#05-016: March: Women's History Month and More

Early campaigners for women's rights in America
(Wikipedia)

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Note: Women's history, nutrition, and reading awareness are some of the month-long observances in March.

Get Ready: Are you a reader? What do you like to read? How many books do you read in a month?

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Let's look at some of the month-long observances for March.

In Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, March is Women's History Month. As February's Black History Month (see Lesson #05-013) was anchored on the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, Women's History Month centers on International Women's Day (March 8).

This, in turn, is rooted in a city-wide demonstration by women textile workers in 1917 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Socialist Party of America subsequently held the first Women's Day observance in New York on February 28, 1909, and it was adopted by the United Nations in 1975.

Since then, the U.N. has declared a yearly theme, such as Women Uniting for Peace (2000) and Investing in Women and Girls (2008). In 2017 (when this lesson was first published), it was "Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030," the "50-50" being a reference to parity for women in--in this case--the workplace. Perceived problems to be addressed are the shortage of women in leadership positions and the widening gender gap in the area of equal pay.

Women's History Month events include classroom and extracurricular activities in schools, and public hearings to determine progress made and suggestions for more.

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March is also National Nutrition Month in Canada and the U.S., a time to focus on "the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits," according to their website.

It began as "National Nutrition Week" in 1973, and increased to a full month in 1980. Since then, the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has promoted this mission to thousands of people. The Academy alone has over 100,000 professional members!

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Food for the body, food for the mind: March is also National Read Across America Day. As with some other "Months," this one centers on the birthday of a famous figure: children's author "Dr. Seuss" (born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904), author of "The Cat in the Hat" and many others. The Month, as one would expect, is filled with reading-based activities, especially in schools.

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Read more:

• Women's History Month: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_History_Month
• National Nutrition Month: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Nutrition_and_Dietetics#National_Nutrition_Month
• National Read Across America Day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Education_Association#Read_Across_America_Day

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Practice: Match the term to its definition below:

1. anchored (on)
2. demonstration
3. dietetics
4. extracurricular
5. gender gap
6. parity
7. rooted (in)
8. subsequently
9. textile
10. the workplace

1. cloth goods
2. outside of instruction time
3. any place where people work
4. equality
5. a mass public action
6. tied (to)
7. the difference between men and women
8. following; as a result
9. the study of what people eat
10. based (on)

Answers are in the first comment below.

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Submitted to the Shenzhen Daily for March 13, 2017