<\/p>\n
March is a long, cold, windy month in New England. Now and then a softer breeze or a sunny day can fool one into thinking spring has arrived, but more often than not these hopeful signs are followed by more rain, wind and cold. Snow storms are common, if somehow still unexpected. So it is with the struggle for gender equality—important steps forward followed by stormy backlash and the cold winds of repression.\u00a0 Case in point, the reauthorization, finally, of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by the House of Representatives on the last day of February, <\/a>an encouraging start for March, officially Women\u2019s History Month in the U.S.\u00a0 Unfortunately headlines such as \u201dSteubenville Defense Case: Near-unconscious Jane Doe Gave \u2018Consent\u2018<\/a> <\/strong> and \u201cSurvivors Share Experiences of Sexual Assault in the Military\u201d<\/a> followed soon after.<\/p>\n The VAWA was a key victory for women<\/a> when it first passed in 1994. The law signaled an end to the silence surrounding violence against women, the idea that this violence was merely a \u2018private matter\u2019, rather than an issue of public concern and criminal law. Two decades ago few anticipated how strong the opposition to any extension of these protections could be. \u00a0 Gendered violence is only one example where progress toward gender equality has stalled or been subjected to serious back sliding.\u00a0 Women in leadership positions, equal pay for equal work, and reproductive rights all exhibit similar patterns.<\/p>\n But the very existence of Women\u2019s History Month is itself a cause for celebration and a mark of progress. It is also an example of what one small group of women can do, to paraphrase Margaret Mead<\/a>.\u00a0 March 8th was first celebrated as International Women\u2019s History Day in Europe in 1911. Seventy years later the work of Molly McGregor and her colleagues at the National Women\u2019s History Project<\/a> in Santa Rosa, California <\/strong> persuaded Congress to designate the week of March 8th as National Women\u2019s History Week. The initial week was expanded to a full month in 1987<\/a>.<\/p>\n Women\u2019s History Month was primarily\u00a0designed to encourage K-12 schools to develop and use classroom materials focused on women\u2019s accomplishments. The explicit focus on women\u2019s history provided an opportunity for all <\/em>students to learn more about women\u2019s contributions to the nation and the world—a chance, as a Women\u2019s History Project slogan put it, to \u2018write women back into history\u2018. After all, how could boys and girls view women and men as equally capable and worthy of respect \u00a0if they knew little of women and their achievements?\u00a0 This knowledge is as critical today as it ever was. Today’s world requires that women and men work together, both outside and inside the home, in order for families and society to thrive.<\/p>\n But history is more than a celebration of accomplishments. Setbacks can teach as much as successes.\u00a0 Once a battle is clearly in the \u2018won\u2019 column, the story is no longer controversial, making it reasonably easy to discuss. Women\u2019s suffrage is a good example; few today would suggest that women be denied the right to vote. Less than one hundred years ago this was not the case.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 the closer we get to present day issues, to unfinished struggles, the harder telling the story becomes.<\/p>\n And this brings me back to gender violence. Does anyone remember Tailhook<\/a>?\u00a0 This was the 1991 \u2018incident\u2019 when more than a hundred \u00a0male Navy and Marine Corps aviation officers were accused of sexual assaulting\u00a0 and harassing at least ninety individuals, both women and men? The public outcry that followed resulted in official inquiries and, ultimately the resignation, early retirement or shortened careers of close to three hundred officers for their roles in the \u2018incident\u2019 and the subsequent investigations.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n