Women’s History Month is in March, celebrating all women throughout the world. It takes a month of the year to recognize the accomplishments and achievements of women. Throughout history, men have seen themselves as superior, but women’s history month chooses to change that.
Women’s History Month started as a local “Women’s History Week” in California in 1978 to start at the same time as International Women’s Day. This movement gained the attention of Congress, and eventually it was upgraded into Women’s History Month.
There are many important female figures and female-driven jobs in history celebrated during this month. These figures include Marie Curie, Rosa Parks, and all the teachers here at Fords Middle.
Important Female Figures
The first subject is more of a job than a figure. Most jobs are male-driven, but at Fords Middle, the employees are primarily female-driven. Some of these individuals include Ms. Murphy and Ms. Blasena, among many others. These employees include teachers, principals, tech support, and counselors. The main teacher of Journalism, Ms. Blasena states, “It fills me with tremendous pride to be working here, especially among the population of a lot of other female teachers, who are all fabulous teachers and fabulous women who have helped me grow and learn and made me into a better teacher, as well.”
In History
The second important figure in history is Marie Curie. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1891, she was the woman who discovered radioactive material such as polonium and radium, and the first woman to win the Nobel prize. She was also not just the first woman, but the first person to win a Nobel prize twice. She is also the only person to have a Nobel prize in two different scientific fields. Curie changed the entire way we think about science. She was also the first woman to attend the University of Paris and become a professor. One of Marie Curie’s quotes include, “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
A third important figure in history is Rosa Parks, born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4th, 1913. She became an important figure in history due to the fact that she refused to give up a seat to a white passenger when buses had colored and white sections. She was one of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement and allowed for colored individuals to gain rights. As said by Rosa Parks, “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Throughout history, and even today, there are many important female figures that aren’t overshadowed by the domination of men. For a highly influential month that came from just a small holiday, it has come a long way to help us recognize the struggles and achievements of women today.
