This year, the National Women’s History Project has chosen the theme of “Nevertheless, She Persisted: Honoring Women Who Fight All Forms of Discrimination Against Women” for National Women’s History Month, which begins March 1.
Congress first designated March as the month to recall women’s history in 1987. This year’s theme refers to an incident in February 7, 2017, in which a colleague silenced Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions’ nomination as Attorney General. Warren quoted former Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy’s statement calling Sessions a “disgrace” to the Justice Department and attempted to read a letter written by Coretta Scott King in 1986 objecting to Sessions’ nomination to be a federal judge. First, the committee chair interrupted her, asserting that she was violating a rule against impugning the character of another Senator, as Sessions was at the time. As she continued, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cut her off, citing the rule.
Later, McConnell explained: “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
Women seized on the last phrase, using it in memes, tweets and hashtags across social media, on T-shirts and posters, to protest the attempt to silence a woman in the Senate and efforts to silence women in general. Many women stood in solidarity with Warren to demonstrate that they would not be silenced. This year, we honor women throughout the world who insist on being heard.
A number of books available at www.DiverseBooks.net document the lives and work of women globally. Among them are:
Progress of the World’s Women 2002, Volume One, by Elisabeth Rehn and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, $22.46 (List price: $24.95), Kumarian Press, ISBN
9780912917665, pp. 164.
