March is designated as Women’s History Month in the U.S., where notable women have made large strides for a better and more equal future for young ladies in America. It started back in 1981 when Congress passed Public Law 97-28 which was a joint resolution that had been requested and then authorized by the president, the late Ronald Wilson Reagan, to celebrate the first ever Women’s History Week. Later, in 1987, the petition by the National Women’s History Project changed the simple week in March into the entirety of the month thanks to Public Law 100-9.
Born on April 30, 1920, Gerda Lerner was a daughter to a pharmacist father and aspiring artist mother. Lerner was an Austrian-American historian who was dubbed the “Godmother of Women’s History,” and is known as the founder of Women’s History. Her life was full of challenges, fleeing from Nazi infested Austria and being captured as a way to lure her father back to the country; it is clear that her experiences as a child left an ever-lasting impression. So much so that she later wrote about it in the early 1940s which eventually led to her publishing in 1955 with a book titled “No Farewell.”
Her fascination in history began when she read about two sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, who were abolitionists. Enamored by their actions, Lerner enrolled in history courses and was eventually able to teach “Great Women in American History.” Graduating at Columbia University, Lerner specialized her learning into women’s history at Sarah Lawrence College in 1968. She helped establish the Coordinating Committee of Women’s Historians, published a textbook titled The Woman in American History, along with several other books that displayed her intellect such as The Lady and the Mill Girl, The Creation of Patriarchy, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, and edited Black Women in White America, and The Female Experience. Writing, editing, and publishing books were not her only achievements. She was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, the Kaethe Leichter Prize, and the Bruce Catton Prize.
America is lucky to have such a courageous and wise woman that spearheaded the movement and pushed controversial boundaries–as without Gerda Lerner the country may not be where it is today.
