March is Women’s History Month. Like every milestone along the timeline of women’s rights, this recognition has not come easily.
The historian Gerda Lerner, one of the founders of the academic field of women’s history, said, “When I started working on women’s history the field did not exist. Men didn’t think that women had a history worth knowing.”
Some still don’t.
In 2014, when the U.S. House was preparing to consider Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s bill to establish a Women’s History Museum, ultra-conservative groups attacked it as “a shrine to liberal ideology, abortion, and liberal advocates.” But the bill passed overwhelmingly, with just 33 Republicans voting against it. During the debate, Rep. Maloney said on the House floor, “With each step we take forward, the steps behind us disappear.”
But today, the steps forward are blocked by horrendous new obstacles — and the steps behind us are being deliberately erased to tell an altered history.
Actions taken during the second Trump administration have been part of a coordinated, widespread, and indiscriminate campaign to remove references to women’s history and achievements from federal websites, museums, national parks, and public records. Funding has been cut for research and programs designed to support women’s health, safety, and participation in technical fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
NOW members are marking Women’s History Month by standing up to defend programs that have expanded women’s opportunities and safety, including Title IX, the Violence Against Women Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, protections for transgender workers and youth, and other diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that help ensure women can fully participate in our society.
At the same time, we remain true to the founding purpose of Women’s History Month: to honor women’s contributions that have too often been overlooked — and to shine a light on the gender inequality that still persists.
History education is still overwhelmingly focused on men, despite women playing crucial roles in every major historical development. Women’s History Month is needed more than ever because students, especially girls, need to see women as leaders, innovators, and change-makers.
This Women’s History Month, NOW members celebrate the character, courage, and conviction of women whose contributions must not be overlooked—or erased. And we recommit ourselves to ensuring that women’s history is preserved, taught, and honored for generations to come.
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