t have to worry about the ridiculously high rate of domestic abuse because no woman is going to beat the hell out of me, or abuse me in some other inhumane way. I don’t have to worry about being aware of the inconsistency in pay rates because I get paid more: I’m a man. According to the Census Bureau, the 76 cents that women make to men’s dollar is an all-time high. And here we are in the 21st century. Well, that’s one of a few things that are still backwards.
But Women’s History Month is more than giving more attention to issues that women’s rights activists lobby for all year. It is to honor the contributions women have made to our society throughout American history and human history that are often overlooked. It is to remind us that not only does history have its heroes, but it has its heroines as well. It is to inform the uninformed of the fact that feminism is the belief that all people are created equal, whether they are man or woman, and should be treated as such. I’m not talking about chivalry either; it is dead. I’m referring to equality in the eyes of the established institutions. In essence, it is to make people aware of the things that have happened and that are happening so that they can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse for anything.
For those of us fortunate enough to have known our mothers, and had a positive relationship with them, it is for them. It is for grandmothers, sisters, daughters, any woman who has enriched your life or the life of another.
James Brown, and Betty Jean Newsome, immortalized the truth when they wrote,
“This is a man’s world. This is a man’s world. But it would be nothing, nothing, without a woman or a girl.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 9 2007. Filed under Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry