Origin of Women's History Month

Every year, questions arise about the origin of Women's History Month.
Here are a few of the answers that have appeared on WMST-L.  For additional
WMST-L files now available on the Web, see the WMST-L File List.

 
Here's the answer to my question about the origins of women's history month.
 
According to <<Handbook of American Women's History>> edited by Angela
Howard Zophy (1990): "In 1977 the schools of Sonoma County,
California, designated March as Women's History Month as a means of
raising awareness of women's history and encouraging its integration
into the public and post-secondary curriculum..." (p287)  This
reference is found in the article about International Women's Day,
which was inspired by a demonstration on March 8, 1857, of women
garment and textile workers; the article continues on with a
discussion of the history of International Women's Day.

 
On Monday, February 5, Amy Wink wrote asking for information on Women's
History Month.  A brief history of this month is found in The Handbook
of American Women's History, edited by Angela Zophy.  See the entries
under International Women's Day and the National Women's History
Project. Susan Tucker

 
In answer to a query earlier this week:  Women's History Week was first
celebrated in 1977 in Sonoma County in California, initiated by Molly
McGregor and several other
women who worked for the Commission on the Status of Women and had
created a slide show on multi-cultural women's history as students in
history and women's studies at Sonoma State University.  They went on to
found the National Women's History Project.  You can get their current
newsletter (which inlcudes a history of women's history month) and
catelog by email NWHP@aol.com or from
 
National Women's History Project
7738 Bell Road
Windsor, CA. 95492-8518
707 838-6000 or Fax 707 838-0478
Molly MacGregor has just been selected as one of four distinquished
alumni who will be honored in March at Sonoma State.
 
Kay Trimberger, Coordinator
Women's Studies Program
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park, CA. 94928
TRIMBERG@Sonoma.edu or ektrim@uclink2.berkeley.edu

                The following 3 announcements may interest WMST-L readers:

                1)  Women's History Month WWW site

In honor of Women's History Month, The Feminist Majority Online's Women's
Web World has created a "Women's History Month" page. A fact of the day,
book of the day, and link of the day are provided, as are calendar dates
and events. A "Teach Women's History" page offers various teaching tools
including a full text browsable and searchable online version of "The
Feminist Chronicles: 1953-1993", by Toni Carabillo, Judith Meuli, and June
Bundy Csida.
Women's History Month: http://www.feminist.org/other/wh_menu.html
Women's Web World: http://www.feminist.org/

  [announcements 2 and 3 not included here]

The Ministry for Women's Equality (BC Government, Canada) has a
history of International Women's Day on its web page.  This may be a
start.  Their address is:

http://www.weq.gov.bc.ca/