Celebrating Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month, an opportunity to bring awareness to and celebrate women's contributions and achievements throughout history and today.

The origins of this national holiday first started as “Women's History Week” in 1978 as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. March 8 was chosen as the celebration week to correspond with International Women's Day, and the movement quickly spread the following year, with other communities starting their own celebrations.  

In 1980, led by the National Women's History Project (the name was later changed to the National Women's History Alliance), advocates successfully lobbied for national recognition; that year, President Jimmy Carter issued his first presidential proclamation, and the week of March 8 became “National Women's History Week.”

In 1987, Congress passed the public law designating March as “Women's History Month.” In 1995, additional resolutions passed requesting the President to proclaim March as “Women's History Month.”  Since 1995, each President has proclaimed March as "National Women's History Month."

Throughout time, the world has been filled with incredible women! Check out MCPL's Women's History Page and discover materials and resources to celebrate the fearless women that have, and will, inspire generations. And to get you started, here are 10 great books about awe-inspiring women:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack by Rebecca Skloot 
• Life Undercover by Amaryllis Fox 
• With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black Community Activism by Laura L. Lovett
• The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women—and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura. 
• Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cooke
• Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy by Damien Lewis
• A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman by Linda Elkins-Tanton 
• Glory in Their Spirit: How Four Black Women Took on the Army During World War II by Sandra M. Bolzenius 
• Women of the American Revolution by Samantha Wilcoxson
• Corporal Cannon: A Female Marine in Afghanistan by Savannah Cannon 

Lisa P.
Information and Readers Services