Maricopa Community Colleges

Office Of Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance and Recruitment

 

Women's History Month

In 1911 Europe, International Women's Day was first celebrated on March 8th.  In many European nations, as well as in the United States, women's rights was a political hot topic. Women (and men) wrote books on the contributions of women to history. Woman's suffrage — winning the vote —was a priority of many women's organizations. 

With the economic depression of the 1930s which hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and the advent of World War II, women's rights went out of fashion.  In the 1950s and 1960s, after Betty Friedan pointed to the "problem that has no name" the boredom and isolation of the middle-class housewife who often gave up intellectual and professional aspirations —the women's movement began to revive. With "women's liberation" in the 1960s, interest in women's issues and women's history blossomed.

By the 1970s, there was a growing sense by many women that "his-tory" as taught in school —and especially in grade school and high school was incomplete with attending to "her-story" as well.  In the United States, calls for inclusion of Black Americans and Native Americans helped some women realize that women were invisible in most history courses.

So in the 1970s, many universities began to include the fields of women's history and the broader field of women's studies.  In 1978 in California, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women began a "Women's History Week" celebration. The week was chosen to coincide with International Women's Day, March 8.

The response was positive. Other participants not only determined to begin their own local Women's History Week projects, but agreed to support an effort to have Congress declare a national Women's History Week. Three years later, the United States Congress passed a resolution establishing National Women's History Week.

In 1987, at the request of the National Women's History Project, Congress expanded the week to a month, and the U.S. Congress has issued a resolution every year since then, with wide support for Women's History Month. Each year, the U.S. President issues a proclamation of Women's History Month.

Women Who Left Their Stamps on History
Five Women's Museums to Know
The National Women's Hall of Fame

The MCCCD EEO/AA Office supports and enforces all nondiscrimination laws; and ensures that all services, programs, and hiring practices and procedures are administered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or veteran status.  Further information regarding MCCCD's Nondiscrimination Policy may be obtained by visiting MCCCD Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Office Website.

The EEO/AA Office actively participates in promoting diversity awareness and cultural competency in all aspects of employee life within Maricopa.  For further information on diversity initiatives or the Governing Board Diversity Goal, please visit the websites.