LIHU‘E — What woman inspired you, and how is the theme of an essay contest, Women’s History Essay Contest 2021, that is being presented by the Kaua‘i Committee on the Status of Women to mark the month of March as National Women’s History Month.
The essay contest is open to all Kaua‘i public, private, charter, and home-school students to acknowledge a woman that has inspired them, and how they did that.
“We draw strength and inspiration from those who came before us,” states a Kaua‘i County Council certificate announcing March as National Women’s History Month and presented to the Kaua‘i Committee on the Status of Women. “Those remarkable women working among us today — they are part of our story — and a balanced and inclusive history recognizes how important women have always been in American society.”
More detailed information on the essay contest as well as application forms are available by checking the www.kauai.gov/kccsw website, or emailing smuragin@kauai.gov.
Completed essays must be submitted by March 22.
The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County, California, Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a “Women’s History Week” celebration in 1978. That celebration spread across the country with other communities initiating their own Women’s History Week festivities.
Various women groups and historians successfully lobbied for national recognition that came in February, 1980 when President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week. Succeeding Presidents continued to proclaim National Women’s History Week in March until Congress pass Public Law 100-9 in 1987 that designated March as National Women’s History Month.
Edie Ignacio Neumiller is the Kaua‘i commissioner to the Hawai‘i State Committee on the Status of Women, and Regina Carvalho chairs the Kaua‘i Committee on the Status of Women who will celebrate the theme of “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to be Silenced” that, in 2020, marked the 100th anniversary on women winning the right to vote.
In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association that fought for a universal suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution. That fight lasted until Aug. 18, 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote.
The Council Certificate also states that March 8, 2021 is recognized as International Women’s Day, a day set aside annually around the world to celebrate social, economic, cultural, and political advancement for women.
March 8 also serves as a call to action for gender equity.
The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose to Challenge, in which a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change.
“We can all choose to challenge, and call out gender bias and inequality, we can all choose to seek to and celebrate women’s achievements, and we collectively can all help create an inclusive world,” states the Certificate. “From challenge comes change, so let us all choose to challenge.”
