Diversity Newsletter: Happy National Women's History Month!
- diversitydirector
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
This March, we reflect on both the progress made and the work that remains regarding women’s rights, explore the rise of fourth-wave feminism, and consider the call to decolonize the movement 💁🏽♀️💖
‘Ia orana everyone,
Happy March! March is National Women’s History Month and this Sunday, March 8th, is International Women's Day.
The Origins of National Women’s History Month & International Women's Day
National Women’s History Month first began as a demand.
In the United States, women’s rights first started as an official movement in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, which organizers described as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman." By the early 1900s, women across the United States and Europe were organizing for safer working conditions, fair wages, and voting rights. In 1908, thousands of women marched in New York City, and the following year, the first National Women’s Day was coordinated by the Socialist Party of America on February 28th.
A few years later, German activist Clara Zetkin proposed Internationaler Frauentag (International Women’s Day), and on March 19th, 1911, over one million working class women gathered to march throughout Europe. March 8th became the official date for International Women’s Day following the “Bread and Peace” strike held by Russian women in 1917, in which their striking for four days resulted in being given the right to vote. However, it took until 1975, during International Women’s Year, when the United Nations formally recognized March 8 as International Women’s Day, shifting it as a date now recognized worldwide. In the U.S., President Jimmy Carter instituted March 2nd-8th Women’s History Week in 1980, which expanded into Women’s History Month in 1987 after congressional action.
Today, National Women’s History Month can often be associated with appreciation posts, corporate campaigns, and social media graphics. But its roots are grounded in activism through collective action, organization, and political resistance.
In the fight for equal rights, women have successfully demanded for:
Voting rights: the right for full political participation, and the ability to influence laws and policies that shape women’s bodies, labor, families, and futures.
Fair wages and economic independence: access to equal economic opportunities for employment, and to live free from exploitation and dependence on men.
Legal recognition: to be recognized as full legal citizens, such as through owning property, entering contracts, owning a credit card or bank account, and accessing protections under the law.
Safe working conditions: workplaces free from hazardous conditions, exploitation, harassment, and abuse, ensuring dignity and physical safety on the job.
Women continue to demand:
Bodily autonomy: the right to make decisions about one’s own body without coercion, control, or state interference.
Reproductive rights: the legal and practical ability to access contraception, abortion, and comprehensive reproductive healthcare.
Reproductive justice: the freedom to have children, not have children, and to parent in safe, sustainable communities with access, adequate resources, and support.
Protection from gender-based violence: accountability and cultural change to end domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, and other forms of gendered harm.
Equal pay: the demand for equal compensation for equal work, challenging the systemic undervaluing of women’s labor and the persistent wage gap.
Healthcare equity: the right for accessible, affordable, and culturally competent healthcare that addresses women’s physical and mental health without dismissal or bias.
Care-work equity: addressing the disproportionate burden of unpaid labor expected of women in relationships and in families.
Roles in leadership and decision-making: the right to have meaningful representation and power in political, corporate, and community leadership spaces.
🤔 Question: What would you add to these lists?
The Fourth Wave
Feminism has played an integral role in women’s history, transcending culture and many global contexts to challenge patriarchal systems and harmful patterns of male dominance. Feminism is a social, political, and cultural movement and framework that is grounded in the belief that all genders deserve equal rights, opportunities, and dignity. In the U.S., the first wave of feminism brought about voting rights, though initially only for white women. The second wave of “women’s liberation” moved alongside the civil rights movement, and steadfastly pushed against the requirement for women to be housewives and mothers. This period resulted in great progress in legal rights for women, such as through the success of Roe vs. Wade. The third wave has focused on freedom of expression, individuality, and intersectionality, with greater focus on the experiences of trans-women and women of color.
So far, the debated fourth, and current, wave of feminism has largely been characterized by the influence of social media. The #MeToo movement, founded by Tarana Burke, has not only illuminated the prevalence of sexual violence, but has also allowed for greater exposure and accountability against assault and harassment (example, Harvey Weinstein). Similarly, public scrutiny of the powerful men tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes have intensified conversations about systemic sexual exploitation, institutional complicity, and the ways wealth and influence can shield abuse. Like in the third wave, individuality, authenticity, and intersectionality remain central themes, evident in movements such as body positivity. The challenging of rigid beauty standards, the policing of bodies, and the freedom of gender expression have hugely been shaped and amplified by queer culture.
Yet this progress has not been without resistance, as online spaces have also amplified misogynistic subcultures, such as the “manosphere.” This has been popularized by figures like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, who promote rigid, hyper-masculine ideologies, and frame gender equity as a threat to male power. The term “toxic masculinity” equates manhood with dominance, emotional suppression, aggression, and control, reinforcing harmful expectations that limit men’s emotional wellbeing while contributing to gender inequality and violence. Also, discussions have appeared on “trad wives” who promote a return to romanticized gender roles in which women prioritize homemaking, birthing children, and submission within a heterosexual marriage.
These dynamics, while indicating progress, also underscore that the struggle for true gender equality remains ongoing.
Decolonizing Feminism
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
— Audre Lorde
The term of "decolonizing feminism" was first proposed by María Lugones, a feminist of Argentine origin living in the U.S. To decolonize feminism and truly approach this ideology from an intersectional lens is to acknowledge that mainstream feminist movements have historically centered Western, white, and middle-class experiences over the experiences, leadership, and knowledge of Indigenous women, women of color, and trans-women. It calls for the complete dismantling not only of patriarchy, but calls for collective liberation from all oppressive systems, and the ways that colonialism, capitalism, classism, and racism intersect with sexism and gender oppression.
It’s also important to acknowledge that the movements for women’s rights and LGBTQIA+ rights have always been deeply interconnected because both challenge rigid systems of gender and power. Efforts to expand women’s rights have historically disrupted patriarchal norms, which are the same norms that police sexuality, enforce heteronormativity, and marginalize queer and trans identities. Progress in one movement has often strengthened the other.
Resources
March is also Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, Gender Equality Month, Greek-American Heritage Month, and Irish-American Heritage Month.
These diversity newsletters are intended as a form of psychoeducation. If you have a correction, question, or would like to expand on anything stated here, please reach out to SBCAMFT Diversity Director, Aute Porter, at diversitydirector@sbcamft.org.
Thank you for reading!
In liberation,
Aute Porter, LMFT #153925
(she/her/'ona)
Director of Diversity, SBCAMFTdiversitydirector@sbcamft.org
Located on the unceded lands of the Chumash-Barbareño people.
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