The month of March brings much more than St. Patrick’s Day and the Lenten season – it’s also Women’s History Month, an opportunity to honor the impact women have had on our past, present, and future.

Cassie Pegg-Kirby, the Director of the Women’s Center at Kent State, understands the importance of having celebratory months dedicated to bringing marginalized groups to the center of the conversation.

“There needed to be a way to sort-of center people that had otherwise been… you know, you read things and they say things like ‘overlooked,’ but I would venture to say ‘omitted,’” says Pegg-Kirby. “Our history is really incomplete without them.”

During Women’s History Month, Pegg-Kirby says we should focus on not only the large-scale experience of women across the world, but also the experiences of women on our very campus.

To help educate our community on the female experience at Kent State, the Women’s Center is holding several events throughout the month of March, such as the SAGE Project which helps recognize students who have overcome obstacles to get their education. They also hold events to recognize women in STEM, a field where women only hold 29% of the available positions.

Graduate Assistant Sierra Clark understands firsthand the struggle of women in science. The public health major seeking a masters in biology, says, “Women are underrepresented in STEM. They’re kind of pushed behind – for a while, no one even knew that Rosalind Franklin discovered the structure of DNA, so bringing women forward during Women’s History Month is really important.

The impact women have had on our history as a whole, however, is one that Pegg-Kirby says cannot be relegated to one month.

“I encourage folks not just to celebrate and March, and realize that The Day of the Girl is October 15th. Equal Pay Day is in April, but Equal Pay Day for women of color is in August. It’s really important that we think about that contextually and make sure that we’re celebrating that not as one story but all of those stories, all of those identities, and recognizing the incredible impact women have had in getting us to where we are today.”