It’s March, which means that it’s Women’s History Month. As a matter of fact, I began drafting this article on March 8, which just so happened to be International Women’s Day.

During this month, we’re invited to honor, remember, and celebrate everything that women have achieved over the course of our lifetimes. The contributions that they’ve made to the world, the obstacles that were brought before them to overcome, the boundaries that they have broken for themselves and generations to come. 

And you know what? We really should.

In a time like this, it’s crucial to keep yourself informed about everything going on in the world, whether or not that affects you personally. Women’s rights have always been a hot topic of conversation, and though we’ve seen plenty of advancement in women’s rights, there’s still quite the amount of gender inequality in our everyday lives. Whether it be along the lines of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and other attacks on reproductive healthcare or something quite recent in the removal of workplace DEI programs, our country is in a place right now where we take three steps backward for every step forward we take. 

I grew up in a household that hosted more women than men. Growing up, it was me, my mom, my dad, my sister, and my grandmother. Nowadays, it’s just my mom and my sister, and yet those are the two people in my life that mean more to me than anything else. I’d take every bullet, every punch, and every jump on a grenade for them. It’s been the women in my life that have helped mold me into the person I am today, and hopefully, I am a good one.

My mom’s the strongest woman I know, who’s always been a role model to me while also being my biggest supporter. She’s somebody whose life has been thrown around every which way, spending her days taking care of everybody else in her life that she loves first before even thinking twice about herself. And my sister who, though we butt heads very often, keeps my head from wandering too far into the clouds. She’s also probably my closest friend, though lately, I haven’t taken many chances to let her know that.

I took the Honors Introduction to Women & Gender Studies class last semester, and while the workload was very hefty and at times overwhelming, I learned a lot of valuable information. Though WGS isn’t my field of study, I think that taking a course like that is a great way to familiarize yourself with the precise inequalities and injustices that women have put up with as well as explore the gender stereotypes we see in our society and our institutions and how we can avoid repeating them in the future.

So I urge once again, it’s Women’s History Month. Don’t treat it as just another month with a specific theme attached to it. Educate yourself a little bit more, even if you don’t think that you need to. And of course, just like the headline of this article says, appreciate the women in your lives. Your mothers, sisters, aunts, teachers, classmates, peers, doctors, artists, activists, and everyone and anyone in between. Recognize them all for the weight on their shoulders that they carry without complaining, for the marks that they make on us not because the time of the year asks us to do so, but because they truly deserve the recognition.

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