FCI Staff Writer Sacramento 
fciwomenswrestling.com article, Wikimedia photo
The above photo depicts an important event in 1920 when Alice Paul and a delegation consulted with Governor Cox on the suffrage situation in Tennessee.
Decades ago the WCWA championships could not exist, no matter the skill level of those involved. Among many important and honorable endeavors, it took the Women’s Movement and Title Nine to make this great event possible.
March is Women’s History Month and it seems to bring the best in all of us. Let’s take a look at what some are saying and doing in this very important month.
The respected site womenshistorymonth.gov guides us from a historical perspective.
Alice Paul and an English group
“Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 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, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”[adToAppearHere]
Often a trailblazer with a heart, in February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as National Women’s History Week. The proclamation stated, “From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
Any time women come together with a collective intention, it’s a powerful thing. Whether it’s sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.………Phylicia Rashad
President Barrack Obama enhanced his administration’s legacy by releasing this statement in 2013.
“For more than two centuries, our Nation has grown under the simple creed that each of us is created equal. It is a notion that makes America unlike any other place on earth — a country where no matter where you come from or what you look like, you can go as far as your talents will take you.[adToAppearHere]
Women’s History Month is a time to remember those who fought to make that freedom as real for our daughters as for our sons. Written out of the promise of the franchise, they were women who reached up to close the gap between what America was and what it could be. They were driven by a faith that our Union could extend true equality to every citizen willing to claim it. Year after year, visionary women met and marched and mobilized to prove what should have been self-evident. They grew a meeting at Seneca Falls into a movement that touched every community and took on our highest institutions. And after decades of slow, steady, extraordinary progress, women have written equal opportunity into the law again and again, giving generations of girls a future worthy of their potential.
That legacy of change is all around us. Women are nearly half of our Nation’s workforce and more than half of our college graduates. But even now, too many women feel the weight of discrimination on their shoulders. They face a pay gap at work, or higher premiums for health insurance, or inadequate options for family leave. These issues affect all of us, and failing to address them holds our country back.
That is why my Administration has made the needs of women and girls a priority since day one — from signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to helping ensure women are represented among tomorrow’s top scientists and engineers. It is why we secured stronger protections and more preventive services for women under the Affordable Care Act. It is why we have fought for greater workplace flexibility, access to capital and training for women-owned businesses, and equal pay for equal work. And it is why we have taken action to reduce violence against women at home and abroad, and to empower women around the world with full political and economic opportunity.
Susan B. Anthony
Meeting those challenges will not be easy. But our history shows that when we couple grit and ingenuity with our basic beliefs, there is no barrier we cannot overcome. We can stay true to our founding creed that in America, all things should be possible for all people. That spirit is what called our mothers and grandmothers to fight for a world where no wall or ceiling could keep their daughters from their dreams. And today, as we take on the defining issues of our time, America looks to the next generation of movers and marchers to lead the way.”
I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere...James Thurber
Appreciating the importance of female wrestlers and their contributions to our great sport, the informative site helenair.com reports, “As part of Women’s Wrestling Week, any female athlete who is not a member of USA Wrestling is invited to come out and try the sport at a chartered club practice. USA Wrestling will provide a complimentary membership for March 2-7.
USA wrestling chartered clubs have been encouraged to allow females of all ages to attend their practice free of charge during World Wrestling Week.”
Female Competition International (FCI) would like to humbly express our appreciation for the forward vision, enlightenment and sacrifices that these important women contributed to our heritage. We give thanks to Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul.
Harriet Tubman (Left)
We hope that we can continue to live up to our responsibility to promote and improve the interests of the global female wrestling community.
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Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, femcompetitor.com, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
http://womenshistorymonth.gov/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harriet_Tubman,_with_rescued_slaves,_New_York_Times.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Harriet_Tubman,_with_rescued_slaves,_New_York_Times.JPG
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