Educate yourself! March is Women’s History Month. This month and throughout the year open your eyes, ears, mind and heart to see the women who have broken down barriers in our society. Talk to the women in your own life and ask them about their own lives. Never forget the shoulders you stand on. PHOTO BY SARA SANDSTROM[/caption]

Dr. Myra Pollack Sadker was an advocate for gender equity in education. She said, “Each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns she is worth less.”

Consciously and unconsciously we have been sending that message to girls and women in our schools and in our culture throughout our history. When you do not see someone in power that looks like you a barrier is created. When you do not see an athlete that looks like you a barrier is created. When you do not see an astronaut that looks like you a barrier is created. When you do not see a poet who looks or sounds like you a barrier is created. If you are told you can not do a certain task because no one who looks like you has done that before a barrier is created.

March is Women’s History Month. In 1987 this month officially became the time to recognize women’s contributions and achievements in the United States. It is the time we celebrate the many women who broke through those seemingly impossible barriers. The women that faced ridicule, doors slammed in their faces, abuse, and mockery. And why? To show themselves and to prove that they are worth more than society says that they are.

March is the month that we amplify women’s voices. Hopefully we keep amplifying their voices all year long. Remember women fought for the right to vote. Women fought for the right to own land. Women fought for the right to go to school. Women have had to fight for the right to go to law school and be a judge. Women have had to fight for the right to own a business. Women have had to fight to have their name on a bank account and on a credit card. Women have had to push their way onto the basketball court and into a marathon race. Because the powers that be did not think they were intelligent enough, wise enough, strong enough or had enough endurance. We, as women, have proved the doubters wrong time and time again.

I look forward to the day when there are so many women on the United States Supreme Court and have been for so many years that it is commonplace to have yet another woman nominated to the highest court in the land.

I look forward to the day when women’s history truly becomes embedded into the curriculum of our schools. I do not mean an elective course at the university level or one little photograph of Susan B. Anthony in a high school history book. That is not good enough. It is not good enough for our girls and it is not good enough for our boys.

We all benefit from hearing about the courage and wisdom of women. It would be nearly impossible not to be touched and moved by the stories of Katherine Johnson, Shirley Chisholm, Sandra Day O’Connor, Sarah Thomas and Tammy Duckworth. Some of these women shattered barriers when they were living. Some of them are doing it right now.

We stand on the shoulders of all the women who have gotten us where we are personally and professionally. We recognize all the women who stood up and spoke up when they knew they were risking their lives. And for those who continue to stand up and speak up today because there is work still to do. Pay is not equal in all professions. Congress does not look like what our society looks like. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”

Let March 2022 be the time that you start to expand your lens to the history of women. If you are a descendant of settlers, who were the women in your family who came to the United States and started a life here not knowing English or the culture? Think of the courage they needed to overcome the barriers that they faced.

Then, look at your community. Who are the women (past and present) who have had an impact on this area. Please, look beyond Eurocentric history and see who was here before the miners came to the area. So much happened before that time.

Next, expand your lens to the western United States or to the country as a whole and find a story of someone you have never read about before. You might want to read about Elizabeth Peratrovich, Karen Sparck Jones, or Jackie Mitchell. These women made an impact, yet few of us know their names.

You do not have to look far to find inspirational women and their stories. They are all around us, just open your eyes. See them and listen to them so the next generations know that they are worth more.