Posted on March 7th, 2011 by Alley Pezanoski-Browne

Courtesy of ftbester (via Flickr)
Women have made significant strides in education, work, and in making the home a more gender equal place. While there is still much work to be done, March, which is Women’s History Month, is a great time to celebrate the achievements of women past and present.
Unfortunately, we just missed Women of Color Day (March 1st), but there’s still time to celebrate during the rest of the month. March 8th is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate the educational and economic achievements of women (many people also celebrate it as Working Women’s Day).
This year’s theme is Our History Is Our Strength.
1. To celebrate International Women’s Day, there are thousands of events being thrown worldwide, and you can most likely find a Women’s Day event in your area.
2. Another great way to celebrate is by remembering or learning more about:
3. Or celebrate by spending the day with your mothers, aunts, daughters, nieces, and girl friends (maybe even your sons, husbands, or the other men in your life) learning more about the women of your own family tree!
It’s also an important time to think about how far we’ve come, and how much further we need to go towards a more gender equal society.
Here are some facts about how women’s rates in education, the workforce, and family have changed (good and bad), from the Wall Street Journal:
- In 1970, only 8% of women had a college degree, compared with 14% for men. Now 28% of both men and women have college degrees.
- Women between 25 and 34 years old are now more likely to have a college degree than men of the same age, and more women than men go to graduate school.
- In 2009, about 87% of women 19 years old or older had graduated high school, slightly higher than men.
- The number of women 20 or older in the workforce has doubled over the past half-century, and is “holding steady at 61%.”
- Women, however, lag far behind men in the higher-paying computer and engineering fields.
- Men still get paid more than women to do the same jobs.
- Across educational levels, women made on average 75% as much as their male counterparts in 2009.
- Women are still more likely to live in poverty and/or to be single parents.
So as you can see, there’s a lot that still needs to be done to create a more gender equitable society. But a great first step is to remember and honor our female heroes!