Educators in Santa Rosa, California, first celebrated Women’s History Week in March 1978 to increase awareness of women’s contributions to society. Now, it's celebrated during the entire month of March with television specials, political speeches, classroom learning initiatives, and social media posts intended to honor the special women in one’s life. The 2022 Women’s History theme, “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” is both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.

Among the notable figures often spotlighted during Women’s History Month are Sacagawea, a Native American woman who helped make Lewis and Clark’s expedition to map parts of the West in the early 19th century a success; Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought for equality for women in the mid-19th century, more than 70 years before the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in the United States in 1920; Harriet Tubman, an American hero who led slaves to freedom during the Civil War; Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s first female pilots; Madeleine Albright, who became the first female Secretary of State in 1996; and Misty Copeland, the first African-American woman to be named a principal dancer—the highest level—in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theatre in 2015.

Here are some key dates to remember for Women’s history month:

• International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8, and was established as a holiday in 1911.
• The first major march on Washington by suffragists happened on March 3, 1913.
• The National Woman's Party was formed in March 1917. The group was dedicated to getting women the right to vote.
• Title IX was passed on March 1, 1972. In fact, the first-ever Women's History Week was created in order to bolster support for Title IX, which prohibited discrimination due to sex in federally funded education programs.
• The Equal Rights Amendment was passed in the Senate on March 22, 1972.

Over the last three years, Fueled has made it a pillar of our hiring program to work towards building a team that accurately reflects the world around us. That means not only increasing our headcount of groups who are statistically underrepresented in tech, but also making sure our leadership also reflects these figures. Currently, women make up 38% of Fueled’s leadership team.

This month, Fueled is donating to Planned Parenthood, an organization that directly provides a variety of reproductive health services and sexual education, contributes to research in reproductive technology and advocates for the protection and expansion of reproductive rights. We encourage you if you have the resources to also make a donation to their organization. 

Special thanks to all the women at Fueled!