Moving Forward Together: Women Educating and Inspiring Generations
The National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA)‘s theme for 2025’s Women’s History Month is Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.
This theme celebrates the collective strength and influence of women who have dedicated their lives to education, mentorship, and leadership. Through their efforts, they have served as an inspiration for all generations — both past and present.
— National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA)
Bay Area Roots
Women’s History Month has its roots right here in the Bay Area, with the first celebration initiated in 1978 as Women’s History Week in Santa Rosa, California.
NWHA
In 1972, Molly Murphy MacGregor, the leader of the five women who spearheaded the movement, was a high school history teacher in Santa Rosa when she couldn’t find an answer to a student’s question about the women’s movement in any textbooks. This moment was an inflection point for Murphy MacGregor. She realized that work needed to be done to “write women back into history.”
Our goal was to give students and teachers alike an opportunity to discuss issues related to women’s lives. We were accused of being self-promoters who hated men and wanted to destroy the family.
— Molly Murphy MacGregor in a 2021 article for the ABC News website
What we did want to destroy was the notion that history was boring and unimportant. We wanted to show the relevance and inspiring power of history, especially multicultural women’s history.
From $23 and Some Cookie Dough to an Annual National Celebration
In the over 40 years since its humble beginnings in Sonoma with an original budget of $23.67 and five pounds of cookie dough (for a bake sale), Women’s History Week has grown into a month-long celebration of the contributions of women throughout history. Spearheaded by the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women, the movement sought to highlight the significant achievements of women and has since grown to a national celebration.
Women’s History Month at Lane Library
At Lane, we are committed to honoring women’s contributions, especially in the field of medicine. From our collection of both print and digital books, journals, and databases, as well as the work of our Stanford Medical History Center, we offer a variety of resources that shed light on the pivotal roles women have played in the evolution of medical science and education.
Book Collection Highlights
Lucille A. Lester
Megan A. Moreno, Rachel Katzenellenbogen.
Explore our Medical History Center
Lane Library’s Medical History Center (MHC) is an excellent resource for conducting historical research, including how to locate and use primary source materials in women’s history.
Recently, the Medical History completed work on a collection of original historical documents, primarily from the 1960s and 1970s, on activism and initiatives related to race and gender at Stanford Medicine. The collection includes historical materials for groups such as the Professional Women of Stanford Medical School and La Allianza Latina. The collection is now open to researchers and you can explore the online finding aid, which describes the contents of the collection.
Press releases from the same period show the way that Stanford Medicine sought to portray these actions and initiatives. The Medical History Center has digitized hundreds of press releases from the School of Medicine’s Office of Communications for the years 1959-1986; they are online and full-text searchable.
Browse our Health Equity Resources
Lane Library is committed to adding resources on health equity, health disparities, social justice, and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) to our collection. Use these terms in Lane Search and discover our current resources on these topics. Examples of resources are linked below:
edited by Mary E. O’Dowd and Ruth Charbonneauacism
Monique Rainford, MD.
Lane Library also welcomes suggestions for purchase, on these topics and others of interest to the Stanford Medicine Community.
Learn More
Want to learn more about women’s history at Stanford Medicine and beyond?
- Lane Library
- Stanford Medical History Center
- General Information about Women’s History and Women’s History Month
Celebrate Women’s History Month at Stanford Medicine
Explore stories of women leaders and pioneers at Stanford Medicine, along with events open to the Stanford Medicine community.
