Women's History Month 2026
Read Redemption: Lighting the Path Forward – An International Women’s Day Reflection, by Vice President Yvette Alex-Assensoh.
Women’s History Month was initiated in the U.S. in 1978 as “Women’s History Week” by the the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women. After the great success of the local celebration, dozens of schools planned special programs for Women’s History Week. Over one-hundred community women participated by doing special presentations in classrooms throughout the country.
In 1979, Molly Murphy MacGregor participated in The Women’s History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, chaired by historian, Gerda Lerner and attended by national leaders of organizations for women and girls. When the participants learned about Women’s History Week, they decided to initiate similar celebrations within their own organizations, communities, and school districts. They also agreed to support an effort to secure a “National Women’s History Week.”
In February 1980 President Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th 1980 as National Women’s History Week. By 1986, 14 states had declared March as Women’s History Month. This momentum and state-by-state action was used as the rational to lobby Congress to declare the entire month of March 1987 as National Women’s History Month. In 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month in perpetuity. A special Presidential Proclamation is issued every year.