John Kerry: “March is Women's History Month, and March 8 was the United Nations International Women's Day. This is a time to reflect…”

“March is Women's History Month, and March 8 was the United Nations International Women's Day. This is a time to reflect on the past. While women's history does not begin with the women's movement, nor did the women movement begin in the near past, it is toward this movement that our attention cannot help but be drawn. Beginning most consistently at the turn of the century with the struggle for the vote, the women's movement has lurched forward to become one of the greatest sociological achievements in the history of the human race. During the 20th century this planet, which had seen since the dawn of humankind, thousands of political upheavals, civil wars, and armed conquerings, witnessed the beginning of the organized emancipation of over half the human race. Remarkably, even with more participants than any other in history, this revolution has been one of the least violent and least bloody. But it was hard fought. And it is not over. This month is a time to take stock of the present. Women today exercise rights that have been systematically denied them except in small pockets of history and geography. Large numbers of women have reached positions of power and influence in every area of human endeavor in much of the world. In this country, the forces that contest women's progress are for the most part no longer formally organized.”