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Dear Editor:
As we celebrate Women’s History Month in March, I encourage readers to reflect on not only those women who we know have been trailblazers, leaders, legislators, and authors, but others who have also made their mark in society and the history of our nation.
Let’s include along with Florence Nightingale and Betsy Ross some others: Sarah Bradley Fulton, a field nurse during the Battle of Bunker Hill; Margaret Fuller, an early women’s rights activist; Lydia Taft, a woman who voted in 1756; Susan B. Anthony; Sojourner Truth – and the list goes on.
The commemoration began in 1978 as “Women’s History Week” in Sonoma County, Calif. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as National Women’s History Week. In 1981, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored the first join Congressional Resolution proclaiming a Women’s History Week. In 1987, Congress passed Pub.L.100-9 designating the month of March as Women’s History Month.
As we remember and celebrate not only the famous women noted above, let’s give pause to consider how far women have progressed in the past 100 years. It was just over 100 years ago that we achieved the right to vote. Along the way, we have fought for equal rights in employment, legal matters and property rights, and advocacy in health care issues. (Keep in mind that cardiac symptoms are the No. 1 cause of death for women.)
If you wish to know more about what those women in your life have endured, overcome, enjoyed, and experienced … talk to them! If your mother or grandmother is living, ask her to share her journey with you or another family member’s journey. Those women who went to work in the factories when so many men were deployed during WWII have a very special story to tell of their experiences. Sadly, most are gone now, but if you have access to those stories, I encourage you to pass them along in your family legacy.
Finally, Hoosiers … isn’t it time the State of Indiana elected a female senator or governor?
Sharon McMahon
Noblesville