Women’s History Month 2025

Published: 28th February 2025

March is Women’s History Month, so it’s time to pull out some of the great women of history. Only that is just a fragment of a not very representative picture – not least because many of the great women have already been written out of the popular narratives of history; and ordinary, everyday remarkable women don’t seem to exist at all in the broad sweeps of historical storytelling.

All that is hardly surprising when we look at the world around us today and we see our news stories and international politics dominated by men. Yet the reality is women are currently on the international stage doing important jobs – Ursula von der Leyen being one, Olena Zelenska another; and even if they are not in the recognised top jobs jetting around the world with their flight emissions, they are just as present ensuring that society runs, functions, is fed and looked after and retains its humanity.

Women’s History Month isn’t just about the great women of history – they should already be in any grand sweep of history knowledge (and if they are not make that happen now!). More importantly it is a reminder that when history is discussed or taught it should include all the people who lived during those times. That the lives of women, their contributions and their involvement is just as important to a full understanding of our past as the men’s. We should be asking ourselves if a story only includes men, and unless it is set in a monastery, where are the women, why have their lives not been included or their thoughts and behaviours not written down?

Women’s History Month is a reminder that history is diverse and that it is still not equal – but it is also a chance to change the popular representations that would have us believe that women were only ever angry queens or suffragettes. It is an opportunity to look at history from different angles and to draw out the overlooked 51% of the global population. 

As always we offer a range of resources to help you do so, and have collated just a few of those below. You can also register for this month's Virtual Branch webinar Poet, mystic, widow, wife - lives of medieval women with Dr Hetta Howes on 18 March at 7.30pm. This lecture is free and open to all to attend live.

General resources

Primary

Secondary

Podcasts

(accessible to all HA members)