Celebrating Women's History

What do you know about Women's History? Are you curious? What are your plans for celebrating women during the month of March? Celebrating inspirational women who changed the world should be a year-round practice. For 31 days of March, we pay special attention to the women who blazed the trail for others.

This Lens celebrates Women, especially during March - Women's History Month. "The history of women often seems to be written with invisible ink." Even when women are recognized in their own times, they are often not included in the history books.

Image from Forbes.com

"Each year around the world, International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. Hundreds of events occur not just on this day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women.

Organizations, governments and women's groups around the world choose different themes each year that reflect global and local gender issues."

Animation Workshop for Youth, nine teens created a short animated piece about three famous women who fought for change: Sojourner Truth, Joan Baez and Helen Keller.

This book is a collection of the stories of 40 incredible women who have navigated their way through significant, life-altering transformations.

These women, many inspired by their less-than-ideal circumstances, stumbled along the way but ended up facing the change with humor, grace and dignity. In this book, these women "share their stories in order to ease your personal journey, and to provide necessary motivation and inspiration to make whatever empowering changes you envision for your own life."

In August we recognize the signing of the 19th Amendment in 1920 giving US women the right to vote. This amendment was the culmination of the women's suffrage movement in the United States, which fought to achieve the vote.

The editorial review for this book describes it as "A stirring reminder for women to never take their rights for granted."

Founding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment author Eleanor Clift chronicles the many twists and turns of the suffrage struggle and profiles the brave figures who spent their lives supporting the women's movement over the course of seventy-two years.

National Women's History Month provides an excellent venue to recognize and celebrate women's historic achievements as well as an opportunity to honor women within our families and communities. What will you do to celebrate National Women's History Month?

Please post comments in the Guestbook below.

Ruth Rosen Author of The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America, former columnist for the Los Angeles Time and San Francisco Chronicle; Professor Emerita of History, U.C. Davis

In the book When God Was a Woman, Stone describes the ancient story of the religion of the Goddess and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status.

Post the Woman of History you would most like to meet here.