March is National Women’s History Month

  The overarching theme for Women’s History Month, March 2010, is “Writing Women Back Into History. “The history of women often seems to be written with invisible ink. Even when recognized in their own times, women are often not included in the history books.

  When National Women’s History Project began its work in the early eighties, the topic of women’s history was limited to college curricula, and even there it languished. At that time, less than 3 percent of the content of teacher training textbooks mentioned the contributions of women, and when included, women were usually written in as mere footnotes. Women of color and women in fields such as math, science and art were completely omitted. This limited inclusion of women’s accomplishments deprived students of visible female role models.

  Today, when you search the Internet with the words “women’s + history + mnth,“ you’ll find more than 40,500,000 citations. These extraordinary numbers give testimony to the tireless work of thousands of individuals, organizations and institutions to write women back into history. Other women’s and educational organizations, as well as women’s history performers, authors, historic sites, museums, unions, military units, universities, women’s history programs and parents, grandparents and interested individuals are invited to join in recognizing the importance of women in history. (From www.obxcommongood.org)