Women's History Month 2022

March is Women's History Month. This national recognition traces its origins to March 8, 1857, when women from various New York City factories staged a protest over poor working conditions. That history places equity and civil rights at the heart of our reflections on, and celebration of, the centrality of women in our past and to our future.

This year’s Women’s History Month theme is, “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.” At a time when we are living through war in the Ukraine and unrest throughout the world, the theme is timely and needed. I also appreciate that the theme moves us from history to the present and to the importance of women to our future. It is a theme that encourages us to acknowledge all the ways that women work towards and lead us to press on through suffering and transform it into hope and wholeness - healing and hope.

The White House’s message about this month overtly links these notions of civil rights and equity to healing and hope, by stating that we should honor, remember, and learn from the fact that, “Generations of Native American women were stewards of the land and continue to lead the fight for climate justice. Black women fought to end slavery, advocate for civil rights, and pass the Voting Rights Act. Suffragists helped pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution so that no American could be denied a vote on the basis of sex.” There are countless examples of the ways in which women heal through activism, love, research, teaching, nurturing, building, leading - healing in ways that bring hope.

Let us join in on this striving for equity and towards healing and hope.

To learn more, visit the Student Diversity & Belonging centers to view informational posters about influential womxn in history, and participate in the Gender Equity Center's Women's History Month Scavenger Hunt, happening on campus through March 18.

Dr. Denise Isom
Interim Vice President for Diversity and Equity