Law Library News: Recent Updates

Celebrating Women's Legal History

The History of Women's History Month

The commemoration that became Women's History Month emerged out of International Women's Day. A 1977 UN resolution [PDF] established an annual celebration on any date, but many countries had been celebrating on March 8th as a Women's Day since the early 1900s. You can learn more about the history of this celebration from this helpful UN website on the history of International Women's Day. Since the mid-1990s, the UN has also selected an annual theme for International Women's Day: the 2024 theme is Invest in women: Accelerate progress. 

In the United States and several other countries, the celebration of International Women's Day has expanded into longer celebrations of women's history. Women's rights groups and educational institutions began celebrating a Women's History Week during the 1970s, and in 1980, President Carter issued a Statement on National Women's History Week in support of the commemoration. The following year, Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28, authorizing the president to proclaim National Women's History Week in March 1982, and this continued until 1987, when Pub. L. 100-9 was passed to institute a National Women's History Month in March of that year. The month has been announced annually ever since (by presidential proclamation since 1995). For more information on the legislative and executive history of the holiday, check out the Library of Congress's Women’s History Month: A Commemorative Observances Legal Research Guide. You can also read President Biden's A Proclamation on Women’s History Month, 2024 from the White House site.

The Law Library's Women's History Month Display and Collection

At the Law Library, we're highlighting the history of women in law this month. You can stop by to view our current display in the Current Collection of the Law Library or browse our online Women's History Month collection, featuring print materials and eBooks exploring the lives and careers of female lawyers and judges. You're welcome to request or check out any of the items on display or in our collection. For additional options, including recent memoirs, fiction, and audiobooks, you can also read eBooks available through the new Boundless app.