Women’s History Month
Share:
As I’m writing this article, I’m listening to Beyoncé’s Run the World (Girls) and, if I’m honest, there are few better songs to listen to when writing about women.
Women’s History Month is American by provenance. It came about in 1987 when Congress declared March the month to celebrate women’s achievement throughout history. President Jimmy Carter then announced in his message to the nation that March 2nd to 8th would be Women’s History Week.
In 2017, it’s something that is gaining a lot of momentum (as seen on Twitter: the use of the hashtag ‘#WomensHistoryMonth’ has its own verified emoji) around the world. And, here at b**p, we are totally celebrating March as the month of the women. As a result, I’ll be writing an article every week on something to do with women’s history and feminism. Next week’s will be on International Women’s Day (Wednesday 8th) – look out for it.
However, I thought that this week would be a good idea to look at three women who are extremely influential and powerful in the world today.
1. Michelle Obama
She’s one of my favourite women on the planet and such an inspiration to girls everywhere.
Mrs Obama grew up in a working-class family in Chicago and was constantly told that, as a black woman, her hopes of attending one of the best universities in America was an unattainable dream. She has the blood of slaves in her and has been testament to what can happen when women are educated and consequently liberated.
Thankfully, she didn’t listen and attended Harvard where she got herself a law degree leading to a successful early career in a law firm. Later, she became the Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organisation that encourages young people to work on social issues and government agencies.
One of the greatest things for me about Michelle Obama is that she encourages girls to get their education before anything else. Of course, Mrs O will say it better herself:
“Girls know that their education is their only path to self-sufficiency. It is their only chance to shape their own fate rather than having the limits of their lives dictated to them by others.”
2). Malala Yousafzai
Another one of my favourite women is Malala Yousafzai. She was shot in the face by the Taliban at the age of 15 after blogging for the BBC about her life living in the Swat Valley, Pakistan and not being allowed to attend school.
Malala was flown to the UK and survived being shot in the face and now lives in Birmingham where she is studying for her A Levels with hopes to attend Oxford University. If one thing’s for sure, she’ll get in to any university she wants to.
No one else can put on their UCAS personal statement that they are the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (and then celebrated by attending a chemistry lesson) and that they have addressed the United Nations as well as published their own best-selling autobiography (I am Malala).
Her protest against the banning of women in education has started a global movement. Every day, she reminds us why we are so lucky to be in the position we’re in. And also how terrified terrorists are of one girl getting an education…
“The best way to fight terrorism is not through guns. It is through pens, books, teachers and schools.”
3). J.K. Rowling
The Harry Potter world has never died out since the novels were published by J.K. Rowling. They’ve been translated into over sixty languages and enjoyed by millions of children around the world. J.K. Rowling got kids to read – something that is becoming more and more of a challenge in the modern world. When books are competing with iPads, a story must be compelling.
Joanne Rowling was on benefits and was as poor as it’s possible to be in the UK without being homeless when she wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She was a single mother too and battled with clinical depression. It’s safe to say she was going through hell. Yet she came out of it through her lack of fear: J.K. Rowling had nothing to lose.
Since then, she has become the only billionaire to lose that billionaire status by donating the money to charity. Nowadays, she is still writing and taking on politics as well as racists, sexists and prejudiced people on Twitter. It may only be on Twitter, but every time she does it, we all hear about it.
Plus, she created Hermione Granger. She’s a character who makes a lot of clever girls feel less alone and more comfortable in their own skin.
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you have failed by default.”
Happy Women’s History Month! See you next week for more celebrations of women.
To see more inspirational women, check out this article we published on the 17 women who changed the world.