The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners sang the praises of women yesterday at their regular business meeting, by declaring the month of March as ‘Women’s History Month’ in our community. Not necessarily “specific women” but more like “women in general, who have been ignored by history scholars.”
The BOCC resolution begins:
WHEREAS, Women’s History Month recognizes that women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation and local community; and…
WHEREAS, women were particularly important in the establishment of early charitable, philanthropic, and cultural institutions, and have served our country courageously in the military; and…
They could have mentioned America’s 2026 women’s hockey team… and our 2019 women’s soccer team… and also Amelia Earhart and Harriet Tubman and Taylor Swift and other historically important women. And so many unrecognized women who have nevertheless kept society functioning.
But I assume the commissioners were trying to fit the proclamation on a single sheet of paper.
The BOCC had invited a significant number of local women to hear the proclamation and pose for a celebratory photo. These women represented many of the female-led local government agencies and nonprofit organizations that are currently making historic contributions to our community:
The BOCC proclamation wasn’t a clever local innovation, however. Based on a casual Google search, everyone in America seems to be celebrating Women’s History Month during March 2026.
Reportedly, a school district in Sonoma, California decided, back in 1978, that the existing women’s celebration — International Women’s Day — was perhaps too brief. Maybe women deserved an entire week?
Thus, the birth of Women’s History Week, which gradually grew — as celebrations often do — to become Women’s History Month.
Many years before Congress finally jumped on the bandwagon and made it a month-long national celebration, President Jimmy Carter had proclaimed ‘Women’s History Week’ in 1980. He couldn’t see his way to proclaim an entire month, but he had included some interesting insights in his proclamation:
“…Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well…
“…Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people. This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that ‘Equality of Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.’”
President Carter was here referring to the Equal Rights Amendment, which would, if adopted, explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It was written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman and introduced in Congress in December 1923 as a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. So, like, over 100 years ago.
Still has never been adopted.
In 2011, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave an interview to California Lawyer magazine, and stated:
“Certainly, the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that is what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey, we have things called legislatures and they enact things called laws.”
Apparently, Justice Scalia had a lot more faith in legislatures than I do. But, like… what about the 14th Amendment?
Maybe Justice Scalia had never heard of that amendment? Ratified in 1868?
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
“All persons” are entitled to equal protection, immunities, and privileges. Last I looked, “All persons” includes “women”.
But a Supreme Court Justice didn’t think the Constitution prohibited discrimination against women?
That’s one of our big problems, here in America. Supreme Court Justices who don’t know how to read.
Although the Archuleta County proclamation mentions that “women were particularly important in the establishment of early charitable, philanthropic, and cultural institutions” — which is quite true — they didn’t mention some other achievements that might also be worth mentioning. The U.S. Congress mentioned them, however, in 1993. (This was before the hockey team and soccer team were formed.)
Whereas American women have played a unique role throughout the history of the Nation by providing the majority of the volunteer labor force of the Nation;
Whereas American women of every race, class, and ethnic background served as early leaders in the forefront of every major progressive social change movement;
Whereas American women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also in the abolitionist movement, the emancipation movement, the industrial labor movement, the civil rights movement, and other movements, especially the peace movement, which create a more fair and just society for all; and
Whereas despite these contributions, the role of American women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature, teaching, and study of American history…
Essentially, that’s what you get for providing to majority of the volunteer labor force in the nation, and leading every progressive social change movement, and creating a more fair and just society.
You get overlooked in the history books.
But we’re not overlooking you in Archuleta County!
(The Pagosa Springs Town Council met last night and did not make a Women’s History Week proclamation. But I’m sure it just slipped their minds. Happens to the best of us. Especially history book authors.)