UNM Anthropology department highlights Women’s History Month 2024: UNM Newsroom

March is Women’s History Month and The University of New Mexico Department of Anthropology celebrates with a web page of resources and information, including UNM organizations, events, scholars, the history of Women’s History Month, research, news and organizations.

National Women’s History Month 2024 celebrates Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. The theme recognizes women throughout the country who work to eliminate bias and discrimination from our lives and institutions.

Migrant mother: Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age 32. Nipomo, California. Photographer, Dorothea Lange, Library of Congress

Women’s History Month honors and celebrates the struggles and achievements of American women throughout the history of the United States. American women have fought throughout our history to gain rights not simply for themselves, but also for many other underrepresented and disenfranchised groups in America.

According to the Women’s History Month website hosted by The Library of Congress, the national celebration originated in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the president to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.”

In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the president to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”

These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.

Among the woman-centered programs and resources at UNM are UNM Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program (formerly Women’s Studies Program); UNM Feminist Research Institute (FRI); and the UNM Women’s Resource Center (WRC).

For more reading, resources, programs and other information available, visit Women’s History Month.

Image from The Library of Congress: Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, a woman is working on a Vengeance dive bomber, in Tennessee.