01 March 10
March is National Women's History Month
I think we should incorporate women in history throughout all 12 months, but I know that this doesn’t happen frequently enough, so we have a month where teachers, news media, bloggers, writers, historians, and more focus on women who have done great things in history. It’s a great way to be reminded that women have really helped shape the way the world is now, for good and for bad.
If you’re a teacher or a writer and you’re looking for more information about women and their role in history, I think the first place you should start looking is at the National Women’s History Project. This 30 year old organization is focusing on writing women back into history, getting them included throughout the discussion, and not just as a sidebar or footnote or a once a year discussion. In 1980 less than 3% of teacher training textbooks mentioned the role women played in history. There are more than 116,000,000 sites on Google that come up when you search “women history”. I think that has to be a vast improvement. And if you’re interested in taking a quiz to see how much you do know about women in history, they have one. I did much worse than I expected, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
But I’m interested in focusing on the future right now. I want to thank all of the women who have done something that has made someone utter the phrase “for the first time in history, a woman”. They deserve our gratitude, our honor, and our respect. Whether that woman is a suffragette who was starved and beaten because she wanted to vote, or a young Japanese Olympiad named Mao Asada who got the silver, and a spot in history.
I didn’t watch much of the Olympics, but as I sat there hearing the giddy announcers “the first woman in Olympics history” I was reminded how even now, in 2010, there are women who are doing things for the first time. And we need to hear about them now so they make their way into the history books later. We need to hear about them now so they are honored, respected, and thanked now.
This is why I’ve decided to choose Women In Media & News as my March donation organization for Poise.cc. During the month of March, for every bag I sell, I will donate $20 to WIMN (clever, eh?). Thankfully I work for a company with a great matching funds plan, so I’ll be able to get that $20 matched. This means that if you buy a bag, I’ll donate $20 and my company will match it so that $40 goes to help WIMN.
WIMN has four goals. They have a database of female experts for journalists to tap into. So all those journalists who say things like “I just don’t know any women economists”, you can send them to WIMN instead of smacking them. They also have a large group of media-savvy women who critique news coverage of women as well as coverage that doesn’t include women but should. They provide education about the media. Jenn Pozner, the executive director, is an engaging and hilarious speaker who travels all over the country giving lectures at schools and organizations about how media can cover women better and how organizations can challenge their local media if they don’t cover women. And they also help conferences who want to include more women. So all those people who notice that Conference X or Y doesn’t have any female speakers should send the organizers to WIMN.
So this donation focus is two-fold. Not only do I get to honor an organization run by women I support and admire by supporting them financially through my creative small business, but I also get to encourage people to seek out the services of this organization. WIMN is a valuable resource, a necessary resource, for March and every month of the year.
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