Image zoom The Story Behind Women’s History Month
Two years after the Women’s History Week celebration in California, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed a National Women’s History Week during the week of March 8, 1980. When he announced the proclamation, he said, “Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength, and love of the women who built America were as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
On March 12, 1987, Congress passed legislation designating the month of March 1987 as Women s History Month.
As communities around the country adopted Women’s History Week celebrations, many areas found that one week just wasn’t enough. By 1986, fourteen states had declared their own month-long celebrations of women’s history, and in 1987 the National Women’s History Project (now known as the National Women’s History Alliance) asked Congress to dec