I’m a little behind on this and really can not believe that I forgot that March is National Women’s History Month. This year’s theme is “Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet”. And because my family tries hard to reduce, reuse and recycle and limit our carbon imprint on the world, I love this theme. Click here to see the White House press release. And the following two sites have wonderful information too. The National Women’s History Project has information on the 2009 honorees and great information on why they do what they do! Also, to my surprise, the National Parks Service has great information on women in history and places you can go and visit to learn more. (The have listed the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum. My family visited there on a recent trip to Atchison, Kansas and we LOVED it.) But, since I am an Army wife, I can not just focus on the theme this year!
As a little girl, I remember hearing the story of Molly Pitcher (aka Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley) and how she continued to fire that cannon during the Revolutionary War. And the story of Clara Barton and how she helped create the American Red Cross. But the only references I ever had about women in the Army was from watching M*A*S*H!! Now that is not the best reference for learning anything about the Army, even if it is a classic TV show!!
The US Army has put together an amazing website that includes a timeline, history and profiles of all things that has to do with the history of women in the US Army. Women in the US Army website, not only highlights women of the past, but women who are currently serving as soldiers now. I strongly urge you to take a good look at this website. Since I just found it today, I am going to share it with my seven-year old daughter tonight. And I also hope that one day we will be able to visit the US Army Women’s Museum at Ft Lee, Virginia. I hope by sharing this with my children that they will understand that they really can do anything they won’t to do — regardless of sex or race!
I also hope that all of you will share this with young women — and men — so that they can see that amazing things in history are not just something done by the men in our history books!
