Every year, the month of March marks Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions that women have made to the U.S. throughout history. Here at Manual, clubs like Girl Up work to increase awareness and mark the occasion.
Before there was a whole month dedicated to women, there was just a single day of recognition, International Women’s Day (IWD). Around the world, IWD is an occasion to celebrate women’s economic, social and political achievements as well as a call for equity. March 8, 2026 was its 115th anniversary.
The history of IWD goes back to the early 1900s. While many within the American Socialist Party had ideas of creating a day dedicated to women, it was German activist, Clara Zetkin, who pushed for a global commemoration during the International Conference of Socialist Women in 1910. The first International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
During World War I in Petrograd, Russia, now St. Petersburg, women staged a strike, protesting for “Bread and Peace” on Feb. 23, 1917 in the Julian calendar, which is March 8 in the modern day calendar. They demanded better living and working conditions, access to food and an end to the war. Their efforts contributed to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and women’s right to vote. Since 1921, International Women’s Day has officially been celebrated on March 8 and has been sponsored by the United Nations since 1975.
In an effort to extend the celebration, the Education Task Force of Sonoma County, California initiated a local Women’s History Week in March 1978. Throughout different school districts, organizations and communities, word spread about the success of Sonoma’s Women’s History Week, sparking a national movement. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter was the first to proclaim the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week.
Later presidents continued to dedicate a week in March as Women’s History Week, until 1987 when Congress passed a law 100-9 that dedicated all of March as Women’s History Month. Since 1988, each U.S. president has issued an annual proclamation of March as Women’s History Month.
The National Women’s History Alliance chooses a theme for Women’s History Month each year. This year’s theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future,” honoring women leaders across economic, environmental, educational and social justice efforts.
Manual has put forth efforts to commemorate Women’s History Month, from the daily morning announcements to a possible Women’s History Month program. The sponsor of Girl Up, Jill Bickel (English), notes the importance of honoring the month and has been in discussions with others, including the Ladies in Leadership club sponsor, Nicole Finley (English), about potentially hosting a larger schoolwide program, similar to the Black History Month celebration.
“It’s not about females being better than males,” Bickel said. “It’s completely about seeing everybody as human beings. It just seems natural and decent for people to believe that.”
“I saw students just completely in their element really celebrating African American history and famous people and regular people who are important to them and just being really passionate. It was, I thought, a really moving program. And I absolutely think the same thing could happen for Women’s History,” Bickel said.
Bickel tries to focus on women’s achievements and contributions throughout March and beyond. In her teaching curriculum, for instance, she incorporates personal essay examples that are of female experiences, ensuring her students are exposed to a variety of literature.
Girl Up is a United Nations founded club working to advance gender justice. It has chapters across the world, including at Manual. The club is well known for its period product drives and has activities ranging from Women’s History Month discussions to vision board making, holiday-themed activities and simple community building. While the club is not exclusively for girls, their focus is on female empowerment and gender equality.
Students in Manual’s Girl Up club strive to help educate everyone and work to create a bigger community of advocates. The vice president of Girl Up at Manual, Sarah Catlett (11, YPAS), wants to bring more awareness of what a group of girls can do for Manual and for Louisville. They spent their March 12 meeting discussing Women’s History Month, their historical role models and their personal role models.
“Honestly, I just think in this chaos, in the political situation in the world, everything is so scary. And so if we can celebrate being a woman and everything that we go through, why shouldn’t we? Like why shouldn’t we celebrate these things?” Catlett said.
Students in Girl Up and throughout Manual are taking the time to recognize the impact women have made throughout history and the contributions they will continue to make in the future.
