(Chicago Sun-Times) During March, every citizen and resident of the United States should celebrate the innumerable contributions of women in this country and beyond.
On March 8, women all over the world celebrated International Women’s Day. For the past 95 years, in one form or another, the day has been celebrated by women beginning with feminist socialists in Germany, Austria, Denmark and other European states who led strikes and marches to advance women’s rights in Europe. Today, it is a United Nations-sponsored event taking place all over the world. From Chicago to Kinshasa and Calcutta to Jakarta, International Women’s Day is celebrated throughout the world in various cultural contexts — from scholarly women’s rights programs to protests against gender discrimination — as women continue to strive for fundamental civil, political and economic rights.
In the United States, March has been designated as Women’s History Month, honoring the contributions of women in American society and beyond. It began in 1978 and derives from Women’s History Week, which started in Sonoma County, Calif., to give impetus to International Women’s Day the same year. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) sponsored a congressional resolution that created Women’s History Week, and in 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. But I question whether Women’s History Month is celebrated or even recognized by most Americans. Perhaps we don’t see the value in seriously honoring the contributions of women in American society.
If this is true, it is a bad omen, given that there would not be human history without women’s history. No group or class has done more to advance humanity than women. In the United States, women have been pioneers in every conceivable field, including Susan Picotte, the first American Indian woman (Omaha tribe in northeastern Nebraska) to become a physician, who earned her medical degree from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1889; Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress (R-Mont.), and serving from 1917 to 1919, and Mae Jemison, astronaut and physician, who in September 1992 became the first African-American woman to travel in space. Women have been at the forefront of human achievement in the United States, and these women represent a small number of American pathbreakers.
Women are arguably also the single largest identifiable group in the world irrespective of race, religion and ethnicity, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the female population of the United States exceeds 150 million — just over 50 percent. Nearly 216,000 women serve in the U.S. armed forces, and the country is home to more than 1.7 million female veterans. About 3 million women hold professional degrees, and almost 20.4 million women work and serve as the backbone to the education, health and social services industries.
Yet, despite their immeasurable and unmistakable contribution to the country, women have been among the most abused, exploited and discriminated against. Women are disproportionately affected by rape, physical assault and stalking. The latest National Violence Against Women Survey conducted by the National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control reveals that nearly 25 percent of surveyed women had been ”raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, co-habiting partner, or date.” Women also suffer systematic gender discrimination in the workplace, earning about 77 cents for every $1 men earn. One could go on and on about the relegated position of women in America, but the fact remains that we must do more to honor and uplift them. They have been uplifting themselves and humanity for far too long. Every American needs to reflect on the many contributions of women to our society — contributions in which all citizens and residents, past and present, have benefitted — and once and for all realize that society will never reach its full potential until it first maximizes the potential of women.
