Women’s History Month is a time when people are supposed to reflect on the impact that women have had on our lives. We seem to generally concentrate on the women who are in the public’s eye, who have done something to change or impact society. These people are important, but so are the women that no one thinks to talk about. There are women that are doing great things everyday.
When I think of Women’s History Month I can’t get my thoughts away from two particular women, my mother and grandmother. They may not have been one of the first women to govern a state or start some great organization, but moms are the bread of our society; they are the women with the lasting effects. Since 1978 we have recognized and celebrated women in the month of March. If you are a woman it is great to have another woman to look up to. But just remember you don’t have to look far to look up.
My grandmother, Velma Mac-Donald, was born in 1921. She was married to Allan MacDonald in 1937 when she was sixteen years old and he was twenty. She is eighty now, but between the ages of eighteen and thirty-seven she birthed nine children, which isn’t a lot compared to her mother. My great-grandmother had fifteen kids. Velma’s husband died from cancer after they had been married for thirty-seven years. She was now a fifty-year-old single mom left her to raise all nine children with her youngest child, my mother, only fourteen. She took on many different jobs outside of the home in order to support her family. From the day her husband, Allan died, Velma MacDonald never looked at another man. She was content on staying by herself without the companionship. Even after many attempts by her children to get her to start dating, she refused. I envy her for being that strong. It has been thirty years since my grandfather’s death and Velma has had to watch three of their children die from cancer just as he died. She is a strong woman to have raised her children by herself and to go out and get jobs back when women were still supposed to be in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. Her story is worth remembering, and other grandmothers like her are the ones who make Women’s History Month worth taking the time to think about.
Velma was the type of woman who did what she had to in order to make a great life for her children. Through this hard work she created children who went beyond what they had to do to survive, to become people who strive to make theirs and other’s lives better. Kathy MacDonald was born to Velma and Allan in 1958. She was the youngest child of the nine. Kathy MacDonald became Kathy O’Clair when she married Percy O’Clair in 1977. They have been together since Kathy was in seventh grade — about thirty-one years. Kathy has been a nurse for twenty years. She works in the ER where she saves lives everyday. She works twelve-hour shifts and will go into work whenever they need her. She is also an E.M.T. and at one time was the Fire Chief of a fire department in New York. Kathy has always been dedicated to her work, but she still has time for her family. She has had three daughters and has worked hard since the first one, that’s me, was born. My mother is a woman that I idolize. She may not be Lady Di or Hillary Clinton but she works hard to saves lives and takes care of her family, and I think that’s worth celebrating.
These women, my mother and grandmother, are women that I think of during Women’s History Month. If you idolize a public figure there is nothing wrong with that; just don’t forget the ones that have instilled you with everlasting traits. These are the women that might not be remembered in history books but the children who they have taught will remember them. And maybe you have a mother or grandmother who you would rather not look up to because of mistakes they have made that you cannot forget. Well, at least you were able to learn from those mistakes.
March didn’t officially become Women’s History Month until 1992. It was petitioned to Congress in 1987 by women’s organizations, museums, libraries, youth leaders, and educators all over the country. The idea of having time to stop and celebrate women and their important roles in society actually started in 1978 when the Education Task force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week.” They selected March 8 to be International Women’s Day for specific events that, back then, recognized the connection between and among all women, and celebrated the important role of women in the paid work force. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter encouraged the recognition and celebration of Women’s History Week in a Presidential Message. On March 8 in 1981, a joint Congressional Resolution declared the week to be National Women’s History Week. Women’s History Week became Women’s History Month, which is now an international celebration. So when you hear about Women’s History Month, don’t forget the little ones. And remember that you don’t have to look far to look up.