2024 Theme: Women Who Advocate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Women’s History Month is celebrated every year during the month of March.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8, 1980 as Women’s History Week. In the following years, Congress passed joint resolutions proclaiming Women’s History Week.

Then, in 1987, Congress passed Pub. L 100-9, which officially designated March 1987 as the first Women’s History Month.

Women’s History Month is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the amazing achievements of women throughout history. We can recognize the women who fought for equal rights and stood up for justice, the women who have pursued their dreams and broke barriers, and the countless women who have made a difference in their communities.

Women’s History Month is important because it celebrates the countless achievements, contributions, and successes of women throughout history that may have otherwise gone unrecog- nized. It also serves to educate the public about often-overlooked contributions that women have made to society and to recognize the strength, abilities, resilience, and courage that women have demonstrated in the face of adversity.

Timeline of American Women in History

Hundreds of women stand out in American History. Here is a timeline of some significant events.

Early years in America 1587 – Virginia Dare is the first person born in America to English parents in Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

1607 – Pocahontas saves Jamestown, Virginia, colonist Captain John Smith from execution by Algonquian Chief Powhatan.

1620 – On November 21, when the Mayflower arrived, 13-year-old Mary Chilton was the first European to set foot at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1650 – Anne Bradstreet’s first volume of poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, is published.

1660 – Mary Barrett Dyer is executed in Boston for her Quaker proselytizing.

1707 – Henrietta Johnston began work as a portrait artist in Charleston, South Carolina, making her the first known professional woman artist in America.

1766 – Mary Katherine Goddard and her widowed mother become publishers of the Providence Gazette newspaper and the annual West’s Almanack, making her the first woman publisher in America.

1770 – Phillis Wheatley, the first African American woman poet of note in the United States, publishes her first poem.

1795 – Anne Parrish founded the House of Industry, which employs poor women. It is the first American charitable organization operated by women for women.