Happy Women's History Month

Happy Women's History Month

For those of us old enough to remember, commemoration of women’s contributions to history were recognized by Presidential Proclamation by President Jimmy Carter only 45 years ago – in 1980, two years after the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women celebrated “Women’s History Week” in 1978.

Focusing on the month of March was intentional – and in alignment with International Women’s Day (March 8), officially marked in 1909 and informally based on an urban legend commemorating a protest by women garment workers in New York City on March 8, 1857.

Seven years after President Carter’s proclamation, the United States Congress passed Public Law 100-9 in 1987 to designate March as “Women’s History Month.”

The theme for Women’s History Month in 2025 is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations.” This theme has been increasingly important as the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion have been challenged in our country.

As important as it is to recognize the Iowa women whose courage and leadership inspire us, there are many Iowa women whose “firsts” have also become important to our history:


Willie Stevenson Glanton – first woman to be an assistant Polk County attorney, first Black woman in the Iowa Legislature, the first woman and first Black person elected to the Iowa Chapter of the Federal Bar Association

Janet Guthrie – first woman to complete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500

Judge Linda Newman – first Iowa woman to serve on the Iowa Supreme Court


Bonnie Campbell – first woman to chair the Iowa Democratic Party, first female Iowa attorney general, (listed in TIME Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in America in 1997) 


Jean Adeline Morgan Wanatee – first woman elected to the Meskwaki Tribal Council and advocate for better tribal healthcare; authored a textbook on the Meskwaki dialect for the Smithsonian Institution


Esther Pauline Friedman and Pauline Esther Phillips – twin sisters who became the most recognized female newspaper columnists in the world, Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren


Katie Meade – first model with Down Syndrome to become the face of a national beauty campaign


Danai Gurira – actress in “The Walking Dead” and “Black Panther” and playwright behind Tony-nominated play “Eclipsed”

 

We have much to be proud of as Iowa women, and recognizing the achievements of other Iowa women is just part of writing women into history. Happy Women’s History Month!