Kicking off National Women's History Month

The University of Chicago and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs begins the month of March in celebration of women’s history. National Women’s History Month originated in the year of 1857 when a group of women from New York City started a protest against working conditions in factories. In 1981 Congress approved National Women’s History Week to be commemorated in the second week of March. Congress extended the week to a month in the year of 1987. Since then, the President has given a proclamation and congress has passed a resolution for Women’s History Month every year.

Motherhood

82.8 million
Estimated number of mothers of all ages in the United States.
Source: Unpublished data from Survey of Income and Program Participation.
1.9
Average number of children that women 40 to 44 had given birth to as of 2006, down from 3.1 children in 1976, the year the Census Bureau began collecting such data. The percentage of women in this age group who had given birth was 80 percent in 2006, down from 90 percent in 1976.

Education

29.4 million
Number of women 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more education in 2008, higher than the corresponding number for men (28.4 million). Women had a larger share of high school diplomas, as well as associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees. More men than women had a professional or doctoral degree.

29%
Percent of women 25 and older who had obtained a bachelor’s degree or more as of 2008.

Voting

66%
Percentage of female citizens 18 and older who reported voting in the 2008 Presidential election. Sixty-two percent of their male counterparts cast a ballot. Additionally, 73 percent of female citizens reported being registered to vote.
Source: Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2008

Jobs

99,000
Number of female police officers across the country in 2008. In addition, there were about 14,000 women firefighters, 349,000 lawyers, 267,000 physicians and surgeons, and 36,000 pilots. (Note: Number of pilots pertains to 2007.)
Source: This information came from US Census Bureau