(Black PR Wire) March is Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”

According to the National Women’s History Alliance, “The theme recognizes women throughout the country who understand that, for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions.”

This intersectional mission statement needs to be kept in focus, as a backlash grows against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in business, education, and other aspects of American life.  Extremist lawmakers in 21 states since 2021 have introduced proposals to shred DEI programs on state college campuses and nine states have passed such laws.

The first organized use of division and disinformation to promote a racist agenda came in the backlash against Black Lives Matter and attacks on critical race theory.  But now the darkest forces are unleashed with even more resistance to an antiracist society and a growing acceptance of white nationalism and white supremacy.

NOW members who advocate–and fight–for equity, diversity, and inclusion are inspired this month by the example of women who make history by strengthening our commitment to the intersectional principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  This Women’s History Month, we focus on how vital those principles have been to the advancements we’ve made.

But there are chapters in the “textbook versions” of women’s history that leave out women, particularly women of color.

The 15th Amendment, for example, declared that “the right of citizens…to vote shall not be denied or abridged…on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” –but women of all races were denied the right to vote.

And when women finally gained the right to vote under the 19th Amendment, Black women still faced hurdles like poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and lynching threats.

NOW members know that women from diverse backgrounds have long been leaders and trailblazers in addressing systemic inequities and working for a more inclusive and equal society.  That’s the way we can build a truly just, equitable and inclusive world.

Source: National Organization for Women