James Baquet

    As the “Season for Nonviolence” continues (until April 4), let’s look at a few of the other monthlong observances in March.

    In Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, March is Women’s History Month. As February’s Black History Month was anchored on the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, Women’s History Month centers on International Women’s Day (March 8).

    This, in turn, is rooted in a city-wide demonstration by women textile workers in 1917 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Socialist Party of America subsequently held the first Women’s Day observance in New York on February 28, 1909, and it was adopted by the United Nations in 1975.

    Since then, the United Nations has declared a yearly theme, such as Women Uniting for Peace (2000) and Investing in Women and Girls (2008). This year, it’s “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030,” the “50-50” being a reference to parity for women in the workplace. Perceived problems to be addressed are the shortage of women in leadership positions and the widening gender gap in the area of equal pay.

    Women’s History Month events include classroom and extracurricular activities in schools and public hearings to determine progress made and suggestions for more.

    March is also National Nutrition Month in Canada and the United States, a time to focus on “the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits,” according to their website.

    It began as “National Nutrition Week” in 1973, and increased to a full month in 1980. Since then, the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has promoted this mission to thousands of people. The academy alone has over 100,000 professional members!

    Food for the body, food for the mind: March is also National Reading Awareness Month. As with some other “months,” this one centers on the birthday of a famous figure: children’s author “Dr. Seuss” (born Theodor Seuss Geisel on March 2, 1904), author of “The Cat in the Hat” and many others. The month, as one would expect, is filled with reading-based activities, especially in schools.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. cloth goods

    2. outside of instruction time

    3. any place where people work

    4. equality

    5. mass public action

    6. tied (to)

    7. difference between men and women

    8. following, as a result

    9. study of what people eat

    10. based (on)