Women’s History month is a time to reflect and appreciate the accomplishments and lives of women

Women’s History Month is a time to learn about women who may have been unfairly overlooked in the past regardless of what they may have achieved. It also allows us to really take the time to appreciate the women of today for all of the hard work they put in. Whether it be a woman who invented a life changing invention or a stay at home mom, they work really hard to help and support those that they love and they change the world. Milo Kailes ‘29 said, “Women’s history month shows what women have gone through to get equal rights to men. It shows the hardships and struggles they have gone through and it is really important for us to know ”

The national celebration originally began in Santa Rosa, California as a “Women’s History Week” in 1978. It would become vastly more popular and be celebrated country wide by 1980 and eventually in 1987 the first Women’s History month would officially start as Congress would officially pass and designate March as the official month for Women’s History month.

The truth is, society shouldn’t have to have a month set apart to appreciate women, but unfortunately many of them go overlooked and this is a way for them to be seen and acknowledged, so instead of just focusing on them for one month we should carry the momentum set up by women’s history month to have it be an everyday thing year around. Because their hard work isn’t something that’s only deserving of praise every once in a while, but rather it deserves to be thanked and acknowledged everyday. 

Some examples of women in history that have been overlooked for too long are Lise Meitner and Ada Lovelace. These two women were integral parts of innovations in their time. Meitner was the first physics professor in Germany that was a woman. On Jan. 13, 1939 she recreated an experiment that was theoretically completed by Otto Hahn and Frits Strassmann. In this experiment she and her partner were able to recreate the process explained by Hahn and Strassmann and they called it “fission”. In 1944 Meitner did not share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for nuclear fission. Her long time collaborator Hahn received it. Her contributions and important part in discovering fission were overlooked. Although she was nominated 19 times she never once received the prize but element 109 meitnerium was named after her posthumously. Lovelace was an English mathematician who was an associate of Charles Babbage. Babbage made a prototype of a digital computer and Lovelace created a program for it. She was considered the first computer programmer.

Dylan Elder ‘26 said, “I do appreciate Women’s History Month. I think it’s nice to have a month that signifies the importance of women.” These are just two of the world’s women whose accomplishments should be remembered and appreciated. It’s due to the changes made and the actions taken from these women that we are where we are to this day.