So, in my bleary-eyed morning state, I am going to write about National Women’s History Month. Women were given the right to vote in 1919, and the law was ratified in 1920. However, if you look at the history of the suffrage movement, you’ll see that the whole thing started in the 1800s. More than a century later, women could finally go to their local voting place and express their views on who should be running this place.
March is National Craft Month as well as National Kite Month. July is National Ice Cream Month, and November is National Peanut Butter Lovers Month. August is National Pet-a-Llama Month. June is National See a Penny, Pick It Up, Then Throw It Away Because It’s Useless Month. January, especially the early part, is National Where Did I Leave My Car Last Night Month. While February is National Short Month Month. May is National Take An Otter to Lunch Month, and September is National Evict Your FreeLoader Son From the Basement Month. April is, of course, National Individually Wrapped Candy Month, usually celebrated at the start of a film in a crowded theater and lasting all through the movie and beyond. May is National Hiccup Month, and October is National Mistake a Person for a Ham Sandwich Month. So, there you have it.
Some of those are real, some aren’t, I don’t know, I’m really tired. The point is, there are celebrations set aside for every month of the year, and particular days within those months are designated for celebrating or doing something. For example, January 16 is National Nothing Day. A day that has been called an un-event, where you’re supposed to do nothing all day. Incidentally, that’s the favored day of Congress. December 15 is National Cat Herder Day, which is silly if you’ve spent any time with a cat. The list goes on with silliness and oddities, such as January 11, which is National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day. And the last Monday in January is, of course, National Bubble Wrap Day. Now that day is special because the people who created it had to wait a long time for bubble wrap to be invented before they could have their day.
What’s the point I’m trying to make here? I have no idea. I’m writing the daily blog, and I know this is National Women's History Month, so I thought I’d write about that. Then, as I dug into it, I got sidetracked by the fact that January is National Bath Safety Month. Now, does that cover just baths, or do showers count? Is it all tub-related activities, or is it specifically getting in and out of the bath? See, if you’re going ti have a month, you need to be specific about it. Equally, I question whether February 12 will still be lost penny day, now that the penny has been heartlessly discontinued and now sits in the same room as the planet Pluto, a room for things we once loved and believed in that are no longer what they were.
So Let’s Talk About Women’s History
So, in my bleary-eyed morning state, I am going to write about National Women’s History Month. Women were given the right to vote in 1919, and the law was ratified in 1920. However, if you look at the history of the suffrage movement, you’ll see that the whole thing started in the 1800s. More than a century later, women could finally go to their local voting place and express their views on who should be running this place. What a day. After that, the world changed. Women were considered equals to men, and they were offered the same pay for the same jobs, more respect, and better employment opportunities. We, as a people, started seeing women as valuable members of our society who had much to contribute beyond just boobs and being baby machines.
I’m kidding, getting the vote didn’t do any of that. Women were still treated poorly, as less than men, and it would be another 237,398,126 years before there was a woman president. Check back in 237,398,126 years to see if I was right.
By the way, this is being written on March 4, which is National March Forth and Do Something Day. Thank God we have that. There’s far too little marching forth nowadays, and lord knows we could use it. I could. The last thing I marched forth for was when I marched to the liquor store for a fifth of bourbon. I need no special day for that.
Women’s History Month could also be called, What Did Men Do To Us Now Month as most of women’s history is about women fighting with men to get what was rightfully theirs. These fights were waged at home and in public spheres. Centuries of women being told it’s not their place, that women don’t do those types of things, that women should be lady-like, seen but not heard, be man’s help meet, which we can thank the bible for. Being a help meet means that the woman is a helper suitable, fit, and proper for the man. Who cares if she has to bury her true self under layers of skirts and a coating of cake make-up and eyeliner? Women had a place, and that place was in a cold, dark room, waiting for their man to come and give them purpose and life.
Incidentally, there is no National Men’s History Month.
The 19th Amendment changed a lot of things for women. For example, married women gained the legal right to own property, enter into contracts, and manage their own bank accounts and credit. Also, women gained better legal footing in divorce, including no-fault divorce, and increased rights to child custody. And, the 19th Amendment paved the way for women to enter more professional fields, eventually leading to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which aimed to curb workplace discrimination. There was still a lot of pushback here, and women had to fight like hell for this one. But these great things were achieved after the passage of the 19th Amendment. That’s good.
The Long Fight for the Obvious
Except that you have to fully understand that before that woman could do none of it. Not only couldn’t they vote, they had no control over their own money, they would certainly get screwed royally in a divorce, not only monetarily but due to the law of Coverture, socially, a divorced woman was considered a pariah. Let me explain. Coverture was a common-law doctrine in England and the United States in which a woman's legal identity was subsumed by her husband's upon marriage, thereby suspending her rights to own property, sign contracts, or sue in her own name. And while coverture is no longer an active law, it historically shaped gender inequality in legal and economic spheres.
Women’s history seems to mostly be about women doing things to get out from under men. Of course, there were great achievements by thousands of women across the globe, and those achievements need to be recognized, discussed, and, most certainly, celebrated. Here are the top ten, in my opinion, off the top of my head:
Marie Curie: First person to win two Nobel Prizes (Physics and Chemistry) and pioneering radioactivity research.
Valentina Tereshkova: First woman to travel to space (1963).
Amelia Earhart: First female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932).
Ada Lovelace: Recognized as the first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage's analytical engine.
Kamala Harris: First female Vice President of the United States (2021).
Malala Yousafzai: Youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, campaigning for girls' education.
Sandra Day O'Connor: First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court (1981).
Katherine Johnson (and NASA computers): Mathematician whose trajectory analysis was critical to the success of the first U.S. crewed spaceflights.
Rosa Parks: Initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott, becoming a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
Katharine Graham: First female CEO of a Fortune 500 company (Washington Post, 1972).
That’s just ten with little thought; there are many, many more, and that’s what we all should be doing during Women’s History Month, seeking out great achievements by women and celebrating them. Looking at what we have now, that would never have been possible without the women who stood up and said enough: we are human, we have thoughts, skills, ideas, and much to offer. We, men and women, stand on the shoulders of great women in history, and we would not be where we are today without them. That is fact, not opinion. Fact.
Quiet Achievement
It’s good to stop and take a month, even though women had to wait 100 years, to celebrate the greatness of this nation and this world, due to the contributions of women. One month hardly seems enough, and let’s be honest, the press is a little light on this. If it were National Men’s History Month, there would be a La-Z-Boy in every household, beer sales, concerts, pop-up strip clubs, and the chanting of Duuuuuuuude long and loud. But there isn’t one, and secretly, I think women may have saved us from that one. Again, thank you, women.
But some women will be overlooked and unsung this month, and that’s not fair. I’m talking about the ones who didn’t have publicists or move mountains for the vote or safer working conditions. I’m talking about the quiet changers of history. I’m talking about the ones who did seemingly simple things that we accepted as natural, normal, and took for granted in our lives. Basically, I’m talking about my mom.
Multitasking. There are hundreds of books written about it. I have written a blog about it. So much has been discussed, debated, and deeply examined about multitasking. CEOs of major corporations are praised for their multitasking skills. Being able to jump between tasks, meetings, projects, interviews, and other responsibilities in a short time. Jumping back and forth between them. They are lauded as masters of the skill. Awarded huge paychecks for being able to juggle a few things at once. Yearly bonuses are bestowed on the CEO who can do two things at once, and we all struggle and drive to be like them. Be a skilled multitasker.
You know who was a master multitasker? My Mom. Your Mom. All moms. Now, some didn’t do as well, but we’re not looking at that today. We’re looking at something men started doing and talking about when IBM coined the phrase "multitasking" back in 1965. Now, because a corporation like IBM mentioned it, it was real. So, if a man can juggle a few things, meetings, phone calls, and business lunches. He is a genius multitasker.
Here’s one: juggle giving birth, feeding a family, dressing a child, packing their lunch, sending them off to school, cleaning a house, buying the groceries, offering love to a wounded kid, offering love to a family, mending clothes, washing clothes, making dinner, and on and on and on. That, before IBM stepped in and named it, was called being a mother. But once men started trying to do it, it got an official name and books, white papers, and blogs by me. IBM named it, so it got attention from men. Mom got a blender.
The Women Behind the World We Live In
Look, I’m not saying men are gross and stupid, and we did nothing for this world, that would be ridiculous. Men have certainly achieved great things and made the world a better place. I am not arguing that. But when men do things, it is natural for the world to say, good man, here’s a parade and bucket of chicken, off you go to do more man things. For women, they need the federal government to step in and say, "Look, they’ve done some good stuff; let’s give them a month." Even now, 19th Amendment later, women are still fighting for the most basic of things, respect and acknowledgement that their contributions matter, just as much and sometimes more than men’s.
All the great men achievers had a mom who said, put a hat on, you’re gonna catch your death. Or, it’s okay, sweetie, there are other girls, and you’re a great catch. Or, I knew you had a rough day, so I made your favorite for dinner. If you look at it through that lens, a very realistic lens, it’s pretty obvious, not just from a biological point of view, but from every point of view, that we would be nowhere without women.
It makes sense to have a Women’s History Month because women’s history is the history of all of us. It’s pretty hard to look at a man of achievement and not think that there was a woman’s hand guiding them. The great quote, "Behind every great man there's a great woman," is often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt; however, we have now discovered that it may have been uttered as far back as ancient Egypt. Women have known for a long, long time what they offer to men and the world.
So this month, think of the great women who broke conventions, tested the laws, pushed the social mores, and achieved great things that we are thankful for even today. Think about the peanut butter and fluff sandwiches in a brown paper bag that were assembled by loving hands while those hands held a baby, made breakfast, or offered a guiding, loving touch. Think about what you personally owe women or even one woman. When you take the time, count the hours, the skills, the deeds, the sacrifices all women have made, maybe a month doesn’t seem like enough time to truly celebrate the history of women. Women are more than just content; they are people who matter. Keep that in mind all month.
The Takeaway
Thank you, Mom. I miss you so much.
