Throughout American history, our definitions of womanhood and feminism have evolved quite dramatically. However, it is a plain truth that women have been pivotal to the development of our country’s political and economic institutions, and have been on the frontlines of countless social and political issues. This March offers our community an opportunity to consider the role of women in our personal lives, and to act on our responsibility as students to honor the contributions of women in United States history.  

Women’s History Month began as Women’s History Week on March 8, 1978, in Santa Rosa, California. In 1980, it became a national holiday under the administration of President Jimmy Carter after various feminist groups lobbied for its federal enactment. Then, in 1987, Congress designated March as the Women’s History Month we know of today. 

Yet, Riverdale students have recognized that it is not possible to build a holistic understanding and appreciation of women’s history within the constraints of a single month. This has led to calls for an overhaul of the humanities curricula in order to frame women as more active agents in the making of history. Many humanities teachers have also tasked themselves with centering marginalized voices in their courses. Students and faculty are increasingly aware of the constraints of a rigid curriculum in the midst of a rapidly changing social and political landscape. For junior Chloe Sales, her extensive studies of the Classics have uncovered one of these limitations. “I have taken classes in Latin and Greek…and this is my sixth year, and we’ve never read a woman who’s an author. I know, at the time, women weren’t writing as much, but we didn’t really discuss that,” she said. Fortunately, she hopes to address this topic further in a new course called “Unheard Voices of Rome,” which is just one of the ways in which students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning at Riverdale. 

As a young Latina, Junior Isis Rodriguez shares a similar drive to supplement the content she gets in school: “That intersection [of race and gender] is really hard to come across…and I’ve dedicated time to looking into that on my own.” For her, it is important to analyze women’s history holistically, and that means examining the unique roadblocks that have hindered the advancement of women of color and of other marginalized identities. In some ways, this learning process felt burdensome, but it was ultimately rewarding to connect more deeply with her identity and nurture her curiosity.

Upper School history teacher Dr. Ellen Baker has recognized the responsibility she holds as a historian and teacher to provide students with the analytical tools to make sense of the world around them. She discusses how the conversation around intersectionality, for example, is not a new one. The late 1970s, she points out, brought a wave of new feminist theory into academia. Much like feminism today, this new wave sought to center the voices of women who had largely been excluded from feminist movements of the past. Dr. Baker believes that the History curriculum is not meant to respond to individual events in our current times, but rather to give students “a [broader] framework that we can apply to current events.” Dr. Baker explained, “Our attention to the ways that power has operated institutionally throughout history provides this valuable framework.”
This framework is useful beyond the academic world, and it can serve as a valuable starting point as we navigate the influx of historical information into mainstream social platforms and popular culture. At the same time, Women’s History Month may often feel like a time for constant action, but self-reflection and examining our personal biases are the true first steps towards effective activism. In a 1997 interview, activist and author Angela Davis articulated this idea: “I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever, but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.”