Women's History Month: The End...Or is it?

Today's Women's History Tidbit:
1776: Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John, who is helping write the Declaration of Independence: "Remember the ladies...[we] will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice." *

The end of my favorite and least favorite month.

On Facebook, I started the month off by quipping that March is the month where so many of my friends spent half their time in airports traveling around the country spreading the gospel of women's history. And making most of their money.

I know far too well the pressures that colleges and universities are under and that the market for speakers is super tight. My campus has leaned towards local speakers since the last Governor decided to balance the budget on our backs. If we do cobble together enough money it's just for one speaker, not the 2-3 from years ago.

And why do so many awesome feminists make most of their money this month? Because they aren't thought of outside of Women's History Month for speaking gigs. It's awesome that we take a month to celebrate our history, but we need to break out of this ghetto and we need your help. Make sure that in September & October that there is a Latina for Hispanic Heritage Month. Ditto for all the other history and awareness months out there. Hell, bring them in for a political talk, media talk, sexuality talk or just for the hell of it talk.

We have Women's History Month because our education system fails to teach women's history outside of March, so why do we keep our speakers in that month?

Let's not go out of this month like lambs, but like the bad ass lionesses we are. Keep talking about women's history tomorrow and all year round. Buy kids books about women in history for gifts. I especially suggest Judy Moody books which slips in women's history without being all "Hey! Women's history! Right here!!" I wish I had the time to reprint every day of the calendar I've been citing this month. I haven't used a paper calendar in forever, but I bought it because of the daily women's history tidbits. Instead I'll leave you with a list of links for women's history. Please leave your favorite in the comments!

And thanks for sticking around this month.

• National Women's History Project: The Mothership for Women's History Month
• Jewish Women's Archive
• Today in Women's History
• History.com's Women's History Month
• Women's History Month (LOC)

* Source: 2010 Women Who Dare Engagement Calendar from the Library of Congress