WHEREAS, California women of every race, class, and ethnic background who have settled this great state have endured rigors whether they were a servant, a teacher, or an artisan’s wife; each faced the common task of achieving survival for themselves or their families in a land that yielded nothing easily; toiling from sunup to sundown, these women played a pivotal role in shaping the economic, cultural, and social fabric of our state; and

WHEREAS, At the time gold was discovered in Sutter’s Creek, women were entering the labor force in growing numbers as clerks, shoe workers, waitresses, printers, glass packers, domestics, textile workers, farmworkers, tailoresses, school teachers, writers, rubber workers, agents, music teachers, milliners, factory operatives of many kinds, type dressers, eyelet makers, hatters, tack makers, and squib makers, and became part of the labor movement in California as well as the United States, working both inside and outside of the home; and

WHEREAS, Women were among the workers in el Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles sobre el Rio de la Porciuncula; and

WHEREAS, August 26, 1995, marks the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States, a campaign that lasted over 72 years, fought by thousands of women who circulated countless petitions and gave speeches in churches, convention halls, meeting houses, and on street corners, before winning ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution on August 20, 1920, giving women the right to vote; and

WHEREAS, Women have been leaders in every movement for progressive social change, including their own suffrage movement, the fight for emancipation, the fostering of business development and entrepreneurship, the struggle to organize labor unions, and the civil rights movement; and

WHEREAS, Despite these contributions, the role of American women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued; and

WHEREAS, The celebration of Women’s History Month will provide an opportunity for schools and communities to focus attention on the historical role and accomplishments of the women of California and the United States, and for students, in particular, to benefit from an awareness of these contributions; and

WHEREAS, Women’s History Month will include International Women’s Day on March 8, originally proclaimed in 1910 to recognize and commemorate the valuable contributions women have made to the labor movement in improving working conditions; and

WHEREAS, The observance of Women’s History Week was initiated by the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women in 1978, a celebration which evolved into Women’s History Month, commemorated throughout the nation by schools, historians, and community groups; and

WHEREAS, The achievements of women who have gone before us will enable contemporary women and men to create tomorrow’s history by working toward an end to physical and sexual violence against women, discrimination in employment, the “feminization of poverty,” and by advocating the full participation of women in economic and political life at the local, state, and national level; and

WHEREAS, The story of the women’s rights movement deserves telling because of the significance and scope of women’s role in making history and shaping the cultural and societal makeup of California and the United States, and because it is a rich part of our common heritage, a story of gallantry and devotion to the belief that the opportunity for complete human dignity should not be denied to one-half of the state and the nation; and

WHEREAS, The 1995 theme for Women’s History Month is “Women’s History: Promises to Keep,” inviting all Californians to remember the many roles women have played in the transformation of our state and our nation, the battles fought and won in the past as well those we must continue to fight to ensure women’s rightful place in history, and to pass on the promise of equality to women and men of the future through the evolution of women’s roles in a dramatically changing society; now, therefore, be it