The Problem with Women's History Month in 2020

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed “Women’s History Week” in March to coincide with International Women’s Day. Seven years later, Congress declared all of March to be “Women’s History Month.” During the past 30 years, schools and communities across the country have highlighted women’s contributions to history in increasingly creative ways throughout the month of March.

But Women’s History Month unintentionally reinforces the prevailing idea that when women do something, it is called “women’s history,” and when men do something it is called “history.” Women’s History Month also allows state school boards and curricular committees to feel as though they are including women without doing enough to update textbooks and state standards, ultimately undermining the very goals that reformers and historians aimed to achieve with the designation.

The limitations of our current approach to women’s history are especially glaring in 2020, the year we mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment and witness record numbers of women running for office. Today, people may be familiar with the names of figures like Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Alice Paul. But they lack a deeper understanding of how women have shaped U.S. history or what U.S. history looks like from the perspective of women.

As we honor the ongoing work of women to gain equal citizenship, it is time to integrate women’s stories more fully into our national narratives and civic memories.