History of women in government: Women’s History Month award-winning essay

  • Published
  • By April Heringer
  • 1st SOMDG
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  The history of the world is dependant on the women who have moved it forward. Each nation has their own history, some remembered and some forgotten, but it's our job to make sure that every accomplishment is remembered and honored. In the past, the rules of society made it difficult for women to be acknowledged for their achievements, and many were partially or completely lost over time.

Some women continue to be well remembered by history. Cleopatra, 69 B.C., is still known to most for her rule of Egypt. Her ties to Rome and the decisions she made helped to advance Egypt and create trade and diplomatic ties to Europe, forever linking the regions.

Margaret Thatcher is well remembered for her diplomatic relations and her policies throughout Britain. One can only speculate that she is still remembered because her accomplishments were in the 20th century.

Other women are remembered, but their contribution to society has been forgotten.

Catherine Di Medici is remembered for the wealth of her family, but her contributions to culture and strengthening the family hold on power has all but been forgotten.

Joan of Arc is remembered for her courage, but little is ever mentioned of her skill in the battlefield and the crushing defeat of the English.

Queen Victoria of England is remembered as a great ruler, but few know of her actual accomplishments expanding foreign policy and increasing the strength of English colonies.

Yet, other women such as Empress Wu Zetian, A.D. 65, were only recently remembered. She was the first and only true empress of China. In her reign during the Tang dynasty, she began appointments to the government by skill rather than class and lowered taxes helping to create a strong agriculture country with more public works than are in some countries today. Strong women such as Wu Zetian are not documented well because in the past the documentation of such power could have damaged a world belief that saw men as the more dominant sex.

However, it's through the policies of these mostly lost women that encouraged freedom, openness and intellect to move the world ahead.

All of the women throughout history have touched our lives in some way, through the gains that they allowed to occur in science or trade, to the wars that they fought.

Today, we are all product of the world that they helped to create. Some women have been completely forgotten by time, and others are just remembered as wives or mothers, but the contributions that have gone unnoticed may be the ones that have caused the most change.

It is now our responsibility during Women's History Month to make sure that history is remembered and to honor the women that change the world that we live in today.