My Complicated Feelings on Women’s History Month

I have a confession: As a woman and a feminist, I have felt a tinge of apathy - bordering on annoyance - towards Women's History Month. I've never shared this thought, even privately. I appreciate its existence. I believe it has value. So what's the problem?

I think it feels like the bare minimum. As we enter a 5^th wave of feminism - which we’ll all encounter regardless of our individual feelings or awareness of feminism - we are being challenged to upend long-held truths. You may have already felt this change. We are trading the traditional, male lens of history that values an unending record of battles, inventions, and clever or powerful individuals... with one that reexamines changing tides with a holistic appreciation for the effect those times had on a vast spectrum of peoples... Children. Families. Indigenous peoples. Traditionally marginalized folks of all stripes. We are challenged to grant them dignity by amplifying their voice in the records of the past.

Nikole Hannah-Jones opened our eyes to the fact that the history and contributions of Black people since the dawn of American slavery is not a subset of American history, but powerfully foundational to almost every aspect of American culture and its institutions. Yet we have one of twelve months flagged as “Black History Month.”

So maybe it feels a little like that. As some have mused, it suggests a tacit acknowledgment that the remainder of the year we revert back to Rich White Guy History Months.

This is to take nothing away from the incredible women who conceived of the original “Women’s History Week” (shout out to Sonoma County!), and the female politicians who worked to convert this to Women’s History Month in 1987. This was vital, meaningful work and I am deeply appreciative.

But 30 years on, we have come so much further. It’s time for an upgrade.

I would love to see Women’s History Month step up and challenge long-told stories of our past through an expansive lens. I would love to see us look past individual achievements of fame and capital, to one that acknowledges the sacrifice of stay-at-home parents (of all genders) and essential workers as the real engine that keeps society healthy and moving.

I would love to STILL keep the spotlight on the incredible, radical, changemakers of our past – those women who risked their lives in order to move the needle. But can we agree to tease from our brains (myself included) the outdated trope that these are “heroes for ladies,” and acknowledge their groundbreaking work on behalf of all of us? Parents, teach your boys about Delores Huerta, who has a lifetime of improving the lives of farmworkers and eliminating pesticides from our food system. Teach your boys about Janet Mock, whose activism and truth-telling is fostering love and safety for a population suffering disproportionately high rates of suicide. Tell your boys about Malala Yousafzai, who fights for worldwide access to education for girls, a cause that UNICEF states, “strengthens economies and reduces inequality. It contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give all individuals – including boys and men – the opportunity to fulfil their potential.”

We can let go of Women’s History Month when there is a cultural understanding that all history is women’s history. That would be the goal.

More each day, we are seeing history-in-the-making through the lens of the women who are recording it. This month began the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. In the photo above, her daughter beams with love and pride at her mother. Judge Jackson grins as well. And there is a third, unseen smile: that of the photographer, Sarahbeth Maney, a young woman of color who recognized the power of this moment precisely because of how personally moving it was to her. It’s since gone viral; the love between mother and daughter, the hope and aspirations of Black women, the feeling of this “win,” this honor. This photographer granted a voice, granted dignity, to this precious moment in history that speaks to many of us. It’s an addition to a chronicle of keystone cultural moments increasingly being interpreted from a lens other than the traditional recorders of history. And I’m so glad for it.