March was officially made Women’s History Month after the National Women’s History Project, now the National Women’s History Alliance, formed in 1980 in Santa Rosa, California, by six women. It became a local celebration in Santa Rosa.
The six women, Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett, and Bette Morgan, wanted to broadcast women’s achievements. The project petitioned Congress to make the month of March to celebrate women’s contributions to the United States. We should be celebrating all women, not just those who have done amazing things. The details of the fate of those “six” should be celebrated as well.
The “six” do not have names like Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics; or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States; or Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad “conductor,” who escorted 300 slaves to freedom; or Amelia Earhart, for her aviation achievement as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean; or Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.
Women tried to get the right to vote from 1840 until 1920. It wasn’t until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 that we obtained that right. It took 80 years of suffrage activation. Cultural changes for women since 1840 have been on the rise, but the 19th Amendment expanded opportunities for women in education and the workforce in general, besides granting women the right to vote. It also gave women citizenship status. The political identitythe name of a person, along with the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or a group different from others of married women became less tied to their husbands. Women who lost citizenship from 1907-1922 were given back citizenship status regardless of marital status.
Women’s History Month celebrates the broader societal recognition of women’s contributions but rarely portrays a woman’s value in the home anymore as a wife, mother, or grandmother. Cultural changes have been slow but methodical. In the 1950s, TV shows like Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, women’s primary roles were domestic. The women were dressed beautifully with full makeup. Most wore aprons while traipsing in high heels to their kitchens. This was the stereotypical vision of a woman’s life and work. Aprons were a powerful cultural symbolsomething that stands for, represents, or suggests another thing - human culture is symbolic More of women.
Cultureculture is not genetically inherited, it is shared, learned, and dynamic- never static is symbolic and collective within shared beliefs, values, traditions, social norms(cultural) norms are the shared expectations and rules that guide how people behave in a society or group, either formally or informally More, and behaviors of people. What are the cultural symbols of the values and shared beliefs of women today? The power to educate ourselves and become what our hopes, dreams, and aspirations beckon us to be has never been more culturally available (at least in the United States). Does the Venus symbol of womanhood represent all women?
Today, the three stages of a woman’s life are represented as being in the psychological domains of the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, according to Linda E. Savage, Ph.D., and author of Reclaiming Goddess Sexuality. How are those three stages defined?
- The Maiden Stage is about “discovering individual creative potential,” while carrying “the implication of innocence.” It is about “building career skills, . . . experiencing relationships of all kinds, preparing for adult responsibilities, and developing a conscious relationship with intuitive body wisdom. . .” [not sure what that means].
- The Mother Stage is explained as “accepting responsibility.” Another statement is, “Whether the consciousness of the Mother dawns suddenly or slowly, it is a most profound shift in consciousness from selfa person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action; one's identity, character, abilities, and attitudes, especially towards persons or things outside of oneself note: reflexive is also in the glossary on this site to selfless compassion for another human being” (The Baby).
- The Crone Stage says, “Women are coming to the end of intensive caretaking duties, and the physical symptoms are a message that they must consider their own needs above those of others. The symptoms of what is now called perimenopause are the initiation into Cronehood.”
I believe the Maiden Stage is a time of innocence and the possibility of creative potential. I’m not sure about the Mother Stage. Yes, it is about responsibility, suddenly or slowly, but how is there a shift in consciousness from self to selfless if motherhood never happens? The Crone stage, where women supposedly begin to consider their own needs, is also questionable. It is a fact there are more women than men in nursing homes. Why? Elderly fathers and ill husbands are taken care of by their daughters and wives until they die. Widowhood, on average, is five years. All women do not fit into the three psychologically pre-conceived boxes of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Unexpected happenings to women alter every stage of their life.
Women should be celebrated because they are women, whatever their roles. All women are not mothers, nor are we all eager to be CEOs, educators, or lawyers. We aren’t all as brave as Rosa Parks or as outspoken as Abigail Adams was in her time. Most women strive every day to stand, speak, and encourage those we love to reach whatever achievements are possible. That was the cultural reality of the six women who made Women’s History Month happen. Women’s efforts are enduring—that cultural aspect is never going to change.
