03/31/2021

CEO Ivory Mathews Shares Women's History Month Message

Celebrating Women in Affordable Housing | Women's History Month

A message from Chief Executive Officer and 1st woman to lead Columbia Housing, Ivory N. Mathews.

"As we come to a close of Women's History Month, I reflect upon the history of Columbia Housing and would like to take this time to express my sincere honor and humbleness for being the 1st woman to lead an 87-year-old agency. The work of being the 1st comes with great responsibility, expectation, and effectiveness. To every woman who has dedicated her career to advancing affordable housing, I salute you. To ALL Women who are thriving in your spaces, who are transformational forces, facilitators of change, limitless wheels of fortune, adaptable, powerful, all of the above, and much more; we appreciate you. We highlight your contributions, not just in the month of March, but every day."

Click on the YouTube Video below to take a listen.

Women's History Month

Information obtained from the National Women's History Museum website:

Every year March is designated Women's History Month by Presidential proclamation. The month is set aside to honor women's contributions in American history.

Did You Know? Women's History Month started as Women's History Week

Women's History Month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women planned and executed a "Women's History Week" celebration in 1978. The organizers selected the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women's Day. The movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women's History Week celebrations the following year.

In 1980, a consortium of women's groups and historians-led by the National Women's History Project (now the National Women's History Alliance)-successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8th, 1980 as National Women's History Week.

Subsequent Presidents continued to proclaim a National Women's History Week in March until 1987 when Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March as "Women's History Month." Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women's History Month. Since 1995, each president has issued annual proclamations designating the month of March as "Women's History Month."

The National Women's History Alliance selects and publishes the yearly theme. The theme for Women's History Month in 2021 captures the spirit of these challenging times. Since many of the women's suffrage centennial celebrations originally scheduled for 2020 were curtailed, the National Women's History Alliance is extending the annual theme for 2021 to "Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.

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