BLOG 31: THE FUTURE OF WOMEN’S HISTORY
These last 3 months have seen me writing articles, answering questions and talking a lot about my book ‘Know Your Crazy’ in interviews, at virtual events and on Zoom meetings – including the now monthly ‘KYC Book Club’.
March in particular was very active in this regard. I am embarrassed to confess that, though I have been aware of ‘International Women’s Day’ since I was a teenager and the fact that it now dates back for over 100 years, I was so much less aware of ‘Women’s History Month’. How is that?
International Women’s Day was officially designated as a day of international awareness and celebration by the United Nations in 1975.
In the late 1970’s in America, International Women’s Day started to grow into a Women’s History Week. In 1987, Congress passed a resolution designating the month of March as ‘Women’s History Month’. This has happened every year since and each year there is a different theme.
It has been a privilege to be included in American based virtual events celebrating ‘Women’s History Month’.
Apart from working closely with my excellent female colleagues in America, March has also given me the opportunity to meet some great women involved with women’s issues, physical health and mental health. I have listened to comedians and educators, I have spoken with activists, musicians, campaigners, role models, events organisers, journalists, TV personalities, businesswomen and all sorts of ‘women helping women’.
I may be shouted down at this point, but it seems to me that Women’s History Month is much more widely publicised and more closely observed in America than it is here in the UK, though I will be actively on the lookout next year to see what is around and will be sure to continue to educate myself!
I am not downgrading men in my consciousness here, I am upgrading women again in my consciousness! I can’t talk for every woman, but so much of the work we do in all aspects of our lives is ‘invisible’, overlooked and taken for granted. I think it is easy to be undervalued, and we end up undervaluing ourselves too.
Having to revisit and re-examine all of my pictures for the ‘Know Your Crazy’ book has reignited my respect for women, (yes, I include myself), and I look forward to being a bit kinder to myself because of that (Chris said “It’s about time!”).
It has also reminded me that all of us humans have great gifts, a sea of daily challenges and emotions to deal with and hopefully people we can talk to about it all!
Other ‘awareness’ days in the year that I have been reminded of are Mental Health Awareness week (in the UK) 10th-16th May 2021 and World Mental Health Day 10th October 2021.
Also – I should finish watching ‘Mrs. America’!
*For details of free monthly Book Club Zoom go to: https://www.knowyourcrazy.net/events
Hope to see you there – the next one is on Wednesday 5th May.