Women’s History Month 2026

Published: 23rd February 2026

March is Women’s History Month, which conveniently overlaps with International Women’s Day (IWD). This year’s IWD has the theme 'Give to Gain', emphasising that providing resources and opportunities to women and girls benefits everyone: ‘When women thrive, we all rise’. Where has this message come from? From the real-life experiences of women over generations, which is of course history.

Women have always made up half of the global population (give or take), but have long been hugely underrepresented in recorded history – and in history education. That’s largely of course because most societies have not historically granted women equal status with men socially, politically, economically or in the breadth of roles women have been allowed to fulfil. It’s also because, until relatively recently, most histories have been written by, for and about men (and predominantly white men of a particular social class and standing).

For many, our awareness of women’s history is still largely limited to a handful of famous queens, suffragettes and campaigners, plus the occasional Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie or Amy Johnson. And with rare exceptions like Rosa Parks and Mary Seacole, these have again mostly been white individuals of a certain social class.

This Women’s History Month, in addition to celebrating those individuals, try and support the IWD theme and look for the names or evidence of the women who worked together to create a better society for everyone. 

The history of Women’s History Month

Women’s History Month originally grew out of a local Women’s History Week started in 1978 by a group of California educators to address gender inequality in school curricula. The idea quickly gained recognition, and in 1980 US President Carter designated the first week of March as National Women’s History Week. From 1987 this expanded to a month-long US observance, now internationally recognised – though not adopted in the UK until March 2011, the centenary of the first International Women's Day in 1911. 

The Historical Association has been championing women’s history since long before 2011, along with the histories of even less represented groups. We are also passionate advocates for the inclusion of women’s history throughout the whole year and the whole history curriculum. However, there is still a long way to go before any kind of equality in representation is reached. Last year’s ‘End Sexism in Schools’ research report highlighted that the actions, contributions, experiences and names of women are still too often marginalised in history lessons in favour of the male voice and experience.

Until that changes, Women’s History Month will continue to be a useful springboard and starting point for the inclusion of women in history, and recognition of the (often unseen) contributions women have always made to society. 

Women’s history resources

We have a huge range of women’s history resources on our website, available for free to HA members – below is a selection to whet your appetite. Our Women's Suffrage database, podcasts and resources are open access year-round.

General resources

Secondary resources

Primary resources

Resources available to all HA members:

 
Recorded talks and webinars

Podcasts

History journal archive*

*All HA members have access to all History journal articles (Wiley Online Library site). To access History content:
1. Sign in to the HA website (top right of any page)
2. Then click this link to allow access to History content on the Wiley site.
NB all History journal links go to the Wiley Online Library site and open in a new window or tab.