Staff Editorial: March serves as a reminder to recognize women’s achievements
Failure to address Women’s History Month disappointing
Photo illustration by Sergei Bovee
March 7, 2022
Many women work behind the scenes, contributing to history in ways that are forgotten or never recognized in the first place. The Echo Editorial Board unanimously believes Park should do more to teach about women’s impacts on history.
Each year, the month of March is dedicated to honoring women’s past and present accomplishments. According to the National Women’s History Alliance, the 2022 theme is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” in honor of frontline workers during COVID-19 and other healing women throughout history.
Other than a display in the Media Center that feels more performative than productive, the Board is not aware of any efforts from the school to acknowledge Women’s History Month. Given our principal and many of our teachers are women, the lack of communication from the school around Women’s History Month is disheartening.
The Board feels that curriculums and textbooks also fail to acknowledge important female historical figures. Textbooks tend to be written from the male perspective. On the rare occasions when textbooks mention women, they often focus on how history affected women, rather than how women affected history. Furthermore, teachers often gloss over portions of the curriculum that focus on women to save time for other topics that are considered to be more important.
While white women’s accomplishments are often unnoticed, the Board feels that BIPOC women’s achievements are especially prone to being overlooked. When learning about women’s history, the achievements of BIPOC women should be emphasized. We should learn about the difficulties BIPOC women face, but we should also celebrate their resilience and successes. Memorializing their triumphs inspires us to become better people.
Although some teachers and students are encouraging learning about women’s history, the Board believes the responsibility of addressing these issues should not fall on a few individuals. There should be unified action as a school.
The Board acknowledges that teachers face an unprecedented workload this year with COVID-19 and other factors creating adversity for staff. Teachers have to stick to a rigid curriculum and have a limited amount of time to cover many subjects. However, teaching and learning about women’s history shouldn’t be a burden — it should be a given.
Park is failing to acknowledge Women’s History Month and it has failed to address other awareness months, such as Black History Month. The Board unanimously agreed that utilizing Park Connections to address Women’s History Month would allow women to be recognized without taking instructional time away from teachers and students. Those in charge of Park Connections should bring up Women’s History Month and other awareness months.
